The Neon Graveyard (Signs of the Zodiac Series #6)

Au revoir to a Superb Dark Urban Fantasy Series!

Au revoir to a Superb Dark Urban Fantasy Series!
I strongly recommend you read the previous books in the series (The Scent of Shadows, The First Sign of the Zodiac; The Taste of Night The Second Sign of the Zodiac; The Touch Of Twilight, The Third Sign of the Zodiac; City of Souls, The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac; and Cheat the Grave, The Fifth Sign of the Zodiac; Vicki's Prequel novella "The Harvest" in the Holidays are Hell anthology and Dark Matters novella in the Unbound anthology) prior to reading this installment.

Sadly this is the final sign of the zodiac and Joanna certainly went out with a BANG! I was amazed at how Joanna transformed from a bitter little rich-girl into a fierce warrior-woman. This last installment was amazing! I was completely captivated by the exciting storyline and just couldn't wait to see what Joanna did next.

The series wrap-up felt complete with a superb story well told. Vicki Pettersson is a fabulous author who always finds new and interesting ways to snag my attention and keep it.

I am going to miss Joanna. However, I am glad this series is ending on a high note; unlike some series that just go on and on, and subsequently, the original intent of the storyline becomes obscured by staleness.

I highly recommend this series to fellow dark urban fantasy readers and I eagerly await Vicki's new series Celestial Blues series (first novel: Taken) due out in June 2012.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended - One of my favorite series!

What a fantastic ending to the last book in this series, Cheat the Grave! Seriously checking B&N every week to see when the next book, Neon Graveyard is coming out and hoping it will magically change the date to before May 31st. Can't wait to see Joanna kick some serious hoohah and rescue her man. I had a feeling about this guy.... Hope he turns out to be what I'm hoping he is for Joanna. If you haven't checked out this series, you're seriously missing out on a new and refreshing take on the fanboy comics, but in a female oriented way. Sometimes I need a break from the vamps and wolfs and this is a creative and new type of genre that will keep me interested until the end, which I hope will be never. Keep them coming Ms. Petersson!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Viv

- walks in and passes out with scrapes and bruses on skin-

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

awesome series

Perfect ending to an amazing series!!!!!!

I love her books!!!!!!!

I'm gonna miss these books!!!!! Her books are awesome!!!!!!

Good, but tired.

I loved this series when I first started out. While I did enjoy this book, the storyline is starting to feel fatigued... I feel that though the story needs an energy boost in a major way, I'm sorry to say

Excellent Finale

I am late for work but it is worth it. I could not bring myself to put this down without finishing it. Vicki Pettersson did a wonderful job with this series and I look forward to reading whatever her imagination/talent come up with next.

Worst in the Series - What a Disappointment

Warning: Some Spoilers Below
Don't get me wrong I love the Zodiac series, but Neon Graveyard was what I wanted for the wrap up to this series. I loved the characters, the world; it was all very new & stand alone in a genre that is usually dominated by vampires, werewolves & faeries. Unfortunately it came to an abrupt disappointing ending.
The majority of the book is spent by Jo hoping in & out of Midheaven & accomplishing pretty much nothing. I think it's only 3 times she goes in, could be 4, I can't remember but it honestly felt like 100 times so I can't keep it straight. The first time is completely useless & just ate up pages. The second time she goes in after that moron Carlos, this is where I can't recall if it's just the one time because all of it just blurs together. Anyway she saves him dumbass, tries & fails to get Hunter AGAIN, & then kills that freakish thing with Carlos that I figured out immediately was supposed to be Lola. The last time Jo finally gets it done but pretty much gets her ass handed to her & gets lucky Vanessa knew she'd probably die. Hooray for finally getting Hunter out but Booooo for execution.
The wrap up to Warren was by far the most disappointing part for me I think. After everything that prick did to everyone & didn't bat an eye, he was by far the main antagonist for me & WAY more evil than the Tulpa ever was. That MF deserved to die, not be locked away in Midheaven, what BS! Tekla should have just finished him off instead of holding him at the end of her conduit; it would have been a more fitting end. The characters were deprived of the justice they deserved & the reader was deprived of the satisfaction of his demise.
The way the Tulpa was taken down was satisfying for the most part. Though for being the climax of the book/series, there wasn't much of a build up to the "final battle". It was like the Wham Bam Thank You Mam when it should have been a slow simmer up to a rolling boil over. I liked how Jo just basically imagined him back out of existence; it was very appropriate & poetic.
The ending & the goodbye to Olivia, while sweetly sad, just didn't feel right for the series. It got the "Ride off into the Sunset" so typical of the happy ending. While I like that there was a happy ending, I felt it was not fitting to the uniqueness of the series.
Overall Neon Graveyard felt like it was rushed. It lacked flow, cohesion & a proper climactic event. Honestly I get the impression that Vicki intended for there to be a few more books in the series. I don't know if that was the case or not but it feels like there was supposed to be more but that the deal didn't come through so she had to wrap it all up prematurely.
An unfortunate end to an otherwise great series. I think I will at some point reread the entire series as one story to see if it feels different put altogether but I doubt it will change my opinion of this last book.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

After a volatile adventure of love, loss, denial, betrayal, revelations, heartbreak, mystery and war, Joanna Archer's journey reaches its climax in this final installment of the brilliant Signs of the Zodiac series, The Neon Graveyard.

Las Vegas, Nevada; where we find comic books, super heroes and evil villains - where the lines between good and bad blur to shades of gray.
Being a mortal now has its limits but Joanna soon learns that even without powers, she can make a difference. Especially when it comes to her troop of Grays, rogue light & shadow agents. We dive into the dynamics of this spurned group as they navigate the dessert of Nevada, holding raves to recruit new agents & staying to the shadows of the streets of Las Vegas avoiding the troop of Light. You really see the heart in each of these characters, especially Carlos who is willing to sacrifice it all for the greater good of the troop.
Occasionally we meet up with some of the Light, and these adventures are stories of their own. Will Joanna be able to forgive her old friends and troop for turning their back on her?
But all that takes a back seat to Joanna's determination to get to & navigate MidHeaven to rescue her lover Hunter Lorenzo from his crazy ex-wife and self-proclaimed goddess, Solange. Her rescue attempts take up a good percentage in this book & it sometimes moved slowly but it was emotionally packed & every line was necessary in the overall story. When the fight between Joanna and Solange finally occurs it is explosive, but I was somewhat distracted by another creature that creeped me out. You'll have to read this book though find out what I'm referring to!
My only complaint with this novel is Hunter; he was so passionate in previous books that when him & Joanna finally got together again I felt he lacked his usual fever that I often looked forward to in each novel.
The final battle between our protagonist & antagonist, Joanna's father the Tulpa, was well written and worth the wait, full of action & suspense. Everyone was invited to that party & revelations were revealed.
In The Neon Graveyard, Joanna has finally developed into the woman she was meant to be, each piece of her life and person in it, molding her into the strong, kick ass, self assured person who can take on the world, the woman she ends this book as. Pettersson stays authentic to her characters in the unique world of the Zodiac & you can tell that she puts her heart into her writing. Bringing the series to a satisfying conclusion ending on a beautiful note of hope. It was not neatly wrapped up, some threads were left hanging for possible future stories in this amazing world created, but most questions & loose ends were tied-up & resolved, and certainly the main ones.

The whole ride has been incredibly emotional; I've spit food across the room laughing so hard, bawled my eyes out, and wanted to kick some Warren ass. Sometimes I wanted to scream in frustration and throw my book, other times I just sighed & cradled it to my chest, and my heart hurt when I read the last page of The Neon Graveyard. It takes a true master of words to bring you to all these points. Every book was heart wrenching, with characters that will stick with you long after you have finished reading. In each novel Joanna has grown & changed, like a chameleon, adapting to her surroundings; she is one of the most multi dimensional characters that I have ever had the privilege to read. I am devastated to have it end but I think Pettersson did it at the right time & I definitely applaud her in her choices and direction that she took this superb series. The Neon Graveyard is a bittersweet endi

great finish to a strong urban fantasy

In Las Vegas, Zodiac Troop member Joanna Archer was the Kairos savior prophesized to win the war between the Light and Dark. Now she is a pregnant shell of herself lacking her paranormal powers and even her beloved Hunter Lorenzo, who sired her unborn; is one of many who she loved and trusted betrayed her.

Still she refuses to quit as she fears never seeing her beloved Hunter imprisoned in Midheaven by Solange the demented goddess.She has become a member of the Greys shadow warriors ready to take the battle to evil including her father the Tulpa who wants to control his grandchild when the kid is born. As Solange tortures Hunter for betraying her, the insane goddess schemes to destroy what is left of Joanna's soul perhaps through the former Kairos' child. In Vegas, Warren, the Light Troop Leader has determined that Joanna is evil and must die along with her allies, but he wants the child who he claims is the true Kairos; innocent lives dying is acceptable to him.

The Neon Graveyard is a great finish to the strong Signs of the Zodiac urban fantasy. The story line is loaded with action, but it is the vivid contrasting descriptions of Vegas and Midheaven that makes the thriller enticing as the audience will want to know how it ends for Joanna and the Greys as the eternal enemies Light and Dark have a common cause to extinct these upstarts. Newcomers will not get the full savor of this terrific tense ending as it behooves the readers to have followed the five signs of the Zodiac before perusing the "Final Sign".

Harriet Klausner

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