Time's Fool by Karen Chance

Spoilers for the first 134 pages.

Well, this went straight to the DNF pile.

We last left off with Dorina, Ray, and Kit stranded in Faerie, where Mircea had apparently decided to chase after his long-thought-dead wife. Dory and Louis-Cesare were left danging by Hassani just about to tell them why the Fey wanted Dorina. Aaaand now we've jumped back to the late 1500's...

Time's Fool is divided into parts denoting where we are in time and with which characters as the main focus. The first part, which was alright enough to keep me reading, was Dory and Mircea. Really, during this part, I just kept being angry at Mircea for apparently wiping Dory's memory (which we already knew about) to the point where she doesn't even recognize him aside from some vague feeling she kind of does... Just... Nope.

The second part follows Kit and Gillian. Gillian's a witch and it was nice to get some actual witch lore because I've been sitting here going "what's the difference between Witches and Mages aside from every Mage we meet being male?" So, got that question answered, but then we go out into London and are baraged by everything Karen Chance has learned about 1500s London that you only really wanted to know if you got dropped there by an errant time traveler. I get world-building and needing to set a scene, but I don't see why I need a primer on the different types of thief looks and punishments.

I noped out of the Cassie series because of the overly long, info-dumpy jaunts into the past and I'm sad to say that's exactly why I'm noping out of the Dory series. I'm vaguely interested in why Rhea and Hilde are back in the 1500s, but not enough to slog through the Kit and Gillian portion of the book to find out. I might keep an eye out for whatever the next Dory book is in hopes that it gets back on track with the rest, but I'm not holding my breath over it.

Midnight's Daughter Series Overview

Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab by Karen Chance

This post will contain spoilers for the entire series and the Cassandra Palmer series. You have been warned.

So, the Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab series. I found it to be much tighter in terms of plot than its sister Cassandra Palmer series. The characters were much more vivid and well rounded. It actually felt as though Dory's story took place during war times. Dory was much more informed and actually engaged with her story than I felt Cassie was. Even her cadre of side characters had stakes. Honestly, if I were to recommend one series over the other, I'd recommend Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab. I will now try to focus on Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab and not compare it to the Cassandra Palmer series further... they really are too different to compare very much anyway.

I do have a numbers question that’s been niggling at me for at least the last two Dory books. How many vampires are there? How many fey end up on Earth, like population-wise? How many Silver Circle mages are there? The Cassie books make it sound absolutely dire for them to be dying due to the whole Artemis’ spell thing, but there are enough to be running a crime scene back in the Dory books? The sheer number of supernaturals running around makes it seem like the humans should at least be aware of them, but they’re not. And like, why not, really? I mean, I also get that the various supernatural races don’t really play well together, so a coherent government might not work well, but like… I’m just confused as to how all of it works to begin with. The vampires apparently have MASSIVE numbers given the amount Dory mentions as being in Mircea’s family alone and what we see from Cassie’s bodyguard contingent. It really seems like this should be a world where the supernaturals mesh with human society rather than being utterly separate.

I believe I've ranted some about Mircea in my Cassie Palmer reviews, if not the overview, but he's gonna get his own section here. I, uh, pretty much hate Mircea. He's utterly selfish and a complete ass to those who he professes to love. He's so obsessed with his dead wife that he courts Pythias across his centuries of life to see if they'll consent to bringing her back to the present instead of her just dying. It's made worse in Cassie's case due to his a) not knowing if she was going to by Pythia in the first place; b) putting a really gross charm/curse thing on her when she's really young; c) passing off the way used to break said charm/curse to someone else; d) vampire marrying her under the influence of the charm/curse gone wrong; and e) not mentioning his ulterior motive for any of this to her until well after he'd established a relationship with her. Like, what the hell? In regards to the Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab series, Mircea's big thing is about Dorina. Keeping Dorina separated from Dory well after he should have. Not even wanting to explain anything to Dorina before or after separating them. Not even wanting to talk to Dorina after discovering he hadn't quite locked her down as much as he thought he had. Oh, and 500-something years after the fact, painting Dorina as the absolute worst creature ever in order to get Dory to consent to trying to lock Dorina away again. Sir, that is your daughter, whether you like it or not. I understand locking Dorina away essentially saved both Dory and Dorina from certain death, but once they were adults, you really should have, I dunno, asked for their opinions on the matter. I also get that Dorina doesn't seem that angry with him about it, but I'll stay angry on her behalf. While he was locking Dorina away, Mircea also wiped Dory’s memory of her life, ostensibly to protect her, but it’s not until Time’s Fool where we find out just how much of her memory he wiped. She doesn’t even recognize him when he hires her to take care of some revenants. What the hell, Mircea? To make matters worse in the present, Mircea goes swanning off during a WAR after his not-as-dead-as-previously-thought wife... 500-something years after her supposed death. Yeah... fuck Mircea.

I really enjoy how Fae/Fey play a role in Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab. Mostly the so-called "Dark Fey" in the form of the trolls who live with Dory and Claire. Claire herself with her dragon-half and cadre of "Light Fey" bodyguards is a nice grounding influence. Not sure I love the dichotomy of Claire being a vegetarian and her dragon half definitely carnivorous, but she's an otherwise great character. I love Olga to death. She's the kind of community mom that Dory seems to need around. Caedmon I could probably do without... but, ya know, gotta have those allies in this big war that's going on in the background. Olga's sons of nephews (I can't be bothered to remember or look up which they are) are alright and just kinda there for the most part.

I'm a big fan of Ray. He's mostly comic relief when he's introduced, but it turns out he's a lot more valuable to Dory and Dorina than anyone originally thought. I like how stubborn he is about protecting his vampire family. I like how he is with Dorina, not coming across as condescending or anything to a being who's basically a child. Ray's resourceful and funny and I just really enjoy his character.

I will say, Karen Chance does have a habit of introducing random characters to the series in info-dumpy kind of ways. One that really stands out is the War Mage Jacob, probably because he was kind of a big deal in Shadow's Bane. For some reason, though, this sort of thing works well in that we're meet Dory present day with some 500 years of experience under her belt. It's not as though she hasn't had time to make connections we just haven't seen.

So, after a couple days of slogging through four pages of Time's Fool, I've decided to drop the Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab series. I was just really disappointed in how Karen Chance chose to go from a cliffhanger at the end of Queen's Gambit to jumping to the 1500s and completely away from the modern-day storyline. Maybe I'm just used to my series going chronologically from one event to the next, but I'm annoyed with the whole thing now. It's actually kind of sad, because I really enjoyed Queen's Gambit and was otherwise enjoying the Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab series. I might look up the next Dory book when it comes out, but it's not on my priority list the way something like the Anita Blake series is. You can read more about this decision in my Time's Fool review.

Overall, the Midnight's Daughter/Dorina Basarab series is delightful. Quick-paced action and somewhat funny interludes and actual compelling mysteries serve the series well. The character work is well done, too. I definitely did not do it justice in this overview.

Queen's Gambit by Karen Chance

A Spoiler-Free Review

Holy World Building Spree, Batman. There is a lot packed into Queen's Gambit. A. Lot. I'm not even completely sure I understood it all or that it's going to stick in my head, but yeah. So much. We got pre-Mircea vampire stuff. Got a good chunk of the aftermath of Cleopatra and Anthony's battle with their Master (Sokkwi, apparently)... and yes, I will call them (her) that at this point because there's too many "Consuls" to do otherwise and if you didn't realize she was Cleopatra by now... I can't help you. Anyway, we also got Dorina's side of things, which was wonderful an frustrating. We got a good deal of Hong Kong post Dragon's Claw. We got vampire politics. Just so, so much. And largely engaging, too boot.

All of that said and although I really do enjoy the building out of the mythology surrounding this universe, it still really bugs me that we're stirring mythologies together like they all have the same roots. I will give the Greek/Roman stuff specifically a past as they're mostly Romans copy-pasting things, but tying in the Egyptian and Norse pantheons... no. These three mythologies were a hell of a lot more separate than Karen Chance is making them out to seem. Yes, there was a little bit of crossover with the Egyptian mythology and Greek/Roman stuff, but not enough to just copy-paste gods onto each other. Not to mention Norse is so far afield from any of the others... and that's not even bringing in the South American mythologies that Hassani blathers about during his snake/sun-god thing... This sort of thing really, really, really bugs me. It was overall a smaller part of Queen's Gambit than I'm making it out to be, but that's how much it bugs me.

Speaking of Hassani's snake/sun-god thing... the big ol' fight in the "morgue" (I guess it was a morgue, I was confused) was fun. I was not expecting a big fight like that at about the mid-point of the book. It really felt like a finale fight more than a mid-book fight.

Okay, so, I'm a very glad that Dory and Louis-Cesare are more of a unit in Queen's Gambit than they have been. I appreciate Dory literally pulling Louis-Cesare aside to discuss her issues with his treatment of her. Communication is key and they definitely do some work on that here. Makes me happy to see.

I also really enjoyed Dorina and Ray in Faerie. Although most of that was Dorina's memories, the actual running around Faerie the pair did was interesting. I'm very glad we got to see more of Faerie than we have in the past. Ya know, more caves and crazy rivers is fun. Nimue was... there. I like that she's so far divorced from the Arthurian stuff Chance originally pulled her from. Dorina's memories were a nice little respite from the crazy happening with Dory. They did make me even more angry with Mircea than I was at the end of Ride the Storm, but I will refrain from ranting about that now. I like Dorina so far. She's definitely different from Dory, which I suppose should have been obvious, but she's also not a rage-filled as one might expect.

The whole Hong Kong "underworld" section was honestly a blur. I like the come-alive graffiti idea. It was kind of constantly confusing, though. That might have been the amount of random graffiti or the amount of characters in this section, but... yeah. Crazy-pants stuff that I'm having a hard time recalling even five minutes after I read it.

The ending... uh yeah... that was an ending. I won't spoil it, but it did feel really convenient. Especially with certain characters showing up a little earlier and straight-up murdering other ones... and 360 change of heart apparently? Okay then. But Hassani turns out to be a better guy than I had the original impression he was, so that's nice. I'd like Hassani to be the main consul we deal with now, thanks. Cleopatra isn't nearly as fun or interesting.

My last note is about Dory and Cassie apparently actually meeting at some point. I decided after Ride the Storm to stop reading the Cassie books, so I completely missed this meeting. I feel like the execution of the summary of that meeting in Queen's Gambit left much to be desired, especially as it meant so much to Louis-Cesare, who is a more Dory-side character... I assume, anyway. Maybe would have been nice as a prologue or something, although Queen's Gambit is already quite long and stuffed.

Anyway, I did quite enjoy Queen's Gambit. Took me much less time to get through than the last few books, so that's also nice.

Dragon's Claw by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

Okay so, I have come to realize that although Karen Chance does write some pretty good battle scenes, her writing really shines in the quieter moments. It’s a shame, really, that the quieter moments between epic battles are subsumed by those battles. I was really enjoying the “Dory plays detective” aspects of this novella and then most of that went out of my head because of the high-stakes epic battle that always happens toward the end of Karen Chance’s books.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Pritkin show up. I found it a little weird that we only know it’s Pritkin is because the nameless Irin name-drops him. Which is like, Easter Egg for those reading both Cassie and Dory books. I don’t know that I would have taken that one name drop and followed him from the Dory books to the Cassie books, but I might have been more interested if it was more than a single name drop and not “the mage” or “maybe a mutant” thing that was going on.

As for the ultimate “villain reveal” I’m feeling incredibly underwhelmed. The info-dump of the reveal is… not great. It definitely doesn’t make me wanna go back and re-look at all the clues and it didn’t make me go “oh that works really well.” Just blah. And the “villain” remains nameless, so the ending has even less of an impact.

I might be expecting a lot from a novella, but this really doesn’t feel like it had much bearing on the overall story. It feels like Dragon’s Claw largely serves as a vehicle to showcase Dorina’s power set and solidify Cheung and Zheng’s places on the Senate. I could be wrong, but I guess I’ll see once I start Queen’s Gambit. 

Favorite Line

"To be remembered is the only real eternity." - Irin

Shadow's Bane by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Review

Well, that was a fun, crazy, but still coherent ride. Dory fights slavers and body-jumping fey and finally kinda figures out how to communicate with Dorina. Kinda, cuz it’s really Dorina who initiates all the communication, but it will do.

Dory and Dorina aren’t the only ones dealing with alternate personalities here. Claire is also learning to deal with her dragon side. She’s also finally slowly accepting the vampires she’s just going to have to deal with if Dory’s around, which I think is a good thing.

We also learn more about the Fey in Shadow’s Bane. Caedmon is an actual font of information, even if it’s mostly the legend of Alfhild. There’s actually a lot packed in there. All the stuff about fey bones and the vargr powers. Very important. I was less pleased with Caedmon deciding to bait Louis-Cesare, but I guess it was kind of fun?

Louis-Cesare and Dory are yet again doing the on-again-off-again relationship thing that I hate. It’s even more annoying because they had it worked out and were being all cute and then Dorina’s suddenly a threat… it’s just ridiculous and they don’t actually talk it over. I’m just really hoping now Dory and Dorina have more or less worked out their shit that the Louis-Cesare stuff is settled. I think Dory and Louis-Cesare would work much better as more of a power couple.

Ray’s back. Cementing himself as Dory’s Second and bringing her a vampire family. I’m interested to see how that works out with her being a dhampir and all.

I quite liked the plot of Shadow’s Bane. It all manages to hang together really well. I’m not entirely sure I like how it was all info-dumped for Marlowe toward the end, but I guess we gotta spell it out somehow.

Shadow’s Bane is definitely more of an introspective book, but Dory’s introspection often comes with action, of which there is plenty. Most of the fight scenes are chaotic but fairly easy to follow. My favorite one was the Louis-Cesare/Kit Marlowe fight. It made me laugh. So yeah, pretty good all around.

Favorite Lines

"Love is sending someone away, because you would rather hurt than hurt them, Love is fighting beside them, bleeding along with them, and putting their well-being above your own. Love is trembling at their touch so much that you do not notice that they are trembling at yours." - Louis-Cesare

"Read a book sometime, you philistine." - Radu Basarab

Lazy March Update

I feel like it's time for a little update, for those interested. Just a little check-in to let ya'll know what I'm doing outside of this blog and such.

Reading-wise, I'm on the fourth Dorina Basarab book and in the middle of a bunch of short stories related to Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. That is to say, according to the chronological list of Valdemar books I'm going off of, I'm in a small stretch of short stories that take place between Magic's Pawn and Magic's Promise. I'm not, like, in the middle of a bunch of short stories like I am in the middle of a bunch of books... which I am also that. I'm about to finish off my most recent Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets reread. Catching up on that while I'm listening to Mugglecast's reread. Stay tuned for my review.

By a happy coincidence, I've finished the first of two Companion projects on OviPets! I didn't plan to be in the middle of rereading Valdemar when I started this project in January of last year. I'm actually kind of bad at breeding projects quickly as OviPets is more of a relaxing thing for me and breeding projects quickly takes more brain-space than I have at any given moment. OviPets might live rent free in my head, but it's in a corner over there, rounding out my days.

On another gaming note, I am still playing Pokemon Scarlet. I'm currently about to collect/destroy the last batch of glowing stakes to get the last of the Paldean Legendaries. I did catch my Walking Wake while it was available. Oh! In Pokemon Go, I finished catching every version of Vivillon! Well, every Scatterbug that'll evolve into Vivillon. I had a couple of very helpful players in Finland and Armenia send me the last couple of postcards I needed from the Icy Snow and Sandstorm regions.

I am also in the middle of rewatching a bunch of random things with my boyfriend. The man refuses to binge things properly, so we're watching several shows at once. Those shows being: Community, Lost, Fringe, Supernatural, The Last of Us, The Mandelorian, and The Walking Dead. I most likely won't be reviewing any of these, but this is what I'm currently watching, so yeah.

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.

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

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

Midnight's Daughter by Karen Chance

A Spoiler-Free Reread Review

Originally Posted in GoodReads: 8-24-22
 

So apparently I thought Midnight’s Daughter was super chaotic the last time I read it (2018). It really isn’t. Dory does bounce from location to location, but it’s not like there aren’t long stretches between where she isn’t in the middle of some fracas. I also thought Midnight’s Daughter was better served by reading it all at once instead of peace-meal… I still mostly stand by this, but reading it peace-meal this time didn’t throw up any issues for me. Actually made me focus on the sections I was reading as opposed to making it all blur together in a confused jumble.

Dhampir are one of those supernatural entities you almost never hear about. Like, to the point people are surprised they exist at all. See The Twilight Saga, for example. Renesmee, for all the drama surrounding her, is probably the most famous dhampir, though she is never named as such. Anyway, because dhampir are so rare and because I’m a big vampire nerd, that’s probably what originally drew me to read Midnight’s Daughter back in my early 20s. Well, that and this semi-weird idea I had to try at least one book from every author in the library… but that was a different time.

I’m pretty sure I started reading the Dory trilogy of books before I read the Cassie books. Dory is awesome. She’s the kind of femme fatale character I was really into reading and still really like to see. We need more capable female characters whose flaws aren’t rooted in some kind of male-adjacent trauma. Dory is very much her own person with her own set of semi-debilitating flaws. I mean, technically Dory’s issues are Daddy related, but they also have a lot more to do with what she is rather than who wronged her in the past.

Getting a look at Mircea from a completely different perspective is fun. We get to see him more in his role as family leader and protector and less in a sexual connotation. His dynamic with Dory is interesting, hinting at some stuff we get down the line but that I won’t go into here. He’s definitely the put-upon father figure who really just wants the best for his little girl despite her really not wanting anything to do with him.

Gotta do a quick Dory vs Cassie here. Dory has been around a lot longer and seen a lot more and therefore actually knows things. And if she doesn’t know things, she seeks out the information. Cassie has been very sheltered, is only 18, and doesn’t seem to know how to pick up a book to find the information she needs. Cassie floats from situation to situation with Pritkin doing the research heavy lifting and not letting her help, apparently. This sort of thing really stands out in the narration. We get a lot more info about the world we’ve stepped into with Dory’s first book than we ever did with Cassie’s first three.

Dracula isn’t really interesting as a villain in this. He’s definitely not the suave, debonair, Bella Lugosi type but neither the Nosferatu type. He lurks about in the background for about half the book before showing himself to definitely be insane before basically fucking off again for a good chunk of the novel. I honestly think Mircea made a mistake changing this brother. Drac is clearly unstable and probably would have shown that in life, as well. But we know from Cassie’s books that young Mircea didn’t exactly have the best judgement when bringing people over so… yeah. Drac shows himself to be kinda racist in Dory’s case and he has that “do what I want even if it’s impossible or you die” thing going on.

Not entirely sure how I feel about the effects of Fey Wine. Like, I really enjoy the flashbacks of Dory’s life we get because of it, but… I dunno. It seems a bit weird to infuse wine with magic. Or maybe it’s just something about the grapes in Faerie. That’s never explained. The flashbacks were definitely a highlight on this reread.

The Fey themselves are definitely more of a serious threat in this book than they were in Cassie’s books. They’ve got formidable powers and actually seem to know what they’re doing… seem to, don’t actually because they got confused about Claire… who turns or to be more of a semi-flighty badass than is originally stated by Dory. Also, if you just read the Dory books, you get the impression that the Fey are pretty much elves, which is not the impression left by the Cassie books, where they’re much more diverse.

So yes, overall, Midnight’s Daughter is very good and does leave an impression of chaos behind. I attribute this to the giant, sprawling, and, at times, confusing fight scene at the end coupled with Mircea’s info-dump. However, the rest of the book is less chaotic and somewhat nuanced. I really, really enjoyed it on this, my third reread.

My 2018 Review is posted below. It's muuuuuch shorter than this one.

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on Good Reads November 2018

Such, such chaos. Well plotted enough to have everything come together with a nice bow at the end, but it’s mostly chaos. I think a good portion of it is relatively realistic, in terms of said chaos. Dory tend to fly by the seat of her pants from one crazy situation to another with little to no time to rest in between so the random and not-so-random stuff that keeps happening tends to bleed into the next thing. Kind of like actual life... only with vampires and trolls and magical food. This book is definitely not one that should be read — like I did this time around — peace-meal as it just keeps dragging you along from one thing to the next. There aren’t really any good stopping points along the way and so it’s just better read through all at once like binging a show on Netflix.

In Other News

Currently Reading: The Day of the Dead by Karen Chance and Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish by John Hargrove with Howard Chua-Eoan

Currently Watching: Project Runway

Currently Playing: Pokemon Legends: Arceus (Finishing my Pokedex slowly but surely)