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UNRAVELED by Gena Showalter

UNRAVELED

From the Intertwined series, volume 2

by Gena Showalter

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-373-21022-0
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

At the end of Intertwined (2009), Aden Stone, who plays host to three dead-raising, future-predicting and body-snatching souls, was named king of the vampires and negotiated an uneasy truce among the many supernatural creatures—fairies, vampires, witches, werewolves and goblins—he and his resident souls attracted to Crossroads, Okla. Readers entranced by Aden and his Scooby Gang of friends will be eager to return to their world, but this follow-up is a plotting disappointment. Showalter's surfeit of narrative threads—a witches' curse, interspecies romances (human—or is she?—Mary Ann/werewolf Riley and Aden/vampire princess Victoria), Mary Ann's horrifying realization that she is a Drainer of supernatural powers, Aden's continuing education about vampire culture, former vampire king Vlad's secret recovery and yet another potential war among witches, fairies and vampires—never quite weave together. Instead, the threads remain discrete and dull, as the plot plods along with far less heart-thumping action than in the first book. There is more genuine sexual heat here, though both couples refrain from fully consummating their relationships. Essential only where the first book was popular. (Paranormal romance. YA)