A Spanish Convent, Love Triangles, and Lots of Aliens: Review of The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

The Power of Six

Lorien Legacies, #2

(Sequel to I Am Number Four)

Pittacus Lore (pen name for James Frey)

Will be released on August 23, 2011

(but you can pre-order!!)

**BASIC SPOILER ALERT FOR I AM NUMBER FOUR!!**

The Power of Six is a strong follow-up to I Am Number Four (review here).  The story picks up shortly after the last book ended, but it opens with a new member of the Garde (super-cool young aliens with special powers, only six known survivors of their race).  Marina (Number Seven) and her Cepan (older protector alien, skilled in combat but without the special powers) have been hiding in a convent in Spain for a long time.  Marina is now almost eighteen and skilled with the Legacies she has discovered so far.  The problem is that her Cepan, Adelina, has dedicated her life to the Church and refuses to acknowledge what they are and what their mission is.  With the help of an adorable new orphan named Ella, Marina plots to find the Chest containing her powerful inheritance- she wants to find the other five, before the Mogadorians find her!

The book is split back and forth between Marina's story and John's story.  John, if you will recall, has run away from Paradise, Ohio with Six, Sam, and Bernie Kosar, leaving Sarah, the love of his life, behind.  They are major fugitives, suspected of terrorist actions and hunted by the police as well as the Mogadorians. John is still holding on to the letter than his Cepan, Henri, wrote to him before he died, and he hasn't opened his Chest to explore his Inheritance yet.  Meanwhile, both John and Sam have crushes on Six- which makes John feel guilty and Sam feel jealous.

Fortunately, relatively little time is spent on the love triangle(s) aspect.  This book is action packed-  the fight scenes are more frequent and even better than in the first book!  The Garde have such cool powers, and in this book, they use them creatively.  Marina, in particular, uses her powers skillfully.  I remember reading I Am Number Four and wondering why John didn't use this or that power to do whatever, but in this book, he  uses his powers in ways that I hadn't imagined, leaving me impressed with his innovative thinking.  There's also a really cool part where John and Six use their powers to directly help humans by freaking out a bad guy.  Sam also has special moments- he's NOT like Ron Weasley (mostly useless in combat until the very end).  Despite being a human instead of an alien, Sam shows bravery, strength, and skill alongside John and Six.

The only downside was that the book was a little hard to get into- the first 50 pages or so set up the story for both John and Marina, which ends up being a lot of build up.  After that, though, things start to get exciting... There are several cool twists- some in the beginning, and some near the end, and I LOVE twists that I didn't see coming!  The last one hundred pages I couldn't put the book down, and I can't wait for #3!  This book definitely ended on a cliffhanger, but the kind that makes you look forward to the next book, not the kind that makes you write an angry tweet and then delete it.

I would recommend this series to fans of YA Adventure.  This is an alien story, which is kind of different, and it's a lot of fun to read.  Yes, there's lots of violence, and yes, there's sad parts, but the writing gives you a positive, vibrant feeling, and the characters are good natured and warm.  Both boys and girls will enjoy this book, and I think it transcends interest levels- this would be just as good to someone my age as to a fourteen year old.

Check out the website for more info!

Disclaimer:  I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.