Resurrection Chronicles by M.J. Haag & Becca Vincenza

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Title: Demon Ember
Author: M.J. Haag, Becca Vincenza
Series: Resurrection Chronicles #1
Published by: Tantor Audio
Release Date: November 14, 2017
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Dara Rosenberg
Length: 5 hours and 49 minutes
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Paranormal, Horror
Source: Audible Escape Package
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Dystopia Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

Mya’s world is falling apart. After a series of earthquakes, deadly animals with glowing red eyes begin attacking people and start the spread of a zombie-like plague. Safety is just a memory as she tries to make her way home. When a different creature attacks the people helping her reach Oklahoma City, Mya is sure she’ll never see the light of another day.

Despite his eerie yellow eyes and very sharp teeth, the grey-skinned creature is more intelligent and humanlike than he first appears. He’s determined to keep Mya by his side and protect her from the new world’s dangers. When his path starts taking her further away from home, she must choose between safety and her family.

**Recommended for adult readers ***Part 1 of 3

My Review:

3.5 stars — A weird blend of kind of hokey and hard to suspend my disbelief, mixed with compelling and engaging.

There were times where the pacing fell a little bit, and the book got wrapped up in repetitiveness.  The thing is that some of that repetitiveness was about Mya pining for her family and being afraid of Drav and what he was going to do.  I had these weird mixed feelings, b/c on the one hand I’m all “I know!  We get it!”, but on the other hand, I appreciated that she didn’t just fall all over herself for Drav, b/c it felt more realistic.  And I truly felt how much she longed to get to her family.

Mya could be a bit naive in her trusting of humans…again, I had a hard time with this, b/c why wouldn’t she trust humans over demons?  But at the same time, we all know bad people exist, so why wouldn’t you be more cautious?  And Drav proved over and over that he was interested in protecting her, so why did it take her so long to realize this?  Ugh.  So hard, b/c it’s probably more realistic.  But my fictional loving mind is like “he’s good!  Give him a chance!”

I appreciated that things weren’t all black and white with Drav and his people.  I’m super intrigued by who they are, and they are menacing…but mostly in their non-humanness.  They’re curious about Mya, which makes sense, and they don’t realize what they do is not kosher by human standards.

And while I felt like the whole language learning thing was ENTIRELY unbelievable, it did help the plot, and I loved watching Drav learn.  I loved that it remained pretty consistent too, like he couldn’t answer some of her questions b/c he didn’t know the words b/c she hadn’t said them yet.  Nice touch.

I think I liked Drav more than Mya.  I really felt for him at the end when we finally started to understand his motivations a bit more.

The narrator was not bad.  She didn’t really sound like how I would have pictured Mya, but that’s all my own personal tastes, and nothing to do with her.  She had great pacing, showed good range of emotions (from fear to frustration), and I actually really loved her Drav voice.

Title: Demon Flames
Author: M.J. Haag, Becca Vincenza
Series: Resurrection Chronicles #2
Published by: Tantor Audio
Release Date: December 14, 2017
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Dara Rosenberg
Length: 6 hours and 16 minutes
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Paranormal Romance
Source: Audible Escape Package
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Dystopia Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

As hellhounds continue to roam and the zombie plague spreads, Drav leads Mya to the source of her troubles—Ernisi, an underground Atlantis and Drav’s home. There Mya learns that the shadowy demons, who’ve helped devastate her world, are not what they seem.

Trapped in Ernisi, Mya tries to convince Drav to return her to the surface so she can continue her search for her family. However, he’s determined to keep her where he knows she’ll be safe. When Mya falls ill, Drav must choose between her and his people.

**Recommended for adult readers ***Part 2 of 3

My Review:

3.5 stars — While I still had a bit of a mixed reaction to this one, I really can’t deny how compelled I am to devour more and more…

I will say that Ms. Rosenberg’s voice grew on me.  It’s amazing sometimes how you can adjust and your opinions can change.  Part of that is I still absolutely adore her voice for Drav.

Just like in book 1, I felt like the plot was drawn out, and the pacing wasn’t as great.  Our MC’s spent like 1/2 the book running in caves, repeat ad nauseum.  I get that they’re trying to show how vast the cave systems are, but it got a bit tiring.

I think I liked Mya even less in this one.  She was kind of super bitchy a bunch of times.  I was actually embarrassed by her entitled attitude and her complete lack of even trying to understand/empathize with Drav’s people.  Her empathy would come at the very last minute, when everything was explained.  I actually experienced second hand embarrassment from some of the things she did and ways she reacted.  She had quite a few over the top moments.

But in contrast, I loved the development of the relationship between Mya and Drav.  I truly believed the development of feelings.  I felt so much for Drav, who is drawn to her, and doesn’t understand his feelings, and doesn’t know what to do with them.  I appreciated the times where he just didn’t know what he was doing wrong because he doesn’t understand human sensibilities.  The chemistry between them was off the charts.  I don’t even mind that Drav may not be attracted to her personality as much as the idea of a companion and his attachment to her.  She has her good points, but she’s a bit of a bully sometimes.  But it works for them because it’s not a normal human relationship.  If this was a contemp, I would be super annoyed about what Drav is in love with, and his possessiveness.

All in all, I’m super curious how things are going to progress from here, so of course I started the next book after midnight.  *rolls eyes*

Title: Demon Ash
Author: M.J. Haag, Becca Vincenza
Series: Resurrection Chronicles #3
Published by: Tantor Audio
Release Date: February 13, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Dara Rosenberg
Length: 6 hours and 42 minutes
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Paranormal Romance
Source: Audible Escape Package
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Dystopia Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

The world is nothing like Mya remembers. While in Ernisi, cites have been bombed and burned in an attempt to stop the hellhounds and the plague. The survivors are doing everything they can to win back their world from the hell that was unleashed with the first quake.

With Drav's help, Mya reunites with her family, but they are far from safe. Marauders, hellhounds, and the infected are doing their best to destroy what's left of the world, and it's up to Mya and Drav to save it.

My Review:

4 stars — In general I loved the way Mya and Drav’s story resolved.  There were definitely moments where I wanted to slap Mya…okay, a lot of moments (*cough* Ryan supply run *cough*).  But I loved seeing the Dark Fae learn about human customs and adapt to our world.  They were so earnest, you couldn’t help but love them, even as they made me LAUGH AND LAUGH with their obsessive focus.  Some of those conversations just killed me, I can’t even.

I actually really appreciated the way a bunch of little threads were brought back in, including the exiles.  I didn’t expect that, but I really loved what these authors did with that.

Again, as with the previous books, the love story is probably something I shouldn’t have fallen for, but I totally did.  It’s not a normal relationship, especially since it had a bit of stockholm quality to the beginning, but I just really loved the way they desperately loved and cared for one another.  It was addicting.  And sometimes it’s kind of nice to let go of realism and just accept what you’re given.

I also really fell in love with quite a few of the other Fae, and am actually really excited that there are spin off books for each one I loved the most (Ghua, Kerr, and Shax).  I can definitely see wanting to read their books, though a part of me wants to wait to see if they get made into audiobooks b/c Ms. Rosenberg really did grow on me as a narrator.  Decisions decisions.

So yeah.  I will admit that there were parts that felt kinda hokey, but in the end I was sucked right into the world and compelled to keep reading.  That’s success right there.

COYER Summer Hunt: Read a complete trilogy — 5 points.