Ravenous

The Ravening #1

by Erica Stevens

The world didn’t end with a bang, it didn’t go out in a ball of fire and fury, nor did it end in ice. But in some strange way, ice was the end; or maybe it was the beginning of something more.

Bethany is stunned and horrified when she finds herself suddenly alone in a world that was alive only moments before. Terrified, she flees into the streets of her town, looking for answers, and desperate to reach her family. Panicked, she is nearly captured by the monsters hunting her until Cade steps in to rescue her. Dark and distant, most people in school are wary of Cade, yet oddly fascinated by him. They had once been close as children, but it has been years since Bethany has had any real contact with Cade. As their situation becomes even more perilous, Bethany struggles to come to terms with her past, her terrifying new reality, and her growing love for a boy that is powerful, mysterious, and perhaps even more frightening than the aliens hunting them. Aliens that want more than their lives, they also want their blood.

Genres: Young Adult, Aliens, Romance, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

229 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Erica Stevens is the author of the Captive Series, Coven Series, Kindred Series, Fire & Ice Series, Ravening Series, and the Survivor Chronicles. She enjoys writing young adult, new adult, romance, horror, and science fiction. She also writes adult paranormal romance and historical romance under the pen name, Brenda K. Davies. When not out with friends and family, she is at home with her husband, son, dogs, cat, and horse.

She loves to speak with readers and can be found:

Erica Stevens/Brenda K. Davies Mailing List: http://bit.ly/ESBKDNews

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

So if you took out most of the story and only kept the small percentage that was about the alien invasion and what they were doing to try and survive I would have really enjoyed this book. Instead we get page after page after page of memories of the time before that the main character Bethy thinks of. That or her constantly freaking out about going into buildings or small spaces, or constantly being drawn to Cade, but then remembering after making out with him and being all he is my everything! We were made for each other! This is my home now!! being all oh wait I have a boyfriend...and he loves me so I should stay with him. Um what? It just really annoyed me how she didn't really want to be with Bret but kept stringing him along and being all but he loves me so I should stay with him. Um okay...that is so lame for Bret and not at all fair. Plus there is this whole something is going on with everyone that Bethy doesn't know about and is not explained. Really though I wish there would have been more action or talk of what to do with the aliens, and WAY less but he loves me! But I hate small spaces! But let's think about this random thing that happened in the past again and again and again. I felt like most of the book could have been cut (and Bret should have been cut as well or dealt with WAY earlier).

[Ashleyjo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is all talk, albeit talk while running from aliens. I feel like nothing really happened... There was no point, no buildup, no climax, no big anything.... Just a lot of inner dialogue and running.

Our female MC finds herself surrounded by frozen bodies as the alien invasion kicks off. The books starts painfully slow with pages of Bethany standing around pondering the cashier that was frozen mid-transaction with her. Ah, boring ain't a good start, just saying!

She finally moves and is saved from panicking herself right into the aliens by the *ehh* aloof, badboy, loner, gorgeous dude she's had a crush on forever.

He carries her to check if her family is frozen & then freaks out when he needs to momentarily leave to tend to his business.

^ Thats really a bad enough start, but no, this goes from boring to wtf stupid in literally a kiss.

He kisses her and in that moment, she decides to flashback to her first kiss (which she had *cough, sigh* forgotten till this moment) with this same dude. And, to make it even weirder, this forgotten kiss had taken place after a lengthy memory trip down her fathers death and funeral. She flashes back to reality & the current kiss after this multi page flashback down memory lane & has an epiphany that this dude is like her private version of a Greek God and her "home" where she was strong and could survive anything with him at her side. Aww, how sweet true love , right? Well no! Two seconds after he leaves, she suddenly remember she has a boyfriend and goes on another inner monologue about how wonderful HE is and how much she loves him.

I continued on, but it just got worse and worse. I was bored with the overall story, which was basically just a bunch of running around and boys asking the female MC "are you okay?" ... Clamping their hands or mouths over her face... And dragging her around like a lost puppy while telling her how 'strong' she is. This while she's constantly, and I mean constantly by every two paragraphs, having an inner dialogue about how f'ing wonderful Cade is and how she can't live without him.

Nah, I won't be wasting any more time on this story!

The fact that this book is so highly ranked seriously gives me hope that I could publish a detailed summary of my weekly bowel habits and have a best seller ~

[Kendall {Book Crazy} · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw that this book was free on Amazon I quickly snagged a copy after reading the synopsis and loving it! The book starts instantly and then it doesn't stop! There was action around every corner which made my heart pound and I wasn't able to stop reading! I wasn't really expecting the plot to have as much as it did in it to be honest as I honestly wasn't expecting aliens to be the threat but it was a fresh idea and I really enjoyed it! The idea of the aliens was amazing and I liked that the author did something different with the idea to make her book stand out! I did find that this book had quite a lot of description and not as much dialogue so I did skip over a few lines of description at some scenes! The author also mentioned that Cade's eyes were onyx at every opportunity she got and I found that a little bit annoying! Apart from these small things Ravenous was absolutely amazing and I hope that there are others out there that enjoyed it as much as I did! The characters were great! Bethany was the main character and I loved her determination but I did find that most of the time one of her love interests was always trying to protect her so she couldn't really become a stronger person as someone was always there to protect her! I loved her determination to protect her sister though! Cade was one of the love interest of Bethany and he was so hot! He protected Bethany and I love the relationship development between him and Bethany! There was a love triangle between Bethany, Cade and Bethany's boyfriend, Bret! I did enjoy this love triangle because I was totally Team Cade and there weren't really a lot of scenes with Bethany and Bret in them but there were plenty with Bethany and Cade in them! The secondary characters in this book added so much to it as they all played a part in making this book even better and adding action to the plot! I am really looking forward to reading the next book in the series after the amazing ending of this book and the cover is stunning and really suits the book!

[Trish Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book has so much potential to be an amazing book. it is the 2nd book I have read about aliens, and I really really love to hate this book. it has a great plot, a lot of action which had my heart racing, love interests, and the writing style was great, it started off interesting and hooked me instantly. HOWEVER the only thing that is keeping me from giving it a 5 star rating is this: for ever 10 pages of extreamly descriptive detailed about the surroundings, and her feeling, fears, thoughts, memories, and actions, there was only about 6 lines of dialog between the characters, then another 5-10 pages of descriptions. it was almost mind numbing how much descriptions was in this book. if the author spent half as much time developing dialouge between the characters as she did describing everything in an OCD detail I could honestly say that this book could be in my top 10 list. don't get me wrong I love having a vivid image of what's going on bit a reader can only handle so much detail before their head explodes.

[Isabella Gray · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't want to waste any more time on this book but feel I have to warn others so here are the status updates and comments I made while reading it:

"Wow, this is an awkward read. It's clunky and doesn't flow at all."

"You've gotta be kidding...Cade is such a bad boy....blah blah.... she's always felt a connection to him for some reason.....blah blah... he's totally saving her... Ugh!"

"Flipping thru pages now just hoping things improve. So apparently there's aliens but all Bethany worries about is boys ya'all. And it's 20% in before Bethany REMEMBERS HER BOYFRIEND!!"

"God, Bethany is annoying."

"I give up. I hate not finishing a book but I'm making an exception here. So many of my pet peeves in one place that it makes my head hurt. How did this book get a 4 star average?!"

There was nothing about this book that I liked. Not even the "alien" invasion angle which was poorly executed and just plain dumb. This was a teen romance novel trying to capitalize on the popularity of books like "Hunger Games". I'm just glad it was free.

[Rogue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was slow and repetitive at times. She did pull me into it towards the end and I want to read book two now.

[Shernell Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the hell is this!!!! Just.... nooooo

The main character annoyed me so much. She is thinking of her love triangle/cheating right after her mom was smash by concrete.

Her priorities were all over the place.

[Cassandra Giovanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall 3.5 star

-Book Description: 4.5

-Cover: 4

-Plot: 3.5

-Creativity: 4

-Grammar: Unedited Copy N/A

-Simile Use: 3.5 (minimal usage)

-Description: 3

-Show Not Tell: 3

Ravenous by Erica Stevens is a sci-fi Young Adult novel, but I also felt that it could do well for the New Adult Age range as well. The cover is very pretty, but I find myself wondering what it has to do with the novel. It still did its job and dragging me in, as did the description of the novel. One of the first things about this novel that struck me was the way it dropped you into the thick of the action with deadly precision. From the second I read the first chapter, I was hooked. The novel explores what happens when an alien race pretends to make nice, but in the end it's all a ruse. It's not one the main character, Bethany, is falling for. I admit there were some things about the plot that confused me at first. For example, when Bethany is talking about what happened to her dad and how she knows Cade. I felt that this would have made more sense to me if it were in a Prologue. The plot was solid, as well as being creative. Stevens puts a new spin on what aliens are--cold, unfeeling, deceitful, and worst of all very much like us. Stevens' novel shows the evil of the aliens, but also the greed of the human race. In the end our greed for technology and guidance from those manipulating us is what very nearly puts an end to our civilization. It's as if everyone forgot the saying 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is'. In addition to the overall plot of alien takeover there is a love triangle. I will honestly say that I hate love triangles, but this one wasn't so bad. Bethany's reasoning and emotions behind her feelings were realistic, and she wasn't so caught up in being in love with two people, as she was in not wanting to hurt the other person. I will note that in the first two to three chapters I had a significant feeling of insta-love, but eventually it is explained and it turns out it is not. Again, this could have been taken away by the aforementioned chapter being the Prologue instead of several chapters in. Stevens' paints a modern world tattered by war with the use of sometimes lengthy description, and while I normally find this tedious, it was not. The author does describe the surroundings in length, but she does not overuse similes and utilizes dialogue effectively. I admit that I could have done with a bit less description of Cade's eyes and physic, but overall I enjoyed this novel. I cannot wait to start the next one.

[Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book was recommended to me by one my fellow goodread users (Thanks for that Karina :) ), and I am really glad she did! It was a great suspenseful book about what would happen to the world if aliens took over and have changed the world we once knew dramatically. Everything is gone, from the internet to cars, and now even people have been frozen in place..the only ones left awake a group of teenagers who had everything taken away from them – their parents, friends – who have to grow up quickly to learn how to survive in this harsh land.

I will say the thing that bugged me was how the main protagonist felt that she was an “awful person” for being a survivor and not being able to show emotion at the death of her parents.., I mean how exactly does that make her not a good person ? So what if she does not cry? Lot’s of people find showing their emotions difficult, but that does not mean they aren’t breaking inside. That part definitely frustrated me... And the love triangle, in my mind, did not really lead anywhere or have much of a purpose in this story… it was a good subplot, but for some reason the chemistry between the three characters did not leave me gasping for air or with butterflies in my stomach. But I did like Cade’s character, how he was so introverted and cold to those around him except her.

Bethany’s determination and strength made her a very likeable protagonist, in that she knew not to give up, and to face her fears in order to survive.

The overall storyline was good, although dragging on unnecessarily in some areas.. I give this book a solid 3/5!
The cliff hanger definitely leaves the reader wanting more.. so we will just have to see what happens in the next book!

[Ebony · Rating 2 out of 5]

A teen end of the world by aliens apocalypse. I got it for free.
I flew through it mainly because the action was pretty non stop. Even when there was a lull, romance reared its ugly head.

Here we a have book with the little Princess, Bethany, who has the dream boyfriend and wants the bad boy too. Gah! Add to that she is the clumsy damsel in distress who trips over her own feet and feels guilty over her wishy washy feelings towards the two boys.
Oh and she's claustrophobic.
I wanted aliens to eat her! I wanted a building to fall on her. I wanted her roasted in a fire!

Without giving away the plot, I just couldn't empathize with her at all. We could have done with less hiding in small places and more character development. I just got the feeling that all the character interactions were forced.
It needs a little editing for typos, lose vs loose but not bad enough that I want to throw it across the room.
It also needs more world building. More back story about the aliens and some of the rules that the aliens made and why humans so readily agreed to them. It was mentioned, yes and I don't remember exactly what it said. To me it means that it needed to be mentioned more than once.

Will I read book 2? No! I hate Bethany with more ferocity than I should. And because I can't picture her saving anybody after she spends the first book falling apart and being a burden to everyone.

[Rebecca Rakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

After starting the first couple paragraphs I stopped and went back to check if I was on book 1. There are references to cars being banned and it wasn’t explained any further. It gets explained later but like many times in this book the author will realize something needs to be added to make the plot (sort of) work so she throws it in as a, “oh by the way” type of thing. At one point a character talks that hasn’t been mentioned yet and its explain as the main character, Bethy, was too excited to notice her and the new person must have been with the group. Or when Bethany suddenly remembers (about 25% into the book that) she has a boyfriend. That sort of thing.
The character of Bethany is a mess. She is all over the place. One minute she is trembling in fear, has to be held up because her legs turn to Jell-O, throwing up because of her nerves and frozen in place until someone rescues her and the next moment she is brave and annoyed that her boyfriend is treating her like she can’t take care of herself. It goes back and forth so it’s not character development. There is no consistency so you can’t really get a feel of the character. Also, she is the typical clumsy heroin.
In the beginning of the book she is so distracted by running into her crush, Cade, that she barely notices the alien invasion. More description is told about how their hands fit together when he grabs her to run down the alley than is given of the invasion. And Bethany moons over how Cade could never be into her because he is so mysterious and hot with his dark eyes and dark hair and she is a clumsy nobody. Oh, but she forgot all about her tall, blond, athletic, super sweet, star quarterback boyfriend. Insert the eye roll here. She’s a nobody dating the star quarterback? And there you get the love triangle between the dark dangerous stranger and the perfect sweet blond.
I could not understand at all why her boyfriend was even with her. Bethy was nothing but rude to him the entire book There wasn’t a single nice memory of them yet he was falling over himself in love with her? Again, that make little sense.
We are told the aliens arrived and slowly over time they lull humans into trusting them. We barely notice when they start slowly taking away things from us. First they gave us the cures to diseases and cancer which made us trust them and happy. Then they took up all the cell phone towers because they were bad for our health. They stopped air travel because it was dangerous to their ships, stopped the internet, took away all the guns, then banned people from driving in cars. They stopped all higher education because there was no need for it anymore. The aliens declared everyone would be equal. All of this happened within the span of 9 months. That isn’t slow at ALL!
Maybe I have a unique perspective here since I am in the middle of cancer treatments. Let’s just say if aliens dropped out of the sky today and said they had a cure my answer would be no thank you. If they dropped out of the sky two years ago my answer would still be no thank you. You have to test treatments and do trials. You have to know the lasting side effects. You have to trust your health care provider.
Not only that, but no cars? How are people getting their groceries? How are the groceries being delivered to the stores? Bethy makes reference to the gum at the counter of the store at the beginning of the book. No cars to make deliveries but unnecessary items such as gum is still there? And she was there buying milk. How did the milk get there? It has to be pretty fresh. If they mention snow on the news my grocery store is out that day but here, after aliens appear and driving ban there is still fresh milk?
Stores are still open. Why? Who is going to work when you don’t have too? Everyone is equal no matter how much or how little you do. And everyone was happy and no one rioted and people just handed over their guns willingly? And cell phones? People gave up their cell phones? I can understand if there were no towers and they didn’t work but Beth makes reference to the cars in peoples driveways and how people just walked everywhere because driving was banned. No one rebelled? What about the elderly or physically unable? What did they do? Come to think of it, it was said driving had been banned for two weeks and it was also said that communication was shut down so there was no news. How did they even know driving was banned? Who was enforcing this?
Next problem with the book. Time and space. Not the normal time and space but how it’s portrayed in the book. The group is in the forest with a huge, super-fast beast crushing down trees and hot on their heels and we are told they are “jogging”. Not running for their lives, jogging. Add to that they are carrying a woman on a piece of plywood and having full conversations yet it takes the beast a while to catch up them. Or when we are told 90 of these tentacle things burst thru the window of the bedroom and Bethy has enough time to put her mother on that piece of plywood, yell a bunch at her sister and still get out of the room before they locate her. How big was this bedroom? Must have been huge. That sort of time and space, the time it takes to actually do things and the space they are doing it in.
Don’t expect consistencies on wounds either. Beth slashes her palm on a piece of glass and the next scene she is helping to carry her Mom on a piece of plywood (that fit down a set of stairs with no problem and thru doorways while running and fighting off alien tentacles without her mother ever falling off of) with no problem. The gash is forgotten about.
Okay, I’m only about 50% thru the book so there will be more. I am willing to bet money this will end in a misplaced cliffhanger. LOL! Somehow the book is readable in a silly way.
I finished it up. About 90% of the way thru the book I was curious what the plot even was. Aliens invade and…. There was no real plan after that. Were they going to fight? There big plan was to get off the island and to the mainland. Then what? The aliens are there too. You got the plot at about 95% into the book and yes, it was a cliff hanger. But at least there was a reasonable stopping point.
This was a fast read at least.

[K. D. Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, Erica darling, loving it. Little confusing I thought at first until I realized you might have written literally from the point of view of a young woman trying to make sense of roller coaster of severe awareness and forced to make the most crazed decisions when they didn't knew which way everyone and everything was going. If I was lucky enough to have not died from pissing myself to death in the beginning and was writing a journal of my unbelievable adventure of horror, it would most likely have read out like the way Bethy was telling the story. How do you comprehend a million emotions and constantly changing situations? Easy to go crazy. KEEPING READING IT Y'ALL... SEVERE PAGE TURNER ALERT!

[Lynkon Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ravening series caught my attention and did NOT disappoint. With aliens, death, romance and plot twists this series kept me on the edge of my seat and occasionally putting it down to stop and say "wait, what? Did that just happen?"

I couldn't help but fall in love with the mysterious Cade, with his unfailing dedication to Bethany and almost chilling bravery he left me swooning!

Bethany pulled on my heart with all the loss she endures. I cried for her and with her. She transforms greatly over the three books from typical teen girl to a brave and strong woman. I remember feeling so proud of her at the end of the series. Erica Stevens takes you on a great journey with these--be sure to put it on your "must read" list

[The Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book in awhile that caused me to want to read instead of sleep. The setting is aliens who come to Earth proclaiming peace and sharing technology and cures, but then slowly takes away freedoms "in the name of peace" until humans are cut off from neighboring towns and the world. No driving or communications. I seriously want to read the next book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a little fantasy/sci-fi and romance. The writing is not the best in the world, but the story makes up for that. It was truly hard to put down.

[Liana Kirkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the story... it was exciting and suspenseful, raised questions enough to make me want to get the next book to find out what happens... it has all the components of a fantastic read but for the editing. It really needs a good once-over by someone with an eagle eye for duplicate and missing words - and a bucket of commas. The consistently missing commas in so many sentences really affected the intended inflections and were quite distracting.

[Abbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I downloaded this book from ibooks and what a fantastic idea it was its brilliant to have something new and different in my collection i am purchasing the second book tomorrow please tell me that there will be a third soon i dont want to stop reading about these characters just yet. You have created a wonderful book you should be proud :)

[Kimchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing, aliens, death and escape i could not put it down. Cade is a great character loved him all around Everyone who is into aliens and mankinds fight for life should read this book great read well written. Awesome

[Anna V. · Rating 1 out of 5]

YA only - not for anyone over 14 or 15

I enjoy YA dystopian, even though I'm an adult, but I couldn't finish this book. There's no substance to the story. Immature, juvenile writing.

[Renae Rogers · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I began reading this, I realised I'd read it before, a year or two ago. It's...

*sigh* It's hard to explain.

OK. So. I think the first time around, I focussed mostly on the alien invasion plotline. I say this because reading it again, I couldn't get over how much of the book is not about the alien invasion. It's quite intrusive at times actually, in terms of getting in the way of pushing the story forward, although it does help us to understand some of the character motivations for the MC. Maybe the first time I read it, I just skim read those parts and ignored how much of the story focuses on the MC's physical awareness of and reactions to one of the guys she knows. Seriously. She swoons over him a lot. And while she's self-aware enough to point out how inappropriate it all is given the circumstances, that doesn't spare us from having to sit through it. Maybe it works better for readers who are in that age bracket.

There is also a lot of description. Even in the action sequences. Especially in the action sequences, I would say. That coupled with people uselessly saying, "Bethy...", a LOT slows down the pace in what should be high energy moments. And I'm not even always sure WHY people are saying her name. Yes, sometimes they need to get her attention. But the whole section of the book where she goes home and finds her sister and they're trying to get her mother safely out of the house is littered with people saying or moaning her name and too often I don't know why. For all that description, I still don't know why. That bugged me.

There are a large number of comma spliced sentences. Those should have been caught at the editing stage. They should definitely have been caught by the proofreading stage. There were also a couple of small typos or wrong word uses, such as lose when the author meant loose. Not enough to be a huge problem, but I did notice them.

For all that, the running from the aliens parts were pretty fun. Her debilitating condition was dealt with a little inconsistently in that it was sometimes made a massive deal of when it might not have warranted it and at other times it didn't seem anywhere near a big enough deal although I guess desperation can make us do things we never would have thought possible, hey? Not suffering from this particular complaint myself, I have no idea how conditional it can be. *shrugs* I suspended my disbelief a lot, what can I say?

I guess this book would be a 2 1/2 stars for me. It's better than, 'It's OK', but I don't quite like it enough to warrant three stars. However, I remember liking it better the first time around, so maybe it just doesn't stand up to a re-read as well as it might. Or maybe I've just read a lot more books in a similar vein since then which I found were better done. I definitely feel this book could benefit from some trimming and tightening.

[Gypsy Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the title I expected it to have zombies or at least flesh-eating creatures. But the aliens are more like vampires in that they suck the blood of their prey, leaving behind a husk. Aside from the title that doesn’t really fit, this book is fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, it does have its flaws (specifically it’s main heroine. She’s got plenty of problems which make her sympathetic and relatable, but they’re also downfalls as well. The one that I had the hardest time forgiving her for was her inability to stand up to her “boyfriend” and tell him what she really felt, and have the courage to choose between the two guys rather than just stringing them along which wasn’t fair. Even when it came down to it, she didn’t say anything. Not even when her “boyfriend” was being a jerk. I think the problem is that this is another case of the author believing that it makes for good drama not to show all the emotional cards and having the characters bare their souls as soon as the idea occurs to them. It irks me each time I catch a book doing that. I’m one of those people who prefers the cards on the table from the start or I start thinking less of the characters when they don’t. I did like her claustrophobia which definitely added tension to quite a few scenes especially when they had to hide in places. The aliens were fantastic. It helps that there’s not just one type of alien, but several different ones mentioned over the course of the book, and it’s mostly left up to the reader’s imagination (which mine can create some pretty horrific-looking creatures). Most of the other characters are pretty much cliché. Cade is the stereotypical darkly-gorgeous, brooding, bad-boy façade with a heart of gold, Brett and Aiden are practically interchangeable in personalities, as well as the other female characters who are all fragile flowers. But where this book shines is in it’s aliens and the tension-filled scenes as our cast of characters tries to evade the aliens. It’s full of action, and running, and daring escapes, and the horror as others are captured, killed, or sucked dry around them. And the beginning was poetry in motion as the nightmare world comes to life around our heroine and she struggles to find any other company in the suddenly silent town.

[Ebony Irby · Rating 1 out of 5]

***SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS***

This book had such promise! Picture it; an Alien invasion, but not in the traditional sense. They appeared one day over every major city in the world. They "came in peace", and were here to make our lives easier. They showed us how to cure diseases that has been plaguing man for centuries. And even introduced us to their advanced technologies. Next they dismantled the worlds Militaries on the premise of World peace, and the promise of no more wars. Over the next few months they 'disarmed" us of EVERYTHING that we'd grown accustom to in the name of "Oneness". Guns were banned, why need guns when there's world peace. Air travel was banned. If you need to go somewhere, they'll transport you. Cell phones were banned. Any and All cell towers were taken down, so there was no need for cell phones. Eventually cars were banned because of the emissions and to make the air quality better. All of this was done to gain our trust, and let our guard down. They systematically and methodically cut us off from the rest of the world. And then the struck!! What ever position you were in when they deployed their weapon, became your state of being. Frozen in place for eternity, or until they came along and drained you of your blood!

Sounds great, right? WRONG! Here's where it all went downhill. The protagonist is a 17 year old girl full of teenage angst, and we get to experience it in ALL it's glory throughout the Entire book!!! UGH....... The main characters were involved in a love triangle that rivaled the Twilight saga! Bethany's inner monologues of self loathing, and pining after Gabe were vomit inducing to sat the least. So much so that I found myself constantly skipping thru her narrative just to get on with the story!! She spent most of her time lamenting on what could've been, instead of dealing with the now. Her parents are gone, and it's just her and her siblings left. At one point her sister was literally crying out to her for help, and she was debating leaving her and going after Gabe, a guy that she hadn't seen ion over a year, or spoken to in about seven. This quickly went from and invasion to a romance novel.

This was a Free read from Audible with my monthly membership.

[Synthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I read the back of the book I thought it would be interesting. Teen Romance, alien invasion yk the good stuff.It didn't turn out to be that way though.I can say I'm a picky reader and I don't like cheating which this book contains.Our female H is a cheating immature dull character without a personality.The first 3 pages of the book was H standing in a gas station or store.The clerk is frozen and she's standing there explaining how scared she is.Wow!That's such a good start.I had to push myself to finish the first sentence because I knew how it would pan out. I expected this to be better beause Erica Stevens is one of my favorite authors but I'm disappointed.She end up leaving the store blah blah blah few minutes later Cade saves her.She starts going on about the history of how she knows Cade. Re-wind to when H and Cade make it to H house to get her family. Her brother and boyfriend aren't there but her sister and mother are. Mother is frozen,sister is not.Cade says he has to leave and then they kiss. Then she goes on and on about how he's amazing and perfect and mysterious and he understands her better than she understands herself.While they kiss there is a flashback to when her father died.When her father dies she and Cade kiss.Really?Your father is dead and instead of grieving or talking about how good of a man he was your kissing some boy???Then randomly she remembers she has a boyfriend!Which he is also the sweetest,most understanding perfect boyfriend that would do anything for her.And she just loves him so much.Clearly not enough to cheat and forget him. Then she says that she hope he doesn't find out because it will destroy him but she continues to cheat.Wtf??And the authoe wrote it out to make it seem innocent and okay.I didn't even finish the book.Let alone the first 5 chapters.The book was boring and not enough action.

[Lena Muo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really despise the MC, all she does is tremble, shudder, trip, stumble. No matter what she is described as, she is a coward. I don’t see what Cade sees in her but a character like her is god damn weak and I’m surprised she survives at all. She needs to face reality and stop being so prissy. I hope her character develops into a badass woman not what she is like now.

I might sound cruel, but Bret, Aidan, Jenna and Abby should be cut out in the book, their characters are dull and boring. Heck, I wouldn’t even mind if the MC was gone, can’t stand her sometimes. She is so overly dramatic. There are aliens invading the world, causing havoc to their neighbourhood, yet mostly what she thinks is why Cade likes her and the feelings she has for him and how she doesn’t deserve Bret, her boyfriend. Really, girl? I mean, shouldn’t you be more concerned on how to survive this alien apocalypse, then think about this. Sorry, this character just infuriates me.

The only one who is bearable and fascinating is Cade. I think the author is hinting something with his character; he could, I think, be more than human but I’m only hypothesising.

[Dana Wood · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is just a teen love triangle in the middle of War of the Worlds. I mean there are so many similarities to the aliens in this book to WoW that it’s not even funny. And the whole “the aliens cured all illness and famine that the whole world did everything they said to do like get rid of airplanes, cars, communication and internet”....laughable. Cringey writing doesn’t mean throwing in a love triangle in the midst helps either. Boyfriend is so good and kind and loyal she couldn’t possibly hurt him even though she doesn’t love him then bad boy mysterious for no reason other than he doesn’t talk comes and she falls hard and fast even though aliens are trying to kill them. It’s dumb. At least WoW ended with the aliens during because of bacteria and diseases.

[Ilene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story but hard to believe

Aliens have taken over the world and Bethany, age 17, is forever caught between extremely fearful panic attacks and raging hormones. Cade, her first Love from age 6 and who has been incommunicado for over 10 years, is back to save her life and interfere in between Bethany and her current boyfriend, Bret. The rest of the book is chock full of terrifying aliens trying to either eat them or capture them. There are a few moments where you can relate to the hard times endured by Bethany and Cade in their lives up until now, but I just couldn’t supply sufficient willing suspension of disbelief to the basic premises of the invasion.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A slightly different Apocaliptical book

It kind of reminds me of that "Twilight Zone" episode " To Serve Man" . Instead of trusting the aliens enough to take a space trip with them, in this book, humanity has trusted them enough to give up their freedoms and rights till they are 'preserved ' for the aliens meal. Now a few servivors are fighting for their lives and the rest of humanity.
I liked the book and the characters. The descriptions were extremely vivid and believable. The story was engaging and hard to put down. I would very much like to read the rest of this series.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t think my heartbeat has returned to normal yet, since reading book 1 of The Ravening Series. It’s exciting and very suspenseful. I’ve read & watched alien invasion stories over years, but this one seems personal; as if I’m one of the survivors. I can already see the characters in my mind because they were so well written. I have enjoyed quite a few YA books I’ve read, but some were too immature. Or the stories or characters didn’t match their age or their actions to what was happening. But this author knows how to write an excellent book. I have purchased book 2 already & can’t wait to start reading it.

[Rachel Steen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were several things that pulled me out of the story which was dissapointing since I liked the general plot and pace.The author is in desperate need of a proof reader. There is a combination of missing, extra, and incorrect words used throughout the book. Something else I noticed in this book, as well as others she has written, is a lack of general knowledge. For example, the length of time it takes to walk a mile. The author seems to think it takes an hour, more in rough terrain.

Haven't decided if I will continue on to the next book.

[Kristy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Saw a recommendation for this series and I got really excited. It sounded like it’d be a great storyline, romance etc. However I’m sadly disappointed by the lack of plot, and the characters. The main lead, Bethany, I know she’s a teen but I find her childish, and really starting to grate on me. I like strong characters despite trouble they’ve had in the past, however this one was annoying. It’s a slow burner which never actually fizzled into something great.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't too excited for this book as I'm not much into scifi/alien stuff. However, I just love her writing style, it always has adventure/romance/suspense, enough so that I'm pulled in fairly quickly regardless of the plot. I loved this book, I am a bit disappointed with how book 2 is starting out but that shouldn't impact my rating of this one and hopefully book 2 will brighten up again haha.