Spark

Spark

by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Sky Chasers, book two

 

After a desperate escape from the enemy ship, Waverly has finally made it back to the Empyrean. The memory of home has been keeping her alive for the past months… but home is nothing like she left it. Forced to leave their captive parents behind on the New Horizon, she’s returned only to find that Kieran has become a strict leader and turned the crew against Seth. What happened to the Kieran she thought she knew? Now Waverly’s not sure whom she can trust. And the one person she wants to believe in is darkly brilliant Seth, the ship’s supposed enemy. Waverly knows that the situation will only get worse until they can rescue their parents – but how?

Before they have time to make a plan, an explosion rocks the Empyrean, and Seth and Waverly are targeted as the prime suspects. Can they find the true culprit before Kieran locks them away… or worse? Will Waverly follow her heart, even if it puts lives at risk? Now more than ever, every step could bring them closer to a new beginning – or a sudden end. (description from Amazon.com)

 

After my sparkling gold star review of Glow, I was beyond excited to listen to Spark. Unfortunately, for me, the magic was just not quite there in this sequel.  

 

Ryan added a point of view by having chapters told from Seth's perspective. Though I absolutely saw the need for this in terms of moving the storyline forward, it was somewhat jarring to have happen at the very beginning of the book and it threw the "flow" off for me.  It also vastly complicated the emotional tenor of the book and thus slowed the building of the story.

 

Though there was action and suspense in this book, it was much slower in the beginning... I was not immediately grabbed like I had been in the first book.  By the time I was nearing the ending, it had started to get the magic back, and I will definitely be reading book three to see how things end, but I'm hoping that the author will capture the magic again!

 

Full disclosure: Audio book received to review for SLJ and AudioFile magazine. Ebook purchased for my Nook.