That ending, oh my god! ( )

This is the fourth in the YA series the Virals. Tory and the other Virals have been involved in the trial of the Gamemaster from the last book. As a result of the solving of that crime, Ben Blue has been expelled from Bolton and is attending the local school and living with his mother on the mainland. Tory is still not speaking to him as she has not forgiven him for his betrayal. When The Gamemaster has a meltdown at the trial and blurts out what he did, he takes a plea and the trial is over. This does not give the Virals a rest. Twins Lucy and Peter Gamble have been abducted and Tory feels that they need to assist the police as they appear to be bumbling around. As they are dealing with all this, they are still trying to evade Chance Claybourne who is secretly trying to replicate Karsten's experiments for the pharmacy company he owns. Tory has finally made a female friend, Ella, who gets mixed up in the kidnapping scheme later in the story. A quick fast paced read with a great ending. Will Ben and Tory start a relationship? I guess we will wait for the next book. ( )

Here's the thing. The two stars aren't indicative that I totally disliked the book, there are things that I did like about it, but my problem with the book sort of overode how I saw the rest of it. At some point in these books the main thrust has gone from mystery/thriller to a teenage soap opera with some mystery/thriller and fantasy/SciFi accents.

It picks up a bit of time after the previous book left off. The trial of the Gamemaster with both Ben and Tori having to testify.

Of course from there they get into even more trouble. They go back to Bolton and find that a couple of their classmates, the Gables, have been kidnapped. They start looking into it and that looking only intensifies when Tori's new good friend Ellie goes missing too.

At the same time the Virals are still looking into the whys, hows and what's going to happen next with their Wolf DNA. Tori also wonders if she's going insane as she keeps feeling a connection while not flared.

But, again, all those stories just seem to be overwhelmed by the angst of Tori, the anger and angst of Ben, not to mention the Chance and Jason drama. I thought that it just drowned out what was a sort of interesting mystery/thriller plot.

I did really like the character of Ellie though, and I hope that we see her in future books or stories. It wasn't a horrible book, just not my favorite in the series. ( )

From Amazon:

When twin classmates are abducted from Bolton Prep, Tory and the Virals decide there’s no one better equipped than them to investigate. But the gang has other problems to face. Their powers are growing wilder, and becoming harder to control. Chance Claybourne is investigating the disastrous medical experiment that twisted their DNA. The bonds that unite them are weakening, threatening the future of the pack itself. The Virals must decipher the clues and track down a ruthless criminal before he strikes again, all while protecting their secret from prying eyes. And everyone seems to be watching.

My Thoughts:

I am in no way a young reader but nonetheless I greatly enjoy this series, each one just gets better. This series reminds me of a combination of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Be sure you read them in order as each one picks up where the last one stopped. This is book#4. ( )

A lot of this book felt kind of just okay to me. Since Ella is a new character I just didn't feel as invested. That being said I found the ending interesting and it pulled up the entire book for me. ( )