Kelley Armstrong

Sixteen-year-old Maya suspects there may be a relationship between her paw-print birthmark, her connection with wild animals, and strange events occurring in her tiny Vancouver Island community, where a medical research facility harbors big secrets.

The gathering

Emmalie Stearns

I found this book very slow, and not exciting. I have finished the book and I still have many of questions. If this book was just about Maya as a teenager, dealing with Serena's death I think I would of enjoyed it, but the ending was very quick. BUT I loved the romance in it.

Lynn Braden

The Gathering is the first of a series of three books. I had some trouble with this book because I kept wondering when I was going to get to the real story. By the time I finally got to the meat of the story, the book abruptly ended in the middle of a forest fire of unexplained origin. The beginning of the book was about the mysterious death of one teenager who was captain of her swim team and yet drowned in a lake. The other teenager who survives becomes the protagonist. The rest of the story mildly unfolds. A young teenage girl in a small Canadian town who tries to deal with her parents and figure out her relationships with friends is a pretty familiar plot line and doesn't change until the middle of the book when we finally get clues about the possibility of the young girl being a skin-walker. Though we see signs throughout the rest of the book that this might be true, there is also a murder and several unsolved mysteries that the author leaves hanging at the end of the book. The book does attempt to grab the readers' emotions at several points in the story, it just doesn't grab hard enough. I'm not yet sure if I want to take the time to read the other two books in the Darkness Rising series.

Kaeli Wolf 

I think that this book was a good book. Usually when I read a novel with werewolves in it I think that everything else is completely boring. In this book everything was exciting and there was not a point when I could put the book down. This book is awesome for teenage girls and maybe even for teenage boys, although there is a little bit of romance. Most of the book is action-packed and it is a complete page turner.

Celia Adams

After reading and being unimpressed with the first series, Darkest Powers, I had no desire to continue on with this series. However, against my better judgement and after a convincing yet inaccurate book trailer, I decided to give this one a go, promising I wouldn't force myself to continue if I wasn't into it. Unfortunately I am no more impressed by this book than the last one, though I do wish I'd had this moment months ago right after I read the Darkest Powers series, so I'd understand the references that I can remember but not place. Also unfortunately and unfaithfully, I feel I will end up giving the other 2 books a shot, because though I didm't like the story, Kelley Armstrong has a talent for weaving complex plots that propel you with desire to find out what happens.

Katy

Brittany Reynolds 

Jessica Deaner

Luna

Gaja N

The world seemed to dip and darken and I smelled wet earth and thick musk and fresh blood. The wind whipped past, like I was running. Running so fast the ground whizzed beneath me and the wind cut across my skin . . . Maya Delaney has always felt a close bond with nature. The woods around her home are a much-loved sanctuary - and the pawprint birthmark on her hip feels like a sign that she belongs. But then strange and terrible things begin to happen in the tiny medical-research town of Salmon Creek (population: 200). The captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Mountain lions appear around Maya's home, and won't go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts experiencing 'bad vibes' about certain people and things. One of those people is Rafe - the new bad boy in town. What is he hiding - and why is he suddenly so interested in Maya . . . ?

The gathering

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