Book Review: Burned

Title: Burned (House of Night Book 7)

Author: P.C Cast &Kristin Cast

Series: House of Night

Genre: YA Fantasy

Synopsis: Things have turned black at the House of Night. Zoey Redbird’s soul has shattered. With everything she’s ever stood for falling apart, and a broken heart making her want to stay in the Otherworld forever, Zoey’s fading fast. It’s seeming more and more doubtful that she will be able pull herself back together in time to rejoin her friends and set the world to rights. As the only living person who can reach her, Stark must find a way to get to her. But how? He will have to die to do so, the Vampyre High Council stipulates. And then Zoey will give up for sure. There are only 7 days left… Enter BFF Stevie Rae. She wants to help Z but she has massive problems of her own. The rogue Red Fledglings are acting up, and this time not even Stevie Rae can protect them from the consequences. Her kinda boyfriend, Dallas, is sweet but too nosy for his own good. The truth is, Stevie Rae’s hiding a secret that might be the key to getting Zoey home but also threatens to explode her whole world. In the middle of the whole mess is Aphrodite: ex-Fledgling, trust-fund baby, total hag from Hell (and proud of it). She’s always been blessed (if you could call it that) with visions that can reveal the future, but now it seems Nyx has decided to speak through her with the goddess’s own voice, whether she wants it or not. Aphrodite’s loyalty can swing a lot of different ways, but right now Zoey’s fate hangs in the balance. Three girls… playing with fire… if they don’t watch out, everyone will get Burned.

Overall Review: Good Bad or Ugly

I have been a fan of the series since book one, however the last two books have disappointed me. One of my major issues is the bouncing around of POV's. Instead of reading only from Zoey's standpoint we read from nearly every other character's, in fact in Burned we actually see very little dialogue from Zoey. And are plagued by an abundance of dialogue from Stevie Rae, my least favorite character of the series. I was a pleased to read the POV of Aphrodite since she is such a fun character (this was the only highlight of the whole experience for me) Considering where Tempted left off, I was expecting more from this book. What I believe has started out as a great, edgy, super cool series, has turned into a disappointment and I'm kind of ready for it to end. There are some series's that you wish would go on forever, those are the series's that know when to quit, this is not one of them! Unfortunately for me, because I read the first seven books of the series, I will probably still end up reading the rest of the books of the, simply because I have to know what is going to happen with Zoey (although since they killed off the one love interest I liked for her I'm not sure why I care anymore, but I do) Also, a small naive part of me wants to believe that the next book will bring the series back to its early splendor. Here's hoping Awakened (the next book in the series) will be a hell of a lot better than this one or the previous one.