Sherrilyn Kenyon - Illusion

Nick Gautier is tired of his destiny. He doesn’t want to be the son of a demon who’s fated to end the world. Nor does he want to see another demon or other preternatural creature who wants to kill or enslave him. He just wants to be normal and have normal problems like everyone else.
But normality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When he gets sucked into an alternate reality where his mother has married his mentor and his Atlantean god best friend has become a human geek, he begins to understand that no life is free of pain, and that every person has a specific place in the universe… Even the son of a hated demon.
Most of all, he sees that his powers aren’t the curse he thought they were, and that the world needs a champion, especially one its enemies can’t imagine rising up to defend the ones he should destroy.
Old enemies and new friends square off for a major battle that will either restore Nick to his real world, or end him forever.

Comment: This is the most recent book in the Chronicles of Nick series. This series is a sort of spin of/alternate reality/mass confusion of the original Dark-Hunter series by the author. In this series, for a more juvenile public, we see Nick as a teenager dealing with several things in an attempt to change the course of what happens in the original story line. 

In this book, Nick is living in a different time from his own and the people he meets are acting weird and not as he remembers them. His friends Kody and Caleb have to help him but in the end it's his own mind and heart that will have to prove being worthy of salvation.

I guess the purpose of this whole series spin off is to "explain" why some things in the original series will happen in a certain way from here on; after all, Nick is playing with the time lines. 

Still, I can't help but being repetitive when I say this is almost like trying to appease the readers instead of just getting on with the writing. I understand the need and maybe the requests for a more juvenile oriented books but did it have to be about this series? Apparently there are 7 more books to be released in these Chronicles, meaning more 7 years until Nick's book as an adult. Considering the amount of series the author is involved with, the time it takes her to actually write and the fact books can't come out every month, I believe I can say the author may have taken on too much. 

I would have preferred her to stick with what she had before new adventures. Just my opinion.

Rants apart, this book was actually entertaining because new things are found out about several characters. I really hope all the knowledge we're getting infused with will be important for the future plots in both series. Right now everything seems so confusing and the time between releases doesn't help, I really think a time line would help readers.

The main characters here all have information to share or their participation is meant to give hints or clues about their importance on the whole general scheme of things. I confess I liked the appearance of so many people, many acting in a way that is already a proof things are changing.

The main point in this series to me is, Nick is a teenager an he is put in a position where he has to deal with choices and  situations not always easy. The moral lesson of these books is how people with easy and hard paths and obvious fears and hesitations should always trust themselves and chose what's best not only for one's peace of mind but for the ones we love. It's quite the lesson and hopefully it is reaching its goal, but from Dark-Hunter fan point of view, this is all just a mess of story lines and plots and characters and I hope things don't get too unbelievable to be appreciated in the end of everything.

Like I said, I liked the fact we see and get to learn many new things, I also admit there are several scenes where I was very surprised by what I was reading and I hope this won't stop. Still, I hope things get a move on because waiting and waiting isn't easy, especially after so many faithful years.

Grade: 7/10