Review: The Nine Lives of Chloe King Trilo gy By Liz Braswell

Title: The Nine Lives of Chloe King (Series Bundle Book)

Author: Liz Braswell

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Synopsis/Summary (of book one of the trilogy): Chloe King is a normal girl. She goes to class (most of the time), fights with her mom, and crushes on a boy…or two. But around her sixteenth birthday, Chloe finds that perhaps she isn’t so normal after all. There’s the heightened night vision, the super fast reflexes – oh, and the claws. As she discovers who she is – and where she comes from – it is clear she is not alone. And someone is trying to get her.

Chloe has nine lives. But will nine be enough?

Find the book on: Goodreads (Bk 1, Bk 2, Bk 3) / Amazom (Bk 1, Bk 2, Bk 3) / Barnes & Noble (Bk 1, Bk 2, Bk 3)

     The plot of the whole trilogy can be described in two words: fast paced. There was a lot happening in one book, and each book is only a little more than 200 pages. It made for an intriguing plot that keeps me reading through the 771 pages of the trilogy bundle. However, I do have preference over which book in the trilogy was better, and the rating is: The Fallen - 3.5 stars; The Stolen - 5 stars; The Chosen - 3 stars.

     Let's talk The Fallen (book one) first. The Fallen, as I said, was fast paced, within the first chapter, things were already happening. As, the plot progressed, we got to see some very intriguing fighting scenes, with Chloe kicking ass, which was very exciting to read. (No, I am not a violent person.) However, there were some flaws in this book too. For one, there were no shocking plot twists, at all. It was like Divergent, a great story but without a shocking plot twist that could knock my socks off. The story actually just kept going and almost everything was within my expectations, which was NOT fun when you are reading a book, or even watching TV, or a movie. The other thing I don't like, the ending was too abrupt. It was not exactly a cliffhanger or anything, it just ended. At least give me a cliffhanger, then I would be excited to read the next book, not just because the next book is a few pages over. So, I gave The Fallen 3 stars because it was very average, the fast-paced story, the expectant story lines, the only thing that really intrigued me and left me pumped after reading were the fight scenes, and while they were numerous, they were scattered along the book.

    Next, The Stolen. It was my favorite book of the trilogy. What with the same intense fighting scenes, newly introduced mystery forming a more intricate storyline and a very lovable love triangle. In the first book, we kind of just dealt with Chloe figuring out she was different and was left not exactly knowing why things happened. Well, this book tackled just that, with a few more mystery added into the mix too. I love a good mystery, they make the story so much more intriguing than just keep throwing in action scenes. As for the love triangle, it was there in the first book, but this book developed it even more and I must say, Liz Braswell handled it well! I know love triangle is kind of a been-there-done-that thing in YA, but the book was published around 2005, so give it some credit.  Plus, Liz Braswell didn't flavor one side of the love triangle, it was balanced and both sides were attractive in their own way, I had a hard time choosing which team to root for (actually, I didn't really choose, I love watching romantic scenes from both sides. I just loved one male character better than the other.) There was one thing that I really didn't like though, it was the ending chapter. It was supposed to be a plot twist but after reading the whole series I thought that revelation could actually be saved to the third book, and would be better like that. Now it just seemed like Liz Braswell ruined the shock I would have felt if said thing was revealed later. Well, it was just a minor flaw, and it is a good twist, just a little badly timed. It still deserved a 5-star rating.

     The last book of the trilogy, The Chosen. Now, it was the lowest rated book in the trilogy (I mean in my opinion), and why was that? Well, because the book actually lacked climax. And the number of fighting scenes were greatly reduced. And the plot actually resolved too suddenly and too nicely. I have said it before, fighting scenes were actually one of the series' greatest strength, and since the amount of it was greatly reduced in this book, it made the book a little dull. And the climax? Practically non-existent. I didn't find any part of the book to be particularly intense, it just kept going. Which brought me to my other point, the plot was wrapped up too nicely and rushed. First of all, a lot of loose ends that sprang for the first two books actually got resolved within a single (I had to emphasize this, a LOT) chapter. Some loose ends weren't even brought up before, and suddenly things just all started happening, and may I remind you, the book span for less than three weeks. While I am not opposed with Liz for tying up loose ends, she tied them up too nicely. Suddenly all things took a turn and everything around Chloe started to become better, ending in the perfect happily-ever-after ending. There were actually no tragic events or heart-wrenching closures and that really killed the series for me. I liked the first two book just fine, why did Liz had to ruin it with all the rush in the third book? I know there was a book deal and she probably just signed for three books, then write it longer, let things happen, don't try to cram everything in 244 pages. It resulted in a disappointing ending to The Nine Lives of Chloe King trilogy.

    Chloe King was different. She was not human, but she was not sure what exactly she is either. So, the above sentence was actually all we know about Chloe after the first book. That's right, the first didn't tell you what Chloe is and all that important things, so I may say that the world-building was actually a lot slower than the plot itself.

     However, what Liz Braswell lacked in timing she sure makes up for it with the very well-constructed world of Chloe King. There were histories, background stories, curses for the race that Chloe belonged in. I could see that Braswell did a lot of research, and I liked its idea. A person (should I call her that?) with nine lives, certainly interesting. And don't worry, Braswell took a good spin on the idea too.

     Chloe King, our main protagonist, was very kind-hearted. She didn't show it much through her words though. In the beginning of the book, she was one of those people who acted like she was too cool for anything, but as the story progressed and we saw how Chloe really were under the exterior, I started to like her, a lot. She was a really nice person and a good friend, she was smart and brave too. She was the kind of perfect with a little flaw protagonist and I really liked her. She grew a lot throughout the three books too, mostly mentally. She became more mature and even well beyond her peers by the last book.

     There were two love interests for Chloe, Alyce and Brian. Alyce is more adventurous while Brian is more meek and calm. I was really torn between these two because there were both good for Chloe. I could see that Chloe would be happy with either one of them. However, later in the series, I officially became Team Brian. Not that I don't like Alyce, I just really loved the forbidden love thing he and Chloe got going on (maybe I'll like Romeo and Juliet?) so I just chose him. Actually, I would happy with Chloe ending up with either of these guys. That's why the love triangle was so good, it got me all torn. One moment I would be rooting for Alyce and the next for Brian. Ah, I sure love a good love triangle, and there were no insta-love too!

Conclusion:

     Actually I just calculated the mean and got about 3.8 stars, so I would give this series 4 stars. It was action-packed with a solid world-building and a very good romance. I would recommend it to action, adventure and paranormal YA readers, it has got a lot of good fighting scenes that will keep the action & adventure fans interested and the paranormal aspect was well researched and constructed for paranormal fans too.

Rating: 4 stars!

The trilogy was actually briefly released as a TV show, have you guys seen it? How do you like it? What do think would make a good love triangle? Do you think things were often rushed in trilogies? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below! I'd love to chat ;)