Review: Night World Vol 2 - Dark Angel, The Chosen, Soulmate - LJ Smith

Night World, No. 2 by L.J. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favourite series to re-read over and over and over.

Dark Angel - this is actually my least favourite Night World book because the plot is rather superficial. All Gillian wants is to be popular and it takes her dressing sexy for the hot guy who's her soulmate to notice her. Which was annoying, but in a way Gillian is a very easy character to sympathise with and understand where she's coming from. This book also introduces the concept of lost witches into the Night World mythology, which was a plus, and at least throughout the book Gillian does grow up a lot. It had a sweet, if a little bittersweet ending.

The Chosen - its Buffy and Angel Night World style!! Rashel the vampire hunter finds herself entangled with a dangerous vampire Quinn and a plot to steal human girls for a sinister purpose. Rashel was one of the first strong female vampire hunter characters I came across (I remember reading this the first time while Buffy was still airing and liking Rashel more because didn't have anywhere near the distractions Buffy did). While Quinn was much darker in a way than Angel was, I liked the character (but shameless Angel fan girl, with the similarities its hard not to make comparisons). But when Rashel and Quinn finally come together they both grow as people and realise they have some hard facts to deal with but now they have each other to get them through.

Soulmate - this book introduces the concept of Old Souls. Hannah has had many life times, torn from her soulmate by the first vampire. One of the other reasons I loved this one is because we get to see a lot of Night World backstory, how the first vampire came to be, how the first made vampire came about. And the epic love over life time after life time when said made vampire comes to find again his human soulmate - only to have her die before they can really be together. They need to find a way to finally break the cycle and stay together. Plus, a few little cameos from some of the soulmate couples from the earlier books.