Invincible

The second installment of the Chronicles of Nick series is just as good as the first one, Infinity. Invincible continues the story of Nick Gautier's teenage years with a little glimpse in the future. You get to spend one more day with fun, sarcastic Nick and his new friends. I love this Nick, the Nick we got to meet in the beginning of the Dark Hunter series, right before his death, before his anger and his need to punish the one person he trusted most changed him. Nick isn't the type of teenager that fits in or the one who could be invisible. You can't pretend he's not there. I think he's the perfect mixture between the fun, easygoing guy and the smartest kid in the class. Because, let's face it, Nick is very smart, even though he show more doesn't always use his head. I also love the relationship he has with his mother and how even though he's not very proud of her job, he's proud that he's her son and she defends her every chance he gets. And you can see it's genuine, he's not doing it for show or to get something out of it. Like in the first book, he'd rather wear a weird-looking T-shirt at school and take all the mockery his classmates throw at him, than see her mother suffer because he refuses to wear it.

I think this book helped me understand the first book better. For those of you who've read the Dark Hunter series, you know that in Infinity Nick meets a character he's not supposed to meet yet. That was very confusing for me at first, but then the little glimpse in the future we get in this book helped me understand that this series is not only a story of how Nick became a Squire, but it's more a series about redeeming yourself and about the changes you would make if you could turn back and how that would affect you. I just wished I'd caught on earlier :P

I also love the fact that we get to meet some of the characters and how they were before the Dark Hunter series. We get to see more of their backgrounds and how they got to be what they are in the Dark Hunter world . We get to see Kyrian again, which is always a pleasure. We also see Ash in his "mysterious" days, back when his story wasn't yet told and when the mystery surrounding him was getting bigger and bigger with every book. And we get inside the Sanctuary and meet the Peltiers. I do hope we get to see more of them in the following books.

And the new characters are awesome. I loved Bubba! He sounds like a computer tech I could probably have a real conversation with about why my computer is damaged and not look at him with a blank look on my face while he's explaining me technical stuff.

There is one thing that I'm hoping to change about Nick's life, a character's future. I can't say much, because it would be a major spoiler for those who haven't read the Dark Hunter books. But I'm hoping that Ambrose will help change that certain character's course.

I don't think I can say a bad thing about this book. There's nothing I didn't like. Maybe just the fact that I had to wait that long to read it, but in the end I think it was worth it. show less

Review posted here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2012/02/book-review-invincible-chronicles-of...

Oh my goodness, Invincible was just as good as the first one. I finished this audiobook immediately after Infinity a month ago. This story is still stuck in my head and book 3, Infamous, comes out in March! Another book I know will be added to my favorites list.

Invincible picks up immediately where Infinity left off. Nicks has recently found out everyone he knows is some supernatural creature of some kind. He now also knows that his mom now works for and with a whole group of them. This, of course, has Nick a little on edge. If that wasn’t enough, he is becoming friends with Death. Things seem to be looking up though; Nick is show more finally back on the football team. But it seems his new coach has drafted him for far more than playing football. Just another day in New Orleans.

It is impossible not to love this series. It is just so frakking amazing. The characters are even more incredible this time around. Nick is still to die for. A great hero, who is strong, unsure, and has a tongue too sharp for his own good. We get deeper into Kody’s story and see what her role really is in all of this. It is pretty amazing and I like that it is more complicated than I thought. I love how she questions herself when it comes to Nick. It lets us know she will fight for him to become a better man and not what he is destined to be. Definitely can’t wait to see how this will pan out.

And we get more of Nick and his mom. Like I said about Infinity, one of the most beautiful things about the book is Nick’s love for his mother. He would do anything for her, it is just so nice. He gets her get a job (with Kyrian’s help) after she loses it (because of him), but she doesn’t know she is working with supernatural creatures yet. I am looking forward to seeing how long Nick can keep this a secret from her and what her reaction would be.

I love how the plot develops in this book. Nick’s school has a new coach that wants Nick to steal from his fellow classmates. If he doesn’t, Nick may or may not die “by accident”. The coach needs very specific items from these students, not copies that could be easily bought. When we find out what it is really all about and what this coach has done to get it, it is beyond anything I could have imagined. I love where this went and what we learn. Why the hell isn’t this a tv show already or something?

I love Invincible just as much as I loved Infinity. This book was a tad more serious than the first because we get more story not only from the main characters, but some of the very memorable side characters. My favorite was the story of why Bubba watches Oprah. I was listening to this part in my car driving home and I was in tears driving down the street. You literally go from crying one second to laughing the next. If you haven’t read anything from Kenyon, I urge you to. This is truly all I could ask for in a book and the fact that it is YA makes it even better. And as I said in my Infinity review, get the audiobook for the amazing narrator Holter Graham. If you are reading this, can you marry me? show less

The second book in Kenyon's young adult series "The Chronicles of Nick" starts exactly where the first left off, with Nick suddenly noticing that his new boss, Kyrian, has elongated teeth. Is he a vampire? Something worse? If that wasn't enough to worry about, Nick finds out that there's a new principal, a new coach, his new powers unleashed but unschooled, and a rash of thefts at school for which he is the prime suspect as the poor scholarship student.

These books are the sort of fluffy fun I enjoy when life is hectic. Nick is fourteen and a smart-talking, sarcastic New Orleans native. The story is fantasy - involving demons, zombies, and the world of the Dark Hunters - but set in our world rather than a magical one. This is a quick show more read and funny and not too complicated, and essentially fit the bill for what I was in the mood for in the moment. show less

Book 2 of the Chronicles of Nick picks up right after the events of book 1. Nick is slowly realizing that he is surrounded by beings that only seem human, and that most of them want him dead. This, however, doesn't make him any less of a smart-ass. Nick also learns that he is fated to destroy the world unless something seriously changes and begins to suspect that his “Uncle” Ambrose might not be who he says he is.

Fast-paced and a lot of humor, but Kenyon takes care to deepen some of her characters along the way, lending some depth to the story. Nick is a fourteen-year old boy, which means that at various points in the book, everybody (the reader included) wants to smack him, but he has a good heart and it's easy to root for him.

Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Another fast-paced, hysterically witty addition to an already fascinating spin off series. We see more characters we love from Kenyon’s other books, but there is a lot of build up to this plot that makes most of the plot twists obvious to a careful reader.

Opening Sentence: They say when you’re about to die, you see your entire life flash before your eyes.

The Review:

This is the second installment in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s spin off and prequel young adult series about Nick Gautier, but she does a great job explaining everything. You don’t have to read the Dark Hunters series to understand what’s happening, which is great because they’re written for two totally different show more audiences. Both of the books are fast paced and between them only a few days actually happen, though it does seem longer. Invincible picks up right where Infinity left off, so you definitely have to read them in order for the series to make any sense.

There’s a lot up in the air in this book. Nick’s trying to deal with the zombie attacks and his new supernatural powers, the new friends he’s making because of these powers, and his relationship with his mother who he loves more than anyone. If you can read this book and not fall in love with Nick Gautier it’ll be a miracle. He’s smart, funny, and always has the perfect (usually smart ass) comeback. As the hero of this series, Nick’s perfect because he’s not perfect and knows it.

Nick is spending this book trying to take control of his powers with the help of Grimm (Death). Nick has to learn the 10 lessons to harness his powers as the Malachi or the entire world ends. As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, at the same time teenage boys are dying all around the city and Nick seems to be being stalked. Given the zombie catastrophe that struck the school in Infinity, they’ve hired a new football coach–and Nick’s not sure he’s all that he says he is.

This book has a lot more characterization than Infinity, which made for a number of touching moments for the reader. The witty conversation reveals a lot about the characters, even as it helps move the plot forward. And the plot isn’t what you’d expect of a vampire/werewolf story. First, they aren’t really vampires, but Dark Hunters and also because it’s so involved in necromancy, ancient magic, and the gods. And zombies, we can’t forget they have zombies!

Perhaps one of the best aspects of Invincible is that Nick has grown up. The annoying boy from the first book is gone, and Nick is ready to head into this supernatural world to keep his mom safe. It was an incredibly easy book to read, probably because the plot line was so action packed and the characters so much fun. It was constructed a lot better than the first book where the author was trying to keep secrets from the reader and only succeeded in making it more confusing.

But be warned: There are cliffhangers! You’re going to be dying for the third book when you finally get to put this one down. It’s going to be hard to wait for the third book, Infamous, which hits shelves February 1, 2012.

Notable Scene:

It took him a moment to realize Death was speaking to him. ”What?”

“Do. You. Want. A. Cookie?”

He could have done without the tone that said Death thought he was a moron.

When Death offers you a cookie, or anything else, refuse.

Yeah,that definitely seemed like the wisest course of action.

Chronicles of Nick Series:

1. Infinity

2. Invincible

3. Infamous

FTC Advisory: St. Martin’s Griffin provided me with a copy of Invincible. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less

This was a easy quick read. It wasn't as involved in the DH characters of old and maybe that is why I didn't like it as much as the first but both were 4 1/2 stars, just this one was on the lower side. I enjoyed it greatly and am finding that getting to know Nick is more interesting than I thought it would be. Still I can see after several of these, I will tire of the series. I'm sure Kenyon will take it on some arc or another but that has a 50/50 hit or miss probability as that is what happened with the DH after about 8 or 10 books. Well complaining before it even comes out is not fair really but... one book a year?

OK, really good UF story and story line. The background story is growing but we don't feel to much like a cliffhanger show more because we DH fans know what is coming... more or less. I just had one issue with the story line here and that was Grim. I don't understand why Nick takes Grim at his word and trusts him. Why has he not discussed Grim with any of the other people around him? Even so I would recommend this to any DH fan.

Two books down, so far so good. show less

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

This series is a blast! Sherrilyn Kenyon continues to reinvent the character of Nick Gautier (made famous in her adult paranormal romance series, Dark-Hunter) by turning back the clock to when he was a teenager and allowing him (and those around him) to make different decisions that then ripple out and change his future/history in several key ways. It’s brilliant really because this approach allows both old and new readers to fully embrace the Chronicles of Nick series as a completely separate, yet complimentary, entity.

Nick is once again the same completely self-deprecating character that charmed me in INFINITY. He’s got more friends this time and he’s beginning to scratch the surface of show more his formidable powers, but he still deals with bullies, his smothering mother, and girl troubles (why is the most popular girl in school suddenly into him?). He also has several new problems to juggle including magic tutoring from Death, a new football coach who literally wants to kill him, and hoards of demons who are trying to collect on the newly placed bounty on his head. Never a dull moment for Nick.

Not quite as good as INFINITY, but still excellent in it's own right, INVINCIBLE is a great read for any age and any sex. While you don’t need to have read the Dark-Hunter series to enjoy this book (and those are definitely not YA), you probably do need to read INFINITY first since INVICIBLE picks up immediately after the events from that book and Kenyon doesn’t waste time rehashing what’s already happened. No word yet on the title or release date for the next book in the Chronicles of Nick book, which frankly borders on cruel given the awesome/horrible way INVINCIBLE ended. Whatever it’s called, wherever it comes out, I’ll be reading it.

Sexual Content:
Kissing show less