The Qwillery

Into Darkness
Author:  J.T. Geissinger
Series:  Night Prowler  6
Publisher:  Montlake Romance, October 21, 2014
Format:  Paperback and eBook, 400 pages
List Price:  $9.99 (print)
ISBN:  9781477825549 (print)
Review Copy:  Provided by the Publisher via NetGalley

In New Vienna, capital of the oppressive global government formed after the Flash, three things are certain: the sun is poisonous, speaking out is dangerous, and being different will get you killed.

And Lumina Bohn is extraordinarily different. Living in terror of discovery, Lu knows nothing of her past—but she knows she must pretend to be human to survive. When an incident at work triggers her astonishing powers, she becomes the target of an international manhunt. Only one person can save her: Magnus, the enigmatic stranger haunting her dreams. Magnus rescues the outcasts called Aberrants from capture and torture.

As Lu begins exploring her powers among her people, her feelings for Magnus intensify. He’s determined to stay emotionally distant, yet their smoldering passion soon becomes impossible to resist. But when a shocking revelation threatens the lives of every remaining Aberrant, Lu and Magnus must risk everything, confronting their enemies in an explosive final stand to save their kind from the darkest fate of all: extinction.

Melanie's Thoughts

I have been a big fan of this series and really pleased that I have been given the opportunity to receive e-Arcs of most of the Night Prowler series. Geissinger ends this fantastic series with Into Darkness. In this final instalment Geissinger sets the book twenty plus years in the future. Everything changed since the ending of Darkness Bound when jets fly over the Brazilian iKati community. The world is a very different place where the sky is red, society is oppressed and anyone different is killed. Lumina Bohn finds almost everything in her life has been a lie apart for her attraction to the hunky, yet disfigured Magnus. Lumina is more than what she seems or who she thinks she is. It isn't long before we discover that Lumina is really Hope, one of Elena and Leander's twins. She is fighting not just for her survival but also for Magnus, her sister Honor and the whole iKati race. 

I think that Geissinger was both brave and innovative to set this final instalment in the future. It would have been quite easy for Geissinger to just continue in present day and focus on the romance but instead she decided to shake it up. Lumina's world is a terrible place where nearly everyone lives in fear and where the iKati have been almost driven to extinction by the evil Sebastian Thorne.  Lumina/Hope has to dig deep, with the help of Magnus and a few other iKati to re-discover who she really is and hopefully save her race. As strong and as brave as Hope was I still enjoyed the Elena chapters more, although these were few and far between. I felt that Geissinger was rather brutal to her long standing characters and I almost missed their perfection from the previous novels.

Geissinger does make heavy use of one plot device that I wasn't that keen on - immortality. I feel that immortality should only be used for special occasions, kind of like sexy underwear. I thought that immortality really made the evil madman, Caesar a formidable foe in the previous books. In the case of Into Darkness I would have preferred if it had been used a little less than it was.

Overall, Into Darkness was a solid conclusion to a urban fantasy series that I have enjoyed reading over the last few years. This wasn't my favourite  book of the series but it demonstrated that is Geissinger is happy to challenge her readers and doesn't play favourites with her characters. She builds the plot over each of the novels and really packs a punch in this finale. This is a great series for those who like a slow burn HEA.

Before I launch into what I read this week I thought I would say Happy Birthday to my Mom. She is 84 today. While she is now visually impaired so can't read this post (or know that I am writing it) I thought that she would still appreciate knowing that whoever reads this could be thinking happy thoughts for her. So everyone......1.........2.........3......think happy birthday thoughts for Christine!

So enough of my maternal self promotion. What did I read?

This week wasn't as productive as the two previous but boy, did I read a couple of great books. I started the week with The Martian by Andy Weir. Is there something better than waxing lyrical? If there is then that is what I am going to do. I LOVED THIS BOOK! Love with a capital 'L'. Andy Weir managed to couple botany with science fiction and crazy funny dialogue with excellent results. Remember, I like watching science fiction better than reading it but The Martian broke that mold for me.

Imagine if you will....Mark Watney - engineer/botanist has been stranded on Mars with only 30 days worth of supplies and no way to communicate with Earth. His crew mates think he is dead and no one is coming back for 4 years. Mark has to use every bit of his enormous brain, ingenuity and a healthy dose of luck in order to survive and try to find a way home. Can he do it? You will have to read it to find out.

I couldn't have been more surprised by The Martian. I saw that it got quite a few stars on Goodreads and Amazon but I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. I was LOL'ing on public transport, I was biting my nails at what would happen next and staying up WAY past my bedtime to read just one more chapter. Drop whatever you are doing (well after you read the rest of this post) and go buy this book and read it. You may also read a DAC interview with Andy about The Martian and writing here.

Next on my TBR was Into Darkness by J.T Geissinger. This is the final book of the Night Prowler series and will be released in mid October by Montlake Romance. I will be writing a full review of this book so I don't want to say too much other than its a cracker of a final book. There is still time for you to catch up by reading the other 5 books before this released so get going. I have reviewed three of the other books at The Qwillery so if you want to find out what I have thought of the series so far check them out here, here, and here.

The final book I have been able to read this week was Shadowlark (Skylark Trilogy 2) by Meagan Spooner. I really enjoyed Skylark (book 1) of this dystopian young adult trilogy. I have been waiting for the price of the second book to drop since it was released and have to admit I had forgotten about it. I was checking my Amazon recommendations and up it popped. In book 2, Lark continues her journey to find her brother after leaving the Iron Wood. After a near death experience or two she finds herself in the city of Lethe where Renewables are hunted and enslaved just as she had been. Lark inadvertently joins a group of rebels who are fighting against the evil ruler, Prometheus. Lark learns more about herself, more than she ever wanted to, throughout this novel and it's only a matter of time before she comes face to face with her greatest fear - herself.

I don't know what it is about subsequent books in young adult or youth fiction series but I find I don't like them as much as the first . For example, I didn't enjoy World After (book 2 of the Penryn and the End of Days series) by Susan Ee (or book 3) or Taste of Darkness (book 2 of the Healer series) by Maria V. Snyder. The characters I loved from the first books turned either all whiny or all soppy over some guy/angel. This is exactly what happened in Shadowlark. I actually got quite sniffy at the end of book 1 but I could hardly wait to get to the end of this one. Book 3 - Lark Ascending is out soon but I am not convinced I want to continue. I think I will wait and see what the price is before I make that decision.

That is it for me for this week. I hope you have a good week ahead and until next week Happy Reading.

Darkness Bound
Author:  J. T. Geissinger
Series:  Night Prowler 5
Publisher:  Montlake Romance, June 24, 2014
Format:  Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages
List Price:  $13.95 (print)
ISBN:   9781477820100 (print)
Review Copy: Provided by the Publisher

Tough, smart, and seriously ambitious, reporter Jacqueline “Jack” Dolan despises the secretive clan of shape-shifters known as the Ikati—and has become determined to destroy them. After she writes an editorial arguing for their extermination and turns public opinion against them, the Ikati vow to fight back. They plot to send one of their own to seduce the reporter, then blackmail her into writing a retraction.

Women practically fall at the feet of hulking, handsome Hawk Luna, and Hawk relishes the idea of conquering and destroying the fiery redhead who’s caused so much trouble for his kind. The last thing he expects is to develop real feelings for her, but their liaison awakens a hunger in him that he cannot deny. He kidnaps Jack and brings her to his Amazon jungle colony, but the two lovers are soon embroiled in deadly colony politics and threatened by a looming global species war.

As the danger around them grows closer, Jack and Hawk’s forbidden passion may build a bridge between two ancient enemies—or cost them both their lives.

Melanie's Thoughts

Darkness Bound is the 5th and penultimate book of the Night Prowler series by J. T. Geissinger. In this instalment Hawk the hunky Ikati shifter leaves the safe confines of the Brazilian colony in search of the fiery journalist Jacqueline (Jack).  Jack has helped to fan the flames of discord between humanity and the Ikati with her articles following events in book 3. Hawk needs to convince Jack to come with him to see that the ikati aren't as evil as Caesar has portrayed them to be. He has found the perfect piece of blackmail and its not long before Jack is forced to see the other side of her story.

I have enjoyed this series and especially liked book 4 - Edge of Darkness. Overall, in the series I thought that Geissinger has got the balance between the romance and action just about right. However, with Darkness Bound I thought that 'the sexy' started far too early and this diminished the romance later on in the story.  Jack was an interesting character and her terrible secret was terrible indeed. She was feisty and strong which always like in a heroine but at the same time I didn't really find anything about her that made me like her. I found the tall, muscley shifter Hawk to be a bit too similar to his fellow shifter Xander from book 2 - Edge of Oblivion. The fact that Xander lived in the same colony as Hawk only emphasized the similarities in their bad boy broodiness. I didn't really find these two as engaging as some of the other characters in this series.

Luckily, the book didn't focus solely on Jack and Hawk as some of my favourite characters are back in book 5 including Jenna and Leander. This couple almost steal the show from Jack and Hawk's love story. Jenna is the queen in every sense of the word and takes centre stage in every scene she is in. In fact, I was looking more forward to Jenna than I was with either Hawk or Jack. We also find out what happened to our favourite baddy - Caesar who is back to wreak havoc on both humanity and the Ikati. But does he get away with it? You will have to read it to find out. Perhaps the scariest of all are two characters who have been in the background in the last 2 books - Jenna and Leander's twin babies. Yes, scary babies! Even their parents think so.

I liked this book but perhaps not as much as the others as I didn't engage with the love story. In my view Geissinger saves it all for the ending of the book which is practically on fire it is so exciting. I will be interested to see how Geissinger uses Jack and Hawk in the final book as she seems to be bring together characters from the previous books in this penultimate book to set the stage for book 6. Into Darkness is out in October so its only a few months before I get to find out what happens to my favourite characters and the Ikati.

Eeeep. This week has a very unproductive week on the reading front.  I only finished 1 book. ONE BOOK!!! ONLY 1!!!! But your honor I have an alibi. I worked from home one day due to a 48 hour tube strike so that was 2 hours of concentrated reading lost. Then I caught the office lurgy and felt like I had been hit by a tube train so missed a day at work and another 2 hours of reading time. Well that is my excuse and I am sticking to it. So what did I read?

It was quite by accident that I was scrolling through Twitter and saw a tweet from another reviewer that they were reading Darkness Bound by J.T Geissinger. Racked with jealousy that someone else was reading the latest book from the Night Prowler series I practically sprinted to my computer to request it from NetGalley. Lucky old me has auto approval from the publisher, Montlake so I was tucking in and had it read by the next day. Not to taunt you too much but I can't say much more as I will be writing a full review so keep your eye out for it.

I have been determined to reduce my TBR so I decided to read Shift by Hugh Howey. This is the prequel to Wool which I completely forgot that I had. I loved Wool and Shift is a real nail biter. I am really enjoying it but it is taking me a long time to read it. I am hoping to finish it this weekend so I can tell you all about it next week.

I guess I had better 'fess' up and admit that instead of reducing my TBR I have received 2 more books from NetGalley (hangs head in shame). I requested The Buried Life by Carrie Patel and The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell. I am looking forward to reading these two books over the next few weeks.  Until then I hope you have a good week and Happy Reading.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound