Review: Awaken by Meg Cabot (Abandon Trilogy #3)

Title: Awaken by Meg Cabot

Published: July 2^nd, 2013 by Point

Source: ARC from BEA

Format: Paperback

Genre:  Paranormal / Romance / Mythology

Age group: Young adult

Challenge(s): Finish the Series

Grade rate: B

Death has her in his clutches. She doesn’t want him to let go. Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera knew by accepting the love of John Hayden, she’d be forced to live forever in the one place she’s always dreaded most: the Underworld. The sacrifice seemed worth it, though, because it meant she could be with the boy she loves. But now her happiness — and safety — are threatened, all because the Furies have discovered that John has broken one of their strictest rules: He revived a human soul. If the balance between life and death isn’t fixed, both the Underworld and Pierce’s home back on earth will be wiped away. But there’s only one way to restore order. Someone has to die.

My Review

Even though I wasn’t impressed with Abandon (see my review here), the first book of the trilogy, I’m glad I continue reading because it did get better and better.  Awaken a pretty good conclusion to the series.

Awaken starts right after the end of Underworld (see my review here) and finds Pierce helping John with his work in the Underworld and of course, the furies have not given up in making their life hell (pun intended).  Pierce and John continue to be very much in love and even though they have to deal with a lot, they stick together and learn about each other in the process.  Pierce grew a significantly from the hesitant, whining girl of the first book, into a more confident and powerful young woman.  On the other hand, John learned to compromise and taking Pierce’s feelings into account.  I love his protectiveness of her.

Alex keeps being annoying, obtuse and egocentric and quite frankly I dislike him to almost the end.  I’m glad that something good happened to the poor guy.  Kayla is also in the Underworld (temporarily) and seems to be getting along very nicely with Frank, a strapping pirate type guy from John’s crew.  Pierce’s parents have a bit of the spotlight in this one and I’m happy that the cat is out of the bag, it makes life a lot simpler (to all the teens reading this, please take note).

I have to say (it’s my civic duty!) that the blub doesn’t do the book justice.  The fact that Pierce and John revived a soul is not as significant and prominent as it sounds here.  However, someone sort of dies, which was a big unexpected surprise.  As it happens often in the series, the dead have a tendency of not staying that way and the problem gets fixed shortly (and thankfully) after.  The plot is action packed and full of twists and turns and an overabundance of furies. 

The ending was neat and all loose ends were tied.  I’m happy with it and I hope that Pierce and John are too :)

A few quotes for you:

“It isn’t funny,” John said. “ You kissed him on purpose just to annoy me. So do you know what I get to do now?” He stopped pacing and pointed to himself. “I get to kiss someone – whoever I want – just to annoy you.” …

“All right,” I whispered, rubbing his hand across my check. “You get one free kiss…whomever you want.”

“What if who I want to kiss is you? he asked.

“ I think that can be arranged,” I said.

“You don’t know my parents,” I said. “I’ve been trying to tell them the truth about you since the day I died and met you, and all it’s gotten me is a lot of appointments with a bunch of shrinks.  They are not going to believe the truth about you, and they are not going to let me be with you.”

On the landing, John caught hold of my arm, then turned me around to face him.

“Pierce,” he said, looking down into my eyes and smiling, as he smoothed a dark curl of hair from my forehead. “They can’t stop us from being together. And they will believe you. Because I’m here with you. You’re not alone anymore.”

About the cover: These covers are all beautiful and this one is my favorite. It’s so soft, gentle and projects love.