Torn

Coming in at 188 pages, Torn is a very short book that somehow still manages to feel extremely long. When we last left Lily, she had discovered that rather than working on the side of the good, she had actually been tricked into opening the 9th gate. If that were the only problem with being fooled that would be bad enough, but her sister Rose's body has been invaded by a demon. Johnson makes it clear that he the price of Rose's freedom is the Oris Clef - the key which throws open all of the gates to hell. Unfortunately another demon faction also wants the key. Deacon Camphire the demon who Lily feels inextricably attracted to wants her to abandon the search for the Oris Clef in favour of finding the one key that will lock all the doors. show more At stake for him, is the possibility of redemption.

The only thing Lily knows for sure is that she must find a way to save Rose. This is her mantra repeatedly and yet she seems to be quite willing to palm Rose off on others. She feels the urge to hunt a demon, she dumps Rose. She has a mission to go on to retrieve part of the key, she dumps Rose. It's easy to see why Deacon could suggest that maybe Rose is disposable after all.

Lily moves from one location to another attempting to gather the pieces of the key but the archangel Gabriel is stalker her. At first, she assumes that he is a demon because of the tattoos on his face but Deacon explains that he is heaven's warrior. Can Lily save her sister, and stop the gates from being opened -does she even want to?

In the first book of this series, there was a lot of world building that was absent in this story. Unfortunately, without this world building, all that is challenging about this story is erased. One of the prominent challenges in was classism. Though the story itself was not original, I enjoyed the fact that Kenner went of her way to detail how one's class location greatly effects one's life chances. Considerin that this story is extremely erased - no characters of colour, no disabled and no GLBT characters the focus on class at least added a real world element. It was further intriguing because class based issues are something that rarely gets discussing in this genre, making it one of the best things about Tainted. When Kenner stopped discussing class, she effectively got rid of the best thing about this series. Now there is absolutely nothing to differentiate it from all of the other books in this genre.

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I decided to pick up Torn after blazing through Tainted earlier this week. Torn continues the adventures of demon-hunting, butt-kicking Lily. After the earth-shattering revelations at the end of Tainted, Lily is trying to figure out her next move. This time though, Lily has her sister Rose with her, and it's time to do some serious big sister-ing. Without asking for it yet again, Lily is pulled back into the fight between good and evil and asked to find a hidden relic that would open the first eight gates of hell -and keep it from falling into demon hands. She gets help from a sexy half-demon, half-angel named Deacon, and ends up getting more involved with him than originally planned...

Torn has the same exciting, pulse-pounding action show more as Tainted, but tends to take a few more "breathers," allowing for Lily's relationship with her sister Rose, Alice's sister Rachel, Deacon and even the reader become most developed. While Torn may not have as much action as Tainted, to me it had greater characterization and brought in some elements aside from just action that gave it some more variety. I was particularly happy to see Lily's relationship with Deacon develop more, as well as to see more backlash from Lily being placed in someone else's body.

Another great addition to the paranormal romance genre, Torn's ending just wasn't as exciting as the ending to Tainted. While some interesting truths were revealed, it felt like more a "bridge" novel than anything else. This tends to be a reoccurring issue with the middle books in trilogies, so I can't blame Kenner for falling into this too-frequent trap. Despite this, Torn is a great follow-up to Tainted and a wonderful lead-in to Turned.

I definitely need to pick up Turned to see what happens to Lily. show less

I like Tainted, but I was a little underimpressed. It reminded me too much of the Signs of the Zodiac series with all the new body/sister stuff. Torn embraces its uniqueness and I loved the book for that. In Torn, Lily now knows that she has been working for the demons, after being tricked. She decides to play double agent and wants to work with demon-turned good, Deacon Camphire. A demon who raped her 14 year old sister Rose has invaded Rose's body and won't let her go unless unless Lily finds three pieces of a relic that will open all the gates that will allow billions of demons to flood the earth. Deacon wants the relic too, to keep it hidden and keep those gates stay firmly shut. Lily has to pretend to help the demon so that he show more won't hurt Rose. Added to all of this she must also keep up her pretense of being waitress Alice and act like she is still working with toady demon Clarence. Oh yeah, and there is another big bad following her everywhere. Torn could suffer middle book syndrome, where there is usually not a lot of furthering the overall plot. Instead the book has more action cramed into it than the first book. I like Lily and I like Deacon and Rose. This is important for a book to suceed. The only reason the book is a four star is that it falls a little short on the explanations. I found myself confused at times by what some relic or item was supposed to do. Also, powers come up pretty convienantly as they are needed in the story, and a lot of times as a reader I was confused how and why those powers were appearing. With Lily playing some many differnt 'roles' to hide her own agenda sometimes I got confused there also. Still there was much less of this confusion in the second book as well and it was an entertaining, engaging read. I find myself wondering if there will be more Lily books after the three originally planned. Julie Kenner has another winner I think. show less

Torn: Blood Lily Chronicles Book 2 by Julie Kenner
Amazon Product Description:

Lily is in trouble of the deepest kind. Having been tricked by the forces of evil, she killed what she thought were "demons" at will. Now, she knows better, and with a little help from half-angel, half-demon Deacon Camphire, she must try to take down the bad guys from within as a double agent.

My thoughts: (WWW: Why did I choose it, What did I like about it, What I didn't like about it)
I chose Torn because I had just finished Tainted which ends as a cliffhanger and absolutely demands that you keep reading.
What I liked about it: I fell in love with the characters, despite their flaws. By this book I was fully invested in them and couldn't wait to find out show more more. Julie Kenner builds great characters who each battle demons from within and without during the story. Each of the main players in the story have strong convictions, and they all appear to be fighting for the same conclusion, just not all for the same reasons.
My favorite character: Deacon
I also love the plot. It twists and turns, keeping you on your toes as to who is fighting for and who is fighting against the Light (one of my favorite things about the book is that so many times it seems that the characters are changing sides - or at least thinking about it).
I like how each of the books is connected together. The storyline is woven throughout the books and revisited when needed. The intro to each book is great.
What I didn't like about it: The ending! Okay, it's not that the ending was bad, just a cliffhanger!!! Every now and again I got tired of the "Everything for Rose" aspect of Lily, but I have sisters so I can understand. There were times when a little more clarity would have been nice, but not necessary to the story.
It is an all-around good read.
I would readily recommend it to either gender - - grade 9 and up. show less