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    The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac
    Unavailable
    The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac
    Unavailable
    The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac
    Ebook520 pages9 hours

    The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac

    By Vicki Pettersson

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Equal parts Light and Shadow, Joanna Archer must fulfill a destiny she never wanted. Once a photographer and heiress to a casino fortune, she is now dedicated to the cause of good . . . but susceptible to the seductions of evil.

    A deadly virus is descending on Las Vegas—a terrifying plague unleashed by the powerful overlord of Zodiac's dark side: Joanna's father. Chaos and panic grip Sin City as agents of Light fall prey to the terrifying epidemic. Death reigns supreme—and Joanna stands at dead center of an epic and terrible war long foretold, the last hope of a damned world.

    But first she must somehow conquer the malevolence that grows all around her . . . and within.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061755248
    Unavailable
    The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac
    Author

    Vicki Pettersson

    Vicki Pettersson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sign of the Zodiac novels, a six-book urban fantasy series set in her hometown of Las Vegas. Though she'll always consider that glittering dust bowl home, she now divides her time between Vegas and Dallas, where she's learning to like good Tex-Mex (easy) and the Dallas Cowboys (easier than you'd think).

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    Reviews for The Taste of Night

    4/5

    44 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I could not put this book down. The second book was even better than the first, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

      I love the inclusion of the comic and the kids at the comic shop.
    • 2/5
      I don't really get the comic book angle of the story. If everything they do shows up in each sides comic book how is anything kept a secret between the 2 teams. I know the light can't touch the dark comics and the dark can't touch the light but come on. You mean to tell me that neither side of so called superheroes has thought of just forcing or paying a human to read the comics for them. And the fact that they call themselves heroes is just lame. Another thing that doesn't make sense was the loss of power from non use???? That didn't make any sense at all. I'm not even sure I understood just what she lost. Also the action is just way to slow. It takes forever for the books to get going anywhere. I really would not buy these books at all.
    • 2/5
      I really liked the first book, was looking forward to reading this sequel. At about halfway through the book, I realized that I just wasn't interested in the angst of the main character, Joanna.

      I literally skipped two chapters in the middle of the book to try to find something interesting.

      The plot, the bad guys, the revelations about the comic book store denizens - all good and interesting. The surprise twist toward the end (setting up the next book) was rewarding.

      Maybe Joanna needs to have a life-changing event OFF PAGE so she can get to the business of being a superhero. I want adventure, excitement, fiction - I don't want or need to know all of the details and pain of her personal growth journey. Throw a Chicken Soup for Heroes at her and get on with the story telling, would ya?
    • 5/5
      The 2nd installment in the Sign of the Zodiac opens up with a bang! Olivia, aka The Archer, is at a charity ball where she is auctioned off to the highest bidder for a date. Unfortunately, the joke is on her when the bidder calls her by her true identity, Joanna. An explosive pursuit follows as Joanna races after this Shadow agent, only to find herself facing two of them. While one of the Shadows is only an initiate, she lures Jo into a ‘I’ll let you live and give you important info if you let me live and come over to the dark side where it’s more fun’ relationship. And thus, it all goes down hill from here!Joanna was hell-bent on revenge in this book. She lacked control and let her guard down and it cost her. He quest for vengeance against Joaquin was serious, and he slapped her around on a few occasions. Joaquin is a disgusting, vile, psychological criminal. He rapes the mind and the body of his victims. Evil SOB!I really enjoyed the tension between Jo and Hunter in this one. There were a few great lusty, unfulfilled, emotional scenes between those two. By the end of the book, however, they made amends and vowed to work together in the quest to bring down the Shadow troop. As usual though, Jo finds herself alone in the face of the enemy.And Ben. The story between Jo and her former lifetime love, Ben, has not died. *whimper* There is one hell of a revelation at the end of this book, and it leaves Jo wanting BLOOD! Can’t wait to read book 3!This book was just as fun as the first, and I am still very intrigued by this new spin on urban fantasy. I totally dig the comic book angle. The Zodiac, which consists of Agents of Light and Shadow, have their history recorded in comic books! A certain person is born who gets visions and records the history for both sides. The Light can’t read the Shadow manuals, as they call them, and vice versa. But Jo, she’s special. She can read both! They also have changelings, who are born with the secret knowledge of the Zodiac, and pass it on to the next generation. The belief in these comics, and thus the Zodiac troops, is what fuels their very existence! And, cats are Wardens of the Light agents, protectors of sorts. I love kitties!
    • 4/5
      The theme of this book is sacrifice because livvy pretended to be destiny on purpose so she won't turn into a vampire. The life lesson is that family should be close enough to sacrifice there life for them. :)
    • 4/5
      This was the second book of the Signs of the Zodiac series by Vicki Pettersson. I didn't think book was quite as good as the first one, but it was still a fast-paced and fun adventure to read.With the second sign of the Zodiac looming imminent over the city of Las Vegas, Joanna Archer is desperate to figure out what the Shadows next move is. Unfortunately the rest of Light team is happy that things are in balance and are content to let things stand as they are. Will Joanna act on her own and foresake her other Light members? Will she finally get her revenge against the Shadow who raped her? Is she still able to pull off being Olivia without any mishaps? All of these questions and more are answered in this book.This was a great book. Things happened quickly and a lot happened. The whole story was wrapped up nicely and nothing seemed forced, the pacing was great. It was hard to put the book down and I was holding my breath the whole time wondering what would happen next.There was a lot I liked about this book. I liked the progression of the story in general. I liked Hunter, I liked JoAnna, I even think that the Tulpa makes a great bad guy. I love that the idea of events being reported in comic books was expanded. I loved the inclusion of more philisophy around believing things into existance. I think this is a great series.The only thing I didn't like about this book was that Joanna really made a horrible heroine. She made mistake after mistake, and sometimes I wanted to smack her and talk some sense into her. Luckily though, by the end of the book, it seemed like Joanna was maturing and coming into her own as a heroine. I hope that this trend continues throughout the next book. That is one thing I don't like about the Anna Strong Chronicles, I am four books into that series and Anna is still making the same mistakes she made in the first couple books. Characters need to change and mature.I conclusion, I love this series. I have the third book and am very excited to read it!
    • 1/5
      I wasn't too impressed with this book. I will admit I go by what the book cover is telling me. I figured since I'm mostly interested in vampire fantasy books I'd enjoy this one but to me it was the typical vampire story. I think if your more on a basic reading and just feel like passing time this is the book for you. The first one was alittle better because of the suspense but the second one, this book, was just too predictable.
    • 4/5
      I struggled to get through the Scent of the Shadows, the first sign of the Zodiac. I found the world to be written too vaguely, the story too wordy. Although I liked the idea of Joanna Archer, living as her dead sister Olivia, while secretly being an agent of Light, s superhero, I found the book to be all of the place, and truthfully not all that exciting. Since I had already purchased the second book, I vowed to read it eventually and hope it would get better. Did it ever! This story had an intresting storyline, the plot twisted in hills and valleys. Unexpected turns around every corner. In this volume, Joanna the Archer of Light, is out for revenge against the man (an agent of Shadow) who raped her years before. To get to him, she risks the safety and trust of her own troop of Light superheroes. The master of her enemies, the Shadow agents is her own father, a man she never knew. Now the Shadows have set a plague upon the city of Las Vegas. People are dying suddenly and grotesquely. The action here never lessens, until the book's conclusion. There are hints at the end to what awaits in the third installment. I still find some of the paranormal hero activities a little hard to imagine, and I felt like the scenes with the little girl giving Joanna her aura were just too contrived. This story was much more exciting and tight than its predassessor and I must admit I am eager to read the next installment.
    • 3/5
      Continuing the series of Zodiac books.Jo's secret identity is known and she is being hunted. She decides to flip and go on the offensive. She disregards the orders of her troop leader, forms a loose alliance with a Shadow initiate, and uncovers a lot of clues about what the bad guys are up to but doesn't share and doesn't put the pieces together in time.This book does a good job of advancing the shadows and the light. It makes it more likely that she's going to switch sides at least once I think - her boss in the Light is very much by the book, whilst she's more adapt and overcome.It is made clear, abundantly clear several times, that she's following a path that's dangerous to her and her friends but she presses ahead anyway. She makes gains, but puts quite a lot of things at risk.Fundamentally unresolved is the attitudinal difference. Her team wants to defend, patch-up, cover-up, take no risks; she's much more into direct action.The book ought to be better than 3 stars, but it's not. All of the elements for it to work are more or less there, but it's like the difference between apple pie if I make it and if a top-ranked Michelin chef uses the same ingredients. Mine would be OK but just not as good as the Michelin chef's. This book feels more like my apple pie: it's solid and OK, but that spark of greatness isn't here sadly.
    • 4/5
      I thought it was better than the first book in the series. The story seemed tighter and there were fewer instances of characters failing to grasp the blindingly obvious. Still, it might be be time to get this series from the library rather than buy the books.
    • 5/5
      An amazing new series about superheroes! If you love urban fantasy, this one should be on the top of your must read list. It's kind of a mix between X-Men and Heroes set in Vegas.