Audio Book Review: The Calling ( Darkness Rising book 2) by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: April 10, 2012
Publisher: Harper Audio
Format: Audio
Length: 7 hours 32 minutes
Narrator: Jennifer Ikeda
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy
Buy: Audible | Kindle 

Synopsis: 

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is - a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

Review:

After a less than satisfying first book this one delivered on the action and on the story.  Maya and her friends are fleeing a forest fire that is threatening her town when their helicopter goes down.  The people seeking them don't seem friendly although they keep saying they are only trying to help, but why does help have to come with a tranquilizer dart?

Maya only wants to get back to their town and contact their parents who think they are all dead thanks to a new story about their crash. What they find when they finally reach their town is not at all what they expected.  Still unsure of who to trust Maya and her friends try to figure things out on their own and their revelations are not so straight forward.

I really wish that this book and the first book would have been combined.  I don't like books that leave you dangling and while this one didn't have a complete ending at least I was left satisfied. Armstrong has written some great characters and really captured the essence of being a teenager, filled with insecurities, and crushes. I really enjoyed this installment and look forward to the final book in this trilogy.