Click the banner for the tour schedule.

I’m incredibly excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Ada Adams’ new book, ReAwakened! I’ve put together a bit of a playlist of songs that came to mind whilst I was reading the book. There’s also a link to the rafflecopter giveaway for the tour near the bottom of my post where you can enter to win some prizes.

Title: ReAwakened (Angel Creek #2)
Author: Ada Adams
Genre: Paranormal Romance; Vampires; Urban Fantasy
Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication Date: 27 November 2012 
Pages: 314 pages (eARC)
Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:
Becoming a vampire guardian was Dawn Fairchild’s ticket out of the Scarlet House. Fresh off a successful mission, life in Angel Creek should have been great. But when her sort-of-maybe-boyfriend, Sebastian, disappears on a quest to help a beautiful vampire from his past, Dawn finds herself amidst a web of danger, lies, and deceit.

Joining forces with Razor, an enigmatic rebel lacking both a verbal and a physical filter, and her band of Misfits—Brooke, Sophie, Hunter, and Seth—Dawn is thrust into a race against the clock to solve the mystery surrounding brutal Born kidnappings and come to terms with the sudden discovery of her own unique powers. With time ticking away and Born vampires’ lives in jeopardy, it quickly becomes evident that someone—or something—desperately wants Dawn and is willing to shed any amount of blood to get her.

Dawn has only one chance to face her demons and overcome all obstacles standing in her way as she embarks on the biggest mission of her life—one that threatens a deadly outcome for all involved.

My Review:

I admit it – I’m often very critical when it comes to the second book in a series. And I had high expectations for ReAwakened after enjoying ReVamped so much – but this book more than lived up to them. In a word it was MORE. More action, more drama, more romance and more of the characters that I grew to love in the first instalment.

Dawn and her merry bunch of misfits have gone back to Angel Creek after the events at the Scarlet House.  After some playful training with Sebastian (Hit Me With Your Best Shot), Sophie, Seth, Brooke, Hunter and Dawn are all instated as the new official Guardians of Angel Creek (Heroes).

Things are looking up for the group until Sebastian runs off to find some missing Born vampires with the gorgeous Latina Made, Lena, leaving Dawn home alone (Protection). Good thing that Dawn has a distraction from her worry about Sebastian’s safety when Razor comes to town (Sexy and I Know It).

Mutant werewolves (Howl) and hyped up rogue vampires are only the beginning of Dawn and her team’s worries when they find out just how bad the problem with the missing Made vampires and the new President’s agenda. Dawn can’t seem to get away from her past – or more accurately Aurora’s past – and her new friends all have to face their own demons as well.

There’s so much about this book that I liked. The old crew is back together but they are continually growing – both in their humanity as well as in their Guardian skills. I love the transformation that Brooke is going through. One of the highlights for me was the back stories of Brooke and Hunter. Ada Adams really lets you know that her secondary characters are just as important as her main ones by showing you they’re three-dimensional and can feel just as much and as deeply as Dawn.

That’s not to say Dawn doesn’t get to shine. She’s a bad-arse warrior vampire with a heart of gold. She’s not perfect by any means but she’s believable and at times she’s incredibly amusing. Her relationship with Sebastian develops more in this book and I’m really starting to root for them as a couple – it’s more than just mutual attraction and goes beyond her resemblance to Aurora.

The new characters in this book were my favourite thing about reading  ReAwakened. Razor made me laugh but he’s deeper than what he first seems. To quote himself, he’s a “deep deep well of awesomeness”. And he is – both awesome and not the shallow flirty party boy he tries to pass himself off as – but he’s a lot of fun too.

Plot wise there is so much going on, but it all felt like it happened in a natural progression. It didn’t feel rushed but I was excited and surprised when certain events unfolded.

The ending almost killed me – cliffhangers! – but I know that without a doubt I’ll be getting myself a copy of the third Angel Creek story as soon as it’s released sometime in the future.

My Playlist!

I had a lot of fun putting this together… and to be honest… It nearly ended up just being an entire playlist of Florence and the Machine. But I branched out a little and here’s the songs that I ‘felt fit the novel. In my summary you can see some of the places that my songs go with and others are more general. All links go to videos on youtube.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar – “Hit me with your best shot
Why don’t you hit me with your best shot”
(It’s more the playful attitude of this song rather than the lyrics)

Heroes by David Bowie – “We can beat them, forever and ever
Oh we can be heroes, just for one day”

Protection by Massive Attack (I see this as what Dawn wanted to say to Sebastian) – “You’re a boy and I’m a girl
But you know you can lean on me
And I don’t have no fear
I’ll take on any man here
Who says that’s not the way it should be”

Sexy and I Know it by LMFAO (Razor’s theme song…)

Howl by Florence + the Machine –
“If you could only see the beast you’ve made of me
I held it in but now it seems you’ve set it running free
The saints can’t help me now, the ropes have been unbound
I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallow’ed ground”

New Soul by Yael Naim (For me this is Dawn’s theme)-
See I’m a young soul in this very strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit ’bout what is true and fake
But why all this hate? try to communicate
Finding trust and love is not always easy to make

Naive by the Kooks (about a certain character) –
“How could this be done
Your such a smiling sweetheart
Oh and your sweet and pretty face
In such an ugly way
Something so beautiful
That everytime I look inside”

 Battlescars by Guy Sebastian (feat. Lupe Fiasco) (it might just be because this song was on the radio when I was reading this book but it felt like it fit Dawn/Aurora’s relationship and their dealing with Sebastian) –
“You hope the wound heals but it never does
That’s cause you’re at war with love
You’re at war with love
Yeah

These battle scars
Don’t look like they’re fading
Don’t look like they’re ever going away
They ain’t never gonna change”

That’s probably enough… I have more but this is already my longest blog post ever so I think I’ll stop listing songs.

About the Author “Many people sing in the shower. I, on the other hand, write scenes in my head and act them out.”At age five, Ada read her first chapter book – Pippi Longstocking. Ever since that moment, she developed an intense passion for the stories and characters found within the pages of literature.In her career as an actress and a writer, Ada currently spends most of her days immersed in imaginary worlds. Much like the characters she enjoys playing and writing about, Ada is a martial artist with a Black Belt in Shotokan Karate. She is also a big proponent of lifelong learning, and has attained Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (it aids in creating characters with unique quirks!) as well as a Master’s of Science in Education.Ada strives to bring a fresh voice and perspective to fiction. She has been writing creatively for many years. “ReVamped” is her debut novel.She lives in Toronto, Canada, and enjoys adventurous nature hikes with her adorable puppies Cara and Oreo.