Tempted

PC Cast and Kristin Cast recently published the sixth book in their House of Night series, Tempted. My best friend and I started the series earlier this year and have been enjoying it so far. Without giving plot away, the books follow Zoey who was marked as a vampire fledgling in the beginning of the first book, Marked. Fledglings have some qualities in common with vampires but they are not full vampires until they go through the "change." Fledglings go to the House of Night for school - there are several Houses of Night in the world but Zoey's is in Tulsa, OK.

Plot-wise, not much happens in this installment of the series. I had read on Amazon reviews that a lot of people found this to be a negative, but I disagree. There were a lot of little things that happened and adjustments to changes in the characters and their relationships. I do, however, think that the authors made a mistake in trying to shove a bit of plot in at the very end. It felt a bit rushed and like they put it in there just because they needed to have some action before it ended. And the end was seriously abrupt. I would have been happier if they left the action for the opener in book 7 (which will be called Burned) or if they spent more time describing what happens in this book.

That said, I thought the flow of the narration greatly improved between Hunted and Tempted. There were fewer errors and it was much smoother in general. I had gotten frustrated with Hunted, so I'm really glad to see improvement here. Now, there are still childish terms used, but that's part of Zoey's personality and I don't think it's going anywhere (as much as I would like it to).

The Casts also decided to change the narration a bit for this book. Everything up to this book has been 1st person from Zoey's point of view. This book, they switched it between Zoey's 1st person and 3rd person for other character's points of view. I thought that was an interesting way to share more of the plot and I think it was largely a good idea. Most of the different points of view were integral to the plot, and it was nice to get a view into their thoughts. I also really liked how they changed from 1st to 3rd POV for other characters, as if to point out that Zoey is still the primary character even though they're giving some other characters more depth and air time.

Overall, I enjoyed Tempted. I thought it was one of the better in the series. I was not expecting it after reading all the reviews on Amazon, which were all over the board. It's not a piece of brilliant literature, but it was a fun read during last weekend's rain.