Dance of the Pink Mist (Cracked Chronicles #2) by K.D. Van Brunt

Gray has been captured by Cracked and is under Jace’s command. He must quickly adapt to the high standards of his new prison – or he will be disposed of as any shapeshifter is if they don’t fit into Cracked.

Jace quickly turns from an enemy to an essential ally in helping Gray fit into the prison life – and he grows closer to her team and their ongoing mission

He also grows closer to her – as their telepathy and relationship come together into something new and completely outside both their experiences.

I was pleasantly surprised how this book worked – I expected a lot of resentment and angst and snarling between Gray and Jace. Their epic hostility would continue for most of the book until eventually the inevitable romance developed

Well, I was partly right

Instead of going down that clichéd route, Jace and Gray seem to mesh quite well from the beginning. A lot of this stems from Gray’s excellent personality. He’s easy going, he’s gentle, he’s not going to blame Jace for being an enslaved part of the system any more than he blames himself. He’s not going to rebel for the sake of it, nor is he going to fight a battle he can’t win. He’s going to do the very best he can in a bad situation, make sure he survives and then see how he can manage for freedom and existence from there. He also quickly recognises that people around him are trying to help him survive and he buries any resentment.

It’s a refreshingly mature attitude. And if I have any criticism of it it’s that it’s just a little… too perfect? Gray’s assimilation into Cracked, his adaptation, the difficulties he faces et all are all just… kind of easy. There’s little depiction of any real struggles over this new life he’s living, there’s no anger or grief or frustration over becoming a prisoner and effective slave. It’s freakishly smooth and probably too smooth. This is even more obvious when we see how quickly he makes friends and gets by with the other inmates – sure part of this can be explained by the fact he is Jace’s protégé and she is top of the pile, but in the last book it really emphasised how brutal and cut throat Cracked was with lots of violent competition between the inmates.

Cursed by Fire (Blood & Magic #1) by Danielle Annett

Aria Naveed is a mercenary and a pretty good one; but one with a secret. She’s a pyrokinetic, when she gets angry, things burn. This makes her very deadly – but very much in demand

But when her investigation into the death of murdered child uncovers a complicated plot that could bring the vampire Coven and shapeshifter pack to open warfare, she finds her secret perilously close to be revealed

And an intriguing stranger is ready to recruit her – but even with her long dead family involved, she’s unsure about exactly what it is he wants her to join

I was immensely frustrated by the writing in this book. It is so terribly overwritten and full of redundancy and repetition that it made it a bit of a slog to read. Descriptions maundered on for far too long, dialogue was just a bit too long winded to be taken seriously, everything was drawn out and repeated over and over in an attempt to establish setting and theme while failing to do either. Like the opening scene of the book is Ari being upset about a dead child – but she maunders on for so long, repeating herself in the most melodramatic way that any actual emotional impact the scene could have is just rather lost.

Or there’s how she describes Mike, her colleague at the mercenary agency, is no longer in peak shape for active duty:

“Did he seriously think he was up for this? I mean he was great and all but he’d been playing desk duty ever since the day he hired me. And in those two years, Mike had visibly grown soft in the most literal way. A good twenty pounds of softness if you asked me. He was nowhere near the shape he needed to be in to hunt down murderous vampires. At best he’d slow me down, at worst, he’d get both of us killed. Having Mike along was a liability and he knew it.”

Just look at the redundancy in that paragraph! The point was made by “the day he hired me” but we have to revisit it in 5 more sentences each saying exactly the same thing. Or there’s this on how vampires don’t like sunlight:

Haunted (Anna Strong Chronicles #8) by Jeanne C. Stein

Anna is drawn to Beso de la Muerte when an old acquaintance of Culebra's suddenly appears to cash in on a blood debt.  Anna, Culebra and Max the DEA agent, soon find themselves in Mexico trying to thwart a drug king pin and in the process, exact revenge for the murder of Culebra's family.  Anna has wondered for a very long time about Culebra's background because his mind has never been fully open to her and now she is going to realise that sometimes one should be careful what they wish for.

For the first time in this series, Culebra becomes someone more than a servant (a role which always irritated me) at Anna's beck and call.  We learn that Culebra is an outcast amongst his family because he is he first one in generations to touched by the curse (shapeshifting), as a result, they don't invest in him and he becomes a poor youth with very little options.  When he is approached by the cartel, for the first time he has hope of becoming more than what he is. What he does not know, is that this choice will alter the path of his life forever.  I found this part of the story extremely compelling and found myself sympathizing with Culebra and irritated with the overly privileged Anna, who decided to sit in judgement of him. This is not to say that becoming an assassin is a good moral choice, just that it irritated me that Anna couldn't see past her own privilege empathize with his story.

As you might well have guessed, much of this book involves the ongoing criminal activity of the Mexican drug lords.  Stein took great care to point out how innocent women and children quickly become their victims through no fault of their own.  She writes about the silence of communities who regularly hand over their daughters and the pain which results.  Though this is clearly a work of fiction, it is a story that needs to be told.  I liked that even in their powerless state, Stein still found a way to make these young women strong, brave and hopeful.  That was an extremely tall order given the tenor of the story. Yes, Anna did in the end rescue them but they were active participants in their own emancipation. 

Biting Bad (Chicagoland Vampires #8) by Chloe Neill

More drama returns to Chicago – this time in the shape of riots. Riots with firebombs targets that are close to the vampires – including their blood supply and Grey House. Naturally this threat has to be investigated and countered – as much as they can counter the growing anti-vampire attitude.

But the rioters don’t behave as would be expected – there’s definitely something behind them and perhaps one of their many enemies is pulling strings and hiding a more nefarious agenda

And the GP is suffering from its own conflict – Darius has had a blow to his authority and his chief rival has his gaze fixed on Cadogan House.

Whenever you have any kind of “whodunnit” or “whydunnit” mystery, you have a problem. There’s a problem between keeping the story going but at the same time not tipping your hand early. It’s simply hard to keep the pacing going while maintaining the mystery – it’s very easy for a book to become boring while everyone sits around frustrated, with no leads. At the same time, too many side plots can derail the plot and make the mystery seem almost background.

Biting Bad does a good job of maintaining that pacing. We have side plots – related to Grey House and the ill vampire which nicely tie into the overall mystery. And there are other side-plots –Mallory, Merit’s parents, the GP – that fit the idea that your whole world doesn’t stop to allow you to focus on one issue. That said, I think both the parents and the GP were rather unnecessary in this book and added nothing to the overall plot and, as explained below, didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

I can see some excellent hooks in this book – I see Mallory joining the house, perhaps Catcher as well and House Cadogan in general building a supernatural coalition its own way. I can see shades of them setting up their own organisation, especially considering the actions of House Grey and the GP. I like these hints of future action that don’t have to be spelled out, merely implied and suggested for future plot hooks.  That said, I found the ending frustrating in that the consequences of it were not shown.

In terms of Merit I think we have some improvements on some levels – her considerations about her relationships with both Ethan and Mallory (and even with other vampires within the House, like Helen) point towards some very belated character growth. Even her interactions with her family suggest we’re edging up to something resembling growth which is long overdue. She has some good ideas – both in the investigation and also with using the press to try and counter their negative image. The ideas are good but not genius – but at the same time no-one hailed her as the world’s most awesome tactical genius for her basic ideas as has happened in previous books. She has competent ideas, she was expected to provide competent ideas and her competent ideas were praised for their competence. It was nice to see.

The flip side is that Merit’s previous strength – her combat skills – were sorely lacking this book. Now, far be it from me to hold up skill with weapons as proof of a strong female character, but one of the main reasons Merit is Sentinel at all is because she is physically dangerous. It’s why she can spar competently with a man several centuries her senior. This is the reason for her rank – beyond her competent ideas and beyond the fact Ethan has the hots for her; she is sentinel because she is physically capable and because she doesn’t bow to Ethan. We saw neither of these things in this book. I can understand her losing to the GP – given his age and power – but being taken down by a human wielding a kitchen knife? Merit is better than that. I could take one comic disaster to have everyone laughing – but where was the counter moment? Where was the moment where Merit kicked arse and showed her strength?

But the main problem I have with this book is how some of the characters are developed and how that fits into the world – I either have trouble accepting them as they are or believing their actions. Some of these decisions could be explained if you extrapolate a whole lot of back story – but that’s not shown in the book and I’m engaging in mental gymnastics to justify the characters.

True Blood, Season 6, Episode 7: In the Evening

Eric tells the rapidly deteriorating Nora and Willa about the tainted True Blood – he sends Willa to warn Pam. Willa’s just really competent and assured, I hope she hangs around, I like her. But that’s when their escape is noticed and the alarms go off. Eric and Nora escape under one of the tainted True Blood trucks leaving (killing a guard while they do – poor disposable red shirts, so out of their league)

Willa warns Pam who holds on to her sunny personality (which Willa calls her out on – is that respect from Pam? Why I think it is). Pam says to warn Tara and Jessica but not the general vampire population about the tainted True Blood – or everyone will stop drinking and the guards will notice. Willa returns to the cell.

Eric carries Nora to Billith’s, begging Bill to save her, to give Nora his blood. But Nora refuses – she would rather die than drink the blood of Lilith. Bill won’t violate Nora’s dying wish.

Sara Newlin drives up to Truman’s mansion (listening to elocution lessons for the gospel, ye gods I’m actually afraid to google that in case it’s actually a thing) and finds the Billith massacre. With dramatic grief, Sara plans to use Truman’s death as a rallying cry. First step to speak a senator about making sure Truman’s vision lives on and that the Lieutenant governor (who she calls a RINO)  does not take over. She wants the senator to use his fixers (professional scandal cover-uppers) to hide Truman’s body and pretend he’s still alive. Then the senator fills in at the legislature while Sara handles all the vampire angles. Just until the True Blood with Hep V is sold.

Personally, I think it’d be a better tactic to go public with a vampire having killed a Governor in his own mansion. But she impressed the senator.

To soft-focus fairyland and a naked Sookie and Warlow. He’s pushy and Sookie makes it clear that sex does not mean she’s walking down the aisle with him. She pokes his ridiculously old fashioned sexist ideas. Then Sookie’s telepathy kicks in and she can hear Arlene, in the cemetery, grieving piteously for Terry. She asks him how to get out of fairy land (she was the one who showed him! And why does she even ask? The answer is always “use your light”) and zaps to Arlene’s side to be supportive and strong and reassuring and…

…is this the same Sookie? This is the best friendship we’ve seen from her since, well, ever

Wolf Night (Cassandra Bick Chronicles #2) by Tracey Sinclair

Things have sort of briefly stabilized for Cassandra.  Though she is sad that Cain has once again taken off, Laclos' investment in her business has allowed her to keep running Dark Dates and arranging parties for humans and vampires to meet.  Then Medea her assistant and Wiccan friend breaks some very exciting news - she's proposed to her girlfriend Kate and they are going to get married. Having no friends and her parents long dead, Kate and Medea have become defacto family.  Though Medea insists on wanting a small ceremony, Cassie decides that they must simply have a hen night, which leads to her inadvertently breaking a very important spell cast by Medea.  It's not long before Cassandra is fending off, werewolves and wiccans. If that were not bad enough, Cane returns to town the same day that Cassandra finally sleeps with Lacolos, the two thousand year old vampire.  Then, proving that bad things happens in threes, her ex boyfriend Sebastian shows up.

Though there was a lot going on in Wolf Night, it got off to a really slow start. This surprised me but by the middle of the book, it really took off.  It further didn't help that the ending was all tell and not show.  I thought having the bad guy explain his motivation and confess his misdeeds went out with Perry Mason.  It's not an artful approach and reads like and info dump because of an inability to wrap up loose ends.

The protagonist Cassandra, who is still terribly insecure became a major issue for me in terms of enjoying Wolf Night and I found myself reading for the ancillary characters, rather than her. Women essentially exist to be competition and remind Cassandra that she is not good enough and this even includes her best friend Medea.

 OK, so  it wasn’t just the vampires who could make me feel frumpy. If she wasn’t great at her job,  really very nice, pretty much my only friend and one of the people who helped me save a city  less than a year ago, I might’ve had to hate her.  Medea’s magical mojo aside, the rest of the humans were pure vanilla (pg3)

Tall  and  blonde,  she  looked  like  the  term  ‘ethereal’  had  been  coined  for  her:  think  Cate  Blanchett  in   Lord  of  the  Rings,  without  the  pointy  ears.  Her  outfit  was  very  Wicca-chic  – a  long,  loose  skirt  that  flowed  around  her  slender frame, and a floaty, scoop necked top revealing clavicles you could slice your hands  on. Was it my fate to be surrounded by  women  who made me feel like a dishevelled hag?  Maybe all Wiccans used the same spell.  Clearly she was used to the effect she had on people, because she didn’t look remotely  discombobulated  by  the  fact  it  took  me  a  good  couple  of  minutes  to  stop  staring  and  pull  myself together enough to speak. (pg 34)

The second quote is in reference to a former lover of Madea's.  As you might imagine, this gets tiresome quickly.  There has to be something in between the protagonist who is drop dead gorgeous, and doesn't even try and the one (in this case Cassandra) who has such low self esteem that she is in the shadow of every single woman she meets.  In this case, this sort of self loathing is particularly unrealistic, as Cassandra is actively being pursued by an angel and a two thousand year old vampire.  I can only hope that by the time the third book in this series comes out that Cassandra will leave this annoying tendency behind.

The one thing Cassandra is certain about is what she will and will not accept in a relationship.  The infamous handbag makes it appearance when Laclos decides to bite Cassandra without her permission.  She makes it absolutely clear that he is never ever to bite her without asking.  Laclos believed that because she had said yes once that it gave him tacit permission to feed from her at will.  He pulled out the typical vampire line of being able to sense her arousal but Cassandra was absolutely adamant that consent is something that needs to be sought each and every time.  I think that this is an extremely important message because enthusiastic consent is something that is so necessary to push because of the pervasiveness of rape culture.

Review of Out for Blood (House of Comarré #4) by Kristen Painter

Once again, Painter has many story lines on the go, though as far as I am concerned, not all of them are relevant.  After nearly dying, Chrysabelle has decided to move away from her past as a
comarré.  Her main objective is now to find her brother at all costs.  Doc is the new alpha of his pack but unfortunately, the position comes with a wife, which means problems in his relationship with Fi. The Kubai Mati are not pleased with Creek and he has to deal with Yahla (the woman without a soul) and a mayor with plans of her own about how to deal with the supernatural elements.

With all of the things going on in Painter's story, she manages to keep it all focused. For me, the largest issue is the storyline with Creek.  It seems that Painter tries to give him things to do as a way to justify his character but he is always in the background and for most of the time, he feels like a distraction. Creek either needs to better integrated in Doc/Fi or Chrysabelle/Mal's storyline, or dropped altogether in my opinion. This character seems to be struggling for a place now that Painter has brought and end to the love triangle between Creek, Chrysablle and Mal.

 Now that Doc is finally able to shapeshift, you would think that things would go well for him but finding out that he now has to marry the former Alpha's wife, puts a real crimp in his relationship with Fi.  Though we know he is very upset, he doesn't exactly go out of his way to assure Fi that he is going to make things right, or reassure her of his feelings.  It's Fi who takes the initiative and decides to fight to death for the right to marry Doc. One of the problems with this is that Doc's new mate is a woman of colour and typically she is cast as evil. Thus far in the series, there hasn't been one positive portrayal of a woman of colour and this is of course cast against Chrysabelle's epic Whiteness. Chrysabelle is meant to represent the height of womanhood and we are told repeatedly about the Whiteness of her skin and her long flowing blond hair. Clearly, this is a model that excludes all women of colour.