Books Glorious Books: Series Spotlight: House of Night #1-2

House of Night by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

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Title: Marked - Book #1

Author: P.C Cast & Kristin Cast

Publisher: UK - Atom | US - St. Martin's Griffin

Publication date: UK - 15/01/09 | US - May 2007

Format: Paperback - 348 pages

Genre: Paranormal - Young Adult

When sixteen year old Zoey is marked by the Tracker, she knows her old life is over. Now she has to leave her friends and family to join the House of Night school, where there's only one subject Zoey needs to study: Vampyre 101.

Of course, there's always a catch, and this one's nice and simple: if you fail, you die...

My thoughts:

Welcome to another series spotlight! Throughout this week I'm going to review the House of Night series - two books in a weekday for the most part.

Marked is the first in the House of Night series so it introduces Zoey, the protagonist, who is marked a Vampyre by a Tracker during high school - embarrassing right? The drama only begins there with Zoey having to move into the school for Vampyre's more commonly known as the House of Night. She has to deal with slowly changing into a Vampyre and getting used to the fact that she may in fact die of the change at any moment. More than a little high school drama I'd say...

It's always been slightly difficult for me to start a series which is why I wanted to try something like a series spotlight. I know that the first book in any series will be divided into three categories: a brilliant read, thereby making me want to carry on with the series or an okay read, but maybe I'll give the rest of the series a try and lastly, a horrible read and there's no way I'm picking up another book in the series ever. It's difficult to find a book in a series that stands out on its own which is why I'm hesitant. It's not a bad thing exactly, it's just that with so many series out there it gets tiring,

Marked was a good read. It definitely wouldn't stand on its own in my opinion, but it definitely made me want to keep on going. I liked the idea of a school for a Vampyre to go to - it brings to mind the possibility of so many things happening. High school drama plus blood sucking vamps? Yes please.

It was a read that introduces this new setting but nothing particularly exciting happened. I have a feeling that the series as a whole is building up to something much more which is why I want to carry on reading but as for this one book, it wasn't terribly exciting. I was okay with that though, I have too many questions not to be.

So far I'm liking it. I'm really interested to see where the characters go and where the plot's running away to.

My rating: 7/10

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Title: Betrayed - Book #2

Author: P.C Cast & Kristin Cast

Publisher: UK - Atom | US - St. Martin's Griffin

Publication date: UK - 05/02/2009 | US - October 2007

Format: Paperback - 392 pages

Things seemed to be going pretty well for Zoey Redbird. She's settled in at the House of Night finishing school and is coming to terms with her incredible new powers. It all seems too good to be true. And guess what?

Someone has begun murdering human teenagers, and all evidence points to the vampyres at Zoey's school. Which means her first assignment as the leader of the Dark Daughters is finding out which one of her classmates or - gulp - teachers is a killer.

Sigh. And she thought her boyfriends (yes:plural) were going to be her biggest problem this year...

My thoughts:

Betrayed basically starts off immediately after the first book in the series, Marked, ends. Without giving too much of the story away, Zoey has to deal with normal high school drama plus these new found powers and the fact that people she knows from her old human life are starting to go missing.

Compared to the first book in the series I basically found, to my surprise, that I like it exactly the same and for the same reasons. It didn't exactly disappoint me and it didn't make me think that the rest of the series is going to carry on in an upward spiral. There was only one thing that really annoyed me in this read.

There isn't much I can actually say about the plot without giving crucial parts away. It was good though - definitely what I was expecting from the second book in quite a long series and from what I thought of the first book. It feels like the series, for now anyway, is going slow, but it doesn't necessarily feel like a bad thing.

For the most part, I still love the characters. Some of the characters developed a little which was great but for me Zoey was a real brat in this book. I'm all for realistic and relatable characters but not one's who make stupid decisions that no reasonable person would make. Three boyfriends? All of which are justified by saying they are only 'almost boyfriends'....I'm sorry, it may just be me but that seems a little ridiculous.

To be honest, that was the only real problem I had with this one. The rest was a good read that I enjoyed. I really am intrigued as to what the series as a whole is going to offer because it still hasn't been revealed. I have to say, I'm really looking forward to finding out.

My rating: 6/10

P.C. and Kristin Cast:

P.C. - Goodreads - Kristin | Website | Blog | Facebook

Books in the series: