Title: Dark Goddess Author: Sarwat Chadda Series: Billi SanGreal #2 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Paranormal YA Excerpt: Yes Source: Publisher Reviewed by:Abigail Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (January 25, 2011) ISBN-10: 1423127595 ISBN-13: 978-1423127598   Sexual Content: Kissing My Rating: Okay – Somewhat disappointing with significant flaws. Library/swap/borrow if you want.

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Description

New enemies, new romance, and new horrors,
Billi's back, and it seems like the Unholy just can't take a hint.

Still reeling from the death of her best friend, Kay, Billi's thrust back into action when the Templars are called to investigate werewolf activity.  And these werewolves are like nothing Bilil's seen before.
They call themselves the Polenitsy - Man Killers. The ancient warrior women of Eastern Europe, supposedly wiped out centuries ago. But now they're out of hiding and on the hunt for a Spring Child -- an Oracle powerful enough to blow the volcano at Yellowstone -- precipitating a Fimbulwinter that will wipe out humankind for good.

The Templars follow the stolen Spring Child to Russia, and the only people there who can help are the Bogatyrs, a group of knights who may have gone to the dark side. To reclaim the Spring Child and save the world, Billi needs to earn the trust of Ivan Romanov, an arrogant young Bogatyr whose suspicious of people in general, and of Billi in particular.

Dark Goddess is a page-turning, action-packed sequel that spans continents, from England to the Russian underworld and back. This is an adventure of folklore and myth become darkly real. Of the world running out of time. And of Billi SanGreal, the only one who can save it.

Review

I was hoping, really hoping, that Billi and I would get along better in DARK GODDESS than we did in DEVIL’S KISS, but after the first chapter, I realized if anything, she was worse.

The opening scene involves Billi and another Templar fighting werewolves.  A little girl, Vasilisa, barely escapes after witnessing both her parents brutally attacked and (mostly) eaten right in front of her.  The next chapter picks up with Billi complaining about having to share a room with the traumatized little girl who cries and is afraid of being left alone and wondering if Vasilisa was even worth saving as she prys the little girl’s hand off her and slams a door in her face.  Seriously, Billi has firmly established herself in my mind as one of the most selfish characters I have ever read.

The romance was once again trite and overly dramatic, this time with a princely warrior descendent of the famous Romanov family.  I never once bought into it.  The villain in DARK GODDESS was more interesting and involved a werewolf pack who worshipped the witch/goddess Baba Yaga, and the writing itself was still good. I didn’t bring this up in the previous review, but there are a number of religious statements about both Christianity and Islam (Billi is somehow both) that manage to be offensive on both sides.

Overall, I appear to be in the minority here with the Billi SanGreal series, so you might want to check out some of the other reviews linked below, but Knights Templar mythology and good writing aside, this series isn’t for me. 

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
Devil’s Kiss	Wondrous Reads ALPHA reader The Book Smugglers

Title: Devil’s Kiss Author: Sarwat Chadda Series: Billi SanGreal #1 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Paranormal YA Excerpt: Yes Source: Publisher   Reviewed by: Abigail Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (September 1, 2009) ISBN-10: 1423119991 ISBN-13: 978-1423119999 Sexual Content: Kissing.  References to teen pregnancy   My Rating: Okay – Somewhat disappointing with significant flaws. Library/swap/borrow if you want.

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Description

As the youngest and only female member of the Knights Templar,Bilquis SanGreal grew up knowing she wasn't normal. Instead of hanging out at the mall or going on dates, she spends her time training as a soldier in her order's ancient battle against the Unholy.

 

Billi's cloistered life is blasted apart when her childhood friend, Kay, returns from Jerusalem, gorgeous and with a dangerous chip on his shoulder.He's ready to reclaim his place in Billi's life, but she's met someone new: amber-eyed Michael, who seems to understand her like no one else, effortlessly claiming a stake in her heart.But the Templars are called to duty before Billi can enjoy the pleasant new twist to her life.

 

One of the order's ancient enemies has resurfaced,searching for a treasure that the Templars have protected for hundreds of years -- a cursed mirror powerful enough to kill all of London's firstborn. To save her city from catastrophe, Billi will have to put her heart aside and make sacrifices greater than any of the Templars could have imagined

 

Review

This book is not at all what I expected.  The cover is the first thing that threw me.  It’s beautiful, but I assumed that DEVIL’S KISS was a historical YA.  It’s not.  Why they have Billi dressed like that I have no idea.  This is a Paranormal YA set in modern day England.

 

After hearing about the premise for this book, which involves the only female member of the dwindling Knights Templar and their never ending war against the Unholy (vampires, ghosts, fallen angels etc.), I expected DEVIL’S KISS to be a slam dunk favorite.  I love it when an author draws from relatively untapped sources for their worlds and gives us a fresh mythology to play with.  And it was apparent from the first page that the writing was excellent.  Unfortunately, those were the only two things that worked for me in this book.

 

My overall disappointment with DEVIL’S KISS is largely due to the main character.  Billi is just not sympathetic, and given her life, she should be.  Her mother was murdered, her father is at best indifferent to her, she has no choice in the life she must live, and she can never indulge in normal teenage frivolity.  But apart from the opening scene where she is undergoing her final Ordeal to become a Templar, I didn’t ever sympathize with her.  She’s too hard, jaded and sulky for most of the book.

 

Then there’s the story itself.  The description implies a heavy romantic subplot that barely registers in the book.  The character of Michael doesn’t show up until the second half, and the romantic tension between Billi and Kay is about as compelling as a phone book.  I did like the semi surprise twist at the end, and I always appreciate it when an author makes hard choices for their characters, but this was just not the story I wanted it to be.

 

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
N/A	Reading Teen: Book Review TinasBookReviews The Bibliophilic Book Blog

Our guest blogger today is Sarwat Chadda, the author of DEVIL'S KISS and DARK GODDESS, “two novels about the only girl squire in the Knight's Templar. If you like your romance tragic and bloody, and your fairy tales dark and filled with howling wolves, you've come to the right place.” My reviews for both books will be up next week.  Thanks to Disney Hyperion, we’re giving away a set of both DEVIL’S KISS & DARK GODDESS.  See details below. 

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Spooky Cities
by
Sarwat Chadda

I love cities. London. New York. Barcelona. Varanasi. I could go on and on. I have never been to a city I didn’t like. Countryside, for me, is the bit in between you sleep through while you’re on the train.  So, yeah, I have to write urban fantasy.

Devil’s Kiss is set in London, my home city. It’s ancient and modern, spacious with hundreds of parks yet fed through with veins of alleyways and hidden courtyards. It’s been the scene of massacres, of plagues, of coronations and assassinations. It’s been home to royalty, scientists and serial killers.  What’s not to love?

You trend on any street and you’re walking on over two thousand year of history. So ghosts linger and Londoners think nothing of it. It’s the sort of city where people disappear, fall between the cracks, and no-one would ever notice or even care.  It’s beautiful and brutal. Just like Billi’s world.

Billi SanGreal’s a Knight Templar. She’s the first girl ever to enter the order and not all the Templars are particularly happy about it. The Templars have been in London since the 12th Century. The Temple Church still stands in the heart of the city, like it always has. The Templars still control it, like they always have.

Billi’s a reflection of the city. She’s grown up in it and it’s part of her as much as her skin and blood.  She’s a modern 21st Century girl but one who’s been steeped in medieval lore. She can read the ancient Latin inscriptions on the church walls while she tweets her mates from school. She takes the underground to fight the Unholy horrors that crawl out of the forgotten plague pits and necropolis that surround the city.

To me, it’s a given my stories would be set in real places. The fantasy’s stronger the more reality you put into it. By making my nightmares and heroes walk the same streets I walk make the transition from this world into the other so much easier. I’ve seen the alleyways that Jack the Ripper worked. I’ve stood in the place of the Tyburn tree where they once hung children. Wandered lanes where the plague carts rolled and where innocent queens died under the axe.

If Devil’s Kiss is about London, then Dark Goddess is about Moscow. After the first book, I needed to take Billi out of her comfort zone. London’s her home. No matter the danger she’s got family, allies and safe havens here.  Moscow’s different. The scale of it is mindboggling. It’s immense. The underground stations are works of art with crystal chandeliers, bronze statues and gold mosaics. Red Square has a cathedral at one end, the Kremlin at the other, and a huge department store. Religion, war and commerce. Moscow’s almost as old as London but if anything, it’s history is even more bloody and that’s saying something. It’s a city of priests, tsars and gangsters. The churches have golden roofs paid for with blood money.  I do hope you’ll take the time to explore Billi’s world. You won’t forget it.

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Writer of Young Adult fiction and general house-spouse. I did some engineering in an earlier life and worked on the Channel Tunnel. That may be why I always take the ferry. My first book, DEVIL'S KISS, is out in the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany and Japan. The sequel, Dark Goddess, came out in the UK in July, and January in the US.

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Visit Sarwat Chadda online:
Website | Blog | Twitter

Giveaway

One winner will receive the first two books in the Billi SanGreal series: DEVIL’S KISS & DARK GODDESS by Sarwat Chadda

DEVIL’S KISS

Billi SanGreal is the first girl in the Knights Templar, and the most kick ass weapon-wielding heroine around. At fifteen, her life is a rigorous and brutal round of weapons practice, demon killing and occult lore – and a whole lot of bruises. But then, she didn’t have much choice. Her father, the Templar Master, forced her to take this path. There is no sacrifice Arthur will not make in his war against the Unholy. But Billi hates the Order, and she hates him too. Tempted by a chance to live a different kind of life and reject everything her father wants her to be, she learns to her horror that she may unwittingly have brought down the Tenth Plague upon humanity – the death of all first born. Faced with choosing her destiny, she must make sacrifices greater than she could have imagined.

DARK GODDESS

THE DARK GODDESS will take Billi to Russia to rescue Vasilisa, a young girl Billi’s promised to protect. To save her, Billi must defeat the werewolves that serve the witch Baba Yaga – and the Dark Goddess herself.  Baba Yaga is sickened by the destruction and corruption humanity has spread across the natural world. She recognises mankind has become a plague upon the Earth, and her duty is clear: to cleanse the planet and rid it of the pestilence of Man. Billi is sent to stop her, but does she have the right?
Betrayed and alone, Billi faces a final mighty battle in the abandoned ruins of Chernobyl.

GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES

1. Open to US and CA
2. Leave a comment or question for Sarwat
3. Entries must be received by Midnight MST on Saturday Feb 12th

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