Plague of Death by D.L. Armillei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another great book in this series.  The main star is “Van” Vanessa, which we follow up with her again a year after her first 30-day mission/project that resulted in the loss of several teammates, friends and ultimately her father.

Summer begins and she quickly understands that another mission/project should start at any moment.  She tries to come to terms with the fact that her handsome teammate, Brux, is now her protector/bodyguard, but can she continue to ignore her heart and stay neutral when it comes to him?

She learns that her stepmother has found a new man-child and her nemesis will now be joining their group on their next mission.  On top of everything, she learns important details surrounding the mysterious men in suits walking amongst the residents of Paradise Island.  How do they expect a teenager in denial of her true feelings to keep a level head when learning new information regarding the Elders, the Brotherhood, EWS agents, the infamous portal, Living World vs Earth World, internet vs intranet, low frequency vs high frequency, electricity vs electricity-like energy, good vs bad, and so on? So much responsibility for such a young lady.

I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Van as she deals with such complex, life changing, adult material since book one.  While she seems to handle things well (for the most part), she often comes across as a typical teenager so there is hope she will continue to try to live a full teenage life, even with more responsibilities, knowledge, and skillsets.

Book two pushed the fantasy fiction, action, and mysterious angle beyond what I expected after reading book one.  I also enjoyed how easy this was to read.  Plus, this left me anxiously waiting to read Book Three of the series.

I’m excited to see the author did not create perfect characters within this series, meaning they each have their own faults, fears, etc.  They do not always make the best decisions and that makes them more real, relevant, and relatable.  I believe this aspect will make this book more appealing to anyone who chooses to read it (adults, young adults, etc.).

A surprising point that I found while reading this book was how much you can become engrossed in a story and despise certain characters.  It is a tribute to creative writing when you can illicit feelings from the reader and in this case, for me anyway, it was all about Ambassador Kasey.  In my eyes, he always seemed a bit shady with ulterior motives, but I will not go into details or share any spoilers so any new readers can make up their own minds regarding this character.

I was blown away by the continued expansion created and described in this book.  I was not certain the author could outdo herself but, in this case, she did.  I was pleasantly pleased with how she wrapped up this book and as I mentioned above, I could not wait to get my hands on book number three!

This is an epic series that I hope continues for a long time.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!

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