The Gathering Storm (The Katerina Trilogy Vol. 1) by Robin Bridges

From the publisher:
St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888.  As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret; she can raise the dead.  No one know.  Not her family.  Not the girls at her finishing school.  Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle.  Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift.  But when she used her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.  
An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines - and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar.  Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources...including two young men - George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.  The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose - and to whom will she give her heart?

My Thoughts:
OK, I, like so many who have reviewed this novel about a 16 year old necromancer living in Imperial Russia, have to rely heavily on the publisher's blurb for a succinct description of what this book is about.

Why?

I found The Gathering Storm to be very confusing in some places, but they were important places as far as the story goes.  First, this version of tsarist Russia is divided into two courts - the light and the dark - and apparently a member of the light court can't marry someone from the dark court.  So when future blood drinker Prince Danilo of the dark court shows and interest in Katerina, her mother is ecstatic.  Unknown to mom, Danilo needs her necromancer blood to become a full fledged vampire on his 18th birthday.  But George Alexandrovich of the light court is also interested in Katerina.  Both know her secret, but the tsar's son can read her mind as well.

George Alexandrovish brings me to the subject of names.  There are so many confusingly similar Russian names in this novel and I kept getting everyone mixed-up.  Confusion of characters sometimes led to confusion about the action - which court was so-and-so connected to and why is this important for that court?  I would have liked a list of who's who for the dark and the light courts, partly because Russian names are unfamiliar and confusing to American readers and so many names are mentioned throughout the novel.

Did I enjoy The Gathering Storm?  You bet I did, despite my confusion complaints.  I found Katerina to be a delightfully unreliable narrator, George Alexandrovish very sexy and Danilo just scoundrelly enough to be very seductive (and I envisioned his sister Elena looking very Kim Kardashianish for some reason.)  By the end of this first volume of The Katerina Trilogy, I did have a better understanding of the two court and who belonged to which, though it was disconcerting while reading.  And I had most of the people worked out, and luckily, some of them didn't make it to the end of the story, making things simpler, as least for the moment.

On the whole, therefore, I found The Gathering Storm to be loaded with action, conspiracies and intrigue all swathed in a wonderful paranormal wrapping and wonderful descriptions of balls and ball gowns. And I can't wait to read the second volume, The Unfailing Light, available on October 9, 2012.

All in all, I would give The Gathering Storm 3 1/2 stars.

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was obtained from the publisher.

This is book 1 of my Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge hosted by Marie at Ramblings of a Daydreamer

The Alchemy of Forever (Incarnation #1) by Avery Williams

From the Publisher:
Seraphina's first love made her immortal...her second might get her killed...
After spending six hundred years on earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world's riches, but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to swap bodies with other humans, jumping from one vessel to the next, taking the human's life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she's done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.

Then sixteen-year-old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she's inhabiting--and falls for the human boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she's his again, and every moment she stays, she's putting herself and the people she's grown to care for in great danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that's eluded her for centuries: true love?

My Thoughts:
The Alchemy of Forever begins in 1349.  Young Serphina Ames is attending a party with her parents.  Going outside for some fresh air, she runs into Cyrus, the apothecary's son.  While talking to Cyrus, the pair are accosted by robbers.  Cyrus manages to kill them, but not before Sera is fatally stabbed.  Before she actually dies, Cyrus saves her by giving her an alchemical mixture that gives her immortality - but in another person's body.

Fast forward to present day San Francisco.

Seraphina has been living for 600 yeas as an incarnate, which means she retains her own soul, but must replace the body she lives in every 10 years. Unfortunately, her new body means the death of someone else.  But now she has decided it is time to die herself.  Sera, desperately in need of a new body, is tired of living under Cyrus's possessive control, despite her affection for her best friend Charlotte, also an incarnate. So, she takes the alchemy book Cyrus has kept over the ages and runs away.

But just as Sera is ready to carry out her suicide, she hears a car accident.  She pulled out a fatally injured, very pretty teenage girl and tries to give her CPR, but the girl is dying and the pull of a new body is too great for Sera and before she knows it, she has become the body of 16 year old Kailey Morgan.

Away from the familiar incarnates that are part of Cyrus's circle, Sera slowly begins to learn about Kailey, her family, her friends, and her enemies.  A few people notice changes in her, but don't really question them too much.  And Sera as Kailey feels she is somewhat safe from Cyrus's grasp and still plans to carry out her suicide, for herself and for Kailey's parents who don't know their real daughter is dead.

I didn't think I would really like The Alchemy of Forever, but I found it was an easy, fast and entertaining book and it was a surprisingly well-written, well-plotted book.  I did have trouble with the concept that an incarnate must take another's life in order to sustain themself, even though it was justified by only using the bodies of people about to die anyway.  Somehow, that part still didn't work for me, especially since once the exchange of souls happened, the "donor" body disintegrated into dust.

Throughout the novel, we only experience Sera in her original body and Kailey's, but personality-wise, she remains the same.  And that is what her friends question.  First, Kailey forbade her friends to date her brother, despite his good looks and nice personality.  And Noah - the boy interest in the story - had been forbidden by Kailey to be seen with her in school, but around the neighborhood it was OK.  And it was OK for him to drive Kailey and her brother to school everyday - weird, especially since Noah clearly has a major crush on Kailey.  But Sera likes him and suddenly all of Kailey's rules no longer matter.

All this plays out partially because Sera believes she is really safe from Cyrus.  Or is she? Is Cyrus so clever that he can trace her through the events that led her to Kailey's life?

The Alchemy of Forever has a few loose ends that bothered me.  What happened to the girl named Taryn who Sera convinced not to commit suicide on the same night she had planned it herself?  And was Taryn the person Sera saw when she exchanged bodies with Kailey?  What happened to Cyrus's alchemical book?

I know this is a the first book in a planned series and these questions might be answered in the future, but it left too much hanging, and yet, the end of the story was really very predictable (no, I am giving away nothing here.)

If you like paranormal romance/adventure, you will surely like The Alchemy of Forever.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was obtained from the publisher.