Rating: 
Summary: Desperately in need of an editor
Review:
This book has all the elements of a bad novel.
First: No one apparently proof read this book before it was published. It's full of spelling and grammar mistakes, the main character's name changes several times etc...
Second: It is excruciatingly redundant. There's this blue fog. It's blue on the first page. It's blue on the last page.
It's blue on every page in the middle. Wiccan's are good, satanists are bad. On every page. Don't worry if you don't get it the first fifty times, it will be explained over and over to you.
Third: There's nothing really sexy about it. It's not enough to tell readers that something is seductive... show them!
In short, the novel is an insult to the intelligence (and literacy skills) of readers.
Rating: 
Summary: even under a different name
Review: Heather grahams work shines through once again. She can't hide behind another name as she continues to write her stories. Shannon drake is a great name. But the stories that unfold, like this book, as well as many others are beyond. I can never put down a book i read by shannon drake(heather graham) And thats hard because i have 3 kids!
Rating:
Summary: I'm a Glutton for Punishment.
Review: At the end of my comments on Realm of Shadows, I said I would never read another Shannon Drake book again. I'm such a sadist that I decided to try this one when I found it in a used book store. ACK! I was never a fan of Shannon Drake to begin with (though I read all of her vampire romances and parts of her historicals), but I can see this is book where she really jumps the shark. It seems that she has slowly been moving away from romance in her last couple of books and more towards general fiction or horror. Frankly, that's really going to alienate the romance fans that have been following her over the years under this name and as Heather Graham. I doubt she's going to find a very receptive audience among horror fiction readers. Drake proved in her first vampire romance book Beneath a Blood Red Moon that she can be a fair romance writer, but the last couple of books have shown that as a horror novelist she is pathetically, hideously bad.
The book isn't a complete waste of time if you're into the stupid camp horror that you find in 70's B-flicks. Then again this book lacks the gore factor to please that audience too. The Awakening trots out the ding-bats caught in a Conspiracy of Darkness plot that Drake is so fond of again. This time some Satanists are manipulating this overly-complex web so they can resurrect a demon to suit their one-demensional motives. It certainly is a nice change of supernatural window dressing compared to her increasingly silly and tired vampire yarns.
To set the scene, Drake pulls out every horror cliche she can think of: fog, looming darkness, cursed graveyards, troubling dreams, an old man who pratically screams "It's evil! Evil I tells ya! EEEEVIIIIILLL!" Too bad none of these elements are used effectively. Thought I am impressed they she didn't try to work the Necronicon in here somewhere.
The characters are another problem. They lack distinctive personalities. The main characters are Finn and Megan. They are a young married couple. They love each other, but they've been having some marriage troubles. What kind of troubles? I don't know. Seeing as Drake is trying to make some statement about how love and trust overcomes obstacles- even pure evil- it just doesn't work when the conflict that threatens to tear them apart isn't fleshed out. Megan is cardboard flat, and only trait that compelling sexy Finn displays is his ability to be a condescending butthead. In the last quarter of the book, Drake tries to cram into all the characters from his last four books to help fight the great evil. If you haven't been following the series you'll have no idea who these people are and they seem to be there without rhyme or reason. The secondary characters' personalities are so monotone that if you just read the dialogue bits, you'd be unable to tell them apart.
But the books biggest problem is that it is nearly 500 pages long, but it's padded to heck and back. The proses are longwinded and repetative. The details of the Salem witch trials are hashed and rehashed. Megan insists that Wiccans can't do evil at least once a chapter. And Drake won't let you forget that men do evil. Maybe the biggest thing that irked me, is that very little happens in the way to warn the characters that something bad is on the way. Maybe an unexplained murder or too would have done the trick, but Drake wants us to buy into her premise because it's scary and foggy and we feel it in our bones. The people who want Megan and Finn to believe in this demon resurection thingy but offer little in the way of proof, and just say that because a handfull of superstitious nitwits believe or once believed in demons, hey, it must be true! If not for Drake hammering again and again about fog and evil, I would just think that many of these characters are fools who got sucked into some Halloween fantasy gone too far.
This is a bad,bad book, but strangely enough, I'm curious to see if Drake's next one is even worse!
Rating:
Summary: What a let-down!
Review: By the time I reached page 150 or so and STILL didn't know what was going on, I was ready to put down the book. The only thing that stopped me was a mention of Jade DeVeau, the heroine from 'When Darkness Falls'. Even that wasn't enough to keep me going past page 200.I expected this to be another vampire book, and it's not. I expected it to be a romance, and it's not. I expected it to be good, and, well......
Rating:
Summary: Tedious and disappointing
Review: I agree with several other reviewers about this disappointing book. It took forever to get the plot established, and then just plodded along. First, I don't like stories where the hero and heroine are already or quickly married. I like the conflict between the two main characters as well as the struggle they both have in determining they love each other. If you are considering reading/buying this book, know up front it is NOT a romance book. It's more horror/mystery. The horror part is mild, admittedly, but it's still one for those who prefer to be tantalized with a "Who Done It" rather than for those who enjoy Vampire Romances. I'd anticipated this book for quite some time and was bitterly disappointed in the whole plot. Finn and Megan are married, yet for some unexplained reason they argue, she leaves him and goes home to her family. He follows and a series of bizzare happenings are set in motion. They reconcile, but you still know there is basic mistrust and jealousy coloring their interaction. It is stated over and over that Finn loves Megan, Megan loves Finn et al, but you don't ever see any real evidence of this love. This is part of the tedious area that frustrated me. I also did not like the political correctness the author used when mentioning Wicca. I believe in each person's right to chose their own type of worship, but the constant emphasis on Wiccans not being evil or satanists really grated on my nerves. To me there was not enough emphasis on true religion to counteract the satanists. It was almost as if the author was mocking organized religion and the many faithful followers that make worship a part of their daily lives. I really hate it when characters dismiss God and church, then wind up later praying for solutions to the problem they find themselves in. Bringing in other characters from the series also confuses the plot. This is the 5th in her Vampire series, and even though I've read all the previous ones, I still was confused about who was who until almost the last part of the book. The big finale, was basically a bust to me. It was built up to all through the book, then fizzled at the end, thanks to all the supernatural/paranormal help Finn and Megan got from the other series characters. The only redeeming portion was when Megan was calling to Finn and her "love" called him back from the dark powers. For those of you who have only read this one book by Shannon Drake, please at least try the others in the series. I'd recommend borrowing them from a library. Believe me, the previous 4 books are really well written. I guess even the best authors turn out a dud once in a while.
Rating: 
Summary: I should have listened to the other reviewers
Review: I am a big Shannon Drake Fan and have read every book. I ordered the book even with all the negative reviews. I am two weeks into the book and am slowly plodding thru it. (I normally read 1-2 books a week). This is not Shannon's best........I do not recommend it for first time readers of Shannon's work, but if you are true fan you'll pick it up and read it...........
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and tedious
Review: I am usually a fan of Ms. Drake's. Although I find most of her books take a long time to "get going", I am usually rewarded with a wonderful story and an ending that comes too quickly. The Awakening however not only takes forever to get going, but ultimately it goes nowhere!!!! I kept hoping it would get better and there would be a story worth reading, but....no. When I finally finished it, I was left disappointed and discouraged. Don't waste your time on this one. You will do much better with one of her earlier novels.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I found this to be one of Ms. Drake's most tedious paranormals. It took ages to get the plot moving. We were constantly told of the fog and dreams and how evil the hero was and on and on it went. When the ending came, and it came quickly, it was a relief. It seemed that Ms. Drake realized she was out of space and quickly brought the story to a conclusion. The ending was totally unworthy of the investment of time you put in. I wouldn't recommend this book. It really isn't consistent with her other paranormals.
Rating: 
Summary: I really enjoyed this book!
Review: I loved Megan and Finn, and I felt as if Shannon Drake really captured the essence of the streets of Salem and spookiness that surrounds Halloween. Drake's writing is very visual, and allows the reader to picture the scenes of Salem during their most exciting time of year! The book is a fun, suspenseful, and intriguing book.
Rating:
Summary: Contrary to all others
Review: I loved this book. It's the first Shannon Drake novel I've ever read, but I immediately loved both Finn and Megan. I liked the depth between them and the way the author kept us guessing who was really the satanists.
The first part did drag a bit, but once you get towards the end you realize there was a reason she had to tell the backstory, and a reason for the tension between the two main characters.
I hope to see more of Finn and Megan and definitely advise anyone looking for a good mystery with some romance to pick this up and read it.
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