Review: Embrace the Night

Book Description:
Recently named the world’s chief clairvoyant, Cassandra Palmer still has a thorn in her side. As long as Cassie and a certain master vampire—the sizzling-hot Mircea—are magically bound to each other, her life will never be her own …
The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire. The Codex’s location has been lost in the present day, so Cassie will have to seek it out in the only place it can still be found—the past.
But Cassie soon realizes the Codex has been lost for a reason. The book is rumored to contain some seriously dangerous spells, and retrieving it may help Cassie to deal with Mircea, but it could also endanger the world…

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Review:
Embrace the Night begins with Cassie in a graveyard, someone shooting at her as she searches for the Codex Merlini.  Thankfully, Pritkin travels with her to be her body guard, but their work relationship has a good amount of teamwork in it and they end up rescuing each other, much to Pritkin’s chagrin.  We learn a LOT about Pritkin in Embrace the Night, and some of those bits of information are doozies.  

We learn a little bit more about Cassie’s time away from Tony’s from the time she’s 13-17 in an interesting addition to the story.  Mircea is not very prominent in this book because Cassie’s still trying to avoid him so the geis isn’t strengthened. 

One of the new bad guys is a demon lord, Rosier.  Unlike Myra, he’s a really good bad guy, truly scary, capable of really horrible things.  

This book has it all, fast-paced action, laugh out loud humor, character development, the story moves forward in many areas, ending some story arcs and starting some more.  As usual, Cassie has several factions trying to kill her, making even more enemies this time around.  We revisit a few scenes in the first book and they make more sense now.  This book should NOT be read out of order, it will make close to zero sense if not read in order.   Have Curse the Dawn handy.

Sensuality:  some heavy kissing, petting and one sex scene

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review: Claimed by Shadow

Book Description:

A recent legacy made Cassandra Palmer heir to the title of Pythia, the world's chief clairvoyant. It's a position that usually comes with years of training, but Cassie's circumstances are a little...unusual.  Now she's stuck with a whopping amount of power that every vamp, fey, and mage in town wants to either monopolize or eradicate-and that she herself doesn't dare use.



What's more, she's just discovered that a certain arrogant master vampire has a geis on her-a  magical claim that warns off any would-be suitors, and might also explain the rather ... intense attraction between them. But Cassie's had it with being jerked around, and anyone who tries it from now on is going to find out that she makes a very bad enemy...

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Review:

Claimed by Shadow begins shortly after Touch the Dark ends.  Only a few pages go by before there’s a crazy war-mage barreling toward her.  We meet some new characters, including the Graeae, an ancient trio who bring giggles as well as some “oh my goodness, I can’t believe they just did that!” moments.  Mac, a former war-mage,  is also a great new character we meet in Claimed by Shadow.   Several other secondary characters from the first book make appearances as well.

Now that Cassie is Pythia, she is taken back in time several times to the late 1880s to protect the timeline because Myra is back, making trouble for Cassie.   As far as villains go, she’s pretty devious, but more than that, she’s just REALLY obnoxious.   Cassie  finds out  Mircea placed a geis on her when she was a child to protect her from Tony.   It does protect her as she grows up, but it also has a surprising effect once she becomes Pythia and meets Mircea in the past. 

We don’t see Mircea very much in this book as Cassie tries to avoid him so he doesn’t gain control of her in her new role through the geis.   We see more of Pritkin in this book than in the last and he develops from hating Cassie, mistrusting her every move to helping her when she goes to Faerie to track Myra and Tony.  

Cassie develops a bit in this book amid all the crises she faces, becoming a woman determined to not hide from her new responsibilities as Pythia.  She may not be the smartest, fastest, most intimidating heroine ever created, but she has heart, tenaciousness and spunk.   It seems at times the book is not going places, but there is development in the story as well as in several characters and it lays the foundation for the next one.  Make sure you have the next book in the series handy.

Sensuality: several lusty thoughts, some kissing, one sex scene,  and a scene in Faerie that’s disturbing.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Touch the Dark

Book Description:
Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits-talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead.  The ghosts of the dead aren't usually dangerous; they just like to talk...a lot. The undead are another matter.

Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires.  But when the bloodsucking Mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection. The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire-and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay...

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Review:

Touch the Dark begins with Cassie seeing her future obituary on her computer, her death taking place in about an hour.   Of course she leaves immediately to go on the run again, but she wants to say goodbye to her roommate, Tomas, who has a surprising secret.  The frantic, imminent death pace that begins on the first page of the book does not relent throughout as she moves from one death-defying adventure to the next. 


Since this is the first book in the series, there is a  LOT of world-building, which is top-notch. This world includes war-mages, vampires, demons and time travel.  We meet Mircea, a vampire Senate member whom Cassie knows from her childhood, Pritkin the war-mage who carries enough firepower to arm a small nation in addition to his magical powers, which are formidable to say the least.  Another entertaining character is Billy, her helpful ghost buddy.  There are other delightful secondary characters, some are historical figures, which always amuses me. 


Cassie has several groups who either want to kill her or keep her seer ability under their control, which is enough to make a girl scream in frustration, but Cassie shows a remarkable practicality and determination to be her own woman.  Even though the action is non-stop, it’s about halfway through the book that the plot behind the endless near-death experiences comes into play.  So be prepared to wonder what the heck is going on a few times before the end of the book.  It’s a good idea to grab the next book in the series is all I will say.


Sensuality: several sensual scenes, one lasting several pages prolonged with conversation, fairly graphic

Rating:  4 stars

Review: Kindle

I’ve had a kindle for about 3 years, maybe longer; time has a habit of slipping by faster than I’d like.  I had been a hard-copy kind of woman before and wondered if I would really enjoy reading in this new way because I loved the new book smell and the feel of a book in my hands.  My husband purchased the kindle 1 for me and it completely changed my reading habits.  I just THOUGHT I read a lot before he bought me a kindle.  I loved the way I could take my entire library with me when I went somewhere, how I could change the font size easily, flip pages with a twitch of my thumb, bookmark passages in books, make notes if I so desired, had a dictionary readily available in the kindle if I needed one, and that there was no glare on the screen, not to mention the cute little red cover he purchased for me as well. 

When the kindle 2 came out, I was truly intrigued by the text-to-speech function, as well as the new version being slimmer and the changes to the navigation.  I loved the changes except for the feature I was most intrigued by: text-to-speech.  I thought I would be able to continue to “read” in situations I needed both hands free or needed my focus away from a book.  Alas, it didn’t work out as I’d planned because I didn’t like the robotic sound.  Another feature that’s available but I don’t use much is the internet.  I have used it before and it’s fair for browsing text-based sites, but I prefer my home PC with a mouse for navigational ease. 

I love the portability and durability of the kindle.  It goes everywhere with me: picking up kids from school, waiting in line at the grocery store, waiting in line at the drive thru, waiting at the doctor’s or dentist’s office, even when I’m meeting my best friend for lunch for the (very) rare occasion I arrive early.  Sometimes I’m only able to squeeze in a page or two but it keeps my brain active.  

I’m debating purchasing the latest generation, which is even smaller than the kindle 2 with a larger memory.   One great thing about upgrading is you never lose your library.  When you purchase kindle books from amazon, they digitally archive the books for you and you just have to load them to your new device.  Also, amazon has a HUGE selection of free and very low-cost books available in the kindle format.

Bottom line: a kindle is a fabulous gift to yourself and loved ones who read.

Kindle 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi - Latest Generation
Kindle DX, Free 3G, 9.7" Display – Latest Generation
Kindle, Wi-Fi - Latest Generation