Review: Night and Chaos (The Deva Chronicles #1) by Naomi Clark

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Ryan McCarthy fled Applied Paranormal Theory and Tactics, her father, and her lover six years ago, desperate to build life away from the weird science and supernatural experiments of her childhood. But everything she hoped to escape comes back with a vengeance when she's kidnapped and tortured by a possessed APTT employee out for revenge on the man responsible for his possession: Ryan's father.

Now, reunited with the lover she abandoned, Ryan is forced back into a world of danger and darkness she no longer understands, pursued by enemies with powers she can't fathom. But Ryan's not entirely powerless herself. She'll have to use every trick she knows - as well as the mystic gift she hates - to stay ahead of those enemies. And that will be easier said than done.

My Thoughts: This book ended up being a very different take on shapeshifting - one which I ended up liking immensely.  That said, I didn't fall into the mythology right away.  Maybe because I wasn't expecting Ryan's shapeshifting abilities to be drawn from an earth spirit and I had to take a big mental step back to get in the zone.  Does that make sense?  Being such an atypical approach to the subject left me off kilter for a bit.  In a good way, mind you.  It was all a matter of being in the right mindset and once I hit hat mindset the story clicked nicely.

While I enjoyed the characters and their interactions, the real strength in this story was the mythology.  I can't even say that everything makes sense yet because there were a lot of unanswered questions.  A lot.  This story ends on a fairly big cliffhanger, we don't get a lot of answers to any of the questions that are brought up but I was intrigued from beginning to end.  Do I want to know how things turn out?  Hell, yes.  Do I want to know how Ryan and Van get out of their current sticky situations?  Indeed.  Am I sending big puppy dog eyes in Naomi Clark's direction to finish the next book quickly so I can quench my curiosity?  I am.

Intriguing mythology and a huge cliffhanger have me waiting impatiently for the next part of the story in this series.

More books by Naomi Clark

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