Review: Catalyst (Collide #3) by Shelly Crane

Catalyst (Collide #3) by Shelly Crane

"In the third installment of the Collide series, we start off with Sherry, taken prisoner in the enforcement facility. The little bunker family must now decide whether it's worth the risk to try to save her or if it would bring doom to them all. Lily has started showing signs of her gift progressing, which may not be a desirable thing. 
As Marissa starts to act strangely, Jeff must come to terms that there may be more to her illness that meets the eye.Daniel, the Lighter who shocked Lillian with his human emotions will reappear, but for what purpose? Will Sherry be rescued before it's too late? Will Daniel prove to be a genuine miracle? Will Cain be able to fully get over his love for Sherry and move on with Lillian? 

And how much more trouble can the new Taker cause for the rebels? 
Some will make it and some won't as the story continues..."

Thoughts:

I wasn't expecting anything that happened in this book...

Once again I have read a great and awesome book by the lovely Shelly Crane. Catalyst was a very emotional book for me than the other books in the Collide series. This book deals a lot with getting into relationships, and also keeping them. I really loved all the new relationships, realizations, and growth in this book. The story overall has gotten to the beginning of the overall climax of the story, and you can see that in the interactions and altercations which were taken to the next level. The tetra-POVs (well, penta-POVs) were a great joy to read and had me even more emotionally invested and hooked on the story and characters.

The book starts off with Sherry in a holding camp run by the Lighters. I knew right away that the Lighter issue would be worse in this book immediately because of all the upfront action. The book from beginning to end has a lot more action and suspense than the previous two books, which is a pleasurable change. The reader can tell that the bunker family is getting more and more in danger, even if they don't realize it themselves. The normal people are still brainwashed, cautious, and angry from the lies that Malachi is spreading. Along with that, people are staring to hunt the "rebels", which makes it basically impossible to get food. I really like how they handled the struggles. They were all on edge, but were all there for each other  Shelly Crane writes really well with big groups that have a strong connection with each other, and it makes you feel like you're one of the group.

I really loved Cain in this book. He changed a great deal as he comes to some realizations that really alter his life. He is more determined to get away from the love he has for Sherry and he is working harder than ever to improve and grow his relationship with Lillian. As this is happening Lillian has to deal with the fact that Daniel is claiming to be in love with her. One of the things I like about her is that she is so committed to Cain and the whole bunker family that she refuses to let anything get in the way of their health and well-being. 

As Lillian and Cain's relationship grow and Sherry and Merrick have to deal with their relationship, new characters are introduced. Daniel takes a more prominent role in the book as his "transformation" of sorts takes effect and he changes. Oh, and there's that thing about him claiming to love Lillian. Yeah, as you could expect I wasn't a too big fan of that. But I digress. Along with Daniel, Ellie is introduced and I'm very curious to learn more about her gifts and Ellie's relationship with Ryan. We also have the reappearance of the pastor and another character named Rylee of whom I loved right away. He spunk is very appealing, but there is obviously more to the picture than that and I'm excited to read about it.

This is definitely my favorite out of the three books so far because of all the awesome characters and the action is taken up ten notches. Really loved where this book series has gone and practically hyperventilating to get the next one! Another great book by Shelly Crane; but come on, it's not like I'm surprised. 

5 out of 5 stars

-M

P.S. I think the perfect song for this book is a cover of Skyfall by Roomie & Jonas Frisk. 

Link to Catalyst and rest of the series on Goodreads here.

(Did you notice I changed to Helvetica font? DID YOU?!?!)