An ARe Cafe top pick!

The Falcon and the Jackal is book one of the Storm Chronicles and a whirlwind adventure. Jay Di Meo mixes Egyptian lore, reincarnation, fates and magic all in to one action packed short novel. James finds himself fascinated with a certain amulet/jewel in his local museum. As sad as this sounds, he’s lost girls because of it. Well, maybe not because of it, but they certainly didn’t understand nor appreciate his compulsion to constantly look at and study it. Turns out it belongs to a hot guy (wait, I’m not gay!) who makes James’s mouth water and something else harden…. His resolve! Silver (amulet guy) claims James is the reincarnation of Seth or the God of Chaos. He himself is Horus and this is the umpteenth time they’ve been reincarnated and forced to battle the ultimate bad guy, the God of the Dead, Osiris. Things get more twisted when Osiris’s minions start trying to kill James before he’s even awakened fully. Silver doesn’t have his full power yet, and they have to find the neutral gods/goddesses and see if a deal can’t be reached.

Throughout all this James and Silver find they’re battling their attraction to each other, and trying not to let their jewels and memories overpower them. You see, all of Seth’s past reincarnations have never stayed sane enough to fully come to power. The memories rush over the vessel and the god destroys everything and everyone…and dies in the process. Horus/Silver swears that this time is going to be different. Already James is able to push away the jewel and not succumb to its blood thirstiness, but is this James’s strength or a strange covenant Seth made last lifetime in a moment of brief lucidity? Either way, the boys have their work cut out for them as they head off to ally with the neutral gods, find Osiris’s own jewel, battle him and manage to survive… unlike all the times before. The romance is quite young, and the sexuality is in virgin territory. I think this is a great older young adult novel. Say for one in 11-12th grade and even through college. The pace was extremely fast and the readers find themselves drawn in the intricate story line, trying to remember old covenants and lifetime sorrows. James and Silver are truly a pair and the ending left a god destroyed and yet another enemy revealed. With all the Egyptian lore and powerful players, Di Meo has a lot of storyline to work with for future installments. Enjoy!

~ Bitten by Books for ARe Cafe ( )