You Won’t Know I’m Gone
The Black Angel Chronicles #2
by Kristen Orlando
Swoon Reads
YA Contemporary, Thriller
COMING. . .
JANUARY 16th!!!
Reagan has to prove herself to an elite group of special agents—and avenge her mother’s death—in the second book in the Black Angel Chronicles from the author of You Don’t Know My Name.
Going rogue in an effort to rescue her kidnapped parents has cost Reagan Hillis her automatic ticket to the Training Academy. But becoming a Black Angel is the only way Reagan will be able to exact revenge on her mother’s merciless killer, Santino Torres.
When Reagan is given a chance to prove that she’s worthy of training to be a Black Angel, she also gets the first chance she’s ever had to be her true self. No aliases. No disguises.
But when her friend Luke joins her at the Black Angels training compound, Reagan finds herself once again torn between the person she was and the person she wants to be. Reagan has to prove that she’s as good as her parents trained her to be, because she’ll never find Torres without the Black Angels’ help.
MY TIDBITS
This is the second book in The Black Angel Chronicles. I did not read the first one before diving into this one, and although I was able to fall into the world and characters fairly well, I would not recommend reading these out of order. Much of what happens as well of the relationships builds on the first book, and I wished the entire way through that I had hit that one first.
The story reminded me a little bit of Nakita—in a broad sense. It definitely held tons of edge-of-the-seat fight scenes and kept the tension high the whole way through.
After breaking the rules and perhaps being one of the causes of her mother's death, Reagan not only has to fight her depression but has lost her automatic advancement into the Black Angels. Luckily, she's given a second chance and must now prove her worth in the Training Academy. She might have been an elite, but mourning the death of her mother for several months has not only scarred her psychologically but has left her physically below the rest of the trainees. Only a few will be chosen, and she has to be among this group if she ever wants to take revenge on the person who really caused her mother's death.
Reagan is a wonderful character, full of determination and rough edges. She has to overcome as may inner battles as ones in the Training Academy. Her attitude is harsh at times, but if fits the situation very well and makes her believable. Those around her don't have quite the same amount of depth, but the help the plot keep a quick pace, although this book mainly concentrates on Reagan simply getting through the training year.
The action scenes mostly take place in the academy as she fights to regain her earlier strength and respect. I would have loved to see more than this, but it fits the series flow well. Although the real villain stays an arm's length away, his general presence keeps up the tension the whole way through. The ending happened much too fast and would have greatly benefited from a few more chapters. So, it felt sudden and that, with a cliff-hanger too.
It's a great spy read with lots of thrills and action, and promises to hold much more excitement in the upcoming book.
And here she is. . .
Writing is one of the great loves of Kristen Orlando’s life and she has been lucky enough to make it her living, first as a television producer, then as a marketer and now as a novelist. Kristen graduated with a B.A. in English literature from Kenyon College. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with the other great love of her life, Michael. You Don’t Know My Name is her debut novel.
