This needs a prequel. The prologue of True North by Q.K. Petty
was so intriguing and interesting, I couldn’t wait to read the rest. While I enjoyed the story, and hope that there are more to this series, there was so much that was unexpected (and one point that was I think supposed to be a twist but was able to see coming from a mile away; but that’s ok – it was still totally worth the read). I would think that the opening piece about St Peter’s chains would have made a terribly interesting story in and of itself. I didn’t expect to just into the 21st century from there. And I certainly didn’t expect Mobile Alabama to be the setting for a story about a secret society who seeks out religious artifacts to prevent them from starting cults, or wars. NYC, sure. Alabama, nope!
The mix of mystery and religion and science was reminiscent of Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. The violence and brutality was more reminiscent, however, of R.F. Kuang (the Poppy Wars specifically). There was certainly a fair bit of killing and torture and I cringed while picturing the gruesome scenes painted by the author. And before you ask, yes, those are both books that I liked very much (well, the first of the Poppy Wars anyway).
My criticism is in the laissez-faire manner in which some of the characters treat what is supposed to be this big secret – the existence of their “society”. It feels that as an element, that was underdone. To have no concern for the fact that Orion tells all his friends right away – its playing a little loose with the rules that would most certainly be integral to the fabric of any secret society… I also think there should have been more to Eden’s and Orion’s relationship – we really don’t see much of it for all the time they spend together.
As for the plot – there must be more going on. While there was a lot of action and the plot moved surprisingly fast, I did latch onto the set-up from the prologue about the purpose, and purported not so great nature, of the House of David. And yet, there isn’t really anything in the main story to satisfy the craving that was set up by the prologue. But, it feels like there is at least one more coming because it certainly ended on a cliff hanger.
The characters were interesting and the story was fairly unique for something that has a Warrior Nun (season 1) feel to the it – with the religious undertones – and it sets up the question of is religion really science in disguise, or is it the other way around with some of the twists and tiny bits of science that drip throughout. Warrior Nun is a good comparison for a number of reasons – 
e.g., Divinium, the crown of thorns, the Halo, Shield of Faith… – as artifacts go, and the story here certainly finds similarities, but in all the good ways. I thought Warrior Nun was awesome and it’s almost like this book could occur in the same universe. I can imagine Eden running some offshoot of the Order that is not just nuns, but maybe reports to them? How cold would that be?
I am eager to read the next – I couldn’t put this one down – would really like to know what happens to Orion. Can he be saved from his reaction to being tortured? Will he and Eden find out more about their father? Will they be able to be brothers? Will they stop the evil they are facing (and which organization is really the evil here)? I do hope there is a sequel (Goodreads lists this as “#1” of “A Series of Four Seasons” and the cover says “Book One” so I take it there will be more, but I am unable to find more info to confirm it). For anyone who likes religious mysteries, secret societies, artifacts with power, and questions about religion vs science, this is worth the read!
Slaughter of Angels by Matthew Angelo was, if nothing else, a quick read. In e-books, on my phone, it was only 319 pages. So, it was pretty short. I can’t decide if that should be in the “helped it” or “hurt it” column.
The story was enthralling and I loved it instantly. I loved the world it was set in (right up until the dawn of City of Fallen Angels, when I was disappointed by the contrivances needed to stretch what I swear I remember seeing was originally slated to be a trilogy into more than that, but I digress…). That was the start of the love affair with all things demon, vampire, werewolf, etc., in the YA world. Holly Black’s Tithe 
was the start of the love affair with YA Fae stories on the other hand. I am not sure when I read this, but it was certainly after Sorcerer’s Stone (as I read that before Chamber of Secrets came out – I was one of the not so large group to read the first right after it was published) but before City of Bones. The dark and creepy gothicness of Tithe and its sister books sucked me in. I couldn’t get enough. I even ended up diving into the Spiderwick Chronicles, clearly written for an even younger audience. The courts, the settings, the quest in Ironside for a fairy that could lie… it was all so much fun. Then, some of the more mature PNR stuff started making its way into the to read pile and I flitted away from Holly. I caught the Curse Workers when those came out (and really feel like there was unfinished business in the last of that series, and wouldn’t turn away from one more of them) but the universe of books to read was just becoming impossible to track. I do have a life outside of reading after all. So, to it was much to my delight that I noticed I had missed a book that was both Holly Black’s and Fae. I hesitated because these days I tend to steer clear of stand-alones but for Ms. Black and the Fae, I didn’t hesitate long. And I am so glad I read this one!
near the town that has been sleeping for ages. Hazel and Ben, her brother, hunted Fae when they were little, pretending to be knights. Jack is both Ben’s best friend and a changeling. One day, the horned boy is set free and a terrible monster is set upon the town. Hazel is trying to solve the mystery of the horned boy’s release because all signs seem to point to her being the one who broke his glass coffin. She encounters the Alderking who requires that Hazel bring the horned boy to him, as well as a sword Hazel found when she was younger. Turns out, Hazel also made a bargain with the Fairies when she was younger and she has been serving the Alderking as a knight for some time, during the night, without her remembering (her not remembering is thanks to the Alderking’s magic). Hazel wants to rescue the town, the “boy” she loves, and the horned boy.
that they were teaching a message of tolerance and courage. The scene where Carter’s and Jack’s human parents are at their house defending Jack and Hazel’s mother also stands up for Jack were both demonstrative of the mass hysteria that humans get swept up in, so often without all the facts and based in fear alone, as well as how important it is for good people to stand up to injustice. Especially when the injustice is being done to others. While I can’t say whether Ms. Black intended that social commentary or lesson, or whether it was just what I read into it, I thought it was well written and provided clues to me that this was going to be a story with an ending I would be pleased with. And I was so happy to get to the end and find that feeling was completely accurate.
books are also YA and colder than Lynburn. Jolie Wilkins is 
your typical girl didn’t know she was a witch, man comes to rescue her from that boring normal non-magical life. She is destined to be queen or something like that and save the world. Cue the sexual tension, love story, bad guys wanting to take over the world, blah blah blah. Not terribly unique or original, but a fun little escape just the same.
destined mate, a Vampire prince. In 2 she finds herself in Hell with a cast of characters too weird to do justice to: Mother Nature (her Grandmother), Satan (her Uncle), God (another Uncle), Dixie (cousin), Seven Deadly Sins (all more cousins), Mister Rogers, Hemingway, and others. And we discover **spoiler alert** she is “Compassion”, a True Immortal. In 3 Dixie is sent to Earth to find herself of something like that. And she meets and falls in love with the Angel of Death. In 4, Astrid’s baby with crazy growing power and all sorts of magic turns out to be the most powerful Immortal ever. And there are Fairies with names like The Kevin (with “The” being the mark of an old fairy), trolls, demons, and all sorts of other craziness going on. Another fun little romp, with some steam, if you can get past that there are moments when it felt like the author was trying to do too much with the vampire, demons, family tree thing. And don’t, like I did, be expecting the Rogues that were such an issue in book 1 to really mean anything in 2 through 4, they just don’t really ever turn into anything that matters.
It is a little hard to consider some of the “good guys” good. Lillian, while on the same side as our young adult 
protagonists is such a snotty bitch, who has delusions of grandeur, and wants to rule the town is just not quite as loathsome as Rob who wants a sacrifice of blood but otherwise feels exactly the same way. And, some of the plot holes were hard for me to deal with. That said, I love the relationship between Kami and the other young folks the story is really about. And the connection between Jared and Kami and the complication that Ash becomes was great. There are really some sad moments on the pages of Untold. And there are a TON of unanswered questions, that I hope get answered in the final book, Unmade (which I will be starting tonight). I will note that of all the 15 books I have neglected to write reviews on, this one, to me had the highest “can’t-put-it-down” rating. I will note, however, that I liked the cover for the first book, Unspoken (seen on the left), better and like the cover of Unmade even less. And, the short stories for this series – get them free or don’t bother. They don’t really add to the story and they, in some cases, are super short.
was… frustrating. Yes, that’s probably the best description for about three-quarters of this Dulcie adventure. Downright stupid fits not quite the other quarter. Because there is a dash of revolting thrown in that absolutely must be accounted for. Revolting. Yes, that is correct. You aren’t reading a typo or a misstatement. But I will get to that in a few.
Dulcie seemed like a pretty cool girl in the first book. And she was even better in the second. The third book didn’t add to her coolness factor, but it didn’t detract either. This one, however? Oh my goodness is she a blubbering idiot. She is delusional, whiney, self-contradictory (at one point she thinks that she never gave up fighting to get out of her situation, but caving to each and every demand and command isn’t exactly fighting) and she becomes so irritating. Not to mention the story itself – her lies and that Knight knew but was lying too and all the manufactured drama/stress because both characters are liars… well, I can only take so much of that internal struggle from our “heroine” before it gets old. Really, really old. Like ancient Babylonian times, Noah’s Ark kind of old.
This element of the pace makes him look like a tortoise. A man who is supposed to have been a master criminal and all around tyrant for at least a hundred years can’t take a few days or weeks to give his new plant time to get settled and work through a workable solution? Tosh! Poor planning on the author’s part if you ask me.
isn’t smart (ok, always not just often – but this is where the couple’s struggle to be together, the he’s too good for me, I am too damaged, I can’t… comes from) and that tension or obstacle is necessary to the plot. When done right, it makes the steamy scenes steamier and the happy endings happier. When done right, the reader gets to sigh a sigh of relief that the characters have coupled and beaten what-ever was keeping them apart. But when done wrong, the characters are stupid, whiny, self-centered annoying reflections, with the emotional range of a teaspoon. But the teaspoon is Nicky Ferrante compared to Dulcie. While her libido puts Charlie Harper to
shame – as absolutely all reason and any teeny tiny sense of intelligence disappears instantly every time Dulcie gets too close to Knight since she automatically stops thinking even semi-coherent thoughts about anything other than lust. Dulcie is the poster child for Lust. And it became really tedious and boring in this installment. Especially given the revolting – and unfortunately, her inability to do anything other than lust after Knight, while being self contradictory in the same thoughts doesn’t appear solved even at the end of book 5.
Yep. He does. Just like that. He is all over Dulcie, she is telling him no repeatedly, and he reads her body language and decides that she doesn’t mean no when she says it, she really means yes. So he forces himself on her. It doesn’t matter that she eventually says ok – it never should have gotten that far with these characters. I have read books with rape elements or scenes. And typically there is a reason for the scene. Here – I think the author just flipped her lid. And, the way the characters handled the situation subsequently, made me ill. I had to put the book down and re-read a number of times to make sure I really read what I thought I did. (Compounding this is the fact that in the following book, which I will review in the next few days, the author even does some victim shaming. That too was revolting.) And the larger lesson of it’s not the victim’s fault and no means no, no matter what (I counted 6 times she explicitly said no or stop or don’t do this and a number of others where she had that thought) and that rape isn’t the same as passionate sex (which is one of the explanations for the whole thing later) and that no man can read the mind or in this case body of another to change no to consent. Never mind that she eventually, begrudgingly, says she wants to have sex – since it is after he has already penetrated her. His response at one point to why he is forcing himself on her is “because I can.” WTF??? Let that sink in. Is my revulsion misplaced? The more I think about it, the more revolted I am. And the more disappointed in the author I am (especially after reading Malice in Wonderland, by the way… but I won’t spoil that one in this review).![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000037_00031]](https://seriestracker.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/24326747.jpg)
suspense and mystery to be alluring and addictive. The ground rules for the paranormal world were solidly established and that was a relief. The story, with the backdrop of the Southern Spirit’s distillery, was just spooky enough to keep me furiously reading. Can’t go to bed right after the ghost attacks, after all! A toast is in order: here’s to Southern Spirits, and hopefully more spooky fun in A Ghostly Gift!
or the Pushing Daisies – don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t exactly the cliffhanger that Las Vegas or the Glades (total tangent: while this is a book site, A&E is on my sh*t list because really, Glades and Longmire? What is wrong with you TV people? They were excellent shows and the only, ONLY, reason I watched your network!) left us with, but this story left more loose ends then a grass skirt factory. I give you TV show examples because TV shows, I think, are way more frustrating to have end on cliffhangers or leave with loose ends. Don’t get me wrong, I am not asking for a happily ever after or having everything tied up in a nice little bow I can hang on my Christmas wreath. But there is a big difference between a few unanswered questions and the frustrating, bang your head, when is the next book coming out feeling. Think for a moment of Harry Potter if you will. 
We get an epilogue at the end of Deathly Hallows, but not absolutely everything is tied up. There are still questions. For example, one of the things that bothers me to this day is why Snape hated all Griffyndor students, not just Harry. Where exactly did that animosity come from; surely it isn’t solely because of James. Why, despite being expelled from Hogwarts, is Hagrid prohibited from doing magic “strictly speaking”? There is mention of home schooling and am I really supposed to believe that Stan Shunpike got through school… so why can’t Hagrid use magic (especially since he was vindicated)? Does Dolores finally get her comeuppance? What were the Centaurs seeing in the stars? See… loose ends. And I can live with them. Heck, I even enjoy thinking up my own resolutions to those loose ends. But It’s not like book seven never happened and we are left wondering if Harry ever defeated Voldemort or if we really should have trusted Snape. The end of Between the Spark and the Burn left the latter type of questions unanswered. And damn it, I feel cheated by the fizzle that was the end of this book.
varying shades of grey as a lesson that not everything is black and white. So despite how neatly black and white makes things (and how much I like that in books I read for fun), it just wasn’t the case here. River is the epitome of a grey area. The author paints a picture quite contrary to the rigid black-and-white, good-and-evil scenario. People aren’t always either good or evil. And sometimes people are just bad to be bad, not because the devil made them do it. We see a lot of that here. We also see nobility in a different way: Neely’s sacrifice for his brother seems truly selfless – he is not going to get anything in return and he won’t stop. He does it because he loves his brother. There is a nice contrast between that relationship and self sacrifice and the relationship between the White parents and their children, where they leave the kiddos home to fend for themselves while they puruse their art.
Book Series Tracker 