Waiting on Wednesday: The Flame Never Dies

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

THE FLAME NEVER DIES

The Stars Never Rise #2

Rachel Vincent

Paranormal Young Adult

Releases from Delacorte Press August 2016

From Goodreads:

ONE SPARK WILL RISE. Nina Kane was born to be an exorcist. And since uncovering the horrifying truth—that the war against demons is far from over—seventeen-year-old Nina and her pregnant younger sister, Mellie, have been on the run, incinerating the remains of the demon horde as they go.

In the badlands, Nina, Mellie, and Finn, the fugitive and rogue exorcist who saved her life, find allies in a group of freedom fighters. They also face a new threat: Pandemonia, a city full of demons. But this fresh new hell is the least of Nina’s worries. The well of souls ran dry more than a century ago, drained by the demons secretly living among humans, and without a donor soul, Mellie’s child will die within hours of its birth.

Nina isn’t about to let that happen . . . even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS COVER! The Stars Never Rise had an equally beautiful cover, and I obsessed over the start to this series from the moment I saw it. Normally demon-related stories are not my thing as they absolutely terrify me, but Rachel Vincent never fails to suck me in with her gritty awesomeness. I'm really looking forward to seeing where things go, though I have to admit to being slightly alarmed by the last line of the synopsis. Rachel Vincent is an author who isn't afraid to emotionally eviscerate her readers, so I know this will be one of those instances where I flip immediately to the end and read it first ;-)

Amazon • Goodreads

Review: The Stars Never Rise

THE STARS NEVER RISE
The Stars Never Rise #1
Rachel Vincent
Paranormal Young Adult
368 pages
Delacorte Press
Available Now
Source: ALA Midwinter

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.

To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?

Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.

MY THOUGHTS
The Stars Never Rise paints a horrifying picture of a world we can only hope never finds its way from the pages of fiction into reality, with demons and demon possession driving humanity’s every thought and action. While the paranormal elements are terrifying, we do have the safety net of reality to fall back on, taking comfort in the fact that we can escape this world easily enough if we need a quick break. The far more disturbing element–and one we can’t escape–is the fanatacism that accompanies the teachings of this world’s Church, humanity’s willingness to blindly believe what their told resulting in innocent lives being snuffed out with the strike of a match.

Nina is a voice of reason we easily latch onto amidst the ordered chaos of a literal hell on Earth, forcing herself to play by the rules despite the fact that she doesn’t entirely buy into the Church’s propaganda. Because she’s not one hundred percent dedicated to them from the beginning, there are no blinders to rip from her eyes once her home life takes a turn for the worse, only knowledge which she readily accepts without putting up a token struggle. She doesn’t waste time denying the many revelations she’s faced with, and instead picks up her new cause with impressive gusto and does her best to fight for her sister and anyone else she can save along the way.

A romance does come into play amidst the horror of an impending demon invasion, and while we can’t help but be grateful there’s only one romantic interest instead of two, the relationship between Nina and Finn stays at surface level throughout. There are a number of sweet moments, but the emotional connection we have to the two of them as a couple isn’t as strong as the overwhelming urge to see them and their group of exorcist misfits survive against nearly impossible odds. Perhaps their relationship will grow stronger in future books and our investment in them as a couple along with it, but the story itself is strong enough–and the world nightmare-inducing enough–that it’s easy to move past that minor drawback and look forward to what is to come as the series continues.

Rating: 3.5-4/5 (I couldn't quite pin my thoughts down enough to come up with a single rating, so a range it is ;-)

Find Rachel:

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Amazon 

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Alpha

ALPHA (Shifters Series #6)
Rachel Vincent
Urban Fantasy
472 pages
Mira
Available Now

This review contains NO spoilers, though it does summarize events from the previous five novels.

THE STORY
Faythe is not one to play it safe. She's in no hurry to get married and have innumerable children in the hope of finally giving birth to a daughter and fulfilling her duty as one of the country's few tabby cats at a breeding age. No, she's a fighter, always knee deep in trouble, equipped with her sharp claws and her dry wit as she fights to find a place of her own making in her Pride.

All the trouble Faythe and the two men whom she loves, Marc and Jace, have gotten into in recent months has finally come to a head. The direction of the governing council is changing, spearheaded by ruthless rival Alpha Calvin Malone who has no desire to keep either Marc or Jace breathing, and his plans for Faythe center on an immediate marriage to, and subsequent pregnancy by, one of his own sons.

Faythe's father has been training her to lead in his stead though she knows she's not ready. Unfortunately for her, she has no say as to whether she's ready or not as war lands on her Pride's doorstep and forces her hand. Now with her world in shambles and her heart strings pulled dangerously taut between Marc and Jace, Faythe begins a brutal journey to discover what it means to be Alpha.

MY THOUGHTS
Ms. Vincent concludes her intensely dark Shifter series by throwing down an emotional gauntlet from which there is no way to escape unscathed. We are challenged at every possible opportunity, an utterly repulsive dictator forcing an anger to burn in our chests so shockingly bright we can't help but fear the very pages we clutch white-knuckled will ignite with the fiery depths of our loathing. Pain erupts from a multitude of wounds inflicted by the sharp tongue of a betrayed lover and friend, creating an agony so consuming that at times we have no choice but to get up and walk away from the fictional world, gasping for breath and seeking the solace of reality as our only means to stanch the bleeding. We as readers are afforded no quarter, left with no other option but to barrel forward with Faythe as we both cling to the meager hope that our injuries, both emotional and physical, won't prove fatal.

Faythe is a character who has progressed beautifully, starting her journey as a young, naive girl trying to escape a world she feels will strangle the independence she so desperately seeks, and becoming a woman with an unmatched fortitude and a strength of will to equal the inherent power of her Shifter body. Her respective relationships with Marc and Jace are unbearably real and gruesome in their vitriol, positively shredding the soft tissues of our hearts with the depth of their feelings for one another and the extent of their combined guilt and anger. The torments of their love triangle are aired out in excruciating detail until we are brought to our knees, doubled over in a pain no less profound for its vicarious nature. Though the abject misery is overwhelming, we are able to glory in its realism as Ms. Vincent does not structure events so a magical solution to every heartbreak appears, but rather she forces Faythe to make the hard decisions, reaping what she's sown, without making the decision easier for her by providing a simple default option.

The emotional pain of not just Faythe, Marc, and Jace, but of all the characters, is only equaled by the physical torture as casualties of the Shifter war steadily grow in number as the book progresses. There is anguish. There is death. There is a hatred for Calvin Malone so extreme we can only curse at our own impotency, wanting nothing more than to scream his injustices at anyone who will listen in the hope that by some miracle, the characters might hear us and the events will be rewritten in our favor. But through the mist of our bleary eyes and our shallow, uneven breaths, there is a tiny pinprick of reassurance that this is a war worth fighting, and the individuals we so love will not die in vain.

By the end we are exhausted, our bodies throbbing with phantom aches, our minds churning with possibilities for the future, and our hearts mourning the loss of spectacularly brilliant characters. Tears run in jagged streaks down our cheeks, but we dare not wipe them away for they are a testament that we survived the events with Faythe, witnesses to her joys and pains, her successes and failures, and most importantly, her transition from young girl to South-Central Pride Alpha. This series is brutal and violent, but also infinitely satisfying, a true journey marked by both searing pain and soaring joy, and one that has earned a prominent place in my heart and on my bookshelf.

Rating: 5/5

Interview: Rachel Vincent

I'm hugely excited to have Rachel Vincent on the blog today answering a few questions about her Shifters series. This is a series that has frustrated me, downright pissed me off, and also brought a huge smile to my face. I've been thoroughly involved in Faythe's story from page one, and it's been one heck of a ride since then! If you haven't picked up these books yet, beware, you will get hooked.

What is more intimidating, writing the first book in a new series or wrapping up loose ends with the final book?

Well, I’ve only written one series ender right now, and while it was hard, it was nowhere near as hard as starting my new adult series is turning out to be. ;)

There are two fantastic love interests for Faythe in this series, did you ever find yourself gravitating more toward one over the other, or were you able to remain impartial?

I was rarely impartial, but I did hop back and forth a lot. It was fun!

Both Marc and Jace are swoon-worthy, alpha male heroes. Name one fictional hero you wish you could take credit for writing and why.

Um… I kinda wish I’d written Alex, from Simone Elkeles’s Perfect Chemistry. He was a fantastic, hard-edged but heroic contemporary hero.

You are not afraid to brutally knock your characters down before you bring them back up, do you find their emotional heartbreaks more difficult to write than their physical abuses?

Honestly, I love torturing characters, both physically and emotionally. It’s the happy parts that bore me. How sick is that? ;)

If you could live in one of the supernatural worlds you’ve created, would it be that of the Shifters or the bean sidhe?

Probably the Shifters world. It’s dark and violent, but Kaylee’s world in Soul Screamers is brutal, emotionally, especially starting in the third book, My Soul To Keep. From then on, she faces angst and pain on a much more personal level than what Faythe goes through. And she can’t just pound on a bunch of bad guys to relieve stress.

Is there a single point in the overall process were the book begins to feel real to you? Either handing over the first draft, seeing the cover art, or finally seeing on the shelf surrounded by other titles?

Typing “The End” on the first draft is when it feels real. That’s when the story is complete, on screen. Its first incarnation outside of my own head. And yes, I actually type “The End” in every book, and my editor has to take it out during the revisions. ;)

What’s one book you’ve read over and over again, and how many times have you read it?

I’ve read both Swan Song (McCammon) and The Stand (King) four times each, and I still love them both. I read them ever summer during college, after reading them each once in high school. I love post-apocalyptic fiction.

Faythe is an outdoor kind of girl being a Shifter, would you say you are the outdoorsy type?

Um… no. It took a lot of research into different kinds of trees and plants and the sounds that various animals make in order for me to bring her outdoor world to life.

For most of us, meeting our favorite authors leads to some serious incoherent fangirl babbling, is there another author you’ve met that incited a similar reaction?

To some extent. I was nervous about meeting both Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) and Holly Black (White Cat). And a couple of years ago, I introduced myself to Kelley Armstrong over and over, sure she wouldn’t remember me (but she’s totally cool, and probably the nicest person I’ve ever met), until a mutual friend took me aside and said, “Rachel, stop introducing yourself to Kelley. She knows who you are.” So…now you know how I’ve embarrassed myself. ;)

What is one aspect of Faythe’s character you are most proud of?

I’m proud of how she’s grown. She’s come a long way, and by the end of the series, she is truly a force to be reckoned with.

Thanks for stopping by and answering my questions Rachel! If you're interested in her Shifters series, all the book titles are below. She also writes the fantastic young adult Soul Screamers series, so be sure and check out her website for information on that as well.

Website
Blog
Shifters Series:
Stray
Rogue
Pride
Prey
Shift
Alpha


Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of Alpha!