{Review} Common Descent by Natasha Larry

ISBN #: 978-1935563945

Publisher: Penumbra Publishing

Book Summary:

(As provided by the author)

Eighteen-year old Jaycie Lerner's telekinesis is finally in check - too bad levitating a picnic table is now a workout. Not to mention her previously dormant telepathy is back and raging out of control. As she struggles to relearn her frightening power, the Dey-Vah announce they will soon unleash the supernatural world on the human race. To make matters worse, people start dropping dead all over northern Alabama. Then, a mysterious new enemy emerges.

Jaycie must elicit the help of the world's only master vampire slayer and an assassin who gets her tips from the voices in her head. Strengthening the Core is the only way to protect mankind from the coming vampire army, and they aren't even the most dangerous threat.

Jaycie and her family face their darkest hour when an innocent young girl serves as a pawn to form a deadly Alliance. The perfect vampire, Lilith Bradshaw, becomes an eye-opening example of how far the Alliance will go to serve their own destructive ends. The world around Jaycie steeps into darkness, and betrayals from the past threaten to undo them all.

Mandy's Review:

Every now and then we all come across a book in a series that we don't like as much as the rest ... right? Unfortunately, this happened to me with Common Descent.

Jaycie now has access to all of her powers and she has to train to get them under control. She's afraid of using them at all because she doesn't want to experience another surge. That much power in a teenage body can be way too much to handle. Fortunately, she has people around her that can bring her down in case she overdoes it. Matt plans one event to force Jaycie to use her full powers yet have control over them ... an event for which he will have to deal with the repercussions.

Speaking of Matt ... he seems a little diva-esque in this book. Because of the aforementioned event, Jaycie gets pissed at him and "handles" him. When she calms down and is ready to apologize, Matt decides he doesn't want to answer her phone calls for awhile. He intentionally made Jaycie mad and then he's going to play the diva and not accept her calls. Reading his personality in this book made me feel as if he was manipulating Jaycie by ignoring her at times and making her come to him when he's good and ready for her to. I've loved Matt as a character in the first two books, but he just annoyed me in Common Descent.

I was happy to finally see two people "come together" (*nudge nudge, wink wink*) in this book. The sexual tension between the two has been palpable for the whole series. This couple has actually become my favorite couple of the series over Jaycie and Matt. No, I'm not going to tell you who they are because that will spoil some of the story for you.

Overall I feel as if the book mainly focused on the Core and their relationships with each other. The fight scenes were intermingled with the rest of the story, which were probably intended to grow a sense of anticipation within the reader for the showdown that was going to happen. Unfortunately, the showdown was not climatic for me. It could have been a result of my mood while reading or because I thought the showdown was depicted too briefly. Whatever the reason, I did like this book but I didn't love it. You have the opportunity to prove me wrong, however. What do you think about the book?


*An ecopy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.