Title: The Skeleton Key
Author: Tara Moss
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal/Adventure
The Blurbs:
By day, Pandora English is a lowly fashion assistant. But by night, she is a supernatural scion. The Crow Moon is rising and Pandora has a date with Civil War soldier Lieutenant Luke, who will be flesh-and-blood for one night only. When Lieutenant Luke disappears, Pandora must unlock the mysteries of Number One Addams Avenue with her skeleton key and discover the secrets that lie in the forgotten laboratory of Dr Edmund Barrett. For Pandora has been warned: a powerful force is in the house. As Friday the Thirteenth looms, Pandora English and the citizens of Spektor are in grave danger. For the dead will rise and terror shall reign.
My Thoughts:
The third in the Pandora English series, it didn’t quite grab me as much as the first two, but I can’t put my finger on why. However, it was still VERY enjoyable to read. Picking up from when ‘The Spider Goddess’ finishes off Pandora is still trying to understand what exactly her role as ‘The Seventh’ is going to be in the upcoming battle between the dead and living. Everyone in the hidden paranormal world of New York seems to expect her to save the world with her wonderful gifts – but they are all less forthcoming in telling her HOW to do it and what the gifts actually are! Still not knowing what to do hasn’t stopped Pandora from being dragged into an adventure and this book is no different. As with the previous books Pandora learns about more of her powers by accident as she fights to close a door to the realms of the dead without becoming one of them.
I love how Pandora lives in two worlds – the ‘normal’ and the ‘paranormal’ – to her it is just as normal to see ghosts as it is to make coffee for her boss, who she suspects has been turned into a vampire. The characters, even the wacky undead ones, are very believable; as is the concept of a whole suburb called Spektor that no-one in New York has heard of. There are still some mysteries to be solved such as how to save the world, why does her elderly great-aunt look so young and beautiful, and which is best a human boyfriend or a ghost one?
I am looking forwards to book 4, ‘The Cobra Queen,’ when it comes out later in 2013.
Rating: C – Above average. Was very readable and enjoyable.
For more about the author – Click Here
The Skeleton Key is book #2 for AWW2013
Books and Musings from Downunder 
[…] most recent paranormal fantasy, The Skeleton Key, was reviewed by Writenote1, who found it fun, Sally from Oz, who didn’t like it as much as the earlier books but still enjoyed it a lot, and Shaheen, who […]
[…] not counting here), gathered reviews for her two most recent urban fantasies The Spider Goddess and The Skeleton Key. And there was also Katie W Stewart, author of fantasy books for all ages. Her reviewed books in […]