The Nine Lives of Chloe King

I was going to make this book my October Pick, but decided that I wouldn't pick an entire trilogy as my pick. So until my October book comes in on Wednesday, I'll be reading this book and trying to get through some more of Wizard's First Rule. 

Also, this is all three books... so the all of the information  for the entire thing and the individual books is included below. I apologize for the long post.

Title: The Nine Lives of Chloe King
(Includes: The Fallen, The Stolen, The Chosen)
Author: Liz Braswell (writing as Celia Thomson)
Year Published: 2004, 2004, & 2005 respectively. The collection I have was published in 2011 though.




Synopses: 
The Nine Lives of Chloe King: Chloe King is a normal girl. She goes to class (most of the time), fights with her mom, and crushes on a boy…or two. But around her sixteenth birthday, Chloe finds that perhaps she isn’t so normal after all. There’s the heightened night vision, the super fast reflexes – oh, and the claws. As she discovers who she is – and where she comes from – it is clear she is not alone. And someone is trying to get her. Chloe has nine lives. But will nine be enough? Even curiosity can't kill her.


The Fallen: Chloe King was a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She did her homework and got good grades, but she wasn't afraid to ditch class sometimes to hang out with her best friends. She slept at home, but otherwise avoided all human contact with her mom. The usual stuff. Then she fell from San Francisco's highest tower, and her life changed. For starters, she died. And then, she woke up. Now Chloe's life is anything but normal: Suddenly guys are prowling around her, she's growing claws, and someone's trying to kill her. Luckily for Chloe, she still has eight lives to go.


The Stolen: She argues with her mother. She occasionally skips class. And she alternately crushes on two totally different boys. But Chloe King is by no means your typical teenager. The girl can scale buildings and see in the dark. Sometimes, at night, she even likes to leap from rooftop to rooftop. Yes, Chloe has the instincts and ability of a cat. And that makes her unique indeed. It also makes her a wanted woman. Because the Order of the Tenth Blade does not deal kindly with people like Chloe. It stalks them. Preys upon them. And wants many of them -- like Chloe, for instance -- dead.


The Chosen: CHLOE KING MAY BE THE ONE. Despite a rocky few weeks, Chloe King is starting to get it. She's figured out who she is (a girl with catlike superpowers), where she belongs (at home with Mom), and what she wants to do (chill with her friends). Yes, she's got funky superpowers, and yes, two rival groups think she's some "chosen" leader. But no, she's not buying all that ancient-warrior crap. And she's definitely not developing a superhero alter ego like in those old comic books. For Chloe, being the One means she can have whatever she wants -- i.e., more goof-off time and fewer "cat people" conventions. Then she finds her friend bleeding in an alley. All at once Chloe realizes that the years of bloodshed are not over. In fact, they never will be. The Mai and the Tenth Blade are going to persist in their dangerous rivalry. Unless Chloe accepts her destiny -- and takes control.
Why?: ABC Family picked up the novel to be a new TV series, and it looked intriguing, to say the least. I figured the books would be better than the show (since that was definitely the case with Pretty Little Liars, although the show is good if you haven't read the books). I looked up the books on Amazon, and found this collection for like $8 and couldn't really pass it up. I've had it for a couple of months and haven't gotten around to reading it yet, so I figure now is as good a time as any.


Expectations: I expect this to be a supernatural teen romance novel, dealing with the normal problems of a 16 year old girl... as well as the not-so-normal problems of a 16 year old girl who is also the chosen leader of the Mai. Cat-like powers are always cool though, so I expect to be entertained most of the time and annoyed with stupid teenage problems for only a small amount of the time. I don't expect it to be a difficult read since ABC Family picked it up.


Judging a book by its cover: The cover of the book I have is mostly white and has a girl's eyes that are very cat-like. The cover makes me think that the book is about a girl who has cat-like powers and eventually starts to look like a cat.




--Ashley