Review: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Posted 3 May, 2011 by Danny in / 7 Comments

The Gathering
by Kelley Armstrong
Published April 12th 2011 by HarperCollins
copy and audiobook provided by publisher
amazon (Hardcover, Kindle and audiobook)
synopsis from goodreads: 

Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn’t know much about her background – the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip – but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.

Until now.

Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town – from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend’s hidden talent for “feeling” out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya’s biological parents and it’s easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

In The Gathering, New York Times best-selling author Kelley Armstrong brings all the supernatural thrills from her wildly successful Darkest Powers series to Darkness Rising, her scorching hot new trilogy.

This is my first by Kelley Armstrong book. I tried reading her Darkest Powers series but somehow I never got into them. BUT, I will do that now – because after reading and loving The Gathering so much I have to read her other books too,

The setting and scenery is beautiful and perfect! 

The first thing that came to my mind when I started reading was: the setting and the scenery is absolutely perfect! There is this small town in the middle of a wonderful forest and woodland, a town that is just build to support a medical research faculty. The town has just a fee hundred people and of course everyone knows each other. The kids all go to school and the town tried to give the kids the best education available.

One would expect the kids to hate it , but they don’t. The appreciate what they have and they like their life. Also, most of them are friends and I loved how they watched out for each other and truly are a bunch of kids that like hanging out with each other.

Maya, Daniel and … the new boy Rafe…

The Story is told from Maya’s POV who lives with her adoptive parents at the border of town since her Dad is some kind of Ranger for the park. She’s native and loves to be outside and she loves to take care of injured wild animals. Her best friend Daniel and Maya had to deal with loosing their best friend and Daniel’s girlfriend a year ago. Also…there was something weird about this death..

Rafe is the new kid that moves to town with his sister, which is weird to begin with since the town doesn’t like having outsiders. Rafe also is a player, he likes to play with the girls and Maya is just not interested in him. But one night changes this, suddenly she feels this connection with him and their relation changes.. But there is something off with him, and his sister seems pretty weird, also Maya starts to feel different and mysterious things start to happen ….

Wonderful characters and wonderful relationships! 

Loved loved loved the story! I loved Maya, who is just wonderful, mature for her age and girl with her own standarts. But what I loved most were the relationships between the characters, Maya and her best friend Daniel and then there is Maya and her parents. Often in YA stories the parents play a minor role and often the MC doesn’t has a good relation to them. Here, it is different I loved the playful tone between them and the love was obvious.

Bottom Line

This is an exciting entry in a captivating and mysterious new series and I can’t wait where Mrs. Armstrong will take us. I wish I could spend more time in this town of secrets but full of wonderful people who care for each other…

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong
UNABRIDGED
Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda
Lenght: 8 hrs and 8 mins

The voice from Jennifer is easy to hear and nice to the ears. I liked her intonations. However, the voices were not easy to distinguish from each other. But, this doesn’t bother me so much, I like it better than very bad male voices from female narrators. It was a really good narration, easy to follow and a nice voice. 🙂

So, where are the Kelley Armstrong fans here. After reading The Gathering, I’m in love! Now, I’d love to start her Darkest Powers series. I tried a few times but didn’t get behind the first 
pages, it just didn’t grab me. But The Gathering was so awesome, I think 
I have to start it now… 
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7 Responses to “Review: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong”

  1. Suzan Lacey

    Loved your review! I am a major Kelley Armstrong fan and trust me when I say yoou need to perservere with the Darkest Powers series, it seems slow starting but it'll pull you in the futher in you read but be sure to have the other two books close cause they feed one into the other, each book picking up almost immediately from where the last leave off! Her adult series is very good as well! I have read this book as soon as it came out and absolutely loved it, the only downside to it is how long I have to wait for the second book to continue the story!

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