Publisher: Random House Canada
Released: April 5, 2011
Genre: YA paranormal/urban fantasy
For review from publisher.
Maya lives in a small medical-research town on Vancouver Island. How small? You can’t find it on the map. It has less than two-hundred people, and her school has only sixty-eight students — for every grade from kindergarten to twelve. Now, strange things are happening in this claustrophobic town, and Maya’s determined to get to the bottom of them. First, the captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. A year later, mountain lions start appearing around Maya’s home, and they won’t go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts getting negative vibes from certain people and things. It doesn’t help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret — and he’s interested in one special part of Maya’s anatomy: Her paw-print birthmark.
From Random House Canada website.
Oh Kelley, how could you? How could you introduce me to an amazing character like Maya, create such a great story complete with mystery, danger and wildlife, give me a taste and then hang me over a cliff? What’s next? Are you going to give me the world’s best chocolate cheesecake, let me lick the fork and tell me that I have to wait A FREAKING YEAR before I can have more?
Here’s a reenactment of me finishing The Gathering:
“What? That’s the end? No, it CAN’T be. Maybe this ARC is faulty.”
Gets up and checks other ARCS that are for the giveaway.
“AAAAAAARGH!!!!! That IS the ending. I have to wait a year to find out what happens?”
Arms raised to the sky.
“Damn you, Kelley Armstrong! Damn you!”
Face plant flop on the bed where I stay for an hour.
Kelley’s my favorite author. Never once have I read one of her books and thought, “Meh, that was kinda ok.” I’ve loved everything she’s ever written and The Gathering is no different as you can tell from my above spazz out.
I do animal rehab in my offline life, so I instantly felt a bond with Maya who takes care of all sorts of animals in The Gathering. I actually ended up reading some of the animal rehab related passages to the hubs, since he has yet to read a book by Kelley. (This will change soon: divorce has been threatened.)
I’m such a dork that anytime there was a reference to Kelley’s Darkest Power Trilogy or her Women of the Otherworld series, I couldn’t help but stab at the page with my finger and giggle like a twit. At the same time I love that this could be the first Armstrong that you pick up and you wouldn’t be lost.
I’m not really sure what else to say about The Gathering without just gushing some more. As always the writing was tight and solid and the storyline was amazing. In true Kelley fashion there were more questions than answers. But,I’m sure that those questions will be answered in the next two books. Now to patiently wait out the year until the next one is released.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: damn you, Kelley Armstrong, damn you. 😛