Snakecharm by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

 A Semi-Spoilery Reread Review

So, of the 5 Keisha'ra books (and given, I've not reread the rest in a hot minute), Snakecharm is probably my least favorite. It does have a lot to enjoy, but it just kind of falls flat for me.

That said, if there is one thing Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is good at, it's creating vibes. The legend related in the Prologue is a chef's kiss of vibes. Might just be me recalling my Ancient Egyptian fixation from when I was a kid but... I felt like the vibes of an Ancient Egyptian cult were spot on.

Ultimately, I think Snakecharm suffers from reread-itus. I've reread it enough times that the answers to the mysteries have imprinted themselves on my brain and the "Happily Ever After" of it all just kill the tension. And yes, that is a mild spoiler, but I'm gonna let it be. After all, Snakecharm does have Romance elements and an HEA is demanded by the genre so... yeah. But anyway, the tension was just dead on arrival during this reread. I did, however, have a bit of rage.

I will fully admit that I spent entirely too long reading and sitting with the first couple of chapters and this may have colored my feelings on this issue buuuut... no one tells Danica she might be/probably is pregnant despite talking around it a bunch. Apparently she's too naive to realize this on her own, despite everyone else figuring it out... even Valene in a couple of seconds. Like WTF, ya'll. Just finish your dang questions and tell her already. Geez.

All of that stuff said, Snakecharm is really about expanding the Keisha'ra world. We got a little of it in Hawksong, but now it's in the aftermath and the "What do we do now?" stages. There is a much greater focus on Serpiente society, specifically the dancer's nest, Sha'Mehay. And I did love the looks into the past we got after the Falcons pushed them into research mode. We also get more background into the Falcon shapeshifters, who are much more relevant to the overall story later. It's enough to make us hopefully wary of them, at the very least, for Falcondance. Syfka and Araceli themselves are kind of "meh" characters at this point, though. Syfka mostly just comes off as a bitch and Araceli... well... also a bitch, but a to-the-point one.

But yeah... Snakecharm honestly just felt like filler. A necessary bit of filler, given the rest of the Keisha'ra story, but filler nonetheless.