 | Title: Betrayal
 Sexual Content:
My Rating:
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
Emma Vaile is the most powerful ghostkeeper in centuries. Which is great when she's battling the wraith-master Neos, but terrible when she's flirting with fellow ghostkeeper (and soul mate) Bennett. When ghostkeepers fall in love, the weaker one loses all power, and that's not something Bennett can handle.
Heartbroken and alone, Emma tries to lose herself in school with fellow ghostkeeper, Natalie. When a new team of ghostkeepers arrive—one a snarky teen boy, the other a British scholar—Emma finds solace in training for the battle against Neos. But as the team grows stronger, they are threatened by an unknown force. One they thought was good.
As chilling and page-turning as Deception, this sequel will grab readers and hold them to the last page. No one is safe from suspicion as Emma closes in on the traitor.
Review
If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? – Emma Vaile! She may be only seventeen, but she’s the most powerful ghostkeeper in generations. She can summon, communicate, and dispell ghosts back to the Beyond. She’s like the Buffy version of a ghostbuster, minus all the punning, though she does have a brooding boyfriend and in BETRAYAL, even gets a Giles-like teacher.
Buffy comparisons aside (always a good thing), BETRAYAL does suffer a bit of the sophomore slump as so much of what was intriguing about DECEPTION involved the mystery of finding out about Emma’s ability and introducing her to the world of the ghostkeepers. In BETRAYAL, a lot of that mystery has already been solved. We know what ghostkeepers are, we know what powers Emma has, we know about the Knell and their involvement in Emma’s life. In place of those mysteries, Emma struggles with her relationship with Bennett (if they touch too much, the stronger will absorb the others powers), a brutal hostility from her classmates who now call her QBK—Quarterback killer after her involvement with Coby’s death, and the ongoing hunt to dispel Neos and prevent him from unleashing anymore wraiths.
Emma and her friends are every bit as sharp and fun as in the previous book, specifically Harry and a new character named Lukas. There were moments of levity that felt out of place given grim circumstances or too closely following a tragedy. I understand that the author was trying to keep the story from being too melancholy, but in those instances, their behavior was a little shallow and not at all in keeping with my impression of the characters overall.
The Paranormal YA genre isn’t overflowing with ghost stories, but the Haunting Emma series stands out as one of the best. A great debut, a solid sequel, and hopefully an equally entertaining conclusion when the third book in the series, SURRENDER, comes out in December of 2011.
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