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Midnight Secrets #2
The Thrill
Kendra believes that Ariane is the cause of the bad luck that seems to follow her, until the mysterious and seductive Revell reappears in Kendra's life
212 pages, Paperback
First published January 4, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 6, 2023
Very very fun to read while it is raining.
September 2, 2015
Great follow up to the first book of the series, Temptation, The. A new character appears, and we don't really know what her angle is. And of course Revell (Rodolphe in the French version) is still there, lurking around and trying to control poor Kendra. We also learn a bit more about the secret surrounding Revell and the manor.
March 11, 2010
this so crazy wat happen to her is like everything in her life is a trap. is fun n cool to read this book
August 17, 2026
Some slight spoilers for The Temptation so read on if you like.
Kendra had to use her powers to protect her blood sister Lauren and her stepbrother Anthony from being taken or killed by Revell, the man haunting her dreams and nightmares.
It was so powerful she thought he was gone forever and blocked it completely from her mind that he was behind all of the terrible things that happened to her friends and family.
Months later, Lauren is going away to boarding school in Switzerland. Dinah wants both girls to go but Revell is using his control over Kendra to keep her there at Vanderman Manor for his purposes.
Kendra stays in New York City and has a scare when her semi-boyfriend Neil almost falls off the cliff to his death but is saved last minute. Revell soon reappears to Kendra and tells her that it was her power as a sensitive that saved Neil. Kendra begins getting warnings from the graves of all the female spirits of the bodies buried in the cemetery.
All of them losing their lives at seventeen except for that of Graham's second wife Helen who died with their daughter in a plane crash. Syrie is trying to warn Kendra to stay away from Revell, but it is hard when a guest comes to stay with the family.
Ariane Belloch is Graham's niece from Paris, and she is going to be going to school with Kendra and staying in Lauren's old room for a year. Letters with a boy named Michel tell Kendra that he knows of Ariane due to rumors since he is from Paris and was visiting over the summer. Kendra's bestie Hallie thinks it is strange for her to show up all of the sudden but part of it may be jealousy.
Anthony seems to have a little crush on Ariane but Hallie sort of likes him. Yes, Anthony is related through blood to Ariane by his father. Long distance still doesn't make it any less icky, dude.
Kendra is fine with Ariane until she notices that some of her things have gone missing and that the housekeeper, Mrs. Stavros, has a great liking towards the girl. Everyone is great around Ariane except for Max, the black lab owned by Anthony. He is always growling and snarling at the girl, and he won't leave Kendra's side after Lauren leaves.
That is a big red flag to Kendra but soon, she even begins to wonder if Revell will like Ariane just as well.
Michel comes to visit Kendra and take a tour of her school with its telecommunications program. He wants to be more than friends with Kendra, but she is torn between Neil and Revell like before so she tells Michel there is someone else, but they can be friends. At the academy, Michel gets electrocuted by a stage light but doesn't die.
Ariane was close to him and Kendra witnessed it. Before he heads back home to Paris, Michel tells Kendra that the rumor involving Ariane might be that she is responsible for a young man's death.
She spurned his advances and he was found dead, committing suicide out of grief. Almost everyone blamed Ariane and that is why her uncle made her come to New York City to get away.
When Max becomes ill, the dog poisoned, Kendra believes that Ariane is responsible. Revell is obviously behind all of this and using Ariane to make Kendra use her powers to give him the eternal life he wants.
Even with evil influencing her, can Kendra use her powers for a better purpose? Can she replace anger in her heart with love and compassion?
Or will it take the death of a loved one to finally let her break Revell's evil hold upon her?
Yeah, not leaving animal lovers hanging but Max survives. The dog is okay for now, but I have yet to see if the final book won't pull out all the stops.
I have no idea why second entries in trilogies seem to be the weakest ones, but The Thrill falls into that trap. All the stuff with Revell is exactly like The Temptation, we send Lauren off page, there really are no thrills to speak of and it is just kind of boring.
That is why I can't go higher than four stars because at least the climatic ending had a payoff of pathos and tragedy. Raising the stakes a little bit higher to make way for the conclusion in...
The Fury.
Kendra had to use her powers to protect her blood sister Lauren and her stepbrother Anthony from being taken or killed by Revell, the man haunting her dreams and nightmares.
It was so powerful she thought he was gone forever and blocked it completely from her mind that he was behind all of the terrible things that happened to her friends and family.
Months later, Lauren is going away to boarding school in Switzerland. Dinah wants both girls to go but Revell is using his control over Kendra to keep her there at Vanderman Manor for his purposes.
Kendra stays in New York City and has a scare when her semi-boyfriend Neil almost falls off the cliff to his death but is saved last minute. Revell soon reappears to Kendra and tells her that it was her power as a sensitive that saved Neil. Kendra begins getting warnings from the graves of all the female spirits of the bodies buried in the cemetery.
All of them losing their lives at seventeen except for that of Graham's second wife Helen who died with their daughter in a plane crash. Syrie is trying to warn Kendra to stay away from Revell, but it is hard when a guest comes to stay with the family.
Ariane Belloch is Graham's niece from Paris, and she is going to be going to school with Kendra and staying in Lauren's old room for a year. Letters with a boy named Michel tell Kendra that he knows of Ariane due to rumors since he is from Paris and was visiting over the summer. Kendra's bestie Hallie thinks it is strange for her to show up all of the sudden but part of it may be jealousy.
Anthony seems to have a little crush on Ariane but Hallie sort of likes him. Yes, Anthony is related through blood to Ariane by his father. Long distance still doesn't make it any less icky, dude.
Kendra is fine with Ariane until she notices that some of her things have gone missing and that the housekeeper, Mrs. Stavros, has a great liking towards the girl. Everyone is great around Ariane except for Max, the black lab owned by Anthony. He is always growling and snarling at the girl, and he won't leave Kendra's side after Lauren leaves.
That is a big red flag to Kendra but soon, she even begins to wonder if Revell will like Ariane just as well.
Michel comes to visit Kendra and take a tour of her school with its telecommunications program. He wants to be more than friends with Kendra, but she is torn between Neil and Revell like before so she tells Michel there is someone else, but they can be friends. At the academy, Michel gets electrocuted by a stage light but doesn't die.
Ariane was close to him and Kendra witnessed it. Before he heads back home to Paris, Michel tells Kendra that the rumor involving Ariane might be that she is responsible for a young man's death.
She spurned his advances and he was found dead, committing suicide out of grief. Almost everyone blamed Ariane and that is why her uncle made her come to New York City to get away.
When Max becomes ill, the dog poisoned, Kendra believes that Ariane is responsible. Revell is obviously behind all of this and using Ariane to make Kendra use her powers to give him the eternal life he wants.
Even with evil influencing her, can Kendra use her powers for a better purpose? Can she replace anger in her heart with love and compassion?
Or will it take the death of a loved one to finally let her break Revell's evil hold upon her?
Yeah, not leaving animal lovers hanging but Max survives. The dog is okay for now, but I have yet to see if the final book won't pull out all the stops.
I have no idea why second entries in trilogies seem to be the weakest ones, but The Thrill falls into that trap. All the stuff with Revell is exactly like The Temptation, we send Lauren off page, there really are no thrills to speak of and it is just kind of boring.
That is why I can't go higher than four stars because at least the climatic ending had a payoff of pathos and tragedy. Raising the stakes a little bit higher to make way for the conclusion in...
The Fury.
April 2, 2023
Has it really been less than a month since I read the first book in this series? It feels like a dim memory from years past. But hey, I'm not alone in that: Kendra also remembers nothing that happened in The Temptation. Which means we get basically the same plot all over again. The only difference is that this time we get a shifty French girl staying at the spooky house. Kendra doesn't trust her, but stepbrother Anthony seems rather smitten! With his father's niece. Why was cousincest still a sexy thing in the '90s?
Revell continues to be a non-threatening non-presence. In fact he's even less formidable in this book, where he's off-page for 90% of it. Kendra resists his manipulation so easily that there's never any real suspense. And again, why isn't he a vampire? He's clearly immortal, he's seductive (to Kendra, not to the reader), he has powers of mind control, he keeps saying he needs Kendra's "life force" to stay alive, he hangs out in cemeteries.... Seriously, the series is called Midnight Secrets! Just make him a vampire, Wolff Ryp! Instead Revell is some vaguely defined, boring malevolent force whose abilities and motivations are entirely unclear.
Word of advice to YA writers: If you've only got 200 pages to develop your story, maybe don't populate it with a dozen bland characters. Pretty much the only characters Ryp needed for this story were Kendra, Ariane, Revell, and the ghost of Syrie, and none of them are developed enough to be interesting. That leaves us with Neil, Dinah, Michel, Hallie, Anthony, Mrs. Stavros, and Graham hanging around with pretty much nothing to do for the entire book. At least Kendra's sister Lauren got shipped off in the first chapter so we didn't have to deal with her.
Probably the only thing that sets these books apart is the urban setting. You're used to YA horror taking place in the suburbs, or small towns in the middle of nowhere, or isolated chateaus in the countryside of some English-speaking European nation. Having one take place in the heart of New York City, where the protagonist takes cabs and buses everywhere and shops on Fifth Avenue, is novel.
Revell continues to be a non-threatening non-presence. In fact he's even less formidable in this book, where he's off-page for 90% of it. Kendra resists his manipulation so easily that there's never any real suspense. And again, why isn't he a vampire? He's clearly immortal, he's seductive (to Kendra, not to the reader), he has powers of mind control, he keeps saying he needs Kendra's "life force" to stay alive, he hangs out in cemeteries.... Seriously, the series is called Midnight Secrets! Just make him a vampire, Wolff Ryp! Instead Revell is some vaguely defined, boring malevolent force whose abilities and motivations are entirely unclear.
Word of advice to YA writers: If you've only got 200 pages to develop your story, maybe don't populate it with a dozen bland characters. Pretty much the only characters Ryp needed for this story were Kendra, Ariane, Revell, and the ghost of Syrie, and none of them are developed enough to be interesting. That leaves us with Neil, Dinah, Michel, Hallie, Anthony, Mrs. Stavros, and Graham hanging around with pretty much nothing to do for the entire book. At least Kendra's sister Lauren got shipped off in the first chapter so we didn't have to deal with her.
Probably the only thing that sets these books apart is the urban setting. You're used to YA horror taking place in the suburbs, or small towns in the middle of nowhere, or isolated chateaus in the countryside of some English-speaking European nation. Having one take place in the heart of New York City, where the protagonist takes cabs and buses everywhere and shops on Fifth Avenue, is novel.
January 26, 2025
Ok, I just finished book 2 of the midnight secrets trilogy. What can I say about it? Well, it is a continuation from the first book and is marginally better than the first. There are return characters and new ones. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and for completion's sake, I will be reading the last book. Like I said in my first review, the book is ok and geared towards young adults and a great gateway to paranormal suspense ("romance?").
Anyway, I am happy i am able to revisit a childhood haunt and can't wait to come full circle with the last book.
Anyway, I am happy i am able to revisit a childhood haunt and can't wait to come full circle with the last book.
November 1, 2016
This basically feels like I'm reading the same book all over again! Kendra has conveniently forgotten all about Revell since she destroyed him in the first book, so we have to slog through the exact same plot as Kendra slowly figures out he's not all he's cracked up to be.
Boring! Should have made it a two-parter.
Boring! Should have made it a two-parter.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews