The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers series has been a big hit for me. Although I felt like the series started off a little slow in The Summoning, I saw much potential plot and character-wise. Luckily, I stuck with the books and was rewarded with some truly fabulous storytelling in The Awakening. I loved everything about Chloe's gradual discovery of her powers and the way her relationship with the other Edison Group teens was allowed to naturally develop - all of which left me with some very high hopes for the conclusion of Chloe's story in The Reckoning.

The Reckoning picks up right where The Awakening so cruelly left us hanging: Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Tori are hiding out (again) in hopes of finally evading the nefarious Edison Group, who used the four teens - and others - as lab rats in hopes of genetically altering their supernatural powers. The Edison Group didn't exactly succeed with their little experiment which resulted in some super-charged teens who don't have the foggiest notion of how to control their powers. While Simon can barely cast a spell to save his life, Tori is picking up powerful spells with no apparent effort, and Derek is struggling to cope with his first change into a werewolf with absolutely no direction. Chloe herself is a impressive necromancer but doesn't have a clue how to control her abilities. What these four teens have become masters at however is loyalty. Hoping they have finally stumbled upon allies they can actually trust, Chloe et al set out to rescue the remaining super-teens from the clutches of the Edison Group in hopes of finally shutting the laboratory down once and for all.

I am so sad to see this series at an end. The entire concept of a group of extra-powerful genetically altered teens held under lock and key caught my interest from the first but the well-developed characters and non-stop action kept me happy. Even though much of the story arc and plot devices were similar to those found in the earlier two books, The Reckoning was vastly different from its predecessors. The pace itself was set at a much slower rate: the teens spent much of their time waiting around, gathering information about the Edison Group a bit at a time. This left a lot of time for Chloe to digest her feelings on the Boy Front. To me at least, it's been obvious all along which direction her hormones would lead her, but when Chloe finally admitted to herself which guy she was crushing on, well, my heart did a happy little flip-flop of joy. Despite the fact that I wanted to shake her (repeatedly) for taking so long to figure it out.

Chloe is a powerful necromancer but aside from being able to raise the dead, she's short, average, and doesn't have a clue when it comes to boys. There is much to like about Chloe. I found it intriguing to watch her grow as a character over the course of this series. She's finally got a better grip on her necromancer powers and was even learning to stand up for herself now and again *gasp* - my only complaint is that in The Reckoning Chloe decides she needs to tell us that fact several times. Which quickly got old. On multiple occasions, Chloe repeats that she is no longer a little girl or that her Aunt Lauren was finally seeing her 'all grown up.' Just let the story tell us for itself, mmmkay Chloe? Other than a few issues of that nature, I was happy with this final conclusion - it wasn't as great as The Awakening, but still a solid read.

And... I just stumbled across the new cover for the companion books to the Darkest Powers trilogy:  The Gathering, set to be released next spring. Read an excerpt here. This cover is so purdy. I'm digging the darker color scheme and wonder if they plan to continue with the jewelry theme again.

series reading order:
~ The Summoning - my review
~ The Awakening - my review
~ The Reckoning

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
Em's Bookshelf review 
Girls in the Stacks review 
Lavender Lines review
Pure Imagination review
Today's Adventure review

book source: my local library