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.

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

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.

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)

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