Endless Knight: Arcana Chronicles, Book 2

Endless Knight is all around one of the most intensely addicting and perfectly executed YA's I have ever read. It just knocks all the other books off the shelf. After I read Poison Princess—which I thought was exceptional—I was nervous. Apprehension arose because I loved the first novel so much that anything that followed after would either have to be superior, equivalent, or a giant let down. Luckily the sequel outdid itself in every possible way. Endless Knight's epic labyrinthine story continues and it's rooted in darkness, drama, deception, action, and seduction.Evie Greene sheds all pretenses when she accepts her role as the Empress and embraces all her deadly powers. As she reveals her true self to Jackson and the others he struggles to come to grips with her betrayal. Now that the Hermit, Arthur, is out of the game there's still many other Major Arcana lying in wait. It's only a matter of time before they cross paths with more dangerous opponents. Evie, Jackson, Matthew, Finn, and Selena realize that by aligning with each other they may have a chance to survive a game that only Death is the victor of. The other alliances grow stronger by the second and they all have one mutual goal—to win. Death stalks Evie around every corner and she vows to destroy him to end his killing spree, and change the fated outcome of all the tarot players.The Evie of the past is gone and replaced with a cunning, lethal beauty who assumes the role of leader over her group of allies. She's fearless and a force who won't go down without a bloody fight. As she searches for her grandmother, and travels with the others she learns more about the game. Everything from players, powers to weaknesses and she exploits them to her advantage. Her stuck-up attitude and annoying behavior doesn't make a single appearance in this book, hallelujah! She's super powerful, a little frightening, and a totally amazing heroine who can wreak havoc with her abilities. Her Empress form reminds me of Poison Ivy from the comics, and those similarities only beckon me to like her more. I'm awed over her villainous transformation, and the raging urge for her to kill everyone. She battles her very nature and sometimes she wins and sometimes she loses. I'm definitely one of those readers that cheers for the corruption and dark-side of the hero/heroine to come out. I love to see a character torn apart only to be reassembled again and emerge stronger than before.In Poison Princess I may have sported a fictional crush on the spicy Cajun Jackson but Death, oh Death, is my knight in shining ebony armor. His role in the first novel was small compared to his significance in Endless Knight. He's the ultimate bad guy bent on killing the Empress. He singles her out by warning all the other Arcana that her death will be at his hands, and from there it's a wild turn of events. Death is flawless without even a fissure of weakness. He's also fatally hot, I dare say hotter than Jackson. The first half you see a little of him and he's still a mystery but by the end you start to understand him, and his reasons for being the way that he is. It's shocking and a crazy-amazing plot twist. Evie and Jackson have their chemistry but Death and Evie have an infernal attraction that's hard to resist. There is an arsenal of secrets that you'll never see coming and it turns the story inside-out. There are little clues that hint at answers but their so cleverly disguised until the revelation of each. You're kept guessing the entire time!What makes Endless Knight one of the best books is the original concept, the history and intricately weaved details, the completely developed world, and the beautifully imagined characters. I was expecting to swoon over Jack and instead I was riveted by Death. Cole knows how to turn the tables around on you. The ending leaves you hanging with a brutal cliffhanger that will make you wish you were a time traveler. When the next installment Dead of Winter releases it'll be one of the rare few times I'll purchase it the day it hits the shelves!All in all this sequel brings more intriguing Arcana into the mix with bagmen and cannibals closing in, with plenty of Death to go around. Cole has forever won me over with her writing and artistry. Endless Knight has turned me into a total wreck. I can't pick up another book without this one creeping into my mind and whispering "you won't find another like it". If I thought reading the sequel made me nervous I'm now horrified about my feels for the third, but at this point I'm going to shake it off and know that whatever Cole writes it'll be another favorite. Endless Knight is an emotionally captivating tornado and one you'll be glad you're caught up in. An endless night of reading awaits! This series is upper YA best suited for 15+ for its violence, language, and sexual material.

KC IS AMAZING!

SOME SPOILERS AHEADWarning: Do not start this book if you have a full day of classes ahead of you. In a fit of impatience and naivety, I attempted just that -- only to spend the rest of the afternoon with fingers fidgeting towards my book bag and the new release inside. Instead of, you know, taking notes or even doodling in the margins of my notebook. If college could have conveniently dropped out of existence for the day, I honestly think I would have spent the entire day, cocooned under my covers, reading.Endless Knight, the second novel of Kresley Cole's Arcana Chronicles, picks up right from where the first book left off. Rather than jumping forward even a few days, Cole brings the reader right back into the thick of the aftermath of Evie's fight with Arthur - her emotional distress, her growth, her confusion. And, of course, Jack's reaction. 
In other words, slow as Poison Princess might have been in the beginning, Endless Knight follows no such formula.

 Still, the first half or so of Endless Knight read fairly similarly to the second half of Poison Princess - very dark, very action-heavy, and very sexy. The second half, however, (while still dark and, at times, blush-inducing) took a turn into slower pacing. And possibly Greek mythology.I've seen a lot of young adult books advertised as retellings of the myth of Hades and Persephone. Endless Knight - to the best of my knowledge - has never been promoted as such; yet it was by far the best adaption of the tale I've read. Possibly because it's a sequel; nothing felt forced or rushed about Evie's abduction. And, better yet, we got to know Evie long before she was stolen away to Death's domain. Poison Princess gives scarce few hints that its sequel would mold to the familiar shape of Hades and Persephone, but they're waiting for you when you look back.Nor does it hurt that Endless Knight isn't actually all that much of a young adult novel (a genre to which the darkness of Persephone's story has never seemed all that well-suited to me). Evie may be a teenager and the style of Cole's writing may occasionally twist - unnaturally in my opinion - into teen slang and such, but the latest Arcana Chronicles installment reads much more like a New Adult novel. Partly because of the dark nature of the novel. Mostly because of the sex. Hint: there's no convenient "fade to black" when clothing moves into heaps on the floor.Sorry. Tangent. Anyhow, I don't think I've gotten around to saying this yet, but Endless Knight was amazing. I had absurdly high expectations of it, and it completely met every last one of them (well, except for the one where Evie and Jack stay together forever and never part and live happily ever after in the second book). The world was still beautifully and terrifyingly written - dark and unique and overwhelming. I didn't think it was possible for Cole's post-apocalyptic world to turn into any more of a nightmare, but lo and behold it did. Probably because of the cannibals.
The character development was equally wonderful. I've always loved Evie as a protagonist, as she has always been believable and relatable even in - especially in - her brattiest moments. She's at her best so far in Endless Knight. Cole paces out Evie's growth, both in terms of strength and personality, so wonderfully that, even as she rises into clearly non-human territory, she's still as relatable as ever.I was also glad to see more development of the minor characters. Selena was much more understandable than I ever found her in Poison Princess. Finn was still hilarious. Matthew was still - I don't actually know quite what the word for Matthew is, but he, nevertheless, is as crazy, confusing, and well-written as ever. Jack, much to my pleasure, is still aggravating, believable, and utterly sexy. Even better, Cole reveals two major secrets that he's been keeping, both of which helped the reader - or at least this reader - to understand him better. I have mixed feelings over how this was revealed and how Evie responded, but, for the most part, I found this twist fairly well executed. Do I wish Jack had more of a presence during said twist? Well, yeah. I pretty much always want more Jack. Cole does manage to include a scene though, despite his separation from Evie, in which we see how he takes the news that Death told her what he was keeping from her. Glimpses like that of Jackson strengthened the narrative a lot; without them, seeing him again in the next book could easily have felt sudden, and the reveal of what he was doing while apart from Evie info-dumpy.As much as I'd love to continue raving about Jack, I should probably mention the new main character introduced in Endless Knight -- Death. Given his backstory with Evie, Death (also known as Aric) actually makes a believable love interest. Cole fleshes him out and - thank goodness - gives him more development than a mere shell of mystery.

Overall, if you liked Poison Princess, I'd highly recommend picking up Endless Knight when you got a chance (by which I mean right now). If you didn't, then, I wouldn't rush to the bookstore to grab a copy. The same things that bothered you about the first novel will likely still be an issue. And if you haven't read either novels, but have a preference for novels of the paranormal, dystopian, or romantic sort, I'd definitely give this series a try.

Wow, Wow, Wow! An absolutely gripping, speed page turning, engrossing and late night/sleepless night reading book! I honestly can't think of a better way to describe how hooked from page one I was with this book and how very very tired I was getting up with my son the following morning after only a couple of hours sleep from having sat up reading the book and literally being unable to put it down until I had finished reading it! If you haven't read the first installment in the series  Poison Princess: The Arcana Chronicles  then I can only recommend this series totally and urge you to read it. Another fantastic book/series from Kresley Cole and right up there now on a favourite book series setting for me with her Immortals After Dark series. I received this book a few days later than the publication date due to an issue with Amazon not sending it to me on the actual date and after lots of emails between us to get this sorted out asap I finally received it and have devoured it within 24 hours of receipt. I am very annoyed with Amazon for the delay but enough about Amazon and on to the actual book:-The concept of the series centers on the 22 Major Arcanum cards in Tarot (The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Justice, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Strength, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World) and that these are actual real people who after a world changing destructive event are left to battle it out to the death until there is only one survivor, whom as a prize for winning becomes immortal until the next 'round' begins. The current leader and winner is the Death card or rather the person who represents Death.Book 1 Spoliers to follow:-The book picks up right where the last book ends and it seems that there is no pause or break between all of the action of the story which I think is another reason that this book totally drew me in, as you find yourself having to turn the next page to find out what happens as you just can't bear to leave it at the many mini cliffhangers that present themselves. We meet up with Evie, Jackson, Selena, Matthew and Finn right after Evie's battle with The Alchemist and his timely and wholly necessary (in my opinion) demise. Evie is struggling to rein the part of her that is The Empress in and to return to herself as Evie however the way that Jackson is looking at her is a stark reminder of how shocking she must appear. Evie having made her first kill also changes the dynamic immediately as she is a mark up on everyone else and now more of a threat, however the gang decide to agree to a truce until they have taken Death out together. The truce along with the sudden appearance of a whole lot of Bagmen (people who have been mutated into Zombie like creatures who crave water whether that is real water or from other alive humans' blood) makes the gang seek shelter within the basement of The Alchemist's old house however just as the threat of the Bagmen subsides the following day they then have an unwanted appearance from three other Arcana. After their altercation with the three Arcana they then have to flee for their lives from an unprecedented amount of Bagmen hot on their heels, who it then becomes apparent are actually tracking the gang by their scent. Forced on into the hills where the cannibals live and rumours of another Arcana called The Hierophant being the cannibals leader, along with the constant threat of Death being after them and then throw in some Militia for fun it is non stop action and page turning events one after another. Evie also has another problem in that Jackson can't bear to look at her or be near her since seeing her transform into The Empress and despite everyone baying for her blood, this is the closest issue to her heart. So will they escape the Bagmen, Cannibals, Militia and Death and if they manage to escape is there any hope whatsoever for her and Jackson?......As I have said above I absolutely loved this book and was drawn in straight away despite it having been a year since the last book. This book has a slightly more 'adult' feel to it than the first one and this being partly down to a couple of love scenes along with the graphic nature and darkness of the Cannibal and Bagmen element this time around. Just when I though that Jackson was the most amazing man around for Evie along comes Aric and his and Evie's secret from the past which totally blew Jackson to pieces for me. Totally heartbreaking Aric and his 'issue' and past with Evie had me rooting for him when I never would have thought when reading the first book that anyone but Jackson would do. I am so upset that it will probably be another year before the next in the series is released (Poison Princess was a year ago) and I shall be pre-ordering asap so please Kresley can you write a bit faster and get the book out sooner?!! Also the book was left on such a cliffhanger!!! Amazing series and definitely on my favourite series list now. Poison Princess: The Arcana Chronicles

This is the second book in this series, first being Poison Princess.I must admit it was the cliff-hanger from that book that had me waiting for this one to be released,this new world of Arcana is very interesting there lots going on in this world.I will also admit I nearly gave up on this series, not because of the story or lack of action as there's plenty,it's the sickly and unhealthy relationship of Evie and Jack,Evie wanting jack to just except her, kiss her, and fall in love with her. Then pining him even when he was verbally abusing her ?Jack, yes I know he's supposed to be the deep dark Brodie type; but to me he's rude, obnoxious, badly in need of anger-management and a liar, I can say more but will not. So yes, I nearly gave up as this was hard to read.BUT THEN, BAM WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPEREND ?????? What was I thinking to give up on this series?Evie gets kidnapped by Death and its like reading a totally different book altogether.And without giving away spoilers, this book becomes an amazing read! I found my self laughing, my heart racing, and a big lump in my throat.I will say no more :-)

I read all 3 books that are out together at once and so this review will be pretty much the same for all of them. I am a hugh fan of Kresley Cole's Immortals after dark series. I knew that these books were aimed at a younger audience (im not a teen) I thought the idea, plot and the prose were all first class. I actually enjoyed them more than some of the IAD series. Here we have a group of teens all with special powers that are based upon the Major cards or characters in a pack of Tarot cards, the major arcana. Its about their fight against each other, their alliances their survival in a post apocalyptic world and their love too. There is of course a lead protagonlist. (been a while I have forgotten her name) and a love interest (Jack) The pacing is perfect, I was gripped from the first few pages, The only thing I can fault is that actually this story is not finished. There will be a book 4. I hate that. I dont want to wait, I want it now.

Amazing storyline, fascinating book! I loved the first one but Endless Knight was absolutely breath-taking. When is the next one coming out? ???? I really cannot wait!

I loved the first book and loved the beginning of this book too but have to say did not like the scenes with Death as I felt betrayed for Jack. I love Jackson he is such an intense and alpha male and his love for Evie is so palpable that I find myself sighing at their every scene together. I feel sorry for Death and he does sound like a sexy character but he is in no way anywhere near Jackson's hotness I really hope Evie does not go through with what Death wants in the last scene as I love her and it would totally diminish my feelings towards her if she betrays Jack I already feel angry at her for having feelings for Death after everything Jack has done for her. Team Jack all the way!!