The Rising (Darkness Rising #3)

The Rising by Kelley Armstrong is the final book in her Darkness Rising trilogy. Maya and her friends grew up on an island off of British Columbia in a small company town. What they did not know was that the company was not creating pharmaceuticals but supernatural creature - and that they are those creatures.

Maya, a skin-walker who is able to shift into a cougar, and her friends are on the run from both the company that created them and the new company they have been sold to. They have already been through a lot just to escape the island to Vancouver. Now they are down to one option - the phone number of someone who is supposed to be a friend - but it could just as easily be a trap.

Armstrong has created a fast-paced, suspenseful series featuring teens with supernatural abilities. Her characters are dynamic and compelling and the plot moves at lightning speed. This is a great series for fans of fantasy who are sick of vampire books!

Armstrong, Kelley. (2013). The Rising. New York: Harper.

The Calling (Darkness Rising #2)

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong is the second book in her Darkness Rising series.

Maya and her friends live in the town of Salmon Creek on Vancouver Island. The town is owned and operated by the St.Cloud corporation, a company that does pharmaceutical research. But it is beginning to look like they do more than that - Maya a some of her friend have started to notice strange thing happening to them. Could it be that they part of a St. Cloud experiment?

Maya has always been good with animals. She helps her father, the forest ranger, heal injured animals and they seem to heal more quickly with her attention. And she has always had a connection to cougars - possible part of her Native American heritage. Now, Maya and her friends are getting closer to guessing what it going on, thanks to a reporter who came to town, a forest fire breaks out and they must be evacuated.

This second book begins with Maya, Daniel, Sam, Hayley, Nicole, Corey and Maya's dog Kenjii in a helicopter leaving the island. When it seems like they are flying in the wrong direction to get to the mainland, there is a struggle with the pilot and the helicopter crashes. Now Maya and friends must find their way back to Salmon Creek - but they are being tracked by the men who started the fire, who are determined to capture them.

Using her skills in the forest and the growing suspicion that she is a skin-walker who can turn into a cougar, Maya must lead her friend through peril to the hopeful safety of their parents. Of course there is the possibility that some of their volunteered for the experiment...

Armstrong's Darkness Rising series is a fast-paced, supernatural read that will keep readers checking stores for the next book as soon as they finish this one.

Armstrong, Kelley. (2012). The Calling. New York: Harper.

The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1)

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong is the first book in her Darkness Rising series.

Maya lives on Vancouver Island with her parents. Her father is a park ranger and her mother works for the medical research company that owns the town. Maya was adopted so she does not know of her heritage but she is obviously Native American.

For her sixteenth birthday she is trying to convince her parents to let her get a tattoo. She has a paw shaped birthmark that is fading and she would like to make it darker. She also has a strong relationship to the animals she helps heal and a former patient who is now practically a pet - a cougar named Fitz.

Lately things have been getting strange. Cougars are approaching her out of the forest; an old woman sees her birthmark and calls Maya a witch; and the hot new student seems to be interested in her.

Armstrong has begun an exciting new fantasy series. Maya is a great character and the changes in her life will make for an interesting plot. Readers who love fantasy but cannot read another vampire story will do well to switch to Armstrong's Darkness Rising series.

Armstrong, Kelley. (2011). The Gathering. New York: Harper Teen.