The Midnight Society (The Midnight Chronicles #1) by Rhonda Sermon

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

 Release Date: May 15th 2016

Summary from Goodreads:

Witness protection has a protocol for dealing with every situation—except magic. Fifteen-year-old Cate's life has been monitored since her new identity was created five years ago. She's spent countless hours learning how to deal with potential threats and dangerous situations. None of which is any use when everyone around her is suddenly frozen like statues at the bus stop. As Cate attempts to make sense of the frightening scene, a mysterious group of teenagers appear out of thin air. They are intrigued she’s not affected, but focus on completing their deadly mission, using baffling powers before they vanish again. When the group seeks her out the next day, Cate is drawn into a world filled with sorcery and time travel. After she accidentally brings a cheerleader back from the dead, her incredible powers are revealed. Cate is shocked to discover she has a pivotal role to play in a centuries-old battle between two mortal enemies which threatens to destroy her entire world.With the distinction between good and evil blurred, she’s faced with the excruciating choice ofwhich side to join. Cate can save her family or protect thousands of people from death. She can't do both. Will she risk destroying innocent lives to save the ones she loves?The Midnight Society is the first book in The Midnight Chronicles series of young adult urban fantasy novels. If you like original butt-kicking heroines, fast-paced urban fantasy action, and unpredictable time travel twists, then you’ll love Rhonda Sermon’s refreshing, entertaining series starter. The Midnight Society was originally released as Timesurfers. This book has a new name, new cover and additional content.

Buy Links:

Amazon

The Midnight Society by Rhonda Sermon…………………….I’ve got a few things to say about this Sci-fi goodie! Overall I found this to be a good start to a new series that I can see really becoming something special as the series goes forward.

The plot was nicely pace, tons of actions that kept me interested. Maybe things happened a tad too fast though? While entertaining, I felt like several situations could have benefited from being slowed down a little and getting a chance to flourish a bit more. Despite that opinion, the plot twists, touches of humor and overall fun of THE MIDNIGHT SOCIETY made this a very enjoyable book, even if it’s not one I’ll reread three or four times like other books I love. The time travel aspect of this one was nice, if not maybe a little too convenient? But major points to Rhonda for making a hard thing like time travel easy to understand, work out well for the book and feel pretty possible! But then again, when an author gets the chance to go back and retouch up stories, a lot of great things are possible

Cate and Austin are our heroes---along with a nice supporting cast of characters that definitely had unique enough personalities that it was easy to keep them straight in my head---who were overall easy to relate to and root for. Cate is most certainly one tough cookie, though she did have moments that digressed into whiny and made me want to hit her. Austin was a fun hero, but I didn’t buy the insta romance between them or the chemistry at all. (This also goes back to wanting the plot to slow down, just a tad, in a few places to give things the benefit of growing and becoming more flushed out, as I said above)

Because of the clear emphasis put on making the story flow and keep moving and changing at a dynamic pace, I felt like the author put too much importance on that and not enough on really fleshing out her world and characters. But then again, she clearly had a lot to set up for the series to get a foot hold so…….I can get past it.

Rhonda has a great voice and writing style, paired with a really nice, unique and well thought out sci-fi concept that makes me want to read the next book in this series to see how this world continues to grow.

-DynoMoon-

About the Author

Rhonda Sermon lives in the mostly sunny Perth, Western Australia with her husband and two children.  Her debut young adult urban fantasy novel Timesurfers was a finalist in the Young Adult category and overall runner up in the The Strongest Start 2012 Contest hosted by TheNextBigWriter.com.  On the good days, she adores writing, on the challenging days, it's still awesome. Her two ragdoll cats can often be found helpfully walking over her keyboard, chasing her mouse or generally complaining loudly about the lack of priority their needs are being given. She's a big Harry Potter fan, loves everything the talented Cassie Clare writes and her fav Aussie author is Jessica Shirvington. Her 11 and 13 year old children read ALL the time so she is always on the lookout for new and exciting books.