Review: Countdown by Michelle Rowen

Title: Countdown
Author: Michelle Rowen
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: October 1st 2013
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 3/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

3 seconds left to live. Once the countdown starts, it cannot be stopped.

2 pawns thrown into a brutal underground reality game.

Kira Jordan survived her family's murder and months on plague-devastated city streets with hard-won savvy and a low-level psi ability. She figures she can handle anything. Until she wakes up in a barren room, chained next to the notorious Rogan Ellis.

1 reason Kira will never, ever trust Rogan. Even though both their lives depend on it.

Their every move is controlled and televised for a vicious exclusive audience. And as Kira's psi skill unexpectedly grows and Rogan's secrets prove evermore deadly, Kira's only chance of survival is to risk trusting him as much as her instincts. Even if that means running head-on into the one trap she can't escape.

GAME OVER

Countdown is a book I was eager to read because I've read other books by Michelle Rowen and I liked them, even though the idea of this book is not original and it reminded me of several movies with this topic but it is definitely an interesting read.

Countdown tells the story of  Kira a 16 year-old girl that wakes up handcuffed in a dark room and while trying to figure out what's going realizes that she isn´t alone, because there is someone else in the room and he´s also handcuffed to wall. Soon afterward she learns that she has been "recruited " to join an underground game called Countdown, which is broadcast and it has several levels and she will receive several tasks that she need to complete along with a partner named Rogan, which is a murderer, in a time designated and if they fail to complete the task, they will be "eliminated" via implants that they have in their heads.

Overall, the plot is fast-paced, with lots of action, with likable characters, some romance and has elements that I really didn´t expect to see in this book, such as artificial intelligence, a little paranormal. It has a scene near the end that really annoyed me because it is the classic scene where the hero and the villain talk and talk and talk and do nothing. But aside from that detail, I enjoyed reading it. This is a new addition to the sub-genre post-apocalyptic/dystopic.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Waiting on Wednesday (72): Countdown by Michelle Rowen

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

Countdown by Michelle Rowen

Release date: September 24th 2013

3 seconds left to live. Once the countdown starts, it cannot be stopped.

2 pawns thrown into a brutal underground reality game.

Kira Jordan survived her family's murder and months on plague-devastated city streets with hard-won savvy and a low-level psi ability. She figures she can handle anything. Until she wakes up in a barren room, chained next to the notorious Rogan Ellis.

1 reason Kira will never, ever trust Rogan. Even though both their lives depend on it.

Their every move is controlled and televised for a vicious exclusive audience. And as Kira's psi skill unexpectedly grows and Rogan's secrets prove evermore deadly, Kira's only chance of survival is to risk trusting him as much as her instincts. Even if that means running head-on into the one trap she can't escape.

GAME OVER.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links.

Wicked Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Title: Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers #2)
Author: Michelle Rowen
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Release date:
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Read an excerpt - here.
Read my review of Dark Kiss - here.

MY KISS CAN KILL.

I used to be ordinary Samantha Day, but that's changed. Now, after one dark kiss from a dangerous boy, I can steal someone's soul...or their life. If I give in to the constant hunger inside me, I hurt anyone I kiss. If I don't...I hurt myself.

Bishop is the one whose kiss I crave most, but if I kiss him, I'll kill him. Then there's another boy, one I can't hurt. One whose kiss seems to miraculously quell my hunger. They're both part of a team of angels and demons that's joined forces in my city to fight a mysterious rising darkness, an evil that threatens everyone I know and love. I just wonder if I'll be able to help Bishop-or if I'm just another part of the darkness he's sworn to destroy....

NIGHTWATCHERS

When angels and demons must work together, something beyond evil is rising...

I´ve been looking forward to read this book since the day I finished reading Dark Kiss, the first book in the series (trilogy?, duology?, series? .. I don´t  know how many books are going to be in the series) and I loved it and I know that many people are tired of books about angels and demons, but I really liked the concept of the Nightwatchers series, because the most important thing here is to keep the balance, so heaven and hell send angels and demons respectively to protect earth and they have to work as a team on a mission, in this case they´ve to contain the "grays", which used to be human, but now they´re something else and they feed on human souls through a kiss .... and that kiss can kill....literally.

Samantha the protagonist of the story is a "gray", and for a reason that is explained in the first book, is special and to some extent can control her hunger for souls of the people around her and she teams up with Bishop and the other angels and demons to help them with their mission. But she is not well accepted by everyone on the team mainly because she is a "gray", but Bishop is always there to protect her.

My favorite character is Bishop, the angel leader in this mission and because of something that happened to him at the beginning of mission, he´s slowly losing his mind and what stabilizes him a bit is contact with Samantha. I also liked Kraven, a very sarcastic demon, but he has good moments in story. Something I really liked is that we can see the past of Bishop and Kraven through the "visions" that Samantha has, I loved seeing their relationship when they were still human and how they end up one in heaven and one in hell.

The story has several plots that initially seem unrelated, but in the end most of them came from the same source, which I liked very much, because the story has many twists and turns, some I didn´t see them coming and others I could guess them.

I loved Wicked Kiss! This is a book that has lots of action, romance (with a lot of tension), mystery, suspense, the story is a page turner, it just keep me interested and wanting to know what´s coming next. And most important (for me) is that there is NO love triangle, because after reading the synopsis I dreaded this love triangle. I also loved the ending, with no cliffhanger!, but I'm not sure if there are going to be a third book, .... but I´m looking forward to a third one.

I want to thank Harlequin Teen and Netgalley for this review copy.

Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen

Title: Dark Kiss(Nightwatchers #1)
Author: Michelle Rowen
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: May 29, 2012

Rating: 4.5 / 5

But it at: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Read first chapter here.

I don't do dangerous.

Smart, über-careful, ordinary Samantha—that's me. But I just couldn't pass up a surprise kiss from my number one unattainable crush. A kiss that did something to me…something strange. Now I feel hungry all the time, but not for food. It's like part of me is missing—and I don't know if I can get it back.

Then there's Bishop. At first I thought he was just a street kid, but the secrets he's keeping are as intense as his unearthly blue eyes. If he's what I think he is, he may be the only one who can help me. But something terrifying is closing in, and the one chance Bishop and I have to stop it means losing everything I ever wanted and embracing the darkness inside me….

Days after the kiss with Stephen, Samantha meets Bishop a guy somehow that looks like a cute street kid and he seems to be mentally wrong, in reality he´s an angel on a mission. In this mission hangs the destiny of the people who lives in the city Trinity, NY, they can be saved or destroyed.

Samantha is an average girl a little bit insecure with a good heart. So far there not a love triangle so her love interest is Bishop, he´s super hot and a little bit mentally unstable as result of his entering to the city unprotected and the only thing that clears his mind is holding hands with Samantha. There is a lot of tension for before the first kiss between them and the attraction is undeniable. Bishop is the leader of the mission and the other team members (angels/demons) are Kraven, Zach and Roth. Another character that I like a lot is Kraven, he´s the sarcastic bad boy type, I want to know more about him.

Dark Kiss is a new series of angels and demons with romance, suspense and little bit of action that the lovers of paranormal novels will enjoy.