House of Night 09. Destined [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The book arrived 3 days ago...it was a good easy interesting enough read...I have finished it this morning.
The story has been continued well, including some unexpected relationship changes within Zoey's inner circle and the appearance of already previously introduced interesting character - Thanatos - at Tulsa School of Night.
The book is a bit too short and the story to simple to give 5 Stars, but my expectations have been positively fulfilled.
Of course series like that require a good cliff hanger... If the Casts keep the distances between writing the books as short as before, that's OK with me.
I am OK with getting a 300page book every year versus a 900page book every 3 years.
Anyway I definetely look forward to the Cast's next novel.

What's happened 'till now

- Zoey became first fledgling High Priestess, very buddy buddy with Nyx (Goddess of all vampires)
- Stevie Ray, BBF of Zoey, is read vamp's High Priestess. (Red vamps haven't survived their transformtion, but came back. With red instead of blue markings. Can't walk in sun, are typical vampires, need to decide whether to be good or bad.)
- Zoey's relationships so far: Heath, human guy. Erik, now Tracker of the HoN. Loren, partner in crime of Neferet (evil bitch). Kalona, fallen Warrior of Nyx, has been linked to Neferet, killed Heath. Stark, died, came back as a red vamp, is now Zoey's Guardian and consort.

- Zoey's mom's been killed by Neferet as a sacrifice, to create a weapon.
- Nyx asked Heath if he wanted to be with Zoey again. He wanted to, so now his soul lives in the weapon mentioned above.
- Neferet aka evil bitch is sided with the White Bull, enemy of Nyx, and Evil in general.

First ~50 percent

1. Stark has nightmares
2. Zoey dreams of her mother's death.
3. Both wake up, have sex. - Kind of only thing they do, anyway.

4. Return to House of Night, problems with Neferet.
5. Now live outside of the HoN, Stevie Ray is now officially the High Priestess of the good red fledglings.
6. Raphaem, son of Kalona and ex-Raven Mocker turned sort-of-human and boyfriend of Stevie Ray joins them, causes chaos.

7. Neferet's job is to cause chaos, her weapon also lives from it, as does the White Bull.
8. Because of that she offers humans jobs, eg some cowboy. Horse-lady isn't happy about that. They later have some thing going on. Horse-lady is on Zoey's side.
9. Dragon isn't. Still mourning his mate's death. Very unhappy about Raphaem (who killed Anastacia - the mate)

10. Erik tracks and Marks girl. She is blind, instantly turns to a red fledling (cause broken already) can see again and has the ability to see the true colors of people.
11. Authors make True Blood references that don't work out. Destined is set not long after the first novel, which has been published years ago. So, actually Season 1 or 2 would be airing. Dumb mistake. (Later happens again, this time with a Game of Thrones reference)
12. The other, evil, red vamps attend classes now, too. Neferet asked them. Obviously to create chaos.

Last ~50 Percent

1. New poem: Dragon tears, Dark/Light, Ice/Fire, paradox, blah. Zoey doesn't know what a paradox is. Find that very insulting. Do Casts thing young adults are that dumb?
2. Kalona and Raphaem talk. Kalona tried to make Raphaem spy before, but he refused. Everyone's unhappy about Raphaem not shunning his father, except Twin 1, who has Daddy Issues, too.
3. Because of that Twin 1 and 2 have fall-out, no BFFs or Twins anymore. Twin 2 is bitch.

4. Death-lady from book before arrives at HoN. She's a High Priestess too. Kind of on Zoey's side, wants to know truth about Neferet, makes special students attend her class instead of Neferet's.
5. There they talk about death of parents, Imprinting etc.
6. Death-Lady offers/wants to make a ritual, to see how Zoey's mom died.

7. Aurox, Neferet's weapon starts thinking, feels bond to Zoey. Saves her, too, one time, when Neferet tries to harm her.
8. Kalona talked to Twin 1, she gave him her iPhone, so he could call Raphaem.
9. Aphrodite had a vision of Raphaem's death.

Quote:

"Does this mean I wasn't meant to find out and I shouldn#t do anything at all?"
Aphrodite shrugged. "Z, I know you'll find this hard to believe because you've been Miss Front and Center ina bunch of my visions, but in this one you barely made an appearance. I just don't think this is about you at all."
"But it's at my Grandma's farm."
"Yeah, but it's Raphaem getting carved up this time and not you," she said.

10. Aurox/weapon/Heath is supposed to do everything so Zoey etc. start/finish the ritual.
11. He doesn't want to anyway.
12. Dragon shall not go to the ritual, because Aphrodite saw that he was there when Raphaem died.

13. Both go, Dragon cause he wants to, Aurox cause Neferet forces him with magic.
14. Aurox attacks Raphaem.
15. Zoey and Co see how her mother died.

16. Stevie Ray calls Kalona.
17. Dragon protects Raphaem and dies, reunited with his mate.
18. Kalona arrives, too late though.

19. Kalona's very sad. Cries, asks Nyx to keep his son alive.
20. Tear drops on Raphaem's forehead, Raphaem heals.
21. Everyone very happy!

22. Kalona wants to be Sword Master of HoN under death-lady/High Priestess
23. Everyone OMFG!
24. Nyx very happy.

The end.

(Except that this series'll most likely never end.)

Während die ersten House of Night Bände noch halbwegs in sich geschlossen waren, ist es inzwischen eher eine relativ lange Geschichte aufgeteilt in mehrere Bände. Deshalb ist es auf jeden Fall empfehlenswert die anderen Teile gelesen zu haben, um der Handlung in Destined folgen zu können.

Zur Handlung: Zoey und ihre Freunde sind zurück in Tulsa, Neferet ist wieder für das House of Night zuständig und alles soll wieder einen normalen Gang gehen. Doch natürlich kann die Truppe um Zoey nicht vergessen, wer Neferet wirklich ist und so entsteht ein stiller Kampf zwischen den Parteien mit mehr oder weniger schlimmen Intrigen. Natürlich gibt es noch weitere Schwierigkeiten, wie die Integration des inzwischen nachts zum Menschen gewordenen Rephaim oder die Markierung eines neuen roten Fledglings mit besonderen Fähigkeiten oder auch der Streit zwischen den beiden "Twins" Erin und Shaunee. Natürlich gibt es auch wieder ein Ende, dass einen das Erscheinen des nächsten Bandes erwarten lässt.

Das Buch war wieder sehr angenehm zu lesen und stellenweise auch recht spannend. Die House of Night Reihe ist sicherlich nicht besonders literarisch wertvoll oder ansprechend, aber sie stellt Vampire mal wieder auf eine ganz andere Art da und dient einfach einer guten Unterhaltung. Wer bereits die restlichen Bände gelesen hat, sollte auch diesen nicht verpassen. Wer die Reihe noch nicht kennt, sollte dagegen mit dem ersten Teil "Marked" beginnen, um die Handlung zu verstehen.