Secrets of the Lore

True Nature Series, Book Two

By: Karen Lynn Bennett

Narrated by: Sophie Snow

Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Is the cryptic note for real?

Although his power builds faster and faster,

Your true nature still eludes the master.

But all too soon the blood shall reveal

What you are and break the seal.

Tru’s emerging abilities plunge her into a hidden supernatural world. No one can know about her powers, especially her boyfriend’s father.

Dreams point to her mother’s killer. Healing her friends exposes her secrets. And her ability to sense the truth uncovers centuries of lies.

Blood-suckers who aren’t vampires? Rare true mates? Secret experiments? Disappearing hybrids? Sirens?

Fueled by the need to solve these mysteries, as well as her mother’s murder, Tru discovers that everything is connected in a way that just might shatter her world.

Whoever said the truth will set you free was a liar.

©2019 Karen Lynn Bennett (P)2020 Karen Lynn Bennett

Great Addition

Secrets of the Lore is an exciting next installment in the True Nature Series. We learned in book one that Tru is actually a supernatural being and this brings a lot of new conflicts and drama her way. In this book, I felt like we got more information that may have been lacking in book one. Feeling fuller, this book adds more backstory and filler that was needed. The story adds new twists with a new take on ‘vampires’ and a darker mood as Tru has to deal with some dark and intense issues surrounding her best friend. As a sucker for young adult paranormal mysteries set in high school, I found this story jam-packed with everything desired in this genre. I don’t want to give away too much detail, but this book will keep you on your toes with all of the twists, growth of the main character, and paranormal fun.

Thrill Read

Rebecca Reed
This captivating read, (or listen) provides a much needed escape from reality! Its the meaty sequel to book 1 of the True Nature series which I find myself binge listening to! The surprising new twists Bennett puts on familiar goth fantasy has me TRULY captivated. It’s a great story with dangerous love & saving friendship as the highlights of a tragic year in the life of a teenage girl in an already unforgiving social backdrop of high school.

Interesting story but not enough substance

Secrets of the Lore is the second book in the True Nature series by Karen Lynn Burnette. If you read my review of the first novel you will see that I had a lot of questions, given the large amount of information dumped on us at the end of book one - Secrets of the Sleeper. I expected that it would become clear over the first portion of this novel the structure / hierchary of the supernatural world that Tru has found herself to be a part of. For the most part, I think I got a better understanding early enough in the novel that I wasn’t lost as the story developed. I was thinking when I read the first book that the character might grow (physically and emotionally) over the course of the series. However, the first book takes place in a relatively short period of time (a matter of weeks) and the second book seems to occur over a similar timeframe...if not shorter. That doesn’t really give a lot of time for significant character development. The first novel was also a very slow build up to the reveal that Tru is actually a supernatural being. I found this pattern unchanged in the second book. This might actually be a function of the novels taking place over a short time period.

In general, I don’t like the idea of writing a trilogy for the sake of writing a trilogy. If there is not enough substantive material the books tend to drag on with filler situations and dialogue. I don’t think there was enough material here to support a 14 hour book. We get some of the information that we need regarding the supernatural world relatively early in the book and there is additional information scattered throughout the story. However, there is unnecessary filler in between these sections. I know that Tru still has to go to school and deal with other mundane routines, but her actions start be become unbelievable. At one point there are some seriously disturbing things happening to her BFF and instead of focusing on this, they continue on with their school days (where the assaults are occurring) and make plans for the Homecoming dance. In the vast majority of YA novels, when issues come to a head and people start getting hurt, there is a shift in the plot where the main character’s focus becomes relentless pursuit of a way to rectify or conclude the conflict (with the exception of maybe Buffy the Vampire Slayer...and maybe that is what the author is going for). There is also a good bit of inconsistency in the story. One of the gifts that Tru possesses is revealed about halfway through the book, but it seems that the author picks and chooses when she uses that gift for the sake of maintaining mystery in the story and therefore a reason to keep writing. Oddly enough, the story starts to become more interesting in the last hour. The narrator does a good job with Scottish and Australian accents (which I commend because I think Australian is one of the hardest accents to mimic). I still wish for more variation in the female and male voices. I’ve found that female who narrate males well add a rasp to their voice.

Book one in the True Nature series is a solid YA novel with an interesting premise. However book two does not build on this momentum. The story lacks focus, jumping from one issue to another without real resolution of any of them to give a solid foundation for moving into book three. There is a lot of filler to seemingly to lengthen the novel. Perhaps book three will bring everything together in a linear story. The premise of the story is interesting, but it’s difficult to stay engaged.

(I received this book for free at my request in exchange for an honest review)