Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: Untold (The Lynburn Legacy #2)
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Simon and Schuster (29th August 2013)
Blurb:

The link between Kami and Jared has been cut.
But can their bond ever be truly broken?

ON THE SURFACE, SORRY-IN-THE-VALE is a sleepy English town. But Kami Glass knows the truth. Sorry-in-the-Vale is full of magic. The Lynburns are back, and Rob Lynburn is gathering sorcerers so that the town can return to the old ways.

But Rob and his followers aren’t the only sorcerers in town. A decision must be made: pay the blood sacrifice, or fight. For Kami, this means more than just choosing between good and evil. With her link to Jared Lynburn severed, she’s now free to love who she chooses. But who should that be?

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

UNTOLD is the second book in Sarah Rees Brennan’s gothic inspired paranormal romance series THE LYNBURN LEGACY. It deals with, and starts not long after, the events of the first book in the series UNSPOKEN (review). UNTOLD follows the story of Kami Glass a would-be reporter, and her friends, as they deal with the revelation of Rob Lynburns’ plan to “bring back the old ways” – putting all non-sorcerers at risk.

To be honest, I was a little nervous about reading UNTOLD. There’s a persistent rumour on the net that reading it will break your heart and leave you on tenterhooks for the next book in the series. Brennan is a tricksy author, as those who follow her Twitter and Tumblr accounts will know, and I’m pleased to tell you that there is absolutely no untruth to the rumour 😉 In UNTOLD Sarah is at her best; humour plays a big part in this novel, but not at the expense of other emotions – some of which the humour serves to highlight.

UNTOLD continues not long after the events of UNSPOKEN, with Kami and Jared’s emotional wounds still fresh. I really liked the fact that Brennan chose to start the book with a newspaper article by Kami which serves as both a re-cap of the events in UNSPOKEN, and as a way to re-connect with Kami herself. Having read the first book over a year ago, it was nice to be reminded of the events in it without actually feeling like Brennan was rehashing everything. A lot happens in that first chapter, and it isn’t long before we jump straight into the action which I really liked.

One of the things that Brennan is really fantastic at writing is friendship, and that really shows in this book. I really liked how Brennan handled the friendship between Kami and Angela; the way that it grounded and centred both of them, but at the same time they both had a life outside it. As Brennan is re-imagening the gothic novel in this series, there is of course romance which I am pleased to say does not overwhelm the plot – thank you for this Sarah! There is a bit of a love triangle thing going on in this book, which is something I usually detest but Brennan handled it well and it actually formed part of the plot. I also liked the fact that the book deals with not only heterosexual relationships but homosexual ones too.

In a lot of ways plot wise, UNTOLD is a typical middle book: everything comes to a head, but we don’t really move forward to the resolution, that doesn’t happen until the final book. I’m okay with that, because this book didn’t really feel to me like the plot was sitting pretty. Brennan did a fab job of bringing events to a head, and also (I feel) of setting up the third (and final?) book. I still have lots of questions, and I’d like to get hold of the third book NOW, but at the same time I feel pretty happy coming away from this book. The ending was a brilliant hook, and I’m looking forward to seeing how things will resolve.