The Dark Elite By: Chloe Neill

This volume includes the first two books of the series.  I read them together and I can't remember exactly were the break off is so this is going to be fairly vague cause I don't want to give away too many plot points.

Book 1

 The book starts off with Lily's parents telling her that they are approved for a two year research sabbatical in Germany.  Before she can get too excited they tell her that she will be staying in the U.S. and moving from  upstate New York to an all girls private boarding school in Chicago.  Here life is upturned and she travels alone to Chicago while her parents head abroad. 
At the school she meets Scout, (don't worry it is a nickname) one of three roommates and instantly that become BFF's (their words, not mine).  Lily notices that Scout leaves late at night and doesn't come back until the early morning and her only excuse is that she has been exercising.  Lily follows her one night to be stopped at a huge metal door, after waiting for a while she hears running on the other side and an out of breath Scout comes running through.  Something big was chasing her, Lily just doesn't know what it is. 
When the "mean girls/brat pack" play a joke on Lily by locking her in a room in the basement her world as she knows it falls apart.  She finds herself being chased by students she doesn't recognize, bright lights flash, pain, and was that a growl???  She becomes immersed in a world of magic and conflicts and unfortunately she is deep in the middle of it.  Scout's life will depend on their friendship and on Lily's courage.
I liked all of the kids in this story.  They were in groups that are typical at school.  I really liked the interaction with Scout and Lily and the Brat Pack.  There was definite mean-girl action with the brat pack and our main girls.  This is a world with magic and some of the powers were pretty cool.  I liked that if you had magic in you that didn't mean that you could do everything as some books let the characters do.  There was power over electricity, words, fire, ice, etc.

Read on August 28, 2011

Book 2

Scout and Lily find a weird slime in a tunnel while on patrol and are sent out with Michael (Scout's crush) and Jason (Lily's crush), two boys in the same Coven as them.  While trying to figure out the slime they are attacked by large naked rat/human like beings.  Scout is the only one that can save them and she ends up the hero in a big way.  Their coven works together with a sister coven to try and solve two mysteries now, the slime and the gross mutant creatures in the tunnels. 
Along the way we meet vampires.  The vampires are in the mist of a turf war and our characters walk right into it.  Luckily know one is harmed and Lily learns to stay away from the pedway in Chicago unless you want to be lunch. 
Lily's romance with Jason appears to be progressing nicely in this book, and I like that because I need some romance in my reading.  Scout and Lily are also getting better and better in their magic.  Scout creates some pretty cool spells and Lily finds that she is able to boost another person's magic if she touches them and feeds her magic into them.  She is also getting some helpful advice from her enemy, Sabastion.  He is a gorgeous boy her age with the same power she has, only they are on opposite sides of saying how and when magic should be used. 
This book has a lot of open questions at the end of it preparing for book 3 that should be out in 2012.  I for one want to finish this series and see how everyone ends up...

Read on August 28, 2011