Tempted (House of Night) - Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast

About the book/ series

Tempted is the sixth book in the House of Night series by mother and daughter duo, PC and Kristin Cast. It is published by Atom Books and is 336 pages long. All of the books currently released in this series are available in a BOGOF offer at Waterstones, making them £3.50 each or £6.99 full price.

Books in the series:
1.Marked
2.Betrayed
3.Chosen
4.Untamed
5.Hunted
6.Tempted
7.Burned
8.Awakened
9.Released 2011
10.Released 2011

For more information regarding the House of Night series, you can go to http://www.houseofnightseries.com/

The website has a lot of interesting features like leaning all about your favourite characters and creating your own vampyre tattoo (if you want to make believe a little bit). After reading the first book, I had a good look around the website and I think it's a nice companion to the series.

What has happened so far

Zoey Redbird recently got marked by a Tracker, meaning that she had to move to the House of Night in order to maybe become a vampyre. If she doesn't die first. Zoey is unlike any of the other fledglings though. She has been extremely blessed by the Goddess Nyx who gave her powers that she never expected. Zoey can has an affinity for all five elements: Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit.

Zoey has her faithful friends, Stevie Rae, Shaunee, Erin, Damien and Jack to help her out. Zoey has had an array of guys on the go; human Heath, hot and talented Erik and teacher Loren the poet. Football players from Zoey's old school went missing and were murdered so she had to save Heath before he was killed as well. After best friend Stevie Rae died and came back as something else, a red fledgling who turned into a full vampyre. Neferet turned evil and reawakened an evil immortal called Kalona who took over the school with her but Zoey managed to banish them for a little while. New guy Stark pledged himself and Zoey's warrior after she saved him from himself.

Tempted

After banishing Neferet and Kalona, Zoey and her friends must figure out how to get rid of them both once and for all but things are far from simple. Neferet and Kalona are seeking help from the highest place possible, the Vampyre High Council and Kalona seems to be convincing them to follow his ways.

Everyone seems to be pulling together to find a way out of the current problem but Stevie Rae is keeping something from Zoey but what isn't she sharing? Zoey may have gotten around a couple of Aphrodite's visions but the most recent is one that could mark the end of the world. Zoey's boy troubles are extremely out of control this time as her past forces her to feel drawn towards Kalona as well as being imprinted with Heath and having Stark has her warrior.

Of course, it isn't going to be easy to kill an immortal fallen angel, even for the 'Nerd Herd'!

What I thought

Again, the events of this book are only set over a couple of days but this is something that I really like about the series. So much is packed into such a short space of time that there is never really any time to get bored with the story. There are a lot of conversations between characters but they are mixed in so well with the action and excitement that I was never annoyed by this. To begin with, I thought that maybe this would overpower the story in places but it only enhances it.

Knowing that Neferet has gone over to the bad side with Kalona, I was hoping for a little more actual action in this book. The war has been coming for a while now but nothing has actually happened yet. I thought that this was going to be the book full of fighting and magical happenings but unfortunately, it wasn't. That doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on though because there is, just not in the way that I wanted. Although I was slightly disappointed with this aspect of the book, I still loved it and how the story is progressing.

Tempted is the first book in the series that is not solely told from Zoey's point of view. When I got to chapter 2 and found that it was going to be told by Stevie Rae, I wasn't sure what to think about this new idea as so many others do this in their books. In the other 5 books I had really liked that it was only told from Zoey's point of view. Rephaim, Heath, Stark and Aphrodite also get their own voice in Tempted but when I reached each characters own chapters, I realise that the story had needed to be written this way in order to really know what was happening. This format made it possible for me to find out what was going on behind the scenes and put all of the little pieces together to figure things out.

Zoey has a lot of doubt in herself this time around. There is very little of the determined and strong Zoey that I have grown to love over the series but I think changing her was justified enough. One of her biggest problems about facing Kalona is the fact that she knows of her past but also what she is right now. Zoey is still only a fledgling, not a full vampyre, even though she is acting as High Priestess. She knows that she isn't strong enough to conquer evil this time around, which is where her doubts come from. Although Zoey has never been full of herself, it was good to see her really realise that she cant do everything, no matter what her friends think she is capable of.

Finally, we get to see a different setting in Tempted as the gang go to Italy to meet with the Vampyre High Council and address the problem of Kalona and Neferet. I did find it a little bit silly when the private jet came into play but that was mainly because I had never really thought about how much money the House of Night really had. I would have liked to have seen a bit more interaction from the council members and to learn a little bit more about them but maybe this will happen in the next book, considering the outcomes of Tempted.

The ending came as a complete shock to me and I don't think that I would have seen it coming in a million years. A word of warning though, DO NOT read the synopsis for book 7 in the series before you have finished this one as there are major spoilers. This is the only book in the series with a real cliff-hanger. Some pretty bad things have happened towards the ends of the other books but they were nothing like this. As I read the last chapter, I gasped and shouted at the book because I just couldn't believe what was happening. Tempted left me speechless and unable to think because the ending was that good. I am so desperate to get my hands on the 7th book but I refuse to buy it until it is out in paperback so it doesn't look out of place.

Overall

Each book in this series gets better than the last which makes me wonder about how utterly fantastic Burned is going to be. I know I'll be buying it as soon as it comes out in paperback! I bet you're all glad that these reviews have ended for a while now right?