Cassandra Palmer Series Overview

Cassie Palmer by Karen Chance

Contains Spoilers for the Series

So, I haven't actually read this entire series. I got up to book 8 (Ride the Storm) before I decided to stop. I'd been getting frustrated with the series during the last few books and Ride the Storm had me at a stand-still. I really think the whole Pritkin storyline killed the series for me. That aside, I thought the Cassie Palmer series was fairly good to start with.

So, Cassie Palmer is this girl with clairvoyant powers who gets thrust into a job policing the timeline, known as Pythia. Her powers are basically gifted to her via the Greek and Roman god Apollo... who turns out to not be one of the good guys. Cassie has no idea how to use her new powers and basically has to figure this all out on her own. And there's vampires and stuff involved, so that's fun. Also mages and a scattering of witches, none of whom can actually help her figure out her powers. She still hasn't quite figured them out by book 8, but she does get more competent with them and I'm sure will eventually figure all of that shit out.

In addition to the "not knowing how to use her powers effectively" thing, Cassie has to deal with a really gross curse binding her to vampire Mircea Basarab and her bestie, Pritkin, getting himself cursed/dead in such a way as to, by my understanding, hurt Cassie's present. I really was having fun with this, I swear, until the second book of Pritkin needing to be saved ended with him still not being saved... and then Ride the Storm just frustrated the hell out of me.

But anyway, that gross curse binding Cassie to Mircea is called a geis. It's all explained really reasonably that the geis basically makes sure that the cursed woman (because it's usually a woman) will always end up attracted to the person (usually a dude) who set the curse until such time as a marriage is consummated, because of course that's the only way we get to have sex at the time this geis was created. Oh, and the dude that set the curse can designate someone other than himself to consummate the marriage. Add to that Pythian time-travel powers and a couple of vampires and you've got yourself a gross love triangle and and even worse main couple for the series. Yes, it gets worse. Cassie ends up "vampire married" to Mircea. Mircea, it turns out, put the curse on her so she'd be more likely to say yes to bringing his dead wife out of the timeline and into the present. So... yeah... that's great. I was so done at that point. Really seemed like Cassie was, too, but I'm not entirely sure so... yeah...

Moving on to Pritkin's whole deal... I like Pritkin as a character. He's the no-nonsense protector/magic man with a surprise dark past. And, ya know, British and blond and always wearing that big ol' leather coat. Until he gets cursed to death and then we get to go back in time and deal with pre-Pritkin Emrys/Myrridan/Merlin for entirely way too long, in my opinion. He's finally uncursed at the end of Ride the Storm in a fashion that had me wanting to throw the book across the room... Rosier literally hands him the counterspell that I, and Cassie by the way, was previously under the impression had to be counterspelled onto Pritkin by Rosier. But no, could have given him the counterspell at any time previously and skipped the hanging out with Myrridan thing. Like... yes, there's some other stuff happening being that far back in time, but the whole Pritkin plot could have been resolved by giving him the counterspell and getting out of dodge?! Just... ugh!!!

Rosier starts out as a villain and basically ends this run of the series as a formless bunch of smoke, I think. He's kind of alright once we get to know him outside of the villain context. I think mostly because, at that point, he has zero powers and is just tromping around after Cassie and Pritkin at that point. All the menace has gone out of him.

Other characters of note here are Jonas, the dude Pritkin and Cassie ended up helping get back in charge of the Mages. He's kind of fun for the first book he's in and then he just becomes useless and annoying. He basically tries to teach Cassie one Pythian trick and then buggers off to deal with Ares research... meantime keeping Cassie's court from her and giving Cassie zero information about anything. Then there's Cassanova, who is a mostly cranky vampire manager of the hotel Cassie's living in. Augustine, a part-fey mage designer who's fun to read about. At least, his designs are. Rhea, who, it turns out was Agnes and Jonas' daughter. I like her. She actually gives Cassie info Cassie needs. Agnes herself, the previous Pythia. She's around, kinda. Cassie's dead parents put in a couple of appearances. I kind of like her dad. Her mom's Artemis, the former goddess, who we learn decimated the Demon Lords previously.

The Cassie Palmer series does this thing with Greek and Roman mythologies that I think we all tend to do when initially getting into it: mixing them together like they're one in the same. While they are very similar, the Romans did co-opt the Greek mythology so there's overlap, but they're really not the same. There's also some mixing in of other mythologies -- Norse and Egyptian, if I'm remembering correctly -- that happens when Jonas is attempting to explain the gods attempts to return to Cassie. It's, uh, not entirely great. Each of these mythologies is their own thing and, while other cultures may have borrowed pieces of other mythologies from time to time, equating the Greek gods with the Norse ones is not okay. I get it, it's a fantasy book and Karen Chance can technically play around with this stuff as she sees fit, but it does not sit right with me.

That said, I did enjoy the mythology Karen Chance spun into the story. I liked the way the different "worlds" were explained. Heaven and Hell dimensions exist and there's a particular way they and their creatures can interact with each other and different energies existing in different worlds and all that. That I liked. It made sense.

What did not make sense was how the Pythias from across time tended to deal with each other. I went on a bit of a rant about this in my Ride the Storm review, but I'm going to reiterate it here. The Pythias pretty much chose a no-contact policy unless someone was apparently messing up the timeline. No contact. No questioning. No agreeing to maybe help train a Pythia they didn't have time to while they were alive... No "Oh hey, this girl seems to keep popping back to a particular time even though we've sent her home four times already, perhaps we should find out why?" Until... Gertie apparently enlisted the help of several to apprehend Cassie and one of Agnes' former acolytes and then they barely ask questions until Cassie and said acolyte basically made them listen. Oh, and then, in order to later stop Ares from popping into the Human World, we suddenly have a ton more Pythias popping into help send him back where he belongs. This is just one of the reasons I decided to drop the series. Annoyance at Pythias.

Speaking of the end of Ride the Storm, Ride the Storm had a take on Arthurian legend that I was kind of into. It mainly centered around the family actually being Fey starting with Nimue... who is apparently Arthur and Morgaine's grandmother in this version of the tale. It was alright. Would probably have been more interesting if it hadn't been a lore-dump by Rosier three books into trying to save Pritkin's life, or had actually more to do with the plot but... yeah. That was a thing I actually kind of enjoyed from Ride the Storm.

Yeah so, the Cassie Palmer series is a lot. It's not altogether bad, it's just that the continuing storyline was bugging me to no end. I haven't even mentioned the war that Cassie barely takes part in... because that's mostly in the background and too complicated to explain here. I'm really not sure where I stand on the recommendation status of the Cassie Palmer series. It does start off well and the fight scenes are relatively easy to follow and the time-travel is largely pretty good. It was great while my patience with it lasted.

Ride the Storm by Karen Chance

A Mostly Spoiler-Free Review

Okay so, this is the book that has made me decide to drop the Cassie Palmer series. I was intensely frustrated throughout and that's not a good thing. There were just too many moving pieces and too much to keep straight and just... bleh. This isn't the first time I've been frustrated reading a Cassie book and I doubt it will be the last, so I'm stopping. No more Cassie Palmer books for me.

Frustration the First: No one talks to anyone they should really be talking to. Jonas doesn't talk to Cassie about decisions he's making in regards to her court. Cassie doesn't tell anyone what she's up to, ever, aside from Rosier. Neither of them talk to Pritkin/Emrys/Myrriden about what they're actually doing there. The Pythias refuse to talk to Cassie about why she keeps popping back Arthurian times because apparently knowing what other Pythias might be up to is just completely out of their job description? We'll get back to that.

Frustration the Second: Cassie's attention is both split and not and it just ends up being a mess. Cassie's entire mission for the past three books has been rescuing Pritkin, full stop. However, her present keeps pulling her attention away from that so we have to deal with that instead of rescuing Pritkin. Add to that the whole Pythian intervention thing which keeps sending Cassie back to the present and we've spent three books attempting to rescue Pritkin. I'm real tired of all of it.

Frustration the Third: Pythias do not talk to each other apparently. Unless they need help sending "rogues" back to their own times because they're "messing up the timeline." Only... because you've neglected to actually talk to each other about, I dunno, your shared responsibility, you keep managing to fuck up one Pythia's attempts to save the timeline? It's my understanding that not saving Pritkin completely erases him from the timeline and therefore would allow Apollo to come wreck shit because Cassie wouldn't have Pritkin around to help her stop Apollo. And none of the prior Pythias even wants to question Cassie about why Cassie's doing what she's doing. None of them. They just keep locking her up or sending her home and refusing to question her. It's insanity. I understand not wanting to fuck up the timeline by knowing too much about the future, but I figure a) there are ways to vet an actual Pythia (Cassie stumbles upon one) and b) you maybe want to know what the fuck is going on and maybe help other Pythias not fuck up the timeline too badly in the process. Maybe? Just a little?

Frustration the Fourth: Mircea. Yeah... Mircea, it turns out, is definitely just as gross as he's always been in regards to Cassie. First, the geis thing, which has been resolved but was still hella gross. And now, we find out his real reason for setting the geis in the first place and... yeah, it's stupid. Like, I get it, I do, you loved the woman and she's dead and apparently you're fixated on bringing her back by any means necessary. But man, that vampire fixation is just not great. It's also the first time we're hearing about vampires getting fixated, so, ya know, also somewhat annoying from my stand-point. Thanks, I hate it. Makes the whole Mircea/Cassie thing even worse. And again, tired of it.

A thing I liked: Cassie figuring out some stuff regarding her parents. That was a nice little side-trip. Ultimately futile for Cassie's actual goal, but it wasn't bad.

So yeah, I'm just too frustrated with the Cassie Palmer series to continue. This was fun while it lasted, until it wasn't. I will be continuing on with the Dorina Basarab side of things. Dory tends to be less frustrating so I'm crossing my fingers it stays that way.

Lover's Knot by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

See, it’s really the Dorina side of things that has me so frustrated with the Cassie books. Lover’s Knot is an excellent example of Karen Chance’s skill with both narrative and action. Dorina’s vamp skills used to do Mircea flashbacks that also inform the current Dory narrative was very well done, in my opinion. Plus, both stories were engaging in their own rights. The fight scenes were easy to follow as well, which is a bit hit or miss with Karen Chance’s work.

I really enjoy Dory and Kit working together. Their personality clashes are just awesome to behold. Radu is almost always a treat and he was excellent here. The addition of Elise to the their team was just icing on the cake. She might not have done much overall, but I like her and hope to see her again in later books.

The pair of interwoven narratives were nice and tight, I thought. There wasn’t any wasted space and zero sidelining. I actually enjoyed Mircea’s past for once. Jerome… eh… I could have done without him, but the narrative needed him to, ya know, get started. Also seeing “baby” Dorina was nice. I’d somehow gotten it into my head that Dorina had been much younger than she was when Mircea set her minds apart, but, nope. Apparently 10-ish.

I’m not sure there’s much more I can say without spoiling things. I liked this one.

Reap the Wind by Karen Chance

A Semi-Spoilery Review

I honestly found myself very frustrated with Reap the Wind. This largely has to do with how the entire book is structured, but also for a lot of the same reasons Cassie herself is frustrated. I rolled my eyes and actually shouted at the book at certain times. My semi-spoilery, detailed thoughts are below.

So… what exactly happens if you encounter past Pritkin and tell him what needs to happen in order to save his life? Are we even going to try that route or just keep with the jumping around and ambushing him? And, given how Reap the Wind basically ends on this front, why the fuck won’t the other Pythia’s listen to Cassie trying to tell them what the fuck is going on? I understand she’s kind of fucking with the timeline, but still, she’s ALSO a Pythia so why not give her a minute to explain herself? No one seems to want to TALK to each other in this universe. It’s frustrating as all get out.

I LIKE that Cassie is FINALLY learning about her powers from someone who knows shit about her powers. I LIKE the Cassie vs The Circle thing they have going on because Cassie’s got Rhea telling her shit. I LIKE that Cassie is sort of getting the house in order. Would like it more if she actually mananged to do so, but, ya know, chaos reigns in the Cassandra Palmer-verse.

I DISLIKE having the main storyline COMPLETELY SIDELINED to deal with Mircea’s crap. Doesn’t help that I’m not into reading sexy-times anymore and at least the first part of this chunk of story is Mircea/Cassie sexy-times. Kit was amusing, as he usually is, in my eyes. But still, put off that whole “GOTTA GET TO PRITKIN AND SAVE HIS LIFE” storyline and jump to “MIRCEA’S DOING MIND-SEX AND APPARENTLY WAR” thing. Though I am glad Cassie FINALLY realizes her relationship with Mircea is fucked up in ways she hadn’t thought of.

A big problem I’m having at this point in the Cassandra Palmer series is that Cassie has zero consistent confidants. Pritkin’s ostensibly been killed. Mircea doesn’t respect her and her bodyguards are ostensibly loyal to him, not her, unless they’re temporarily not because reasons. Jonas, it turns out, is selfish about her power and won’t help her unless she does what he sees as important. Not to mention his apparently Agnes grief he’s still working through, I guess. Rhea and the rest of Cassie’s “court” are too not-powerful/literal children. Tami is basically a glorified babysitter for Cassie’s “court.” The witches apparently fucked off after helping rescue the “court.” Even anyone in the “Ally” camp is dubious, at best. Cassie’s basically on her own, STILL, and that’s super frustrating to me.

So, while we’re jerked back into the “Saving Pritkin” part of the storyline, we get crazy faerie battles. Battles I didn’t really follow, by the way. Too much happening and once and not a good sense of where anything was. And then we have Pritkin dumping a bunch of lore on Cassie, who does very little dumping back. Would have been a perfect time to, I dunno, explain a shortened, non-spoiler version of why she was there in the first place, but no… just a big old Pritkin/Faerie lore dump interrupted by more incomprehensible faerie battle.

The ending of Reap the Wind is yet another of Cassie’s “I’m finally gonna battle a villain I have very little investment in aside from they’re the villain” battles. I mean, it was at least a bit more comprehensible then the faerie battles, but still… the final acolyte doesn’t even have a name as far as the narrative is concerned. It’s… uh… not a great look, really. I was unimpressed.

And finally, Dory and Cassie come face to face… which, ya know, I knew was coming because of Fury’s Kiss. Just really makes me want to shake Cassie, though. She knows absolutely nothing about Mircea in comparison to how much she should if they’re going to make an actual relationship work.

So yeah, I largely found Reap the Wind intensely frustrating. I had the thought at several points that I might drop the Cassandra Palmer series altogether at this point. However, I do have a copy of Ride the Storm waiting in the wings, so I’ll give it one more book, at least. Well, two, if you count Lover’s Knot, but the Dory books haven’t frustrated me as much as the Cassie ones do so… yeah.

Tempt the Stars by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

So, Tempt the Stars was interesting and actually more satisfying than previous entries into the Cassandra Palmer series. There was more of a single plot line this time around (which I appreciate) and Cassie actually learns some stuff she's been needing to know for a while.

The main plot line follows Cassie attempting to rescue Pritkin from his banishment back to Hell. Or one of the Hells... apparently. Does it really surprise anyone to know that Earth is one of the Hells? I was not surprised. Anyway, after a pit-stop with past Pritkin to visit her parents (will get to that later), Cassie drags Caleb, Cassanova, and Rian (Cassanova's Incubus/Succubus rider or whatever) into Rosier's portion of Hell in order to rescue Pritkin. Of course, things are never so simple and chaos starts to ensue, but more of a followable chaos than usual. It was kind of fun. I kind of like that Rosier's portion of Hell is all Arabian Nights themed. Makes for a nice change from the usual Vegas setting. I was initially happy to have Rian back as I really liked her in a previous short story... and then stuff happens that I won't spoil, but suffice to say, Rian's stay in the story is short lived.

I also quite liked the jaunt into The Shadowland. Once Cassie and the others figured out how to use The Shadowland's particular aspects to their advantage, the bar fight got more interesting and more fun. I'm always here for creative usage of setting. The Demon Council was probably the most predictable part of the plot. Of course the Council Chambers were going to be all mind-bendingly chamber-like and of course the demons weren't going to want to listen to Artemis. Why would they? Oh, and Cassie apparently can't just straight up tell Pritkin she loves him because... platonic love isn't a thing in a world where you're vampire married to a dude who barely talks to you (and not at all in this book) and have had sex with your bestie to save his life and are therefore always sexually attracted to him now. Please allow a long moment of intense eye-rolling.

Off of plot beats, I actually liked Cassie throwing her Pythian weight around. Yes, it turns out it's rude to just show up at someone's home without an invite, no matter who you are. That being said, I very much agree that Cassie should have been informed about the witches and the coven stuff and, ya know, everything having to do with her office. Jonas really dropped the ball with that and the vampires were just stupid about it. Keeping Cassie as isolated as she is definitely seems to be helping no one, even if she has managed to save the world a few times. It's incredibly frustrating. Glad she at least has a tiny semblance of a court now... maybe. I hope so. She needs more than Marco and Fred and the occasional visit from Mircea and Jonas.

So, Cassie and her parents. First, it was somewhat fun to "watch" Cassie running around her childhood home trying to get info on them while at the same time avoiding vampires with Jonas. Second, I quite like this take on homonculi. There's definitely a far cry from traditional versions and those seen in Fullmetal Alchemist. Richard Palmer amused me some, too. I liked that he and Pritkin butted heads and he definitely seemed to be having some fun with it. I am also glad he gave Cassie information instead of being all cagey about absolutely everything. Made a nice change from, well, pretty much everyone else around her. Thirdly, I'm very glad Artemis at least attempted to help her daughter, even if that help didn't exactly go to plan.

Finally, we have the ending of the book. Apparently Ares is indeed our next Big Bad, so that's fun. Does make me want to go on another rant about how mixing the mythologies is just not right... but we'll leave that one alone for now as it works in the narrative and is a little fun. But don't get it into your head that the gods across the mythologies are all the same. Anywho, I actually enjoyed the last chapter or two. Having Cassie fight alongside some badass women for a change is nice. I hope they come back in later books. Cassie apparently needs training on more than just a physical front... le sigh. Can't wait to find out as we probably won't see them in the next one because of... epilogue stuff.

I definitely enjoyed Tempt the Stars. It was a solid entry into the Cassandra Palmer series/mythos. Not exactly my favorite, but definitely more satisfying on an information level than previous entries.

Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance

A Reread Review

So I honestly found Fury's Kiss to be interesting, but not really satisfying. There are threads of story here that don't really seem to go together until the end, where the "true" antagonist just kind of jumps out and reveals themselves. Also the pacing is all over the place. That's kind of a function of the plot, but... not at the same time. It's odd and I'm not really a fan this time around (this was my second read). My memories of my first read of Fury's Kiss actually completely omitted the non-Dory-centric B Plot, so there's that. I also somehow remembered Dory and Dorina melding a lot more than they did... obviously that was wrong, but there you go.

I did quite enjoy getting the slice-of-life with Dory, Claire, Ray, and Claire's fey guards toward the beginning of the book. I think Dory and Claire deserve some normalcy and some downtime outside of their respective jobs. It's probably my favorite part of Fury's Kiss. Slice-of-life stuff is nice to get every once in a while and there's a reason a lot of fanfiction takes place this way. However, it does stand out against the rest of Fury's Kiss, which is honestly a lot of chaotic fight scenes.

Karen Chance really excels at writing chaotic fight scenes. I do think, however, that reading them in smaller chunks like I tend to actually helps my being able to follow them. Otherwise, like they did on my first read, the fights do tend to be a big blur. I really quite enjoy Dory's fight scenes in particular because she's rather straightforward in her fighting style. Nothing too fancy until the ending, which -- and this is my only spoiler -- was a clusterfuck of Master Powers. Which, by the way, haven't really ever been discussed in either this or the Cassie Palmer series. The only one we've really seen up until now was the Consul's nifty sand thing and her snake dress and I just assumed it was because she's The Consul and therefore had some special quirks. But no, apparently not. Apparently there's a whole range of X-men-like powers Master Vampires can have and multiples at that. Just... what the hell? Kind of neat, but would have been cooler if they'd been set up better.

I find the whole Dory/Dorina thing interesting. It makes sense that Mircea would do what he did to their brain and I'm interested in seeing how Dory and Dorina reconcile themselves into one cohesive being... assuming they do that eventually. I'm honestly really interested in seeing more Dorina. The couple slices of her we got were interesting, to say the least. And wow that's a lot of "interesting" in this paragraph.

I am glad Dory and Louis-Cesare finally figured out their shit. I'm really hoping they end up being a cohesive couple and not a bunch of drama-for-dramas sake. After all, there is a bunch of that here, too. I'm over it. I want more healthy couples in my vampire romances.

I feel it would be remiss of me to not mention Ray. I really do like his character. He bounces from being completely ridiculous to competent and actually feels like a rounded person. I'm not entirely sure I like him being a vampire info-dump, but I guess someone had to give Dory the info she didn't have.

I also quite enjoyed Kit in this one. You get to see two sides of his personality. Nice to see he's still got some humanity in there, even if he does go a little nuts in Dory's direction because of it. And yes, I do agree with Dory about his being pushy and intense while trying to figure out how his former "children" or whatever died mysteriously. Still not satisfied with how that storyline resolved itself, but... eh. I guess it works?

Yeah, Fury's Kiss was basically bookended by the B Plot. I really think Fury's Kiss was more about Dory discovering more about her "other half," as it were, than it was about why Lawrence and others of Kit's team were killed. In that, I think it succeeded more than it failed. However, the endings to both A and B plots were unsatisfying. I vaguely wish I was reading along the specific Dory storyline of this pair of book series, because I would really like to see how Dory handles the endings. But alas, I'm now on to Cassie Palmer for a few books.

Favorite Line

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"I'm on the Senate," he reminded me. "It's Lord Obvious. And I don't want any mistakes tonight." - Dorina Basarab and Kit Marlowe

In Other News

I've spent the last few weeks working on a pair of holiday art projects: Ornament Garlands and Snowman Repaints. The garlands took several of my days off as I decided to get as much glitter off of them as possible... the glitter spilled from inside the ornaments into the packaging and took forever to get off.

One of four. Looking to complete these next year as I just cannot with them anymore.

Repainted for my boyfriend, roommate, and me.

Links to my garland supplies, should you wish to make your own:

Ribbon

Purple Ornaments

Blue Ornaments

Silver Ornaments

Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

Hunt the Moon is backstory city mixed with what basically amounts to car chases and mixing mythologies. It was pretty good, exciting for a good chunk and satisfying in other chunks.

We get more backstory for Pritkin, which I guess gave more insight to his character but really served as long setup for the Netflix-like hook into the next story line. Well… and helping Cassie understand things for the finale. We got a wider version of Mircea’s backstory. I personally never gave a second thought to Mircea’s parents, but I guess it kind of mirrors Cassie’s parents… or at least that information coming to light as well. Speaking of which… While I didn’t exactly call that reveal, I kinda called half that reveal while Cassie was talking to Deino and half when Mircea mentioned it at some point earlier in the book.

The chase scenes were fun. But less chaotic that Cassie’s usual forays into fight scenes. The dragon fight was definitely a dive into that chaos.

So, important point here: I really, really hate the mixing/equating of mythologies. I mean, getting the gods all together is fun and all, but actually equating them across mythologies… more annoying than anything else. I understand how it’s a thing people do, but it’s some bullshit. The people the mythologies belonged to in the first place didn’t just go traipsing around like “Apollo is definitely also Thor.” That’s a more modern thing. That’s not to say these things didn’t happen, at least in terms of the Mediterranean mythos-es building off each other and mixing some (Greek, Roman, and Egyptian being the big three there), but Norse wasn’t included there so… this bugs me. A lot. It’s like the ancient aliens theories… kind of fun to think about but not actually a thing most scholars seriously contemplate.

But yeah Hunt the Moon was pretty okay. A better mix of the downtime and action scenes than usual, I think.

Favorite Lines

"They always are. Anyone who can only see their point of view is. Once a group decides that their way is the only way, it is an easy progression to vilifying anyone who doesn't agree with them. And once someone has been demonized, has been characterized as opposing the good, killing him becomes virtue." - Mircea Basarab

"A legend is merely a man history decided to bugger," Pritkin said harshly.

In Other News

I have finished my Falcomon project over on Ovipets! Part of my Child Digimon project.

Death’s Mistress by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Re-read Review

Death’s Mistress is a lot of running around. Detective Dory on the case with her headless sidekick! It’s fun and chaotic in a good way. At least Dory has a path she’s more or less following, so we get to follow along with her.

I am ridiculously glad Dory, Louis-Cesare, and Radu actually manage to talk their shit out and give each other info. This makes me happy. Would have been better if it had happened at the fricking start, but, ya know, considering how little this shit tends to happen, I’ll take what I can get.

Christine… look, I’m not a fan of religious characters. Especially ones who are suuuuper devoted to their deities. Especially ones who decide they are monsters because of what they are due to that religion. Especially when your religion is predicated on a deity who, ya know, “has a plan for you” but apparently that plan is thwarted because you've decided your life path isn't part of the plan you don't have any details of… but I’m digressing. Anyway… Christine reminds me of Anne Rice’s Louis. All self-deprecating and depression over being a vampire. Like, seriously, if you’re THAT depressed about it and already believe you’re damned, just kill yourself. Save everyone the trouble of taking care of the mess that is you. And then there’s that thing that is brought to light later… that was semi-interesting. Interesting enough to want to discuss but… spoilers. I would also like to take this opportunity to say: suicide is not a way out for humans. Don’t do it. Please get help. You are not a self-hating vampire. Thank you.

The politics in here do not excite me. I’ve never been one for politics. Especially vampire politics, which I imagine are similar but more complicated than human politics. Complicated by actual power dynamic, like, magical power.

The side effects of fey wine on Dory in this book… uh… they’re random as fuck. Like, they definitely serve some of the emotional plot’s purpose, but… they happen randomly and it’s weird. I do think it’s interesting that Dory’s only NOW discovering that vampires still have human emotions.

After Cassie’s ride through the Ley Lines, Dory gets a crash-course in the sport. Because reasons. I wasn’t a big fan of this part and it really just seemed like a non-sequitur for most of it. Literally just a long setup for a murder reveal. Speaking of Cassie, I do wonder what she’s up to during this fiasco. She is mentioned, but it’s really just a mention. But yay, Cassie reference!

Geminus is super creepy in a “not only am I gonna assault you but I’m gonna turn you into artwork” kind of way. And, like, kudos to Geminus for creating a new type of artwork, but… ew.

As much as I love creatures from non-western mythologies being brought in, I would also love for the authors to do a little more than cursory research on them. The luduan is described as a dog (dog-ish) whereas “actual” luduan are deer-like creatures. They’re depicted looked a lot like the shisa or Chinese guardian lions, so I understand the mixup. But still, a look at the wikipedia article would have cleared that up. But, ya know, otherwise, pretty good job using a non-western mythological creature.

But yeah, those are my thoughts on Death’s Mistress. I will add that I’m not exactly a fan of info-dump endings, but this one is alright. Only alright. Not the best ever. And the villain of the piece… well… there was a rant. 

Favorite Line

“Sycophants are always easy to find. They are also easily swayed by the next power who promises them more.” - Mircea Basarab

Masks by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

I was honestly very bored with a lot of this novella. There were bits and pieces sprinkled in that kept me reading, but I was bored for a great majority of my reading experience. Ms. Chance also did that thing where she info-dumped the “twist” for about three chapters. I was not pleased.

Masks just felt really tedious, to me. It’s a portion of Mircea’s backstory punctuated by a flashback of right after her was turned. It just seemed to go on and on forever. Seriously, an almost blow-by-blow account of Mircea’s time in Venice, during which we meet some characters who mostly don’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of the Cassie Palmer/Dorina Basarab universe. I guess I don’t actually know that, as far as I haven’t finished the series yet, but… yeah. Given how far back in time this is versus the present day setting of the series and Cassie’s utter lack of knowledge of Mircea’s past… yeah… I don’t really see Bezio and Jerome and Auria showing up in the main books.

I also think the sheet amount of sex in the book was also a turn off (pardon the pun). I don’t have a problem with sex scenes being in books, I think it’s healthy to show every part of life, however, personally, I’ve been skimming or skipping the sex scenes for years. Too much saturation of sex stuff personally from the massive amounts I’d get in fanfiction when I was younger… so having this part of Mircea’s life be when he was forced to be a whore in Venice and everyone around him being oversexed… yeah… not a fun read for me.

It was kind of nice to get “The Consul’s” identity confirmed. It’s heavily inferred in the Cassie books, but I like actually knowing the names of characters.

Basically, if you’re super interested in how Mircea’s life went directly after his Change or are interested in how “The Consul” came to power, read this. If you’re not interested in either of those things, skip this.

Also, on a separate note, whoever edited the Wikia for this universe and put Masks at this point in the chronological reading order DOES NOT understand what chronological means. Or else I just don't understand why this one's at the point in the reading order... really seems like it should be muuuuch earlier.

A Family Affair by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: 9-16-22

Novella Available on Karen Chance's Website

I honestly wish this one was part of the main series. It’s fairly quick but also sheds light on Pritkin’s personality and past. Cassanova and Rian were interesting to experience outside of Cassanova berating/complaining at Cassie. I actually quite like Rian for the short amount of time she’s “on stage” and hope she gets to interact outside Cassanova somewhere other than the demon realms. Cassie is also interesting to see from an outside perspective. Seems like she’s at least getting some training… or at least the training is mentioned a couple times in this.

I’m kind of starting to think Karen Chance works better in novella style stories rather than the apparently full-length ones. I say this because the through-line of the story isn’t chopped up or nearly as chaotic as the main books literally because it can’t be. The few shorter stories I’ve read from her just tend to flow a lot better, in my opinion.

Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

I have said before that the Cassandra Palmer series is chaotic and that I really should brace myself for more oncoming chaos. Well, Curse the Dawn definitely ramps up the chaos. It honestly felt as though Karen Chance wanted to do a couple different stories and had to figure out how to put them all together rather than something cohesive. The main plot of the book is explained via info-dump at the end of the book... after a bunch of battles and body-swapping and general nonsense that kind of pays off in the end... I honestly have a hard time remembering everything now that I've finished Curse the Dawn.

I think one of the main issues is, as Cassie actually addresses with Mircea at one point, the fact that she has little to no information about anything. I get that she's one of the more vulnerable characters in terms of abilities and that everyone wants to protect her, but the lack of information and training she's given as a result of this is frustrating, to say the least. Take the body-swap between Cassie and Pritkin, for example. Even in Cassie's body, Pritkin is able to shield and fire off spells whereas Cassie is just doing the same things she always does: basically nothing. Sure, she gets in a few lucky shots at some of their pursuers, but that's only so long as she manages to keep her hands on a gun. After that, she's helpless. I find this incredibly annoying. I assume Cassie's had time to get in at least some physical training, if not magical, but apparently she hasn't been using her time wisely or it hasn't occurred to her to use her time in that manner. Just "Swim, read, maybe do a little shopping." Cassie, darling, you've been in combat situations for the last four books, maybe use some of that down time to train. You clearly need it and know you're going to need it. It's extremely frustrating that you're not doing it at this point.

I'm also vaguely frustrated by the "mistress" drama Cassie's internalized around Dorina... and then just decides not to ask Mircea about it when she has the chance. Of course, if you're specifically reading the <i>Cassandra Palmer</i> books and not the <i>Dorina Basarab</i> books, you don't know who the "mistress" is, but still... I hate this sort of thing. If ya'll would just TALK TO EACH OTHER, there would be less problems. But no, no one wants to actually talk about things unless they're apparently setting up traps or planning coups. Which reminds me, are either Cassie or Pritkin going to tell anyone about Jonas' "Pythia Recall Device?" I assume that's going to need to be explained at some point...

Which brings me to another frustration that also ties into my "Cassie is super untrained" issue. Mircea knows Cassie travels in time. He knows she gets randomly yanked through time and can't/doesn't really control when she gets back and yet... assigns a bodyguard who can't/won't be able to be with her on these sojourns and will thus be punished if anything happens to Cassie during those times. I do not like this. It makes Mircea seem cruel, which isn't really something we've seen him be on purpose at this point. Manipulative, yes, but not cruel. I really think he should maybe have Marco (said bodyguard) also made aware of Cassie's power yanking her off and, I dunno, also tasked Marco with TRAINING HER as opposed to what actually happens.

Well, now that I've ranted about what I disliked about this book... I liked the body-swapping thing. The story slowed down to basically a halt while Cassie and Pritkin dealt with that and met Jonas, but a breather was definitely needed. I guess the Three Dees were kind of fun. Nice to see a little representation. The part where Cassie, Pritkin, and Caleb go into MAGIC to rescue the prisoners was a highlight.

Uhm, yeah, Curse the Dawn was honestly a mess. It was one of those "let's just go from one crisis to the next with no clear endgame until five minutes before the endgame" kind of stories. I preferred it when that wasn't the case.

Embrace the Night by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: August 6, 2022

I really quite enjoyed Embrace the Night. It was slower paced without so much action going on. Allowed the story, and Cassie, to breathe for once. She's not running around, or being forced to run around, at random. I think settling into her role as Pythia and getting to grips with her powers is really good for Cassie. That said, the tension is largely kept up by the time-sensitive issue lurking around in the background and largely driving the plot.

Speaking of... the geis is still gross. Do not like. Do not like its resolution. Not really sure why the resolution had to be exactly what it was aside from getting Mircea and Cassie to actually consummate whatever their relationship is. And that's all I'm gonna say about that due to spoilers.

So let's see... we got Pritkin backstory in both story and time-travel form. Appears he's always had trouble actually listening when people tell him things. Jumps to some lovely wrong conclusions and sticks to his guns to an annoying level, rejecting information that conflicts with his preconceived notions. I'm not a fan of this and hopefully he changes in this aspect. Cuz like, how're you gonna keep Cassie safe if you can't seem to parse what information is given to you about things you know little about?

Cassie knows how to use a weapon! I understand she has this reliance on guns due to their lovely speed factor, but she's really bad at aiming and doesn't seem to be getting any better... but surprise! She did have some training with swords when she was younger and actually manages to hold her won against Pritkin for a bit during training. Hope she keeps that up and maybe starts carrying one as a backup or something. Better than continually hiding behind or under things all the time while chaos rages around you. Plus, helpful for time traveling shenanigans. I really can't explain how happy I was to find out about this previously unknown skill. I want more.

I liked the background we got on Cassie's post/pre-Tony activities. Tammi and the kids serve as some nice world-building. After all, not everyone is born a Mage or a Vampire or whatever. I like to know what other types of magical being are out there and how they're dealt with by the magical community at large, even if it's rather horrible. Probably some setup for later down the line, too. Does not seem like that story-line is at all resolved.

Much like the Rosier/Saleh stuff. I really want to know what exactly crawled up Rosier's butt cuz we didn't really get an actual explanation. Saleh was interesting. Want to see more of him, I think. Djinn are pretty interesting creatures, so I'm also interested in seeing how Chance fleshes them out... hopefully, anyway. Apparently, despite semi-wide use in fantasy literature, djinn are a hot button topic for certain Muslims so... I dunno. I just found that out with the release of the Ms. Marvel show over on Disney+. Which you should totally watch, cuz it's fun, but I digress.

Apollo, Apollo, Apollo... I disliked his character pretty much from the get go. He did that thing where he's like "Yes, I shall teach you, but first, do this thing that requires use of things I'm not teaching you right now." Red flag. But also, he's a god so, par for the course, right? I thought so and then... spoilers happened. So that's fun. If you read Embrace the Night, you'll know.

Speaking of, there's a big Ouroboros thing going on in Embrace the Night. It's semi-interesting. Amazing how many things seem to use the Ouroboros as a logo but it's not obvious because it got simplified to an unrecognizable point... yeah. Kind of also has stuff to do with the geis due to the way it was placed. Or at least, that's what I thought was going to happen... but yeah, not quite.

Man, it's really hard to keep spoilers out of this review. There's so much that happens despite the lack of chaotic battles. It's really quite nice to settle down and just get to the overall story rather than having Cassie running for her life or someone else's every couple of pages.

Touch the Dark by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 5, 2022

So Touch the Dark is quite good. It does have a lot of heavy-lifting to do in terms of world-building. I think it does that fairly well, though it is somewhat annoying at times *cough*Pritkin*cough*. There's also a good amount of setup for things that happen down the line because time travel[time travel (hide spoiler)] is definitely a thing in this series. Oh, did I mention this is a reread review? No? Oops. Anyway... I did enjoy Touch the Dark even if I did find certain bits frustrating and honestly, forgettable. What I mean by that is: I might not forget them as I go on to reread/finish reading the rest of the series, but I definitely forgot a good 99% of this book in the intervening years since my first read. Ultimately, info-dump-sexy-times is not my favorite thing and everything before that felt like just so much setup for other things.

As an avid reader of vampire books, I have to say I liked the bits of lore plunked down here. The scene in which Pritkin (and we as readers) get an education in how vampirism in this world works was somewhat annoying, if informative. I dislike characters who are ignorant and very couched in their ignorance to the point of calling everyone out about things they assume are going on as opposed to asking what's going on. I also find it interesting that mages apparently don't know jack about vampires despite apparently being large parts of the supernatural community. And finally, I'm not sure how I feel about all the famous historical vampires. I mean, I remembered Mircea and Cleopatra from my recent-ish reread of the Dorina books, but then there's the addition of Jack the Ripper, Rasputin, and Raphael... just kinda... okay, guess we're doing this now.

I found Cassie's overall non-knowledge of her powers and things to be interesting. Always fun when a character has to learn new gifts all by her lonesome. Her confusion matches our confusion, which isn't exactly reassuring as a reader... and that basically no one thinks to explain to her what could possibly be going on until rather late in the game is annoying. I wanted to shake everyone in the room, including Cassie. I felt she should have demanded to know what was going on immediately, but no, must get distracted by personal things that, again, don't pan out until info-dump time later. Of course I don't remember much about the rest of the series to know if that personal stuff ever pans out... other things do, I believe, but yeah... I don't remember a lot about what I'm getting into again...

Anyway, decent enough starter book for the series. Cassie's a good protagonist, I think. Her power set is interesting and not one that's seen often in fantasy novels. I'm definitely looking forward to rereading/finishing the rest of these.

Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

A Largely Spoiler Free Reread Review

So, Claimed by Shadow is extremely rough and tumble. Lots of action, little time to sit an explain what exactly is going on at any given point in time. My notes are largely full of me being annoyed at Cassie over a good chunk of this... which I still am, in all honesty. But, if you're going to read the Cassie Palmer series, you ought to get used to the chaos, if I remember correctly.

Okay, my annoyance with Cassie is two -- possibly three -- fold. She latches onto particular characters pretty much to a fault and distrusts pretty much everyone else. That's not to say the mistrust is displaced, seeing as everyone else is out for their particular agendas and has little time for Cassie's, but when the mistrust gets in the way of either moving the plot or misdirecting it, it's annoying. The latching on part... Cassie pretty much only trusts Billy and Mac (though I'm not entirely sure she has a lot of reason to trust Mac) and manages to mess up her mission by being too attached to Tomas and Pritkin's golem once they reach Faerie. This bugs me. Do not like. Blech.

And on the note of not liking things: the geis. It's gross. So gross. So plot-moving. Like Imprinting in The Twilight Saga. It goes both ways in Cassie Palmer but that doesn't make it any better. I hate it.

I did enjoy some of the world-building here. It's kind of fun to see how the world of Cassie Palmer is set up, even if these slower world-building scenes are few and far between. No one has time to sit still and actually talk to each other in any sort of satisfactory manner so the world drips in between the fight scenes. Doesn't help that Cassie is slow on the uptake often times... which really makes me question that Pythia position she's in. Gonna need to work on that reaction time.

Honestly, the last section of Claimed by Shadow saved the book for me. Once Cassie manages to get herself, Pritkin, and Billy into position to save Mircea from Myra, the story moves in an understandable fashion... well, aside from the big fight scene, which is as chaotic as usual, but otherwise, yes, it's nice to have some linear story telling. I'm really about to contradict myself here, though, because I do enjoy the way Cassie's adventures go with the time-jumping. It's just that everything else seems to blink by in a stream of chaotic light... I could not tell you much about a good chunk of this book and I just finished reading it. That's how crazy chaotic it is. I feel like Touch the Dark was much the same.

So yeah, Claimed by Shadow is largely chaotic, but pretty alright. I enjoyed the ride. 

Favorite Quotes

"It's a clue that you are hanging with the wrong crowd when you have beer, guns and about a ton of ammunition, but no clean clothes." - Cassie Palmer

"No one who wants power should ever be allowed to wield it."

     "Then I'll be great," I said bitterly, "because no one could possibly want it any less than I do." - John Pritkin and Cassie Palmer