Dark Prophet

Dark Prophet (The Chronicles of Koa #2)

by K.N. Lee

4 out of 5

Synopsis
Not all vampires are created equal...
Koa is a half-blood vampire with not only the ability to fly, but survive in the sun's light. She will do anything to protect her mother, and break her curse. The demon, Bund, wants more than her mother's life. He wants something from Koa, a power that she doesn't even know she has, and will rip through as many humans as he can to get her to surrender.

Agent Koa Ryeo-won, and her boss, Halston, formed a crew of supernatural agents to stop Bund. But is a prophet, a temptress, a War-Breeder, a half-blood with an enchanted sword, and a few angels enough to stop what Bund has planned?

In the midst of a war between the humans of the mortal world, and the creatures of the Netherworld, Koa discovers the truth of her past. She finds herself torn between two men, and in the center of everything. Faced with all of her returned memories, Koa also finds herself more powerful than ever. Being a half-blood is hard enough, but what exactly is Koa's other half?

The truth can save...or destroy everything.

Will the Netherworld Division stand behind Koa once they learn her secret?

Review
((Click to have a peek at my review of Netherworld, The Chronicles of Koa #1))
Koa and her non-human allies are all that stand in the way of vampiric King Greggan, who is ready to unleash the Netherworld demons to enslave the human world.  This is deliciously dark, with graphic violence throughout.

Dark Prophet picks up right where that frustrating cliff-hanger in the first book left off.  In the middle of a battle in the Netherworld, with Koa awakening memories that she didn't know she had lost.
That first realisation - wow.  The first book leads you to believe that Koa is the Princess to vampire royalty, Jax.  A young, handsome Netherworld vampire and one of the good guys (relatively speaking).  ((spoiler)) But to find out that Koa was actually the 12 year old bride, forced to marry Jax's sadistic father, King Greggan; in a political move orchestrated by none other than Halston??? Good move Ms Lee, very good move.

It then follows in a wild ride to discover allies and stop Greggan, and the unpredictable demonic Bund, who tear through England's population of humans and vampires alike.  They must also find out how to remove the curse from Koa's mother, after all, no one wants their most powerful weapon stuck as a cat.

I did enjoy this book, although not as much as the first one if I'm completely honest.
From the start, the story splits off in several different directions, to follow Koa; to follow Halston; to follow Alice and Raven; to follow King Greggan...  After the first book just following Koa's story (for the main part), I found it very hard to get into.  I will say the second half is better than the first, when the stories all begin to merge and tie together.

I think my favourite character in this book was probably Halston (or Ian, Ian was cool).  It very much follows his journey and his choices, and how far he's willing to fall.
It was a shame with Koa - in book one I loved her, she was a spunky, kick-ass fighter in every sense of the word.  In Dark Prophet, I felt that she held back a lot.  Of course, it's understandable when you've just had a hellish new history dumped on you, but I missed the old Koa.

Anyways, a good story.  Netherworld and Dark Prophet are simply two halves of a story, both need to be read to complete it.  I imagine these can be read as a "two-part-standalone" (yes, I know I made that up) within the rest of the series.

I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5; but I guess I'll round it up to 4 for tidiness.

Goodreads link
Amazon.co.uk