Wings

May 15, 2014
Blood Mates Natalie (all human) and Ash (half human, half vampire) continue the drive to unseat the evil dictator Purian Rose and win justice for all races in the United Sentry States.At the end of Phoenix (2013), Natalie was plucked from danger and restored to her mother and the father she thought dead, both key members of the Sentry rebellion against Rose. Meanwhile, Ash-aka the Phoenix, symbol of the grass-roots campaign Humans for Unity-heads home to Black City to regroup. They both have their eyes on the Tenth, the concentration camps where Rose has imprisoned the vampire Darklings. Each with allies both human and in-, they reunite there. Their alternating, present-tense narrations are joined in this book by a third, that of Edmund, whose story occurs 30 years before and provides both some flimsy back story and lots more angst. What with double crosses, secret missions, unlikely victories in skirmishes, obvious revelations and the occasional death, there's plenty of action, but the blow-by-blow narration holds it in stasis. The characters are like bad actors in a high school play, emoting on cue and then moving to the next mark. The scientific improbabilities that have plagued the series from the beginning mount here, with the (protracted) climactic moment fueled by a laughably impossible medical procedure.Only for those readers who are dying to read the end of Natalie and Ash's story. (Paranormal romance. 14-18)

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July 1, 2014
Natalie (a human) and Ash (who is half-vampire) oppose the oppressive, anti-nonhuman regime of Purian Rose, whose origins are explored in this third series volume. While the premise is intriguing and the stakes continue to rise, overblown writing, told-not-shown character development, and the confusing tangle of loyalties and organizations at play have a distancing effect.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)