Early Review: Recreated by Colleen Houck

Recreated by Colleen Houck

Reawakened #2

Lily Young thought traveling across the globe with a reawakened sun prince was a grand adventure. Now she’s about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.

When Amon and Lily part tragically, he transports himself to the Netherworld—what mortals call hell. Tormented by the loss of his one true love, he’d rather suffer in agony during Lily’s mortal years than fulfill his duty to protect humanity.

Heartbroken, Lily seeks refuge on her grandmother’s farm. Yet she can feel Amon’s pain, and she has been having dreams—dreams of Amon continually suffering.

For before he departed, Amon gave Lily something very special, an item that connects them even though they are worlds apart. Now Lily must use this object to free him, and to free their realms from darkness and utter chaos. She will do whatever it takes.

I'm such a sucker for Egyptian lore stories, so this series is seriously my jam. While RECREATED didn't sweep me away quite as much as Reawakened did, it was a very enjoyable read. There's just something magical about the style of writing and it's so easy to get sucked right into the story. The characters are phenomenal and all incredibly three-dimensional. The world behind the story was expanded even further than in the first book, and each new element be they the location, mythology, or a character were fully fleshed out as well. It truly is impressive just how well Colleen incorporates each and every element to make them all seem so realistic and full of depth.

Despite all the new elements, characters, and depth to the world, so much of the book is spent with Lily fully at the helm/focus. While Lily is a great character, I have to admit I missed the brothers a great deal, and even when they came back into focus, they really only served to confuse things. In the first book, the romance is all sweeping and consuming and I loved every bit of it. But this time around due to circumstances I won't reveal to keep from spoiling, that romance gets questioned due to other influences. To make matters worse there's hints of a love triangle that left me scratching my head. Granted there's possibly a logical reason behind it, but I still felt it lessened the epic love between Lily and Amun that sucked me in so much in the first book.

Love triangle/romance issues aside, I thoroughly enjoyed RECREATED and am dying to get my hands on the next book in the series. Hopefully this is longer than a trilogy as only three books in this amazing world will never be enough!

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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Other Reviews:
     Happy Indulgence
     Books & Predjudice

Previous Books:
     1. Reawakened

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Early Review: Reawakened by Colleen Houck

Reawakened by Colleen Houck

The Reawakened #1

When seventeen-year-old Lilliana Young enters the Metropolitan Museum of Art one morning during spring break, the last thing she expects to find is a live Egyptian prince with godlike powers, who has been reawakened after a thousand years of mummification.

And she really can't imagine being chosen to aid him in an epic quest that will lead them across the globe to find his brothers and complete a grand ceremony that will save mankind.

But fate has taken hold of Lily, and she, along with her sun prince, Amon, must travel to the Valley of the Kings, raise his brothers, and stop an evil, shape-shifting god named Seth from taking over the world.

From New York Times bestselling author Colleen Houck comes an epic adventure about two star-crossed teens who must battle mythical forces and ancient curses on a journey with more twists and turns than the Nile itself.

When I realized REAWAKENED involved Egyptian lore, it instantly became an absolute must read. I've always had a fascination with ancient Egypt, and really enjoy books in this theme where the world is done well. In this case it wasn't just done well, but incredibly so. It reminded me so much of the Mummy movies that I really enjoyed, but also always wanted just a bit more from them, and this book delivers that. Of course that's not to say they are anything remotely alike in plot-line, as I'm more talking about the feeling and love of the lore.  REAWAKENED takes that ancient Egypt theme and amps it up tenfold bringing it to everything I could want. It's like Colleen Houck took everything there's to love about the movies, removed everything that wasn't so great and built upon it to make for a spellbinding read. 

As fantastic as the Egyptian lore was, the characters really stole the show overall. At the start of the book, Lily is almost a shell of who she blossoms to be by the end of the book. Her parents have forced perfection and an incredibly stale life upon her from their expectations. Amon's arrival turns everything upside down, and I really enjoyed watching her step outside that forced comfort zone. Speaking of Amon, he had his own comfort zone to step outside as well. I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake after a thousand years, especially into our modern world. Amon utterly fits the fish out of water description, and yet he was still so confident and strong. The pair of them were truly admirable and made this book such an amazing read.  

My only complaint about this book is that it ended and I'm now desperate to get my hands on the next one. Hopefully the wait won't be too long! Absolutely enthralling from the very first page, REAWAKENED is a simply must read book for fans of Egyptian lore. Trust me, this one is not to be missed.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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Other Reviews:
     The Eater of Books
     a GREAT read
     Nick's Book Blog

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