The Night House by J.C McKenzie begins with a terrifying invasion, signaled by a terrifying blue killing wave that decimates the Earth's population. Taya is camping with friends when the death wave hits, and must find her way home amidst an invasion force who are enslaving and murdering the survivors of Earth. When she is captured, it seems Taya's life on Earth is over, until her captor makes her an offer that could allow her to win her freedom. The story itself is transfixing, detailing Taya's struggle to find herself in her new reality, her relationship with her captors, her vow to avenge her friends and to return to her family. The conflict (both physical and emotional) moves along rationally - it's easy to understand how Taya makes friends under her new circumstances and why she makes a deal with Lord Thane. The romantic relationships are sweet and compelling. The only problem I have with the novel is the pacing, it jumps through time very quickly and makes it difficult to fear the 'big bad' and understand the motivation behind the threat to the Earth and other realities. There is a shocking scene early in the plot that drives Lord Thane and his offer to Taya, but only a vague explanation of its purpose. We don't see any scenes of the 'big bad' being evil, just assholes, and the world building of the Tarka's - the magical aristocracy of Arkavia - was really missing for me. Magic was a driving motivation behind the plot but its existence, methodology, and use isn't well defined. It is almost used to plug plot points : injured? magic them better; escaping? hold them with magic; fighting? magic to increase your skills! That said, if the ending hadn't felt so rushed, and slightly lacking, this book would have ranked much higher for me. It feels like the reader's digest version of the first book in a series - it has so much more world building to offer and I have so many questions I still want answered.