Review: Reawakened by Colleen Houck

Title: Reawakened 

Author:  Colleen Houck
Publisher: Delacorte Press 

Publishing Date:  August 11th, 2015

Pages: 400
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Series:  Reawakened #1
Source:  Audio

 

When seventeen-year-old Lilliana Young enters the Metropolitan Museum of Art one morning during spring break, the last thing she expects to find is a live Egyptian prince with godlike powers, who has been reawakened after a thousand years of mummification.

And she really can't imagine being chosen to aid him in an epic quest that will lead them across the globe to find his brothers and complete a grand ceremony that will save mankind.

But fate has taken hold of Lily, and she, along with her sun prince, Amon, must travel to the Valley of the Kings, raise his brothers, and stop an evil, shape-shifting god named Seth from taking over the world.

From New York Times bestselling author Colleen Houck comes an epic adventure about two star-crossed teens who must battle mythical forces and ancient curses on a journey with more twists and turns than the Nile itself.

I loved the Tiger’s Curse series. I mean I loved it. I loved the characters.. well most of them. I loved the story. I loved how it all came together and I loved the telling of the mythology in the Tiger’s Curse. I was so excited to read another series by this author. I waited a bit for some unknown reason. Because books get lost in my gigantic TBR list. So I finally got around to the first book in this series and I was so disappointed. I felt it was too close to Tiger’s Curse. I didn’t really connect to any of the characters. I found the mythology lessons were boring and confusing. I just didn’t get along with this book at all.

So there is a girl who lives in New York and loves to go to the famous museum there. One day she is there and an Egyptian mummy wakes and kind of attaches his life force with hers. He needs her help to find his brothers and awaken them so they can keep the evil Set from taking over and basically casting his dark evil all over the world. They have to travel to Egypt and play around in some tombs and caverns with booby traps and poisons and almost death many times. The trip is dangerous and not easy and of course, there are mythology lessons throughout the travels.

I feel honestly bad for writing this review because I loved the other series so so much and I just didn’t like this one. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, maybe my reading likes have changed. I really don’t know what it was or is. I do know I was bored much of this book. I think the potential was there and the story could have been more but I just couldn’t. It felt so much like a redo of the Tigers curse but with a mummy and in Egypt. I felt like I had already been there. From the mythology and the curses and the trials to get to the object that can save the world. It was just changed a bit then redone, and this time I didn’t like the main characters.

SO Lily wasn’t bad really. I just didn’t connect with her. I didn’t find her annoying. I did find her a little whiney when she couldn’t get a kiss from Amon. And there were times I found her a little dense. But really she seemed nice enough even if she was a tad bit spoiled. Amon was okay too. Just okay though. Not swoony or charming or funny or sweet. Well, he was nice just not to the point of me going “awe what a guy” There wasn’t really a romance. I mean I could tell the two cared for each other. They were falling for each other and if it would have been all I love you type of thing it would have been insta-love. Which I appreciate no insta-love, I do need a little something. Maybe a crush and some tender moments. I think there were a couple of moments that were on the verge but the interactions between these two were really all business. They were learning, and searching and telling stories of the past, then they were off a treasure hunt that always had them running for their lives and it was all action. So a lot of lessons and a lot of action. Nothing really on the character front.

I think the lack of connection to the characters is what made me really not care for this book. I just couldn’t do it. I was bored. The book seemed to take forever to get somewhere. The action scenes and the mythology was confusing to me. I felt bored or lost most of the book. For some reason, I felt the need to finish the book so I did. The ending was a cliffhanger in a sort of way and I have no desire to read the next book.

Just wasn’t the book for me.

New York Times Bestselling Author Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, science fiction, and romance. Formerly a student at the University of Arizona, she worked as a nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter for seventeen years before switching careers to become an author. Colleen lives in Salem, Oregon, with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.