The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Box Set Books 1-6 by W.J. May
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book 1 – Rae of Hope
How hard do you have to shake the family tree to find the truth about the past?
Fifteen year-old Rae Kerrigan never really knew her family’s history. Her mother & father died when she was young; it is only when she accepts a scholarship to the prestigious Guilder Boarding School in England that a mysterious family secret is revealed.
Will the sins of the father be the sins of the daughter?
As Rae struggles with new friends, a new school and a star-struck forbidden love, she must also face the ultimate challenge: receive a tattoo on her sixteenth birthday with specific powers that may bind her to an unspeakable darkness. It’s up to Rae to undo the dark evil in her family’s past and have a ray of hope for her future.
Book 2 – Dark Nebula
Nothing is as it seems anymore.
Leery from the horrifying incident at the end of her first year at Guilder Boarding School, Rae Kerrigan is determined to learn more about her new tattoo. Her expectations are high, an easy senior year and a happy reunion with Devon, the boy she’s not supposed to date. All hopes of happiness turn into shattered dreams the moment she steps back on campus.
Lies and secrets are everywhere, and a betrayal cuts Rae deeply. Among her conflicts and enemies, it appears as if her father is reaching out from beyond the grave to ruin her life. With no one to trust, Rae doesn’t know where or who to turn to for help.
Has her destiny been written? Or will she become the one thing she hates the most—her father’s prodigy.
Book 3 – House of Cards
Rae Kerrigan is three months away from graduating from Guilder Boarding school. She is now moonlighting as an operative for the Privy Council, a black ops division for British Intelligence. She’s given a mentor, Jennifer, who fights like a demon –fast, tough, and incredibly strong-willed. Rae finds a strange maternal bond with her. At the same time, she finds a new friend when Devon disappoints her once again.
Childhood memories surface and evoke hidden secrets she is determined to solve. When the Privy Council ask for her help, she finds a friend, and a link, to the Xavier Knights – another agency similar to the Privy Council. Through the mystery and secrets, she begins to question what the PC represents and where she stands.
Will she lose herself in the confusions of the past and present? What will it mean for her future?
Book 4 – Royal Tea
The Queen of England has requested the help of the Privy Council. Someone is trying to kill her son’s fiancé. The HRH Prince plans to marry a commoner, and his bride has a secret no one knows but the Privy Council. She has a tatù. When the Privy Council turns to Rae for help, she can’t possibly say no; not even when they make Devon her partner for this assignment. They are to pose as a couple and work undercover, as bodyguards, to protect the soon to be Princess of Wales.
Rae would rather be anywhere but with Devon, especially since she believes her mother to be alive, despite the Privy Council’s assurances to the contrary. The question is, how can Rae find proof of life for her mother, come to terms with her feelings for Devon, and manage to save the Princess, all while dressed for tea?
When the enigma, the secrets and the skeletons in the closet begin to be exposed, can Rae handle the truth?
Book 5 – Under Fire
Rae Kerrigan is determined to find her mother. No amount of convincing from Devon, or the Privy Council, is going to make her believe her mother is not alive, and Rae will stop at nothing to find her.
Torn between friendship and loyalty, Rae must also choose between Luke and Devon. She can’t continue to deny, or fool herself, any longer. The heart wants what the heart wants.
Book 6 – End in Sight
When life couldn’t get anymore confusing, fate steps in and throws a curveball.
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Harriet Potter!
Rae of Hope
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: ❤️
Heat/Steam: N/A
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘📔
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌍
Character development: 🧑🏻🎤👨🏻🎤🦸🏻🦸🏼♂🦹🏻♀
The heroine: Rae Kerrigan – Rae gets a surprise scholarship to a private boarding school in England called Guilder. Rae doesn’t realize until she arrives that the school is for special students with superpowers. On their birthday at age 16, a Tatù (like a tattoo) appears which marks them as having inherited the gift from one of their parents. The Tatù is a representation of the gift/ability they have gotten. Rae turns 16 in November, so has a bit to wait.
The Hero(es): Devon – He has a fox Tatù which comes with abilities like super speed and extra strength. He has a girlfriend named Beth that goes to a school close by. He is tasked with tutoring Rae since most kids start at the school three years prior to getting their Tatù and Rae just began with no knowledge of their world.
The Story: Rae lost her parents at a young age and grew up with her uncle Argyle. His sister (Rae’s mother) got the Tatù in their family instead of Argyle and he never told her anything about her parents or their world. So when Rae came to Guilder, she knew nothing of the abilities or the Tatùs.
Rae finds out the rest of the student body seem to know more about her family than she did. It seems that marriages between two gifted people were forbidden and her father was not a good person (he is the Voldemort of this story). Some of the faculty and students expect Rae to be a chip off the old block apparently.
The narration was pretty great. The story is all told in Rae’s POV so there was just one narrator, Sarah Anne Masse, and she was perfect for this book. She did different voices for all the characters and there are quite a few. Many have English and Scottish accents so it is pretty cool that she can do them all so well.
I have seen some reviews that hit on the fact that it is similar to Harry Potter, and others that say it is similar to Twilight because the Hero saves the heroine from a falling object similar to how Edward saves Bella from the careening van in that book/movie. Though I don’t really see the comparison there. I do see it as a similar genre or trope as Harry Potter, not really a rip off of it. I think you could take any romance and call it a rip off of another more popular book due to them being in the same trope but to me that is all it is. I like the trope of supernatural beings at a boarding school. X-men is similar in that way as well, but you would never call X-men or Harry Potter rip offs of each other because they are both uber popular.
Spoiler alert: the reviews for each subsequent book may have spoilers for the prior book. You should be able to read each review prior to each book, but if you read any of the reviews below you might find out more than you want
Second year at Hogwarts Guilder boarding school!
Dark Nebula
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: ❤️💛💚💙
Heat/Steam: N/A
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘📔
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌍
Character development: 🧑🏻🎤👨🏻🎤🦸🏻🦸🏼♂🦹🏻♀
The heroine: Rae Kerrigan – she returns to school for her final year with a greater knowledge of her Tatù gift. Similar to her father’s gift, she is able to use the gifts of other Tatù’s after touching them. However, hers is even better than his was.
The Hero(es): Devon – he and Rae are now dating (in secret) since it is forbidden between Tatù people. Devon is now working for the Privy Council to try to find pieces of the brainwashing device that her father and his followers tried to use on her at the end of last year.
Supporting characters:
Julian – Friend to both Devon and Rae. Julian has the gift of future visions. He works with Devon for the Privy Council.
Kraigan – New student. He was found by headmaster Carter in an orphanage after getting a Tatù. He has dark curly hair and looks somewhat familiar to Rae. It is unclear what his Tatù actually does.
Molly – Rae’s roommate last year. Her Tatù is electricity. She loves to shop and got a new boyfriend over the summer.
There was a lot of action in this book and a different villain than in the last book. Though the biggest thing is the way Rae doesn’t know who she can trust. It seems almost everyone she knows might have some reason to deceive her or at the very least is keeping something secret or has ulterior motives.
The story was better than in the first book and a bit more involved. The narration was every bit as good as the first book. The only voice I don’t like is that of Julian. It seems so slow, though it must be be hard to create different voices for all the different characters in this book.
Becoming a secret squirrel spy!
House of Cards
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: ❤️💛💚💙
Heat/Steam: N/A
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘📔
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌍
Character development: 🧑🏻🎤👨🏻🎤🦸🏻🦸🏼♂🦹🏻♀
The heroine: Rae Kerrigan – Rae becomes an agent for the Privy Council. She trains with a woman who knew her mother.
The Hero(es): Devon – Works for the Privy Council still. Devon has always been a rule follower and puts the Privy Council ahead of everything, even Rae. He often does things or keeps things from Rae.
Luke – New guy that Rae meets. He doesn’t have a Tatù.
The Story: Rae seems a bit odd to me. For someone who has been attacked and betrayed as much as her, she has always seemed a bit to laissez faire about the fact that she wasn’t sure whether or not she could trust Devon. I kept thinking she was Scarlett O’Hara “I’ll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day”, every time she wondered if she could trust him, but decided to not think about it now.
I liked this book. There have been times that I have liked Devon and times that I have thought he was not good enough for Rae. This book solidifies that fact. I don’t know who the Hero is. I like the fact that in this series, it is always up in the air whether someone is a good guy or a bad guy. This book opens up the fact that what you think is bad might not be all bad and what you think is good may not be all good.
Princess Protection!
Royal Tea
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: ❤️💛
Heat/Steam: N/A
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘📔
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌍
Character development: 🧑🏻🎤👨🏻🎤🦸🏻🦸🏼♂🦹🏻♀
The heroine: Rae Kerrigan – Now working for the Privy Council, Rae is partnered with Devon to protect the Crown Prince’s Fiancé who has a Tatù. A Group is determined to make sure that a Tatù person doesn’t get on the Thrown of England.
The Hero(es): Devon – he and Rae are no longer dating but have to go undercover as a couple in order to protect the future princess.
Luke the new guy that Rae met. He works for the Xaviar Knights, a company that was originally started by her father and is dedicated to bringing Tatù people into the 21st century. (The Privy Council thinks they are a villainous organization).
Supporting characters:
Maria – Rae’s friend who has the Tatù that she can send her thoughts to others. Rae and her can talk in their minds since Rae can mimic the Tatù and do the same.
Prince Phillip – Prince of Wales
Sarah – The future Princess of Wales. She has a Tatù that allows her to understand all languages.
Molly – Rae’s former. Her Tatù is electricity. She loves to shop acts as the stylist for Rae and Devon while they go to the parties and luncheons with the Prince and his fiancé.
Curtis – works with Maria on the communications piece of the job they are doing for the Royalty.
I liked the story in this book and as usual, the narration was perfect. However, sometimes I think Rae is an idiot. There is a plot to kidnap or kill the future princess because she has a Tatù. Rae works for the Privy Council as an agent, but for someone who never trusted anyone in previous books, in this book she trusts all kinds of things that are obviously shady and doesn’t figure out the real enemies until they basically hit her over the head.
I like the story and the characters, I just wish Rae would have at least wondered about certain shady situations instead of just going for the simplest explanation of why these things happened. Rae has been such a strong character in previous books. In this one she was strong, but just a bit dimmer.
Revelations and Barbecues!
Under Fire
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: ❤️💛💜💙
Heat/Steam: N/A
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘📔
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌍
Character development: 🧑🏻🎤👨🏻🎤🦸🏻🦸🏼♂🦹🏻♀
The heroine: Rae Kerrigan – has a Tatù that gives her the ability to mimic the Tatù’s of people she has touched at some point. She recently figured out that she also has her mother’s Tatù, which is that of fire and to not be burned by fire she creates.
The Hero(es): Devon – he confessed his Love for Rae at the end of the last book.
Luke – Worked for the Xaviar Knights and found a box that Rae thinks can be opened by the Key she was directed to by clues her mother left her.
Supporting characters:
Bethany – Rae’s mother who may or may not be dead.
Carter – President of the Privy Council who was in love with Rae’s mother.
Jennifer – Rae’s mentor from the Privy Council and former best friend and Privy Council partner to her mother.
Julian – Friend to both Devon and Rae. Julian has the gift of future visions. He is the one person Rae has always trusted.
Molly – Rae’s former. Her Tatù is electricity. She loves to shop acts as the stylist for Rae and Devon while they go to the parties and luncheons with the Prince and his fiancé.
The Story: Rae thinks her mother may still be alive and is determined to find out more information. Though, nobody in the Privy Council believes her. Supposedly her mother died in the fire she started when Rae was six years old. She set the fire in order to kill her husband Simon Kerrigan who was crazy and determined to rule the world.
However, now that Rae has her mother’s power, she knows that she can start a fire and not get burned by the flames so she assumes her mother could not have died in the fire she started. She thinks the burned female body was Kraigan’s mother and not hers, since Kraigan mentioned his mother had disappeared around that time.
This book had the best story so far. I don’t want to give anything away, but so much happened in this one and so many things were revealed.
Graduation!
End in Sight
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: ❤️💜💙💛
Heat/Steam: N/A
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎
Character development: 🧑🏻🎤👨🏻🎤🦸🏻🦸🏼♂🦹🏻♀
The heroine: Rae Kerrigan – Found out that someone new wants her dead. She and her friends now mentor new students at Guilder Boarding School.
The Hero(es): Devon – Rae’s partner at the Privy Council and in life. He and Rae have confessed their love for each other and want to be together.
Supporting characters:
Kraigan – Rae’s half-brother by her father. Kraigan has a Tatù like hers but it can steal the ability of whomever he touches, until he touches another person. When going against Rae, he can steal the ability she is using at the time, until he touches her again. Doing this over and over he can steal all of the abilities she has. He also might have an ability similar to his mothers, but Rae doesn’t yet know what that is. Rae has gone up against Kraigan twice and he supposedly left the country after the last time.
Julian – Friend to both Devon and Rae. Julian has the gift of future visions. He is the one person Rae has always trusted. He is having trouble with his visions.
Molly – Rae’s former. Her Tatù is electricity. She loves to shop acts as the stylist for Rae and Devon while they go to the parties and luncheons with the Prince and his fiancé.
Cromfield – lived over 500 years ago and had a Tatù similar to Julian’s where he could see and draw the future.
The Story: Rae, Molly and some of their friends have finals to deal with and graduation from Gilder around the corner. Though many of them work for the Privy Council, they are still required to finish school and graduate. Though they are still working on finding out who is the person behind the murder of her father and Kraigan’s mother, they have to put things aside to take finals and graduate.
The story isn’t as strong as the previous books but it ends in quite a surprise.
Overall for the series, I am giving this a 4.3. Narration on the series is definitely a 5, but I want a bit more romance.
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