Review: Night Forbidden

Reviewed by Jen
 

It's been 50 years since a near-Apocalypse changed the world forever.  Power hungry men and the rulers of Atlantis orchestrated the Change, each for their own ends.  Now a small band of survivors, the Resistance, is trying to rebuild and stop their ongoing schemes.

Fence is part of the Resistance.  But he is different than most because he actually lived in the time before the change and was in some kind of stasis, not aging for half a century.  He lost everyone he ever loved, but he is readjusting to his new life in his new surroundings.

Ana is a descendant of Atlantis. She wants nothing to do with her mother's people, for she knows the brutality they are capable of.  Their one gift to her was in implanting the crystals into her body that allow her to breathe underwater. It's beneath the surface of the sea she feels whole, unencumbered by the effects of a leg ravaged by injury.  It's ironic that she would come to fall for a man who is utterly terrified of water.

When Fence and Ana meet, there is a fast attraction, but there are roadblocks.  Ana fears getting close to any man, because she doesn't want anyone to see her crystals.  And Fence is the kind of guy who prefers a bit of fun to real romance.  He's a smooth operator, a ladies man, and no one is more surprised than him when he begins falling for Ana.

I liked the love story well enough. A cocky player isn't my favorite kind of hero, but Fence is charming enough.  Ana's story isn't shocking, but as we learn more about her secrets, it peels back more of the layers in the world-building surrounding the Change.

I have to say that the series has a very different feel than it did in the early books, where the zombie-like gangas were featured so prominently. In this book, the zombies barely exist and it's all about the Atlantians as the nemesis in the story.  It's less about a constant physical threat and more about the machinations of these powerful beings.  I miss the zombies. They were cool.  Everything is growing more and more complicated and I wish I would have reread the earlier books before I started reading this one. Most of it came back to me, but it took a little time.  I wonder how easy it would be for a new reader to follow at this point.

Though the lion's share of the story follows Fence and Ana, we do see some familiar faces, like Quent, Zoe and Elliott.  And we get some very, very short scenes with Wyatt and Remy.  I guess we're being set up for a love story between these two, which bums me out. I was really hoping for a redemption story for Ian with Remy... and frankly, I'm not ready for Wyatt to get over his wife and kids, but I am getting ahead of myself.

I liked it. I appreciated having a physically imperfect heroine.  There's some pretty good banter and a couple of love scenes to heat things up.  But I wish we could have had more time for a relationship to develop between these two before they starting throwing around the L-word.  It was only a week! Come on!!

I'm hoping the next installment goes back a little more to the gritty side I know this series has to offer. More zombies and bounty hunters, less crystals and swimming with the dolphins.

Rating: B- 

*ARC Provided by Avon

Click to purchase: Amazon

Night Forbidden

by Joss Ware (Colleen Gleason)

Release Date: July 31, 2012

Publisher: Avon