BOOK REVIEW | Recreated by Colleen Houck

Title: Recreated
Author: Colleen Houck
Series? Yes, the second book in the Reawakened trilogy
Pages: 416
Publication Date: August 2, 2016
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: I checked out Recreated through my local library!

From Colleen Houck, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Curse, comes Recreated, the second book in the epic Egyptian-inspired Reawakened series, in which a seventeen-year-old must literally go to hell to save the love of her life.

Lily Young thought traveling across the globe with a reawakened sun prince was a grand adventure. Now she’s about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.

When Amon and Lily part tragically, he transports himself to the Netherworld—what mortals call hell. Tormented by the loss of his one true love, he’d rather suffer in agony during Lily’s mortal years than fulfill his duty to protect humanity.

Heartbroken, Lily seeks refuge on her grandmother’s farm. Yet she can feel Amon’s pain, and she has been having dreams—dreams of Amon continually suffering.

For before he departed, Amon gave Lily something very special, an item that connects them even though they are worlds apart. Now Lily must use this object to free him, and to free their realms from darkness and utter chaos. She will do whatever it takes.

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When I read Reawakened last year, I enjoyed it! I have had a tumultuous relationship with Colleen Houck's books. I loved the first two books in the Tiger's Curse series, but I really hated the third and fourth. When I read Reawakened, I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did! It had a lot of parallels, but I didn't mind them too much. Unfortunately, the parallels to the Tiger's Curse series in this second book really bothered me, and I didn't like this book nearly as much.

In this second book, Lily has to go on a quest to save Amon from what we call hell because The Devourer will kill him and then strengthen the evil chaos god Seth. I'm sorry, but I thought that already was super complicated. And then, Lily has to go on all these quests to get a thing that will help her go to hell and keeps getting sidetracked. There was so many scenes/quests that felt like filler to me, and I didn't care for it at all. Because of all these scenes, I felt like the book dragged on forever, and I couldn't get through with it quickly.

 
There was also this weird thing in Recreated where literally everyone and their mother is in lust/love with Lily, even the gods. Everyone is staring at her lovingly, giving into her requests, helping when they really shouldn't, etc. It was explained in the book, but it was pretty eye-roll inducing after 50 pages of it happening. And it happened the whole book. 
 
Also, a love square happens. I am not freaking kidding you. Technically, it isn't Lily who's falling in love with these three interests, but it is her at the same time. I can't give too much away because of spoilers, but if everyone falling in love wasn't eye roll inducing, this sure was. This whole romance square just reminded me of the love triangle in the Tiger's Curse but on crack. And I didn't like the triangle in The Tiger's Curse. 

Not only did the love square make reading hard, all the info dumps did as well. It's obvious that Colleen Houck did her research with this series, and I commend her for that. But there were a lot of info dumps. Lily is a curious girl, and I liked it because I am able to connect with her, but every time she asked "why?" or "how?" or asked about a god's backstory, I just dreaded it. The information was always told and not shown, and it got to the point that I was skimming them. 

My biggest complaint is that Lily is all of a sudden this "chosen girl". I liked it more when Lily was just this random girl in New York, and now all of a sudden she's this special snowflake. She has been destined for more than a millennia, she will be the savior, etc. I just thought this was so irritating. Why can't we just have a normal protagonist for once? When Lily was just this New Yorker who was in the wrong exhibit at the right time, it gave the book a fresh feel. I'm tired of protagonists being the destined savior, and this book unfortunately fell right into the same tired trope.
 

the opening line of the book!

What I did like about this book (yes, there are some things I liked!!) are Asten and Ahmose. They were my favorite part of the first book, and they are still my favorite part of this book. I said in my review of the first book that Asten was my favorite of the three brothers, and that still holds true. I think he has the most interesting backstory, and so far the most complex out of the three of them. We learn more of him in this book, and get to have a first hand account of his childhood and all of his sins. This was one of my favorite scenes in the book! Asten is hands-down my favorite character. As for Ahmose, he doesn't talk too much. When he does, I like what he says.   

I also liked the ending a lot! While a majority of this book felt like a bridge where nothing really happened (and really, it didn't until the end), the end almost saved it for me. Everything isn't hunky-dory by the end of the book, and I appreciated it. The way the book ended made me anticipating the third book even after all my struggles with Recreated. 

I'm looking forward to seeing more of Asten in the third book. Not a lot of Amon was in this book, so I wonder how much I'll like him in the third book. As for Lily's character, I don't know if I really like her that much. She's definitely gone through a lot of changes in this second book, and I'm interested to see it all play out. Even though I didn't like Recreated that much, I am going to read the final book in this series to see how everything happens.

With that, I give this
2 out of 5 Stars!