The Reckoning by Alma Katsu

Man's love of man's life a thing apart, 'tis woman's whole existence. -Byron

Why I read this book?

This is the second book in The Taker Trilogy. I read the first one for last year's R.I.P challenge and so I waited for this year's R.I.P to continue Lanore's story. Also it makes part of my Sequel Challenge. 

What's the book about?

If you haven't read the first book I suggest you stop reading right now. During The Taker we learned the tragic and painful (literally full of pain) story of Lanore and how she became immortal, lost the love of her life and trapped the "evil" man that did all of this to her. She left America with Luke, who left everything behind just to follow her. In this book Adair has escaped his prison and is thirsty for revenge. Lanore will now try to hide or at least find a way to escape the punishment that surely awaits.  

What about the main character?

In The Reckoning we have a lot of recurrent characters and we learn a bit more about their back stories. However, the main characters remain both Lanore and Adair. Lanore acts as determined as she did, back at the Taker, she know what has to be done and she will do it, even if it means hurting others, since she can't hurt herself (at least physically). I was surprised about the...let's call it evolution of Adair's character. As he sees himself with different eyes so do we. And not to give away anything, but OMG the end!!!!!

Final thoughts

He observed over the centuries that what made a person old was when they could no longer keep up with change. It's the beginning of the end, though few recognize it as such at the time

I have to say, I quite enjoyed the dual point of view in this book. Learning a bit more about the side characters was a big plus, for it makes a lot of actions in both books more understandable. Once again, the descriptions and hints about torture were bone chilling, but just made me want to read faster to know what was going to happen next. One thing that gave extra points in this one was Lanore's traveling. I love it when a book takes me to a different scenery. I can't wait for the final installment. in the mean time, I got the e-book for The Witch Sisters, a short story about Adair's past.