It’s Time To Tie Up Loose Ends

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, Virals, Seizure, Code, and Exposure, or don't mind knowing major spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT

~Terminal~
Virals
Book 5
By Kathy & Brendan Reichs
Amazon ~ Powell's

The Virals are back—but they’re not the only pack in town anymore. Terminal finds Tory Brennan—grandniece of the famous forensic anthropologist (star of the hit show Bones)—and the rest of the Morris Island gang tracking a pack of rogue Virals who call themselves the Trinity. The new pack was infected by a strain of supervirus created by Tory’s nemesis and sometimes-crush, Chance Clayborne, who accidentally infected himself, too.

These red-eyed Virals have openly challenged Tory’s pack for domination of Charleston, bringing on the attention of a shadowy government organization intent on learning the secret to their powers. Surviving it all is going to test the limits of the gang’s abilities.


I couldn't have asked for a better ending to a great series.

Gamble Everything? Risk Exposure?

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, Virals, Seizure, and Code, or don't mind knowing spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT

~Exposure~
Virals
Book 4
By Kathy & Brendan Reichs
Amazon ~ Powell's

Morris Island has barely had a chance to return to normality after the high profile trial of the Gamemaster, when two local students seem to vanish into thin air.

Tory Brennan and the Virals pack move quickly in their attempts to discover what has happened to their twin classmates. But the pack's canine powers are growing wilder, and it is becoming ever harder to conceal the secret which protects them.

When Tory and her friends find evidence of blood in the students' basement, they realize that the disappearance is no game.

But in order to save the twins, the Virals must risk the exposure of their powers, and in doing so put even their own lives in terrible danger.


I could not stop reading this book - it was sooo much better. The tug-of-war with boys wasn't nearly as bad! Tory wasn't a controlling/manipulative bitch! All other women were not considered stupid or shallow! Issues were finally talked through! I learned something!

We’d Opened a Puzzle Box and Cracked a Coded Message

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, Virals & Seizure, or don't mind knowing spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT

~Code~
Virals
Book 3
By Kathy & Brendan Reichs
Amazon ~ Powell's

The Virals are put to the ultimate test when they find a geocache containing an ornate puzzle box. Shelton decodes the cipher inside, only to find more tantalizing clues left by "The Gamemaster." A second, greater geocache is within reach—if the Virals are up to the challenge.

But the hunt takes a dark turn when Tory locates the other box—a fake bomb, along with a sinister proposal from The Gamemaster. Now, the real game has begun: another bomb is out there—a real one—and the clock is ticking.


Maybe I'm getting too old for these, but I wasn't nearly as sympathetic to Tory in this book as I have been previously. I like Tory, and I get that she has a lot of drama and stress on her shoulders, but her relationships are getting awfully manipulative.

Seizing The Opportunity

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous book, Virals, or don't mind knowing spoilers for it.
SPOILER ALERT

~Seizure~
Virals
Book 2
By Kathy & Brendan Reichs
Amazon ~ Powell's

Lost treasure. Perilous adventures. Deadly foes.

Tory and her friends are just starting to get a handle on their super-heightened wolf-like capabilities—contracted during a medical experiment gone horribly wrong—when they find out funding is being pulled from the institute where their parents work. The pack now faces its greatest fear—separation. So when Tory stumbles across ancient lore hinting at a lost pirate treasure, the Virals devise a risky plan that pits them against fiendish traps, headless corpses, and deep underground tunnels. But they're not the only ones looking, and the competition could be lethal. They'll need to work as one mystery-solving canine force if they to hope to uncover the lost fortune, save the institute, and stick together!


Goonies with mutants. Ok, definitely more complex than that, but you get the gist.

Ten-Hut Virals! We Have Missions To Complete!

~Virals~
Virals
Book 1
By Kathy & Brendan Reichs
Amazon ~ Powell's

Tory Brennan is just your typical high school freshman. You know the type: so smart she skipped two grades; lives on an island with a father she just met; niece of a famous forensic anthropologist; spends most the time boating around with three older geeky guys. Yeah, sure. Typical.

And it's on a typical trip to the neighboring Loggerhead Island, home to a super high-tech biology research lab and off limits to outsiders, that she and her friends discover a clue to a 50-year-old mystery as well as evidence of cruel animal experimentation. Apparently not everything on Loggerhead is as official and clean-cut as it seems.

After rescuing the wolfdog puppy from the labs, Tory and the group start experiencing strange symptoms. But heightened senses, hunger for raw meat, and yellow eyes are the least of their worries when their investigation efforts start attracting the wrong sort of attention. The deadly kind. They'll have to work together if they want to stay alive and put this mystery to rest.

Fortunately, they are now more than friends.
They are a pack.
They are Virals.


This book was impossible to put down! I started reading this at midnight, thinking I'd spend an hour or two at the most before turning in. Four and a half hours (347 pages/57 chapters) later I finally found a place I felt I could comfortably leave them and go to sleep. I grant that the pacing isn't the best at times—I found it impossible to tease the book using the first 50 pages because nothing had happened yet—but the absence of action in the beginning was completely covered by the characters. And once the action started, it never let up—especially not at chapter breaks.