Sever by Lauren Destefano

This book starts right were the other one ended, Rhine in the hospital and just saw a news broadcast with her brother in Rhode Island. Now that Rhine has an idea of where her brother is, she is rearing to go on another adventure to find him. But, she is in no shape to go trekking up the east coast in search for her brother. So, Linden takes her up to his Uncle Reed house for her to recover away from his father while she makes up a plan to save her brother.

Lauren DeStefano has a way with words, making them so real, raw, harsh, brutal and sharp edged. The entire story is raw and painful that at points it is hard to read because of all the pain brought upon the characters. You grieve for the characters, even the bad guy Vaughn. The whole story is dark and haunting but in the end it does brighten up in the last couple of paragraphs.

I love series that have subtle pieces at the beginning of the series and they slowly come together as the series progress and pieces that didn't make sense in the first book or the second book click together nicely in the final book. ***Might be a spoiler**** But little things like why Madame looked so familiar to Rhine, or how what the seer told Rhine in book two starts to come together in the third book. The puzzle piece fit together nicely and I like how it all comes together in the end.

The characters get much more fleshed out in this book. You really get to see Rhine grow, Cecily grow and even Linden grow. There is a new character Reed that is great and you learn a lot about him as well. You learn more about the older characters like Vaughn and other characters along the way. They are no longer cardboard cutouts but they now feel real life and all the tragedy that comes to them is hard to read, because you are rooting for these characters, they are now your friends and you don't won't what happens, happen to them.

I believe this one was probably the best book of the series. The middle one dragged but if you were able to get through it you are rewarded with this one that has so much emotion and hardship.

The Diviners by Libba Bray

When I started this book, for some reason I thought it was a stand alone book. I have no clue why, maybe because they last couple books from Libba Bray were. So, as this book was ending and things were not tying up, I started to realize...oh there are going to be more books in this series. Which I couldn't be more pleased, I love the characters in this book.

The book is based on the 1920s, and really makes you feel like you are there in the 1920s along with the characters. The dialogue is spot on, and even made me want to talk like the characters. There is tons of historical references in this books that I found myself wanting to know more about the history that she was quoting and I would end up going onto google and researching abit myself because the book really peaked my interest.

The book mostly centers around Evie. Evie is very eccentric and sometimes speaks before she thinks. She is sent to live with her uncle after using her powers as a palor trick that went wrong. Evie has the ability to find out thing about you just by touching something you own. And she isn't the only one in this book that have powers. Some of the characters you really get a feel for what they can do, and others it just hints at.

The book also centers around a killing spree in New York. Someone is going around killing people based off of the reference from a religious book. Evie and her uncle Will, the curator of the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, are on the task of trying to find out who the killer is and stop them. Joining them is Jericho and Sam Lloyd the pick pocket-er.

This book has it all, comedy, bit of romance, bit of gruesomeness, mystery, magic, and a lot more. I can't wait to read more, even though it is a large book there is still so much more to learn about the characters!