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.

Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

Embrace the Night by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: August 6, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Touch the Dark by Karen Chance

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 5, 2022

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

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

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

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

Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

A Largely Spoiler Free Reread Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

Favorite Quotes

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

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

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