Haunted

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Another great one from Armstrong ! - Rated
Kelley Armstrong is one of my favourite writers: she writes about strong preternatural women and though they're set in an fantasy world, they are completely believable. And unlike most writers, she has the guts to change her main character and thus avoiding the way most series end up: going downhill, because how much can you make one person do and keep it still believable ? So she takes a character she introduced in another books and makes that her main character.

In book 5, Eve Levine is that main character. In the first two books we had a werewolve, in books 3 and 4 a witch, now we have a witch/half-demon/ghost.
Her being a ghost, a big part of the book is set in the afterlife. Eve was not a "good" person like Paige, but she was a good mother and loved her daughter above everything else. So much, that she can't let go of her after she died: Eve spends most of her afterlife checking up in Savannah, though there is nothing she can do if anything would happen to Savannah. So she tries to find a way to get involved in the real world.

But then the Fates give her a job: a Nix they caught a few 100 years ago, escaped about a hundred years ago, and they've had a lot of trouble a) finding her and b) catching her. The Nix has been found three times, but escaped three times, with great damage to those they send after her. So now they send Eve "where angels fear to thread" as another review said it. And they were quit right ! Because, to catch the Nix, they need someone who can think like she does but is still a decent person. (The Fates had tried sending a serial-killer after her, but that didn't go too well).

Catching a Nix is already a full job, but Eve needs to find time to check up on Savannah and there is also Kristof, Savannah's father. And the only thing he regrets about his life is letting Eve and Savannah go, so he's not about to give her up, now that he found Eve in the afterlife !

So, if you want to know if Eve finds a way to contact Savannah, catch the Nix and avoid Kristof, you better read the book !

Didn't Want It to End! - Rated
I first started reading Kelley Armstrong when i got soooooo bored watching the same old stuff on MTV that I asked my Mam to lend me a book, she lent me 'Dime Store Magic' by Kelley Armstrong, and I thought let me read a chapter or two then I will get bored and put it down and continue to watch TV. HOW WRONG WAS I!! I couldnt put it down even when my favourite TV shows came on I continued to read so much i finished it in the same night, when I finished I was agonising to my Mam that I wanted more. Luckly enough She had 'Industrial Magic' which I started to read and again, finished quite quickly. I then found myself craving more like a addict, I would only think about reading more an I'd break out in cold sweat. I had to wait to read 'Haunted' which my sister had. I took my time reading this book bacause I didn't want to finish it at all. My point being that i have never read a book from a author like Kelley armstrong she is an absolute GOD SEND! (as is J.K Rowling! but thats the child in me!)

The way you feel when your reading is like you are right there next to the characters inside the book!! You are thrushed into this amazing world of witchcraft, werewolves, vampires, necromancers and god knows what! I had dreams about the book, so detailed it was like little movies in my head!

I felt that Paige, Savannah, Eve, Lucas and Jamie were my family, and felt for them when things didnt't go too well!! I was on the edge of my seat, I cried, swore!, Laughed In fact I went through every emotion in the books.

I am going to read the rest of the series started with 'Broken' tomorrow! I do hope that some major production company realise how amazing these books are that they make the series of the 'otherworld' books into films! I am hoping that by the time her new novel comes out 'No Humans Involved' that I would have finished the rest of the series and can be up-to-date with things!

After I finish the series of books I am going to read her novels that are online at www.kelleyarmstrong.com which are extras from these books!

So hopefully this review will make you want to read and hopefully you will become a fan just like I have! Believe my once you get bitten by the bug there ain't no cure!!

Haunted - Rated
The story of Eve, Savannah's mother. To anyone not having read any of Kelley's books this is not a good place to start, I would recommend starting at the beginning with Bitten or at the very least with Dime Store Magic, anyways ...

The story weaves much the same way as the other books in the women of the otherworld characters. Eve is a witch, we also see the re-introduction of Kristoph Nash we also see the re-appearance of other characters like Jamie Vegas, and Jeremy head of the packk (although heappears very briefly). So Eve is dead, and we see her looking in on her daughter Savannah, Eve's job is to help th0ose higher in trapping the Nix, oif Eve does succeed she can leave this plane of existence but, at a price meaning she will be leaving Kristoph behind.

I did not enjoy this as much as the others, read it if you are reading the whole series, I did not warm to Eve as much as I did the other leading characters of her other books, that said this is still a good book, just don't expect the excitement and pace of the others.

4 Star Loyalty - Rated
Kelley Armstrong is one of the freshest and most exciting writers to tackle the paranormal genre in a very long time. Haunted continues in the familiar pattern of the Women of the Otherworld series that fans have come to love. For first timers I would recommend that they start, if not with Bitten (technically the first in the series) or with Dime Store Magic, which introduces the majority of the secondary characters. Haunted can stand alone, but is infinitely less satisfying without this background knowledge of the characters.

Eve Devine, our narrator in this instalment is already dead, but don't let that put you off. Eve in life was a tremendously powerful witch who didn't mind dabbling in the black arts and bending the rules if it ensured her power and her young daughter Savannah's safety. In the afterlife Eve's priorities haven't changed she still looks in on Savannah and her legal guardians Lucas and Paige.

Eve is a complex character but a difficult narrator to warm to. Armstrong uses this novel to explore the ethereal worlds of the afterlife only hinted at in her other books. Eve needs to help the Higher Powers find and trap a demon called a Nix who preys on the weak minded alternately encouraging and justifying their darker impulses until they kill their victims. The Nix is dangerous because it can inhabit any corporeal form and Eve has been given the role of supernatural bounty hunter. If Eve survives the Nix she has the option of ascending to the higher plane of angels, but with this comes the price of leaving her fellow ghost and one time lover, Kristoph behind.

Confused yet? Haunted has some strong points namely the fun for long term readers of catching up with secondary cast like Jamie the necromancer, Lucas, Paige and Savannah. Unfortunately, Armstrong has painted herself into a corner in her urgency to focus on Eve- Eve cannot truly communicate with anyone but Jamie who makes her living contacting the dead. Secondly as Eve is already dead there is very little tension in the book after all what can hurt a ghost?

Weak points are the choice of narrator- Eve doesn't have Paige's warmth and moral fortitude; neither does she have Elena's dry wit and supernatural strength. I quickly became bored by the reliance on describing the supernatural realms and at times felt very confused by the spiritual rules for who could see Eve and how she could move between planes by thought alone. One of Armstrong's biggest skills is grounding the supernatural in a realistic urban setting, whereas this instalment felt bitty and I felt skipped around settings and time periods at the detriment of the plot.

Good things about the novel where concentrated in the last third of the book, where Eve has to protect Savannah from the Nix. I liked the chapters from the Nix's perspective and felt they were tense and interesting- I especially liked the sly inclusion of Lizzie Borden as one of the Nix's victims. Another high point was Eve having to interrogate one of the Nix's human partners- the only problem is that this very creepy serial killer is in a hell dimension- essentially a village of serial killers- that Eve must enter alone.

It pains me to say it but Haunted is overall a disappointment. I think this is one to buy if you are a hardcore fan, otherwise a copy borrowed from the library will serve just as well. I give this four stars because even with a clunky narrative, confusing supernatural premises and a lukewarm narrator- Armstrong's talent is still above the multitude of 'Mills and Boon-With- Fangs and Claws' genre wannabes out there.

Here's hoping for a return to form in the next book- Broken.

More, more, more please! - Rated
OMG! this is the best yet, of an already amazing series.

I love the character of Eve, a grey witch if ever there was one, and i totally loved the vision of how Heaven works. I can really picture it like that.
great characters, some old loved faces and some new, and one of the best 'baddies' the writer has come up with.

The general plot is that Eve has been dead for a few years but yearns to contact her daughter. But the dead arent meant to mix with the living, if the do all hell can break loose. Eve is sent on what seems like a wild goose chase after a particulary nasty female demon, we follow her and her's along teh rocky way.
Love, strife and the afterlife!!

Even if you have never read any of the others i'd still recomend it as each book can stand alone very well. Brilliant plot, fast pace with truly individual characters - total package!