Awakened (House of Night, Book 8)

P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast are wonderful storytellers. This yet another book in the series, "House of Night," another awesome series!. Zoey and her gang are yet again facing terrible, horrible, awful things in the fight against darkness. But while each of them has thier problems and pain, they also find unconditional love and forgiveness among friends and thier soul mates. This is one series I can honestly say that each book is just as good, wonderful, painful wrenchingly heartfelt as the one before it.

Ever the master manipulator, Neferet has managed to bamboozle the Vampyre High Council into believing she has returned to the Light and has been reinstated as a High Priestess. Wanting revenge on Zoey Redbird, Neferet must first lure her back to Tulsa. Zoey and her Guardian Warrior, James Stark, have chosen to remain on the Isle of Skye for some rest. Everyone else has returned to Tulsa's House of Night only to find everything on the border of chaos.Stevie Rae is the first-ever Red Vampyre High Priestess. She is still dealing with her emotions from breaking up with her boyfriend, Dallas, and her mixed feelings for Rephaim, the Raven Mocker that she shares an Imprint with. But the stress on Stevie Rae is beginning to show. So when a friend of their inner-circle dies, Stevie Rae makes the phone call which brings Zoey and Stark back to Tulsa. Though all know Neferet murdered their friend, no one has any proof and she has a solid alibi.Rephaim, the son of Kalona, strives to keep his relationship with Stevie Rae from his father and Neferet. Torn between his respect for his father and his mixed feelings for Stevie Rae, Rephaim can neither betray his father, nor stop protecting this new friend. However, the Raven Mocker will soon be forced to choose between his immortal parent and the Red One. Until then, Rephaim will brainstorm for a way to remove Kalona's spirit from beneath Neferet's controlling thumb.** TWO STARS! As with the previous book (Burned), little happens to move events along. As with what happened to Heath a couple of titles past, another character is culled from the series. Dallas, the rogue red fledglings, and Erik only have brief cameo parts in this installment of the series. To be honest, I cannot see any reason for Dallas, Erik, or the rogue fledglings to even have been mentioned.The character of Zoey still comes across as weak and immature. Hiding away from her problems and leaving others in danger is simply out of Zoey's character. I no longer feel a connection to her. Instead, the character of Stevie Rae is toughing things out. Yet even Stevie Rae is avoiding her duties this time around. She blows off her close friend and Prophetess, Kramisha, often.(Sort of like: If I do not let Kramisha tell me the problem, then it does not really exist.)Speaking of Kramisha's character, the Poet Laureate seems to be highly intelligent, so why can she not speak proper English? To me, this comes across as a racial slur - something I thought this generation had managed to filter out. Kramisha is more level-headed and has more backbone than any other character currently within the HON series. The authors really need to develop Kramisha's character more and give her more time in the spotlight.P.C. and Kristin Cast are talented authors who have managed to create a mystical world full of strong characters for readers to cheer on and evil villains for them to hate. Even though the titles of Burned and Awakened are little more than fluff and filler, I have hope that the writing duo will bring back the high standards of entertainment readers had become accustomed to. **Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I became interested in the House of Night Novels after purchasing Wisdom of the House of Night Oracle Cards. I was so enthralled with the tarot cards, and wanted to learn more about the characters on the cards. I have read two books out of A House of Night series, and might I add they were not in order. It's hard to pass up books for $3 at your local bookstore.The House of Night series fans will be happy for the follow-up and continuity from the previous books. Especially, if you have your favorites. I think the fact I read this series out of order led to me getting restless with the story. There were some parts that seemed to drag on and on - to the point I had to put the book down for a few days.I wouldn't say this a bad book, but I would recommend reading this series in order. I believe readers that have read this series in order is more invested in characters than people that haven't.

This series continues to surprise, impress, and captivate me. I always feel a pang of regret after reading every book because I allowed so much time to pass since finishing the last. I hope to pick up Destined sooner rather than later.The reason this book doesn't reach five stars for me is because at times I find myself tired of and disappointed by the childish nature of some of the characters and the references. I love that the story is rooted in a time that we can relate to so closely but at times it feels forced or excessive. Apart from that I really can't complain.I love getting the multiple perspectives of the characters and finding myself lost, yet again, in this magical world. I've made it pretty clear in previous posts about this series and its recent books that Rapheim is my absolute favorite character. He and Stevie Rae's future is where I rested the majority of my rating. As you can see...I was not let down. In fact, despite the fact that this story is satisfying and compelling on a multitude of levels, I would be content if the rest of the characters dropped off and all I was reading was about the two of them. Their love, Rephaim's destiny. Gosh, what a perfect character and story-line.Again, I must point out, this story is deeply rooted in powerful messages and meanings. Not only does this series embrace a multitude of people but it teaches its readers how to find acceptance, peace, forgiveness, and most of all: love. It seems corny to say that, I know, but it really is true.

When I began reading Awakened, I could barely remember what had happened in the previous book. It had been that long since reading it that I was now going into this book quite blind. As the story began to unfold though, it did all start coming back to me slowly. That is one of the good things about this series. Even though there are sometimes large spaces of time between books, each new one recaps on things that have happened before so that you can't forget anything important.As with the rest of the House of Night series, Awakened is told from multiple points of view. As Zoey is the main character of the series, I would have preferred for her to have more chapters but it is also nice to realise what is happening with everyone else, especially as they aren't always together. This being said, I think it would probably have been better if other characters only got a chapter or two, instead of taking up whole chunks of the book. The series started with Zoey and what was happening to her and I think focusing on her would really bring the series back to being as good as it was to begin with.The thing that I was happiest to see in Awakened was Zoey and Stark being back together. I loved Stark from the minute he arrived in the series and now he gets a much bigger part in the story overall. As Zoey and Stark have been through a lot together and have experienced things that no one else can understand, they share a very strong bond and I really loved how you could tell that they were now extremely close. As Zoey and Stark have been spending time on the Isle of Skye with Queen Sgiach, the story takes a very interesting turn when Zoey is given the opportunity of a life time. More and more is explained about Queen Sgiach and the things she believes in/ what she follows and I would have loved to have known more about this.Due to the multiple narrators, the pacing of Awakened is all over the place. One character could have a lot going on and their storyline be very exciting but then another character would come in who has less going on. For me, this made the pacing really hit and miss throughout. I don't mind a change in pace, in fact, I think it's a good thing but here it was too much all of the time. Just when something would start to get a bit faster paced, the character narrating would switch and the pace would change to extremely slow or sad etc.One of my biggest problems with this book (and the series...kind of) are the references to pop culture. I don't mind a couple in a book but Awakened is full of them. Having this in a book dates it very quickly and I think this is a massive negative thing for the series as a whole. There are other YA books that will be able to stand the test of time because they don't mention things that people will have forgotten about in a few years time. One mention that really bugged me was about Glee. Ok, Glee is extremely popular but the mention seemed really over the top and it wasn't needed at all. Considering the characters are always busy fighting off evil etc, when would they even have time to watch Glee?Although there were some pretty big things that I didn't like about this book, there was also a lot I did like. Awakened seems to me like the book that sets up everything that is about to happen, a filler book. Each main character has a lot going on and is preparing to face down Neferet, hopefully once and for all. Towards the end of the book, everything began to get really exciting as smaller plot lines began to be revealed, not to mention the twist at the end. I really am hoping that Destined has some massive shocks in-store for House of Night fans.

***NO SPOILERS SAFE TO READ****Okie Dokie I love the house of night, they have action, tension, suspence, in a nutshell everything. Although this one takes a on a totally different feel to the others!Firstly, I must say that I have found myself engrossed with the Stevie Rae (need to have at least read past tempted to understand), and Zoey is now in the picture, literally not shattered anymore. However I did find myself slightly annoyed at Zoey because of how she dealt with the previous situation, or the fact she didn't react like a normal person AKA MOURN and by hormonal!Anyway overall I really enjoyed the story especially because now we as readers have the opportunity to get inside Jack's, Kalona, Stark, Stevie Rae + 'birdboy' I love adrophite!, aswell as Zoey which is highly refreshing! I due believe the story truly picks up towards the end of novel but thats the same with my of the house of night!Very intrigued to read DESTINED, which is now happily waiting for me to dive right into - although their is an alot of 'bullpoopie' ready inside those pages to deal with (I also love Stevie Rae!)As always praise to the authors can't wait to read on, and then continue into the next novel HIDDEN! Beautiful as ever...

I liked Twilight more than I had initially expected and so when a friend bought me "Marked" for Christmas, I started reading straight away - despite it being YA and me being 30 :DI really enjoy the HON series, they are fun, light hearted and they're on the right side of edgy - not so censored like Twilight!HOWEVER, I really think that the bonds/oaths/links/consorts/warriors/imprints etc etc, are getting WAY too confusing. In a way, I feel like the authors just keep going "Ooh, I've thought of ANOTHER way that we can make them be joined!" It's just getting a bit daft in places and I'm starting to veer away from it all a bit, I feel like I'm really reading kids books now, whereas before I enjoyed the fun of the series.I also think that it's being overdone - I've heard that there are going to be twelve books in total, and I just feel that it's a bit of overkill - the authors are dragging out the story by putting in more and more links and imprints and ways in which vamps/humans/raven mockers can be joined. Like the Stark/Kalona thing, which I think is just ridiculous - it's like, you think you're on solid ground and then along comes another "loophole" where the bad guys can get to the good guys through whatever daft idea hasn't yet been used.And don't get me started on the use of the word "bullpoopie" - oh dear...BUT all in all, a fun series.

what a shame i have read all the series so far and have enjoyed them all UNTIL now,unfortunatly nothing happened until you get to the end which sadly i could not wait for.dont get me wrong it is still worth reading as there is some good lines,however i feel that maybe pc cast should now finish the series and write something else.in this book there is an awful lot of love chat which is ok if you want to read a romance novel but i felt there should have been more action. will i download the next book on my kindle {which was my best xmas present ever fab fab fab}im not so sure.

I read these books years ago and got to the 7th one and then life took over. I’ve now finished and these are a great read even for someone who’s in her late 20s! I personally love the mix of old school vamp,Cherokee and ancient tale style info!