Burned (House of Night Series #7)

P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast

Published 2010

323 Pages

Rating: B+

(The summary contains spoilers of books 1-6)

When friends stop trusting each other, Darkness is there to fan the flames….

Things have turned black at the House of Night. Zoey Redbird’s soul has shattered. With everything she’s ever stood for falling apart, and a broken heart making her want to stay in the Otherworld forever, Zoey’s fading fast. It’s seeming more and more doubtful that she will be able pull herself back together in time to rejoin her friends and set the world to rights. As the only living person who can reach her, Stark must find a way to get to her. But how? He will have to die to do so, the Vampyre High Council stipulates. And then Zoey will give up for sure. There are only 7 days left…

Enter BFF Stevie Rae. She wants to help Z but she has massive problems of her own. The rogue Red Fledglings are acting up, and this time not even Stevie Rae can protect them from the consequences. Her kinda boyfriend, Dallas, is sweet but too nosy for his own good. The truth is, Stevie Rae’s hiding a secret that might be the key to getting Zoey home but also threatens to explode her whole world.

In the middle of the whole mess is Aphrodite: ex-Fledgling, trust-fund baby, total hag from Hell (and proud of it). She’s always been blessed (if you could call it that) with visions that can reveal the future, but now it seems Nyx has decided to speak through her with the goddess’s own voice, whether she wants it or not. Aphrodite’s loyalty can swing a lot of different ways, but right now Zoey’s fate hangs in the balance.

Three girls… playing with fire… if they don’t watch out, everyone will get Burned.

(END of spoilers)

I'm so happy to say that even though Tempted didn't impress me, Burned did. I definitely felt an improvement, not only with the story itself but also with the slang. There wasn't as much of "I heart you" and "bullpoopie" kinds of phrases. There was still a lot of planning instead of doing in this book, if you know what I mean. The whole book was basically just talking about plans and right at the last 50 pages or so, something finally happened.

The connection between Stevie Rae and Rephaim is what really kept me reading. I can't wait to see it progress more and more through out the series. I'm definitely feeling a little beauty and the beast story going on here.

Something that I noticed that kind of bugs me is there are a lot of similarities between True Blood and House of Night. I'm wondering if the Cast's consciously got the ideas from the show or if they got them without even realizing they might be accidentally ripping the show off. The white bull, the horns, visiting the queen for help, and some other things I can't really remember right now.

Did any of you guys notice the similarities too? I'd love to know what you thought.

-Briana

P.S. It's my birthday! :)