Laura Bickle

"The night belongs to us, little one."

I don't know why, but I completely had it in my head that this was a zombie Amish dystopia series.

and it's sooo very much not. I mean, it's still dystopian AND it's still at an Amish village (at least, sometimes) and the MC is Amsih....but

it's vampires and NOT zombies.

but it's still a very good read, very entertaining and pretty fast paced. I didn't remember much from book 1 - lol clearly!! - but it was easy to get back into the story and love it! Still love Alex and their interaction and connection together. This was totally worth all the work I had to do to hunt it down and buy it!… (more)

"Plain folk are taught that evil is spiritual. The absence of God."

A very spiritual, peaceful Amish community is rocked to it's foundation as a contagion that drives people mad is unleashed on the world.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

All 4 loving, scary creepy stars! The atmosphere is very very well done. I felt like it was a movie I was watching and I kept waiting for things to jump out in front of her path or a stray hand to grab her from the dark. The ambiance is so fun!!!

and I really enjoyed Katie. Not only does the strange contagion derail her plans for Rumspringa, but it reinforces her stubborn & willful side. She is disobedient and even questions her Elders and some of the beliefs she has been taught. Not as being wrong, but just seeking to understand why.… (more)

In my review of Embers I remarked that part of why Anya liked Brian was because of his 'ordinariness'. Brain and tech-geek he may be, but he was rather simple at heart. So of course it couldn't stay that way. Like Anya I'm unsure how I feel about the revelation about Brian's character. I mean considering what they do, it seemed odd that he'd mess with things like that.

Hope Solomon, motivational speaker philanthropist extraordinaire, gave me the creeps. Even before Anya found the dirt on her she made my skin crawl. I understand that there are honest to goodness helpful folks out there. I also understand that for everyone of them there's fifty of the Hope Solomons in the world. Unlike Drake, who truly believed that what he was doing would help (somehow), Hope was purely in it for the greed. Money, power, fame...this lady cared only about herself. So she was the perfect foil to Anya's growing uneasiness about her powers and herself.

Sparky had baby newts! Mind you technically speaking Sparky isn't a he or a she, Anya just labeled him thus, but it gave us a chance to have whacky fun times in a Baby Store and see Anya act like a mother hen. Also fun, all the nifty gadgetry Brian came up with to help Anya out. The whacky fun times in the store though seemed out of place--like this one moment of cheerfulness in an otherwise dark, dark novel. It was kind of jarring, so even though I enjoyed the scene it didn't 'feel' right.

Charon pops up again and has a larger role than just cryptic messenger. I really liked him and sincerely hope he appears in the series again. He didn't beat around the bush, though he omitted certain details to keep things moving along. The ghosts in the museum? They were fun and interesting. Kind of like "Night at the Museum" but with more mayhem.

I wonder at the consequences of this fight on Anya. Not just supernaturally, but personally. She learned things about Brian that were unsettling, the team itself is headed for self-destruct and the news about her father, and the truth of what happened when her mom died? Yeah, let's talk about trauma issues...… (more)