Review: Defiance by Lili St. Crow

Title: Defiance

Author: Lili St. Crow

Series: Strange Angels #4

Publisher: Quercus

Genre: YA Paranormal

Summary (from Goodreads)

Now that sixteen-year-old Dru’s worst fears have come true and Sergej has kidnapped her best friend Graves, she’ll have to go on a suicidal rescue mission to bring him back in one piece.

That is, if she can put all of Christophe’s training to good use, defeat her mother’s traitor, Anna, once and for all, and manage to survive another day. . .

What’s Good About It

Any old follower of this blog will know I’m a big fan of the Strange Angels series. It combines just the right amount of Supernatural, kick ass female lead, emo boys and love drama to make me a very happy reader. I like them so much, they have been among the few books I’ve actually bought for myself recently.

That sounds bad – let me clarify.

I get a lot of books. I get books for review. I’m bought books by friends. I borrow the entire back catalogue of Terry Pratchett novels from Carole and don’t read them because I’m too busy making my way through everything else. I read books for work. I borrow books from the library. I really, really don’t need to buy any more books for about 5 years. So it has to be something really special for me to get over my guilt at the massive amounts of reading material I still have waiting for me and buy more.

The Strange Angels series has got me over that guilt twice. The other two I received for review.

That said, you may as well stop reading, because you know I’m going to gush like a fangirl about how brilliant it was.

But that’s the thing – despite astronomical expectations, the Strange Angels series hasn’t let me down yet. Defiance delivers all the same attitude and adrenaline of the first three instalments, upping the stakes by forcing Dru to wait in uncertainty for most of the novel before the inevitable mission to rescue Graves is mounted.

And Dru’s conflict about her feelings for the two boys vying for her affection feels real and believable. I don’t like love triangles, but every step of this one is played just on the right line of plausibility against ‘swoon’ factor.

All in all, a brilliant book that has me waiting, impatiently, for the fifth and final instalment.

What’s Not So Good

Well, I was a bit miffed that Graves didn’t feature much – he’s my favourite character.

Rating: 5/5

Review: Jealousy by Lili St Crow

Title: Jealousy

Author: Lili St. Crow

Series: Strange Angels #3

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Quercus

Summary (from Goodreads)

Dru Anderson might finally be safe. She’s at the largest Schola on the continent, and beginning to learn what it means to be svetocha–half vampire, half human, and all deadly. If she survives her training, she will be able to take her place in the Order, holding back the vampires and protecting the oblivious normal people.

But a web of lies and betrayals is still closing around her, just when she thinks she can relax a little. Her mentor Christophe is missing, her almost-boyfriend is acting weird, and the bodyguards she’s been assigned seem to know much more than they should. And then there’s the vampire attacks, the strange nightly visits, and the looks everyone keeps giving her. As if she should know something.

Or as if she’s in danger.

Someone high up in the Order is a traitor. They want Dru dead–but first, they want to know what she remembers of the night her mother died. Dru doesn’t want to remember, but it looks like she might have to–especially since once Christophe returns, he’ll be on trial for his life. The only person who can save him is Dru.

The problem is, once she remembers everything, she may not want to…

What’s Good About It

I love this series. I features it on my Sunday Review last week, but that was before Jealousy was released and now I’ve finally got my hands on the latest in the series! It didn’t disappoint even my ludicrously high standards for this series – I read it in one sitting near enough and loved every page.

Dru is a fabulous character – full of fight and endearingly loyal to anyone who offers her a show of friendship, even Broken wulfen, Ash, who everyone thinks she should give up on. She’s the sort of person I really hope I’d be like in a crisis – scared witless, but able to push through and do what’s necessary to protect the ones I love.

I’m not a big fan of love triangles (and am staunchly a Graves girl when it comes to this one – you strange strange people who ship Christophe) but I think because the love triangle in this is so not the main point of the story, I don’t particularly mind it. I love the awkward ‘do you like me, do I like you?’ stage of Dru’s relationship with Graves, and I totally believe that she would be drawn to Christophe (even though I think he’s pretty creepy). I loved it in the last book when she confessed to Graves that Christophe scared the hell out of her, and there was another moment regarding their relationship in this book that I loved too. So props to Lili St Crow for fully exploring all the issues that surround crushing on someone who’s old enough to know your mother when she was your age and is kind of terrifying.

The action and pace is great too – as I mentioned already, I read it in near enough one sitting. It’s the sort of book you could easily race through in an afternoon. Plenty of action, plenty of intrigue and horror, and just the right amount of romance to make this near perfect. For me at least!

What’s Not So Good

I’ve seen a picture of the front cover of the next book in the series on the blogosphere somewhere. Don’t know what the release date is yet, but I’m assuming that as they have a cover it can’t be too long. At least, I hope not. I hate waiting XD

Rating: 5/5

Sunday Review: Strange Angels by Lili St Crow

What a busy week it has been! How time flies This week on the Sunday Review it’s the Strange Angels series by Lili St Crow.

Title: Strange Angels; Betrayals

Author: Lili St. Crow

Series: Strange Angels #1; Strange Angels #2

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy, Horror

Publisher: Quercus

Summary (from Goodreads)

Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.”

(Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.)

Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next.

Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone.

Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

What’s Good About It

This is ‘Teen Girl Fights the Paranormal’ Urban Fantasy at its absolute best. Scary, horrific, fast paced, and with the sort of characters you connect with, putting you right in the action and terror.

With so many ‘paranormal creatures are actually cute and squishy’ stories out there, it’s also nice to have a real sense of danger injected into this sort of book. Yes there are the ‘good guy’ paranormals, but the vast majority are bloodthirsty nasties who want nothing more than to snack on anyone who gets in their way. I’m not saying that I don’t like a bit of ‘I’m a vampire, but I’m denying my demonic side, want to make out?’  but having something different can be very refreshing. And Strange Angels is just that.

I don’t get on with Lili St Crow’s adult novels (written as Lilith Saintcrow – seriously, if that’s not a pseudonym, then the woman was destined to write this sort of thing. What an awesome name!) as well as I get on with this series. I think her teen protagonist is better. She writes angsty teen so well.

What’s Not So Good

There’s a lot of swearing. Never innapropriately (I’d swear a lot worse than Dru if I was being chased by a zombie) but I realise that some people prefer YA books to keep the langauge clean.

Why Should Writers Read It

To study the balance of horror and developing teen relationships – there is a bit of romance in these novels, developing as the series does, and it’s spot on realistic while never detracting from the building sense of horror and helplessness. It turns the pages for you!