Burned by P.C and Kristen Cast is the seventh book in the House of Night series, and takes place after Zoey’s soul has shattered and she is trapped in the Otherworld. I gave it three stars, because while I enjoyed the story line and the theme of the book, I felt it could have been written better. A lot better.

The House of Night series follows a group of friends who meet at the House of Night after becoming fledglings. In the series, young teens are “marked” and enter the pre-vampire stage where their bodies change into full vampire. They move to the House of Night where they learn Vampire ways and customs, and how to live among humans. The series follows Zoey Redbird, who progresses faster than others to becoming a vampire and has an affinity for water, air, fire, earth and spirit, and her friends Stevie-Rae, Damien, Jack, Shaunee and Erin. In previous books, the friends have worked together to overcome normal teen problems, but the books get progressive darker when an immortal, named Kalona, is awakened from his earth-grave and tries to take over the world.

In the previous book, Zoey witnessed Kalona kill her human love, Heath, and as a result her soul is shattered and she exists in a world in between life and death.

I’ve been a big fan of the series, despite negative reviews that the books are written poorly and the language is very child-like. This hasn’t bothered me until this book. I’ve always been able to enjoy the story line enough that the other flaws haven’t bothered me, and while I liked this book, there were certain elements that made it difficult to read.

The writing style is something that stuck out this time that bothered me. There was WAY too much dialogue, and the conversations were extremely cheesy and childish. While reading the dialogue, I’m left thinking “who even talks like this?” Stevie-Rae, who customarily has a southern accent and comes up with interesting phrases, even confused me. I felt that it was way overdone. And Kramisha has always been a character that really bothers me. Really…speak English. I had a difficult time reading her because the "ebonics" was taken to an extreme level.

That being said about Kramisha, most of the characters didn’t bother me, but I did miss the regular gang. Damien, Erin, and Shaunee were literally not in the story at all. I believe they were mentioned once or twice, and described as weeping over Zoey’s vacant body. After all that Zoey has done for them, wouldn’t you think they’d at least try to help her? A little, even? Aphrodite and Stevie-Rae were two of the main characters in Burned. I’ve always been a fan of Aphrodite, because she is real. She says it like it is and doesn’t care what people think of her. Her language is pretty awful, though. Swear words left and right.

The Stevie-Rae/Rephaim thing was the most interesting part of the book, for me. I really like where this is going. Rephaim is the most favored son of Kalona, and is a Raven Mocker. He has the body of a giant, human sized raven, with legs, arms, and eyes of a human. He is the offspring of Kalona’s vicious rape on the Cherokee women. Even though he was created of Darkness, he has formed an unexpected alliance with Stevie-Rae. They imprinted accidentally after Stevie-Rae saves him after the attack on the House of Night in the fifth book, and for that, he’s saved her numerous times. What I like that is that she didn’t fall head over heels in love with a Raven Mocker, but their strange relationship has developed over three books to a point where they rely on each other, and even like each other a little bit. Stevie-Rae is struggling to keep him a secret while trying to figure out her feelings for him.

Honestly, this book is a prime example of why you can’t have too many story lines going on at once. Some things felt unresolved and unclear. Some examples of multiple story lines include Zoey being trapped in the other world, Stark trying to find a way to save her, Stevie-Rae trying to keep the Raven Mocker secret, Stevie-Rae trying to deal with the rogue red fledgings, Heath being dead, Kalona/Neferet trying to take over the world, and the vampire high council. It was too much, and certain parts just didn’t click. The Stevie-Rae/Rephaim story line was my absolute favorite, but I felt like they could use their own book.

Overall, the book was okay. I liked the theme of the book, because I’m a fan of the House of Night series. If you can push through the poor dialogue and cheesy lines, it’s an important part of the House of Night series, and it’s not really something you can skip. I was a little disappointed because of how much I was looking forward to it, but overall, it wasn’t bad.

Radiant Shadows in the fourth installment in Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series, and follows another off-shoot of the Ash/Keenan/Seth arc. In this story, we see more of Devlin, who is featured in Fragile Eternity as Sorcha's Bloody Hands (aka Assassin) and Ani, who is the Dark Court hound halfling.

Devlin is the first male faerie, made of Sorcha and Bananach. Sorcha is the embodiment of Reason and Logic and Queen of the High Court, and Bananach is the embodiment of War and Discord and a member of the Dark Court. They are meant to balance each other. But when Sorcha re-created Seth into a fae using her own essence, the balance was thrown off because she then carried some human emotion. Sorcha has been mourning Seth's presence in the mortal world, and therefore she is no longer the exact opposite of Bananach.

Ani has a secret. While her court has a reputation of "feeding" off of human emotions, Ani can also feed off of faerie emotions. She's also losing her mortality by the day, and is becoming more and more fae. On top of that, she is "skin starved", meaning she needs touch to nourish her, as well. This seems to be a Hound trait, but being a halfling, she really shouldn't be able to do any of this. Her and Irial have been doing tests on her blood to see what it is that makes her so different, and so important to Bananach.

Devlin's prior secrets are coming back to get him. He was ordered years ago to kill the pup Ani, who has been under the prior Dark King's protection, but chose not to. When Ani is confronted by Bananach and ordered to kill Niall and Seth, her and Devlin start a journey across country to try to outrun Bananach's chase. But plans change when they find out that Faerie is falling apart while Sorcha chooses to remain in a dream until Seth returns.

Devlin and Ani realize that something must be done to regain the balance between the High Court and the Dark Court.

I am a big fan of Mellisa Marr, but when I heard this book would be another "side installment" of the series, I wasn't too excited. Ink Exchange just wasn't that good for me, and I never really got into the whole Dark Court thing.

This book totally changed my opinions on the series. I. Loved. This. Book. It had everything a great book should have; it was exciting, it had moments of romance and moments of suspense, and the main characters were fun to read. Everyone can fall in love with Devlin, because he's been sheltered in Faerie for so long, and he's finally realizing that he wants to choose his own path. Ani is witty and dangerous and strong.

Fragile Eternity focused a lot of Sorcha and the High Court, and I probably like that arc MORE than I do the Summer Court/Winter Court arc that is supposed to be Wicked Lovely, Fragile Eternity, and the soon-to-be-released fifth book. I like reading about the High Court, and now the Dark Court, too. (I think it was the whole Niall/Irial/Leslie thing in Ink Exchange that really turned me off from it.)

I'm really hoping the series is continued past a fifth book. Every installment, there are new developments and new characters involved. With the way Radiant Shadows ended, I don't see how the entire series can be wrapped up in just one more book.

I highly recommend this young-adult series. Just make sure you read the entire series! Yes, even Ink Exchange. :)