The Dark One (Roswell High #9) by Melinda Metz

True love never dies. Isabel has run away from home, and Max knows her life is in danger. He has to find her and save her, but time is ticking away.

Alex is back on Earth, and he's a changed man. He looks better, feels better, and is ready to live life to the fullest -- without Isabel Evans. Little does he know he's the only person that can help the ailing Isabel. Will Alex be able to put aside his pride and save the life of his former love?

The last two books for the Roswell Read-A-Long will be guest reviewed by the gracious Avery Olive. You can check out Avery’s awesome blog here.

Welcome, welcome, please take your jackets off and proceed to the sitting area *gestures to a plush red couch* Have a seat and read today’ s post!It’ s all about Roswell High Book Nine, The Dark One today. And wow, I can’ t believe the series is almost over. I might even get teary eyed.

Anyway, let’ s jump right on in.

This book, wow.

This book centers around mostly Isabel. As we know, from the last book she’ s started her Akino. Which, as we’ ve also learned isn’ t so good. I feel terrible for her, I mean, the kind of pain that’ s described is hard, even to read, because over the course of the books I’ ve really begun to feel for these characters. And, they’ re almost not just characters. You know how that is, right? When you’ ve become so engrossed that the characters from a book are almost like friends. You laugh with them, you cry with them, well, in this book I felt the pain, not only through Isabel’ s POV’ s but through everyone else’ s too. The connection of the group is so strong, that we see how everyone deal’ s with this. We see some reactions more than others, like Michael’s.

We’ ve always known he’ s had a special bond with Isabel, but this book really shows that. He’ s willing to do just about everything for her. He promises to keep her away from The Stones of Midnight, he promises to keep her away from Max—who still thinks the Collective C is all that and a bag of chips, and he also promises to protect her. I must say, more than once I got teary eyed. Michael is one complex guy with a lot of feelings. Max was always my favourite, but you know, in this book, for me, it was all Michael.

We also see how Michael is starting to realize that he needs Maria, even if he’ s not fully ready to admit it out loud. There’ s a great scene towards the end of the book, where things… are almost at the worst and Michael realizes that Maria is more than just a friend. That in the particular situation he’ s in, just having her around can make the difference. He’ s able to concentrate, working as though Maria is by his side and accomplishes what he needs to, and I hope he won’ t soon forget how important Maria really is too him and say, in the next book, things start to finally happen for them.

Max is… Well, he’ s all about the Collective C. He still doesn’ t see what it’ s doing to him and doesn’ t understand why everyone around him thinks it’ s all bad. There are some particularly funny scenes with him and the Collective C. Ms. Metz describes these scenes, and it’ s… hilarious. I can close my eyes and imagine Max doing things like licking things he shouldn’ t, him sticking his head in the freezer because they want to know how it feels. He’ s completely under the control of them.  But we really see Max slipping away from us. In the last book the destruction of his relationship with Liz and in this book, he almost loses everyone else. When things are going down, Max just isn’ t there. It’ s hard to see a character that is usually so level-headed, take charge and caring—not be.

But then there is Alex, who is, in his own way, almost losing himself as well. Though it’ s not because of the Collective C, it’ s because he’ s become a total hottie. This sort of reminds me (and I might have mentioned this last post) of the episodes after his return from his little “vacation” in the TV Show. He comes back with this air about him… it makes everyone swoon. Though in the show he doesn’ t quite use it to his advantage, he sure does in the book. It’ s great to see another side of Alex. Though, like Max, a lot of the severity of the situation happening around him is lost on him because he just doesn’ t have his head in the alien game.

But of course, when it comes down to it, everyone is able to come together and get things done.

We get to see Trevor again, and I’ m still not over his betrayal of the group, however he does the right thing in the end of this novel. And we see him struggle throughout the novel, which is good, it gives Trevor a few redeeming qualities so we as readers don’ t outright hate him.

Adam and Liz’ s relationship, or well, friendship, heats up a bit. I’ m happy for the both of them, really. Adam is a great character and his devotion to Liz comes at the right time. He doesn’ t just think about himself, but he also sees Liz hurting, needing to be a friend when she needs it, and well, taking Liz’ s let down with grace. We sort of knew things with them wouldn’ t amount too much. I’ m glad Liz understands that she can’ t be with him, the way he wants because she’ s still in love with Max. I know it hurt Adam, and he was understanding, but I think it shows she’ s got the right sense not to use Adam as a rebound, and that his friendship is more important than a relationship, that wouldn’ t be fair to either of them.

The ending to this novel was explosive. And I mean that literally. We see the destruction of the bad guy—DuPris, the realization that the Collective C needs to be stopped, Isabel comes back from the brink of death, but, there were casualties.

I cannot wait to dive into Book Ten (the Final book in the series) The Salvation. It all sort of comes down to this. I’ ve got a few hopes. One, of course being Liz and Max getting back together. Two, the destruction of the Collective C. Three. I honestly wanted the aliens to go home, as I sort of did in the show, but then, the more I got pulled into their lives, the more I prayed it didn’ t happen, so, I really hope they don’ t go home.

About Avery:

Avery Olive is Canadian.  She is married and has one child. When she’ s not helping raise her very energetic and inquisitive son, she can be found working on her latest novel–where she devilishly adds U’ s into every word she can.

When she is looking for a break Avery enjoys cake decorating, losing herself in a good book, or heading out to the lake to go camping.

Now that Avery’s got one novel under her belt, as long as her family continues to be supportive, she can find the time, and people want to read, Avery vows to keep on writing.

Represented by Kris Rothstein
Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency