Search - The Awakening (Vampire Huntress, Bk 2)

I found this, the second book of the Vampire Huntress series, slightly better than Minion, the first. However, some of the same things that bothered me about that book came to surface in this one too.

I'm glad I hung onto Minion because The Awakening picked up right where that left off, and I had to reread certain portions of that first book to reacquaint myself with some of the things that went down already. I don't think the author did a very good job of allowing this book to stand on it's own. Granted, series such as this are meant to be read in order anyway, but like Laurell K. Hamilton does in her Anita books, if she needs to refer to an incident from a previous book, she'll usually provide enough additional detail so that new readers can continue reading, albeit with a little less knowledge and detail than someone who's been reading the series in order. This was not the case here; if you didn't read the previous book, and remember all of it's little nuances, you're going to need to before starting on this one. As it stands, I still had to refer back to things from book one since I'd read it 8 months prior to this one.

The story line is still interesting enough to hold interest, and because Banks doesn't go into detail on each of the main characters in this book like she did in Minion, we don't have as many passages that drag on too long like in the first book, though they're certainly not gone completely. At times while reading, I felt that maybe the writing was done in discrete parts, not necessarily in sequence, since sometimes the scenes didn't seem to blend transparently as they could've. Like maybe she'd forgotten she wrote something in an earlier scene, and then describes or talks about it again in a later scene, which may or may not completely jive with what was stated previously. Again, I noticed this behavior much more prominently in the first book than this one.

I won't go into a synopsis of the story itself, since you can read elsewhere here or at the BookCrossing journal entry for this book. But suffice to say, this series looks like it's going to get even better going forward.

A weird mix of heaven, hell, vampires, guardians, and demons.

Book 2 of the Vampire Huntress Legend, the story of Damali and Carlos continues. As the Neteru, Damali is a mortal so powerful that the vampire world is about to start a war to possess her. If her child is sired by a vampire, he will be a Day-Walker, a vampire with no restrictions and all of the evil. Fallon Nuit, a rogue vamp, has allied himself with the deadly Amanthra demons in order to claim her...but the Vampire Council has other plans. And now Carlos, her ex-lover turned Master Vampire has an agenda of his own. Damali must risk trusting him again if they are to survive. Just as gripping as the first book. Makes you not want to wait for the next book, which I am also posting today.

This book was difficult to get into if you hadn't read the first one. There were several references to the first book that were not explained. Having said all of that, this was a very fast-paced exciting sequel to the first book. I enjoyed watching Denali gradually grow and make some mistakes along with some good decisions. The strength that she retains is amazing and I enjoyed how Miss Banks weaves all of this together. A little far-fetched sometimes, but this is urban fantasy, right? If you liked the first one, enjoy this one to the hilt!

I thought this was a very good series once it got started.

keeps you guessing... very complicated plot, yet easy to read - never able to guess what will happen next!