Dark Elite 1
Chloe Neil
I saw this book on Amazon and decided to give the series a try on my new Kindle. At first, I wasn't impressed. There was the typical teenage problems that every girl has growing up, with a few more thrown in. Nothing special. I think I was about 52% through by the time anything really interesting started happening. I was left feeling like the author had a huge plan for this book, and then half way through started thinking, "Okay, how can I end this quickly?"
Where the main character is built up rather nicely, the secondary characters fall a little flat. The boys don't really seem to have much personality, and I keep asking myself, "what's so special about them?" Sure, they've got magical powers and are cute or whatever, but that's all you really know about them. Even most of the girls that could've been developed through Lily's eyes aren't the most creatively thought out people.
I am currently reading the second book, hoping that everything will start to develop more. The overall storyline has potential, and I'd like to see it filled.
Summary: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Lily was a normal teenager living in Sagamore, New York. Then her parents tell her that they are going on a two-year research sabbatical in Germany and that she is being shipped off to a all-girls boarding school in Chicago. When she arrives at St. Sophia's School for Girls, she finds herself in a strict, but still very high school, setting with the principal telling her strange things about her parents. She meets her three suite-mates, Amie, Leslie, and Scout. Amie is the quite part of the brat-pack, so that group invades their common room a lot of the time. Leslie spends most of her time in her room, studying or playing the cello. However, Scout and Lily become fast friends.
When Scout makes an excuse to leave the dorm to go exercise, Lily gets a little suspicious. One night she ends up following Scout to a huge door in the basement. Lily can't follow Scout through it, so she waits for her return. Eventually, Scout does return with something following her (Lily assumes it's a troll because of the force it was using to pound on the door). Lily starts demanding explanations, but gets none. She eventually decides to let Scout keep her secrets. However, Lily gets thrown into the middle of them when the brat-pack pulls a prank on her in the basement. They tried to lock her in a room with a model of the city on the floor. After Lily finds her way out, she decides to go explore a little. She ends up running into Scout and Jason, who are running from something; two soul-sucking Reapers: Alex and Sabastian. Lily runs with them, but is hit by firespell. She's knocked out and wakes up in the hospital, where Scout (spellbinder), Michael (building reader), and Jason (werewolf) explain everything to her: Adepts give up their powers around age 25, while Reapers keep them and have to drain others of their energy & soul to do so.
Lily is happy enough to be a side kick, but she soon finds a green mark on her back where the firespell hit her. Scout shows that she also has the mark, and tells her that all Adapts have one. Lily freaks out and decides to go on a shopping trip with the brat-pack, but eventually comes to her senses. Scout takes her to the enclave, but since she's not a typical Adapt (and hadn't shown any powers) they cast her off. Until Scout goes missing. Lily finds the enclave and has to make two attempts at getting them to help her. The older (Varsity) kids refuse, but the high school kids (JV) decide to help. They split off into teams and Lily is going inside the "Sanctuary" to get her friend back from the Reapers. However, the distracting team didn't do a good enough job and they are soon met by a bunch of Reapers. Sabastian (bad guy from earlier) tells Lily to "Let go" to use her power and she does, she has the firespell, same as him. They all get away and Lily is now excepted into the group and has and almost-boyfriend that's a werewolf.
Dark Elite:
Firespell
Hexbound
Charmfall