Earlier this year, I encountered the dreaded ‘reading slump’. I felt like I’d had my fill of paranormal young adult fiction, and couldn’t possibly read another page. Any more vampires and I’d go batty.

Then I came across Burn Bright by Marianne de Pierres, and I was cured.

The first book in the Night Creatures series created one of the most original paranormal worlds I’d ever encountered: those who wanted to run away from their oppressive lives fled to the ever-night land of Ixion. Ixion was the island of constant parties and no responsibility for teens who chose to fly the coop. Retra, however, wasn’t like the others, and only came to the party island to find her brother. But once was in Ixion, things started to change as she came to learn the secrets of the pale, mysterious Ripers who guarded them.

I loved Burn Bright. I raved to anyone who’d listen about just how lush and vivid this story was. So you can imagine my excitement over the sequel, Angel Arias, which has just this month hit our shelves.

Without giving too much away, Retra (now Naif) has left Ixion and is staying on pirate Ruzalia’s resort of La Galatea. Things aren’t quite as glamorous as they are on Ixion: there aren’t the parties, the extravagant clothes, the lack of worries, but for Naif and her friends, it’s a small price to pay for their lives. But Naif isn’t content to stay and wait out the rest of their days at the ramshackle resort – she has plans to travel back to her home of Grave to figure out once and for all the secrets behind Ixion.

I can’t recommend this series highly enough, and I know anyone who’s read Burn Bright will be first in line to read Angel Arias. The Night Creatures series is for fans of Scott Westerfeld and Lauren Kate, and anyone who likes their paranormal romance to be a little on the darker side.

[[holly-pic]] Holly Harper is a children’s bookseller at Readings Carlton where she organises the kids and Young Adult e-newsletters. She also writes books for younger readers under the name

Angel Arias

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