Svetlana Rada Rada itibaren Vovchoyarivka, Luhans'ka oblast, Ukrayna itibaren Vovchoyarivka, Luhans'ka oblast, Ukrayna

Great second book in Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series. (Quick question - why was this originally billed as a trilogy? Yeah, those first three were released in rapid succession, but it seems fairly clear from the writing in the two that I've read so far that she always intended, or at least very very much hoped to extend it into a full series, which is now the plan. Seems silly to call it a trilogy. But I digress.) The first half of this book was a bit of a struggle. I enjoyed it - unlike a lot of people who seemed irritated by her, I liked Anya. But it was difficult to get involved in the story at first, perhaps because it focused so heavily only on Anya and Lucien and we didn't get to see many secondary characters at first. But I think my main struggle was that I kept comparing Showalter's writing to Kresley Cole. I couldn't help it; Anya's dialogue was so clearly channeling the fun, snappy dialogue of Cole's characters, and knowing that Showalter and Cole are friends, it was very distracting to me. And the bottom line is that Showalter just doesn't do it as well. It felt to me like kind of a not-quite-as-good rip off of the IAD series; the kind you would read because it's so much like something else you love, like reduced fat cookies. You can enjoy it for what it is, but it will never be as good as the real thing. By the second half of the book, I no longer cared. The story really began taking off, and all thoughts of Kresley Cole vanished. I was caught up in the story Showalter was telling, the characters she was creating, and the world she was weaving. I got hooked and couldn't put it down. Anya felt like her own fully realized character and no longer a copy of Cole's valkyries, and her relationship with Lucien was really sweet. And then they embarked on an exciting adventure, and we learned more about Anya's past and what the actual conflict of the romance was, and it all got very interesting. In addition, there was a really great subplot involving Paris and one of his conquests. I'll say no more because I don't want to have to mark this review as having spoilers, but I'll say it was very compelling and I can't wait to read more about Paris in future books. So I really enjoyed this book. The series will probably never be one of my absolute favorites, but I'll keep reading them. Bottom line - slow start, but worth sticking around.

Very enjoyable getting to know these girls. A lot I didn't know about this time period in our country's history. The ending left me gasping - this screams for a sequel!

I remember reading this in the second grade, at the kitchen table, during a lunch of orange pop and chicken-and-stars soup. In the chair facing the deck.