Achieve Loved (House Of Night Other World, #1) Originated By P.C. Cast Provided As EPub

taste have change so much since reading all the House of Night novels, I just have a feeling reading this will make me cringe, but Im doing it anyways for old time sake, I finished the series in my first years of University, back when I hadnt read as much YA, Ive readbooks mostly YA since finishing the HoN series so I doubt it will live up to all the great YA books Ive read.
However I might get nostalgic, We'll see. Let me know in the comments if you want to know my thoughts once I read it and Ill write a review for it.
P/Massive spoilers ahead

Three years after motherdaughter team completed their magnum opusThe House of Night series RedeemedPC returns to the wonderful world of Vampyres and Magic in the newest sequel, and start to a completely new story, Loved.
Join Zoey MarySue Redbird and her “Nerd Herd” once again as they tackle the forces of Darkness, unravel deeper mysteries, and ultimately set the stage for the Other World arc.

What can be said about this particular entry that hasnt already been said about nearly every book in the series already The writing, which had always been subpar at best, trash at worst, somehow takes several steps backwards in terms of quality.
This isnt figurative in the sense that the quality of the story and characters are lacking they are, but the actual writing itself has gone downhill.
Story and character quality aside, the book is absolutely riddled with spelling errors, format errors, and even simply inaccurate statements, In the first third of the book alone, Aphrodites mother, who had previously been relegated to a handful of unimportant scenes, is finally named, but inconsistently switches between “Francis” and “Frances”.
Even prior to this, established Red Vampyre, Kramisha, is mistakenly labeled as a Blue Vampyre in the early chapters of the book.
On this particular error, I reached out to PC, and she informed me that this was a First Edition error and has since been corrected.
Thats all well and good, but the characters within a story are the most important aspects to the story, Without them, why are we even reading this story I would never be so arrogant as to insist on perfection from my favorite authorsindeed, as a writer myself I am prone to making errors.
But I can say with certainty that I, nor any “mainstream” or established author would make such a mistake in characterization, You never read about a brunette Weasley in the Harry Potter universe, an Ender without a tortured soul in the Enders Game books, or an overly feminine, girliegirl Lisbeth Salander in the Millennium books.
I cannot emphasize this point enough, Errors in writing are okay, in moderation, Errors in characterization are not! And as for that other error The Frances/Francis thing PC, you have editors, its their damn job to catch such obvious mistakes.
If a character were misnamed “Stephen Rae” or “Erica Night”, you know the fan backlash would have been extraordinary,
To expand upon the everdiminishing quality of the writing, things such as the unnecessary and obnoxious teenagerisms make their triumphant return.
Pop culture references are back in all their glory never mind the fact that every entry in the series is written to be taking place during the time of the books publication, which creates its own mess of inconsistencies, inadvertently screwing up the timeline of the books and horribly dating it for anyone who may want to read these books even a few years from now.
And my personal favorite read: most hated feature: the parenthetical asides, You cannot go more than a paragraph or two before Zoey, or some other PoV character feels like the need to add shit that no one was asking.
Zoey, who the hell cares what the lettering on your black jacket says Who cares if you love you some whatever/whoever the hell you named drop this particular instance seriously, I cant even be bothered to go back and check, because this happens so, so often in this series Why do we even need this absolutely unnecessary fluff FLUFF! Hell, just writing my own personal asides within this paragraph to both parody and emphasize the issue was incredibly obnoxious for me, now imagine that every few paragraphs, nonstop.

One issue Ive always taken with the characters in the House of Night series is that theyre so over the top in their teenagerness.
How many times did I read someone calling someone else “cray” How often does Zoey MarySue Redbird say, aloud, “OMG” But both of those problems pale in comparison to the sheer vulgarity of these characters.
These kids curse more than the worst case of any innercity school kids you could ever imagine, Dont get me wrong here, Theres nothing wrong with cursing, I curse. You curse, and youre fucking lying if you try to pretend otherwise, But it is nonstop within this storyno, within this series, Even Damien, the everlovable token gay of the group, has such an absurd out of character piece of dialogue that I put the book down and jotted in my notes how ridiculous this line was coming from anyone, let alone the mostlycivil Damien.
Its so out of character and jarring that it pulled me from the story, but, sad to say, thats just the norm for this story.
Readers can and will be pulled out of the story several times,
Another characterization issue that was particularly jarring was Shaylins line in context, shes joining in her friends mockteasing of Erik of “ I shall nevah eat pussy again.
” Look, theres nothing wrong with sexuality in literature, Hell, theres nothing wrong with sexuality period, People can discuss sexuality, and everyone jokes about it, But it needs to make sense in context it needs to come from the correct characters, Shaylin Ruede is not that character, Shaylin was introduced into the House of Night story pretty late in the game, in bookof, Destined, She received very little screen time there, but in the books that followed she was elaborated upon, Interestingly enough, Shaylin was always portrayed as a fairly reserved, if sometimes blunt and outspoken person, She didnt curse in excess, and her frankly shoehorned in lesbian sexuality is only ever lightly touched upon when she begins a relationship with fellow Red, Nicole this entire relationship deserves its own critique for how poorly it is written and implemented.
She went from this relatable, even likeable character within this universe of unlikable characters, to someone crass and vulgar, Like with the Damien example before, its so out of character that it tears the reader from the story, It was this particular scene that had be beginning to believe that theres a very large disconnect between what the authors think their target audience is like, and what their target audience is actually like.
Even in a group situation, even amongst friends, youd be hard pressed to find your average teenage girl casually talking about whether or not shell eat pussy again, even in jest.

Finally, in what is probably the worst offender of character bastardization, is Aprhodite Queen Bitch LaFont, Not much of her established character is really changed that much here, but her more reprehensible qualities are turned up to eleven.
We, the readers, are supposed to understand that shes a young woman who struggles with the fact that her parents were terrible pieces of shit who never really loved her.
I get that. I can wrap my mind around that and even understand it on a personal level, I relate. What I cannot relate to, and Im sure many others cannot as well, is the sheer indifference, and dare I even say cruel indifference she views her mother with.
Yes, there is a line thrown in there about her mother poking the cracks in Aphrodites façade and nearly making her cry, but it feels so inorganic and disingenuous that it comes off as trite.
Moving on, perhaps the greatest offense to her characterization is her ultimate fate near the end of the story, From book two in the series up until the very last, a major arc in Aphrodites character was learning to see past her bigoted, even racist view of humans and accept that she is perhaps the most human of everyone else.
She even gives up her Mark and status as a fledgling/vampire in order to restore the humanity of the feral red fledglings.
She must learn to come to grips with the fact that, while she is still a Prophetess, she is no longer vampirekind, but human.
And she does! For as obnoxious as her character has always been, she learned and grew throughout the story in a very natural, organic, and believable way.
Aphrodite was one of the best written characters in this story, And how does PC pay off that wonderful development By turning Aphrodite into a vampire that is neither Red nor Blue hereby classified as a Purple Vampyre, in order to serve as a “bridge” between the two denominations.
Aphrodite, the most extraordinary human, got her Vampyre status back just because she learned to stop pining over her horrible mother, I cant even express how absurd this is, And, to top it off, we learn that shell lose these newfound Vampyre powers and status over time, as she uses her powers to help others.
But why That was my single greatest lingering question after reading this book, Why
I havent touched upon Zoeys character, as well as a new character introduced or reintroduced in this book, but that will be explained shortly.
Zoey, as always, is a damn near superfluous character, That is all that needs to be said at this juncture,
Loved begins with Zoey dreaming, once again, that she is in Capri by this point, Id be surprised if she dreamed of any other place, watching Someone, Nobody, and Who Cares, play a game of Does it Even Matter Kalona, Redeemed Immortal and Warrior of the Goddess Nyx visits her in her dream to warn Zoey of a disturbance in the force, so to speak, and advises her to read Neferets journal, conveniently hidden beneath her floorboards.
Why Neferet ever dug it up from her original resting place and replaced it within what was originally her bedchambers doesnt even make sense in context.
And, ultimately, what they learn from the journal is of absolutely no importance to the story, Yes, it helps to connect back with the previous arc of this series, and at the end of the book it does give Zoey a bit of characterization that I desperately thought she needed, and expected her to get, at the end of Redeemed.
I can say, insofar as Neferets journal is concerned, Im glad it at least gave that final bit of closure,
Aphrodites mother, Frances, takes center stage as this storys secondary antagonist, Her goal is to become the new mayor after her husbands untimely demise at the hands of Neferet the year before, By becoming so she hopes to oust Tulsa of the Vampyre influence, though, as pointed out by her own daughter, her knowledge on the subject is flawed and lacking.
Interestingly, PC makes a point to inject her own political fears into Frances political platform, Her stance to “Make Tulsa Great Again” should ring familiar to anyone reading this book in the year, perhaps even inor.
Frances is so obviously meant to be the Donald Trump of this universe, and while theres nothing inherently wrong with commentating on the political climate on your platform, the way Frances and her agenda is portrayed is so absurd and in your face that it cant help but feel cringeworthy and obnoxious.
Someone reading this particular part of the story cant help but wonder if PC meant for Frances rabblerousing to be a form of satire or parody.
Sad to say, this simply isnt the case, Frances LaFont is the Donald Trump of the House of Night Universe,
Zoey, Stark, Aphrodite, and Darius next visit Neferets grotto to check things out, as they fear Neferet may be stirring, It turns out she is not, but somehow a nearby flower shops roses have begun to turn black and ominous looking, Of course, Aphrodite has a vision here, and sees a new foe emerge and destroy Tulsaamong their numbers is an undead Jack.
In the vision Aphrodite as who she believes to be Damien is killed by Jack who died during the events of Awakened after breaking a Circle.
Aphrodite warns the group and they return to the House of Night to convene with the rest of their High CouncilStevie Rae, Shaunee, Damien, and co.
A quick aside here: Why Zoey and co, are the leaders of the new High Council of the United States makes absolutely no sense to you or to me, It is ridiculous both in context and out, Just chalk it up to yet another instance of Zoey MarySue Redbird being ridiculously fucking special, PC, try to justify this inuniverse all you want, It will never make even a modicum of sense to readers over the age of sixteen,
Zoey and co. finally reunite and catch up, During this expositional dump we learn that Rephaim who is my personal favorite character in this series, He was one of the few examples of great character development in a series otherwise barren of it communes with his father in the spirit world during his nightly outings as a bird, when his human consciousness is asleep.
He offhandedly reveals that Zoeys dream with Kalona doesnt make much sense, and Kalona makes a point never to revisit times or places that he once trafficked with Darkness in, which means the Kalona in her dream could not really be Kalona.
This is played off as a “who is lying: Kalona, Nyx, or Aphrodite” moment, but it doesnt fool anyone,
The group decides that they will strengthen the protection on Neferets grotto in order to ensure she remains trapped, After yet another expositional dump, they convene at the grotto and begin casting their circle, Of course, this is a House of Night novel, so nothing can ever go according to plan, and appropriately, Frances LaFont appears and disrupts the ritual.
Zoey being Zoey thinks some notsonice thoughts about the hag, and as a result the monsters from Aphrodites vision emerge from the ground and begin to attackamong them Jack who is also a red fledgling.

This marks the second time rogue red fledglings this time treated more like classic zombies become a threat to Tulsa, Andits utterly unremarkable. Were given two very short PoV chapters from two characters who make a single appearance apiece and then are both killed, Once again, their inclusion was utterly superfluous, We also learn that Kevin Heffer is a commander or general or whatever, What this means isnt immediately apparent, And who is Kevin Heffer you ask Im sure most people reading this book would be scratching their heads at the name.
Avid readers will recall Heffer as being the last name of Zoeys socalled StepLoser, John, But who is Kevin Turns out that he is Zoeys younger brothera character so vitally important to both the plot and Zoey that he is mentioned a grand total of two times in the previous twelve books, if that.
To be completely honest, I couldnt even be bothered to go back and confirm these appearances because it is just so contrived and a blatant asspull.
Anyway, RedJack is captured by Team Zoey and taken back to the House of Night, while the rest of the Rogue Reds scatter and flee.
Something, something, Frances gets bitten and has three days to live, something, something, Seriously, these Reds are just so inconsequential, In the end most of them are either killed by the Sons of Erebus, regain their humanity due to Aphrodites previously mentioned new powers, and join the House of Night, or commit suicide out of guilt.
I honestly couldnt care less about these characters, and will you, Theyre just fluff.
Back on the subject of Aphrodites mother: She is indeed bitten and infected, and when it comes to these Otherworld no, not THAT Otherworld, but an alternate House of Night world Reds people bitten by them are infected and die within three days, rise again in another three as zombies, and then die again for good within a week.
Who cares I dont. You certainly dont. Frances is basically given a death sentence, and I guess youre supposed to feel bad for her But its really hard to give a damn at all when shes such a flat, onedimensional facsimile of Donald Trump.
No, thats actually took kind an analogy here, Frances LaFont is a fucking cunt, has no redeeming qualities, and if youre anything like me, if youre not rooting for

her to just kick off already, you just dont care about any of this.
Aphrodite visits her in hospital as good daughters do, they fight, Aphrodite gets drunk and stoned, she and Zoey fight, Aphrodite storms off, cries to Nyx, finally gives up on her mother whom no one who has read these books would even believe she still gave a damn about in the first place, and Nyx gives her new powers, makes her a Purple Vampyre, and blah, blah, blah, Ive already been over this.

Meanwhile, RedJack known as Other Jack is actually a nice return of a previously wellwritten character, Hes similar enough to his original persona, but just different enough that he stands on his own, and the execution is written well.
I cant help but feel happy for Damien and Jack, What about Damiens previous boyfriend, Adam Oh, they broke up offscreen before the story started, Damien couldnt move past Jack, just more clichéd shit, Hes presented as a tragic monster, torn between wanting to become good and stay in this new world, and becoming a monster like the rest of the OtherReds.
In theory this is a tried and true inner struggle, but weve seen it before with Stevie Rae, Stark, and Dallas I guess, so this just comes off as more of the same, but not quite as poignant as previous iterations.
What can I say Its just been done to death, and even though I like Jack Other Jack or otherwise, it doesnt add anything to his character that wasnt already there, but it doesnt take away from him either, so its inoffensive at worst.
As you would expect, he regains his humanity again, thanks to Aphrodites Purple Powers and chooses to stay with Damien in this House of Night.

Shortly after, Kevin Heffer and his gang those who arent taken hostage, killed, or committed suicide come to the House of Night to ask for help.
It turns out that in their world, Neferet is in open war with the world, Zoey is dead, Stevie Rae is dead, and a handful of things established in this world didnt happen the same way in that world.
It is at this point that Zoey and co, learn that Kevin is “his worlds version of Zoey”chosen by Nyx to combat Neferet and her Darkness, And it is at this point that I must break from the summary and discuss a few things,
I immediately took issue with Zoeys nonexistent brother coming into this world from the Otherworld as a Red Vampyre, It simply does not make sense in context at all, Somehow, we the readers, are supposed to believe that in a completely alternate world, where Zoey isnt the chosen one or whatever, that her brother is In the whole wide world of Vampyres its Zoeys brother who takes up that mantle The introduction to a separate House of Night world opens the door to discussions about multiple universes and all the complications that come with it, and were supposed to believe that out of any of the infinite worlds they could have connected with, they just happened to open a gateway to the world where Zoeys brother is that worlds Mary Sue Why not Stevie Rae Why not John Heffer Hell, why not Heath If were suspending our disbelief enough to believe that this world is different enough that certain people have changed roles, some Vampyres are no longer Vamps, and some humans are no longer human, why not make that worlds Zoey a more compelling character, one that we, the audience who have followed twelve books worth of characters, are more inclined to connect with and care about Who went into Loved caring about Zoeys noname brother Or is that somehow supposed to be the appeal The only way this makes sense at all is if Zoey is the Chosen One across all universes within the House of Night multiverse.
If thats the case, fine, I can accept that, But that would mean that Kevin admittedly, not a terribly written character, a farcry better than his older sister is and always was destined to be her backup, in case she failed or fell or turned to Darkness or anything else that would render Zoey unable to stop Neferet.
And that would have been an interesting and compelling narrative to explore, How often do we get to see the main hero/heroine fail in their quest,