Thanks for visiting my stop on the tour for Retaliation by Imogen Rose.
This is the third book in the Bonfire Chronicles and it’s a thriller read!
I love the supernatural world and there’s plenty of fascinating characters and plots in this series.
Enjoy my review and the exciting excerpt.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
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Retaliation
Bonfire Chronicles
Imogen Rose
Genre: YA/Paranormal/Horror
Publisher: Wild Thorn Publishing
Date of Publication: 03/15/2015
Number of pages: 400 /Word Count: 84000
Cover Artist: Consuelo Parra
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My Review
I don’t usually start a series with the third book and I worried I wouldn’t be able to follow the story and enjoy it. That was not the case with Retaliation.
I quickly became immersed in Cordelia’s story and as I got attached to the characters all I was thinking was, I have to read the other books.
It’s been a year and a half since Code Uprising was deactivated and things are back to normal, as much as they can be in a supernatural world.
Cordelia now works for King Sebastian and her romance with the sexy Fay, Jagger, is going strong. The human world is safe from further attacks by Sebastian’s now missing power hungry daughter, Katerina.
But something new is starting to happen. A Haiku is left at a gruesome scene involving the kings assistant that may be connected to Katerina. A school is attacked in Japan, leaving all humans dead and another occurs in the US with casualties over a thousand.
A cloaked figure supplies GRIP with a formula they suspect is targeted towards humans. Could it be Katrina’s doing? And why would she only be targeting humans?
The council has a policy of not getting involved in human matters but they may have to change that if they are being attacked by a supernatural entity. While the humans are unaware of their existence, that may change.
Imogen has created a complex world with many strong voiced characters. While I joined this series late, I was provided with enough background to easily follow their stories and connect with past ones.
There are terrorists, spies, all kinds of supernatural beings and humans co-mingling to get to the bottom of the attacks and the action steps as the attacks escalate.
This book came across as believable. You could take out the supernatural element and have a hack of a good action thriller, but the added otherworldly characters and world made it much more interesting and unpredictable.
I’m sure the many that have read the first two books in the Bonfire Chronicles will love this next installment and those that haven’t will want to read them after this great follow up.
5 Stars
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Book Description:
Ever since Bloody Fall, humans have lived in fear.
Even though the apparently senseless human massacres have ended, President Elizabeth Ryan’s administration has been under a cloud of disapproval for failing to bring the terrorists to justice.
She braces herself as a new spate of carnage is unleashed.
Cordelia and Faustine are recruited back into action as the supernatural agencies go on high alert. Has their nemesis re-emerged?
Kindle Kobo iBooks Nook Paperback
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Excerpt
I kneeled down for a better look. Whatever it was, it was clearly alive, and it shirked away, obviously frightened out of its wits. Could it be one of those pets humans liked to keep around? I transformed back to my human state so the poor little thing wouldn’t have a heart attack. “Here,” I whispered gently. “I’m not going to hurt you. Come on out.”
“Demon?” a little voice whispered. It was clearly something supernatural.
“Yep, you?”
“Troll.”
Troll? I’d never met a timid one before. “What are you doing here?”
“I sorta live here.”
“Can you come out?”
The troll scurried from behind the vent, crawled out of the fireplace, and stood up beside the couch. It couldn’t have been more than eight inches tall. I’d never seen one so small before. It was clearly female, with a pink bow attached to her unkempt blond Afro. She was rather grubby, I guessed from her journey through the fireplace. She wore little green dungarees bedazzled with pink rhinestones. And she had the most enormous green eyes that seemed to glow. “What’s your name?”
“I don’t have one.” Now that she wasn’t whispering, her voice sounded like a bee trying to speak human. “None of the underground trolls do,” she continued. “I guess we’re not important enough.” She lowered her eyelash-devoid eyelids, her lips trembling.
I touched her hand gently with my finger. “What would you like to be called, if you could choose your own name?”
“Anything?”
“Yes, anything at all.”
“Humm. That’s hard. It’s hard to commit to a name. What’s yours?”
“Cordelia.”
“Huh? That’s kind of old-fashioned. Where did that come from?”
Old-fashioned? That troll cheekiness didn’t take long to surface. “Cordelia is a family name; I’m named after my grandmamma. I like it, and wouldn’t want to be called anything else.”
“None of my family have ever had names,” she said, her lower lip trembling again. “Each subterranean troll family has a number, assigned by the Don. Then each family member gets given a letter. I am 4695h.”
“That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Tell you what. Pick a name you want me to call you, and if you don’t like it, you can change it as many times as you want until you find one that’s ‘you.’”
“Humm.” She looked confused. “I can’t think of any nice names. Can you pick one for me?”
“Sure. How about…” I tried to think of a simple one, since she was unfamiliar with names. “Lucy?”
She nodded slowly. “I can… maybe… do that… Lucy.”
“Well, Lucy. What are you doing here?”
“Like I said, I live here. When I don’t live at home, that is. Do you want to see the room I sleep in when the demons are not around? It’s the same one that Dorian uses.”
“Sure, in a moment. Which demons are you talking about?”
“Dorian and his soap buddies mostly. And his son, Luke. I like Luke. He’s kinda hot.”
“When was the last time they were here?”
“Dorian was here a couple of hours ago.” She started fidgeting, lowering her eyelids and shifting from leg to leg.
“Do you know where he went?”
She shook her head. Then she pursed her lips.
“What is it?”
She stared at her feet.
“Lucy?”
She smiled. “I like that.”
“Focus, Lucy. Tell me everything. What’s with the odd expression?”
“Well,” she whispered, her voice so low that I had to bend down to hear her, “something bad happened.”
“Like?”
She raised her hands. “I don’t know.”
“Come on, Lucy! How do you know something bad happened, then?”
She suddenly crawled under the couch like a bug, and just as I was about to grab her tiny ankles and haul her out, she slithered back toward me—dragging something heavy.
I couldn’t get a good look at it. “What is that?”
“It’s Dorian’s arm,” she puffed, as I grabbed it, pulling it out—a bloody, shredded demon limb.
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About the Author:
Globetrotter Imogen Rose was born in Sweden, educated in London (where she received a PhD in immunology), and is now an all-American Jersey girl. She is the author of two bestselling YA series— the Portal Chronicles and the Bonfire Chronicles, both of which have been translated into German, French, Spanish, and Japanese.
In addition to writing, Imogen loves to travel, explore Madison Avenue (she is a self-confessed Hermès addict), watch movies, listen to music, and hang out with her family, friends, and Chihuahua. When she is not writing, she can usually be found sipping a chai latte at an ice rink while watching her daughter slam pucks.
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Georgia Clark is an Australian writer and performer based in Brooklyn. She is the author of the young adult novels SHE’S WITH THE BAND (Allen & Unwin) and sci-fi/romance PARCHED (Holiday House). Widely published online and in print. Won some awards/grants/residencies. Has a play on at the NY Fringe festival. Pretty keen on cheese plates.
