Dark Goddess

Billi SanGreal is the only female member of the Knights Templar, who now live in London and hunt werewolves (among other Unholy critters). While battling a pair of them in East Anglia, Billi rescues a child, who turns out to be one of the most powerfully psychic Spring Chidren ever. Untrained, she has the power to tamp down the eruption of Mount Vesuvius... from London. When the werewolves reappear and kidnap her, Billi and the Knights must find her before she is given to the ancient Russian goddess (and cannibal), Baba Yaga. The Dark Goddess wants the child's powers, in order to cause the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano and send the Earth into a volcanic version of nuclear winter, where virtually every living thing will die. show more She's angry, and wants all of humankind wiped out! The Knights must work with the Bogatyrs, another ancient order in Russia, in order to find and battle this age-old evil, and their leader-to-be is none other than Ivan Romanoff, hot teenage great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas and descendant of Anastasia, the only survivor of the massacre of the Russian royal family at the beginning of the Russian Revolution. Magical and political twists and turns abound, with action, battles, betrayals, blood and guts! Billi is a flawed but strong character, and this is a top-notch fantasy/action/horror combo. 8th grade and up. show less

Let me just get this out of the way: OMG WTF YAY FTW!

Sarwat Chadda’s second book in the Billi SanGreal series is mind-blowingly epic. So epic in fact that I just want to download a list of praising adjectives from a thesaurus and just put all of those in a text and call that my review. Sarwat is a master at mixing lore and handing them to you in a mash up that will literally have you anticipating each sentence. Usually when I am inundated with a mash up of different lore I immediately dislike the book *cough*CharlaineHarris*cough* and am unable to enjoy the work.

In Dark Goddess Billi is faced with life after Kay’s death. She is in a depression and resents being forced into the life of the Templar. On a random patrol she is surprised show more by a Werewolf and saves a small child from being eaten and that is where the book takes off at a break neck pace to the finish and oh my what a finish.

In this book we have Billi starting a flirtation with a Romanov Prince, saving a Spring Child from the epic witch Baba Yaga and learning to become the Templar she wants to be. Sometimes books suffer from what we call the Sophomore Slump but Dark Goddess if anything improved the story of Billi and Chadda’s writing was tight. I am a visual reader and a motion picture plays in my head as I am reading and with Dark Goddess at no point did I have to stop and assign the movie playing in my head characteristics.

These books are so well written and fascinating that I know whenever I start one that I will be incapacitated until I can finish. I only hope there will be more in the Billi SanGreal series. I can’t press upon you enough to read these books. If there is one set I am going to be pushing this year it is this.

Billi SanGreal and her battle are important on so many fronts. Not often do we get a YA character that is not white, that the cover hasn’t been white washed, and more than that Billi is a beacon for feminism: she is strong and needs no one to survive. A true to life self rescuing princess. show less

“Dark Kiss” è il secondo romanzo della pianificata trilogia urban fantasy YA Devil’s kiss/Billi SanGreal series, scritta dall’autore, amante della storia, Sarwat Chadda.

Pensavamo di non arrivare mai a leggere questo Dark Kiss a causa della possibile sospensione della trilogia, che era stata commissionata a Chadda, per via dei bassi profitti ottenuti con Devil’s Kiss, primo romanzo della trilogia. In Italia, invece, la Mondadori ha deciso di regalarci anche questo secondo volume, sempre autoconclusivo, tutto incentrato sulle epiche avventure della giovanissima Billi SanGreal, templare impavida e dall’anima ormai fredda e spietata.

Le avventure di Billi, in Dark Kiss, riprendono proprio dopo pochi mesi dalla morte show more dell’Oracolo, Kay, suo unico amico d’infanzia e compagno; morte causata e determinata fisicamente proprio dalla stessa Billi pur di fermare la nuova Decima Piaga (la morte di tutti i primogeniti). Questa era stata scatenata dall’Arcangelo Michele, con l’aiuto inconsapevole di Billi, aveva intenzione di riavvicinare l’uomo a Dio.

A seguito della morte di Kay, Billi si ritrova a combattere anima e corpo per i Templari, spegnendosi poco a poco ed abbracciando la filosofia di vita del padre Arthur dove, per sopravvivere, un Templare si vede costretto a bandire i sentimenti ed a vivere unicamente per la “causa”.

Sarà l’incontro/salvataggio di Billi con una piccola veggente, il nuovo possibile Oracolo, che spingerà la ragazza a dover prendere in esame il suo comportamento nonché a dover affrontare la morte di Kay che, tutt’ora, sembra lacerarle l’anima.

Vasilisa, il nuovo Oracolo, verrà rapita nuovamente da sotto il tetto dei Templari dai Licantropi e verrà portata in Russia dove l’intero battaglione dei guerrieri di Dio dovrà recarsi per salvarla ed evitare così che venga soggiogata da parte di un’antichissima strega, scatenando così di fatto la fine dell’umanità.

Billi si ritroverà ad una corsa contro il tempo per salvare l’Oracolo, se stessa ormai prossima a soccombere al morso di un licantropo, il suo compagno di avventure, il Principe Ivan, e l’intera umanità dall’avvento del Fimbulvetr (nella mitologia norrena, uno dei segni che annunceranno la venuta del Ragnarök, la fine del mondo. Letteralmente significa "terribile inverno", e consisterà appunto in un primo inverno che avrà la durata di ben tre anni).

Anche questa volta Sarwat Chadda ci ha dimostrato di essere un abilissimo scrittore, in grado di trasmettere attraverso un’avvincente romanzo YA urban fantasy, messaggi forti ed importanti come l’importanza della Fede, degli affetti, dell’ecologia e la forza dell’animo umano; il tutto, però, senza apparire al lettore invasivo, saccente o chiaramente intenzionato a indottrinare. Chadda scrive e trasmette i suoi messaggi con naturalezza e l’imparzialità che dovrebbe essere sempre parte integrante dell’essere scrittore.

In Dark Kiss il messaggio trasmesso è forte ed importante: la Terra sta morendo e non continuerà sempre a subire l’egoismo umano. Un giorno si ribellerà e, anche se non sarà attraverso la spietata ma creatura pagana Baba-jaga, in qualche modo arriverà a farci comprendere il messaggio con le buone o con le cattive. Che ci piaccia o meno.

Un altro aspetto molto importante nella scrittura di Chadda è la sua capacità di mescolare e amalgamare con grande naturalezza varie religioni, etnie e leggende diverse.

Nulla nei libri di Chadda è totalmente inventato, a partire da Baba-jaga, Chernobyl, ai Templari per arrivare agli stessi Romanov. Perfino i nomi dei personaggi (nonché alcuni personaggi stessi), vengono ripresi miti, leggende, parabole o anche semplici fiabe e, soprattutto, tutti sono perfettamente funzionali alla trama, reale e moderna, e al romanzo.

Un romanzo certamente da leggere e assolutamente consigliato per chi desidera una lettura accurata, fantastica e avvincente: impossibile non amare Billi, con tutto il suo caratteraccio. show less

I loved Devil's Kiss and its kick-ass heroine and I have been looking forward to reading the sequel ever since; but has Mr Chadda been able to produce a second book worthy of the first? The answer is a resounding yes - I enjoyed every moment of this.

As with Devil's Kiss Mr Chadda does not waste time easing us into his story; he kicks it off with Billi slap bang in the middle of another terrifying scene, this time up against a couple of werewolves. How we love werewolves at The Book Zone - none of your glamorous vampires with smouldering eyes and rakish good looks for us boys, thank you! We much prefer the animal ferocity of the wolfman. But it is here that Mr Chadda delivers his first knock-out surprise - his werewolves belong to an show more all-female pack known as the Polenitsy, who roam the forests of Russia and worship the dark goddess of the book's title, the terrifying Baba Yaga. But don't go thinking that because they are female they are any less deadly than your sterotypical male werewolf - these creatures are every bit as ruthless and violent, and it is not just their bite that can turn someone into one of their kind either, their claws are just as deadly.

One of the things I love the most about Mr Chadda's stories is the effort he obviously puts into research, and then the personal spin he twists into this to create his own plot elements. The Polenitsy appear in Russian legends as formidable warrior women - the Chadda twist makes them werewolves. The Bogatyr appear in Russain folk epics as protectors of the realm - twisted around Chadda-style and they become the Russian equivalent of Billi's Templar Knights, Christian warriors fighting against evil for even longer than the Knights themselves. And then there is Tunguska - site of a devastating meteor strike more than a century ago, and now....... no, that would be giving too much away. It takes an inventive mind to pick these elements out of hours and hours of research and then mould them into a story like Dark Goddess, and yet Sarwat Chadda manages to do this seamlessly.

Having just used that word, I fear that I have no choice but to use it again, but this time to describe Mr Chadda's plotting, for there is no better word to describe it than seamless. Devil's Kiss, whilst being a superb debut novel for the author, had a fairly linear plot with only a handful of twists throughout. Dark Goddess is a far more complicated work, and is even better for it. Few of the new characters are what they initially seem, what is perceived as evil at first may surpise you later in the book, and vile actions such as the slaughter of innocents are sometimes reasoned and believed to be for the greater good by their perpetrators. This book really will keep you guessing until the end, but this end is ultimately very satisfying in that the various twisting plot threads are neatly brought together and resolved with a skill usually seen in far more experienced authors than Mr Chadda.

At the end of my review of Devil's Kiss I stated that "Devil's Kiss finishes on a particularly harrowing note for Billi and I am intrigued to find out where the story will take her next as she "throws herself into the brutal regime of Templar duties with utter abandon"." Without giving too much away, that book finished with Billi being hurt both emotionally and physically, and we are reminded of these moments throughout Dark Goddess (you really must read these books in the correct sequence in order to get the most out of them). Mr Chadda uses this sequel to really develop Billi's character even further, partly through her slightly warmer relationship with her father, but more through her interaction with Vasilisa, a small girl that Baba Yaga wants to devour in order to gain her incredible powers, and then through Billi's growing relationship with Ivan Alexeivich Romanov, Bogatyr and descendent of the princess Anastasia Romanov (yet another Chadda twist-on-fact). Ivan is another troubled teenager who has had to confront and fight evil on an almost daily basis, and in many ways is a male version of our Billi, and Sarwat Chadda skilfully develops their inital mistrust of each other into a relationship where they will risk their lives for each other (ok... so they kiss as well, but boys, it really is only a very small element of the story.... there's none of this Twilight rubbish from Mr Chadda).

It is difficult to define exactly which genre this book belongs to as there are so many competing elements. It is a fantastic action story, with the fight scenes even better than those in Devil's Kiss. But there are also moments of extreme horror - some of the werewolf attacks are very ferocious, and there is one scene where Billi is shown a lorry container full of bodies which is particularly gruesome. Action? Adventure? Horror? One thing it isn't is a Romance!!!

On the evidence of first Devil's Kiss and now Dark Goddess I believe that Sarwat Chadda is here to stay and although I am sure it is some way off I can't wait to find out what he has in store for Billi in the future. show less

The first half of this book was unbelievably boring. I almost dnf'd, but the second half is an entirely different book. If the whole book was like the second half, I would have at least started from a place of "not my favorite, but really enjoyable." Once I hit the second half, the werewolves started to live up to their potential.

Also, if you're going to get this one, make sure it's a physical copy. The ebook I bought from Barnes and Noble was horrifically formatted in some places--mostly words without spaces, but to the point where it made some scenes difficult to read. And no, it wasn't just Baba Yaga's dialogue, which was actually kind of cool. There was a clear difference between her speech and the actual formatting errors.

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

I was hoping, really hoping, that Billi and I would get along better in DARK GODDESS than we did in DEVIL’S KISS, but after the first chapter, I realized if anything, she was worse.

The opening scene involves Billi and another Templar fighting werewolves. A little girl, Vasilisa, barely escapes after witnessing both her parents brutally attacked and (mostly) eaten right in front of her. The next chapter picks up with Billi complaining about having to share a room with the traumatized little girl who cries and is afraid of being left alone and wondering if Vasilisa was even worth saving as she prys the little girl’s hand off her and slams a door in her face. Seriously, Billi has firmly show more established herself in my mind as one of the most selfish characters I have ever read.

The romance was once again trite and overly dramatic, this time with a princely warrior descendent of the famous Romanov family. I never once bought into it. The villain in DARK GODDESS was more interesting and involved a werewolf pack who worshipped the witch/goddess Baba Yaga, and the writing itself was still good. I didn’t bring this up in the previous review, but there are a number of religious statements about both Christianity and Islam (Billi is somehow both) that manage to be offensive on both sides.

Overall, I appear to be in the minority here with the Billi SanGreal series, so you might want to check out some of the other reviews linked below, but Knights Templar mythology and good writing aside, this series isn’t for me.

Sexual Content:
Kissing show less

Chadda, S. (2010). Dark Goddess. New York:

Appetizer: Set three months after the events of Devil's Kiss, Billi has not really recovered from the death of *someone* (to avoid a major spoiler) she cares about. She feels nothing, and while committed to her duties as a Knight Templar, she does not really want to help nine-year-old Vasilisa, a Russian girl who is a possible oracle whose family was killed by werewolves who hope to sacrifice her to an ancient goddess.

Vasilisa is too much like Billi, who also has lost people she loved and found herself committed to the Knights Templar with little choice in the matter. To try to keep the young girl safe, they will have to go to Russia and partner with the equally secret group, the Bogatyrs.

After show more I began reading Dark Goddess, I quickly realized I was enjoying this book more than its predecessor, Devil's Kiss. I liked the foil between Billi's past and Vasilisa's initial concerns. I liked Ivan (one of Billi's new Russian friends in the Bogatyrs) as a love interest. I understood the tensions Billi had with him more more easily than I'd ever understood what was going on between Billi and Kay.

Generally, it was easier easier to get into Dark Goddess than I did Devil's Kiss. In this book, I already knew where the characters stood with one another, so it was easier to ease into the drama and adventure.

I did have a little trouble with Billi's redefined relationship with her father. In the first book, their difficult relationship was at the heart of the novel. Toward the end of that book, I learned more about why their relationship was so pained. Devil's Kiss did leave the possibility of some resolution. My issue with Dark Goddess was that from the beginning of the sequel, Billi and her father seemed *so* much better. The narration doesn't address their past conflicts. I really wanted the book to address that they had changed, that Billi was adjusting to her kinder, more humorous dad.

Dinner Conversation:

"The rottweiler's head lay in a bush, just off the snow-sprinkled path. The boy was several yards farther, its chest carved open so the ribs stuck out of the skin like a row of gruesome lollipops.
Billi covered her face with her sleeve. The cold night air was fresh with January frost, but the corpse stank of spilt intestines. The dog was, had been, brutishly big, but its size had not saved it from being torn apart" (p. 1).

"They'd been hunting the werewolf for over four months, following its bloody trail from Cornwall, Devon, through the southeast, all the way to here--Thetford Forest in East Anglia. Thirteen dead across five counties. Werewolves were territorial and only went off reservation if they were hunting something, or someone, very special" (p. 3).

"The werewolves would call her a Spring Child. They believe the goddess will reward them with a good spring and bountiful hunting if they sacrifice Oracles to her during the full moon. The spirit of the child is taken by the goddess, renewing her, and the body is eaten by the pack.
Good God," whispered Mordred.
"They're called the Unholy for a reason," replied Billi" (pp. 35-36).

"Billi knew she should feel differently by now. But there was a hollowness inside her that nothing filled. No matter how much she trained, how hard she fought, the emptiness only seemed to grow. She'd cared too much, and only realized how she felt after he'd gone.
Never again.
She sat in the kitchen, looking at the tray Lance had left.
Elaine was too soft. But then she could afford to be: she wasn't a Templar.
Billi had her priorities, and looking after a little girl was way, way down on the list. Her job was to fight the Bataille Tenebreuse, the Dark Conflict. There was no room for weakness" (p. 41) show less