Panther Prowling (Otherworld #17) by Yasmine Galenorn

Delilah is ready to party – it’s her sister’s Camille’s birthday and Menolly has just managed to re-open her bar; in the lull in the war in the Otherworld they can have a break; a night off

Until their human cousin, Daniel, runs into their bar chased by an angry Viking ghost.

Unfortunately their professional thief relative has acquired a cursed and haunted sword – which comes with a family curse and a whole lot of dangerous haunting and consequences which only his magical cousins are equipped to deal with.

This series is huge. It has run for a huge number of books. It has an absolutely enormous cast of character. It has a huge world setting – several huge world settings. We have several metaplots all running alongside each other, all intertwining and related and touching on each other. And we have three protagonists all with their own lives and conflicts and relationships. We have a household that not only has the three D’Artigo sisters but has Camille’s three husbands, has Menolly’s wife, has Delilah’s husband. We have Hannah and Vanzir and Rozuriel and Iris and her husband and her twins and Chase and his daughter and then the gargoyle Maggie. And all of them have things going on. And this is without looking at Roman, Rozuriel’s ex-wife, Smoky and Shade’s extended families, the fae queens, Morgaine and the whole Arthurian legend group, the various powers of the Otherword and then loads of friends and neighbours dotted around the city…

We have a lot. We have so much. This world is huge and rich and full of lots of important characters each with their own stories and enough details to give each of them a realness and a presence that gives the whole story and world depth

But my gods there’s a lot. And when we were introduced to the sisters’ human family a couple of books ago part of me cringed because there was no need for this to add to this already very full world and these sisters’ already very full lives with very full missions. Especially when it turns out that dear brother Daniel is a master thief ex-special forces magical specialist – which means that’s a whole lot more complexity and storylines and distractions added to what I already a very full series.

Which is the feeling I had through this book – we had Daniel and the sword and Viking ghosts to try and deal with but it felt very peripheral to the sisters’ lives. And we had moderately high stakes to make sure they pay attention to it –but it felt like a distraction because there’s a lot of other things going on. In fact, the attack on their house almost felt like a way to drag them into the story again and make it all feel more relevant to them since we haven’t really built that much relationship with Daniel yet. With Camille’s new role with the Earthside Fae courts and Delilah’s issues with the Autumn Lord which also includes some expanding powers and possible consequences and we have love triangle issues with Hannah and Rozuriel with more looking at what it means to be an incubus since we’ve been mentioning it for a while but never really seen it developed. And there’s some sorcerer following Camille around which is important or worrisome but it’s mentioned at the beginning and we don’t really return to it. We add in a dose of

Being Human U.K. Season Two, Episode Eight: All God's Children

 

Now that Being Human U.S is on hiatus for the year, we thought it would be a good idea to continue our reviews of Being Human U.K. 

All of God's Children is the final episode of season two and so as you might well imagine, a lot happens.  In episode 7, Mitchell discovered that Lucy, the woman who he had been dating has betrayed him.  He is determined to make her pay for blowing up the vampires and to save George and Nina.  He arrives at Kemp's lair and systematically begins to slaughter the young men working with Kemp.

George, Nina and Annie are quite unaware of what is going on, though George senses that something does not feel right.  He is extremely worried about Mitchell and tells Nina that he is going to leave for a day to find him, but Nina convinces him to stay.  She believes that there will always be a reason to delay the procedure and because Mitchell is a vampire who is over 100 years old, that he should be able to take care of himself. 

George decides to at least give Mitchell a call.  When George calls Mitchell's cell phone, he gets no answer and so he decides to check the messages at the house in case Mitchell left a message there.  What George does not expect is to hear the goodbye message that Annie left for them both.  He is horrified and rushes back to his cell. 

In the meantime, Lucy and Kemp realize that Mitchell is in the building and that he is killing people.  Lucy ties this into the fact that earlier in the day a werewolf that was murdered in the chamber named Amy McBride appeared to her. Kemp reassures her that they did the right thing by removing McBride from the earth.  He sends Lucy down to the basement because Mitchell has already checked there and he believes that he will face Mitchell. Kemp orders that Annie and George be moved to a secure area.

Mitchell outsmarts them and doubles back to the basement where he meets up with Lucy.  They have a very tense conversation in which Mitchell demands to know why Lucy betrayed him.  Lucy minimizes his feelings and points out that he is a vampire and therefore a threat.  Mitchell counters saying that neither of them have any business have a conversation about morality, when they both have blood on their hands. 

George and Nina are about to moved to the secure area when he begs for a moment to see Annie.  George asks Annie why she would do this, and she responds that once he is human that she will be alone, because he will no longer be able to see her.  It seems that she cannot stand the idea of centuries laid out before her with no human contact.  George offers to stay human if it means that she will agree to stay.  Finally, he gets Annie to agree not to leave until they talk again.

George leaves, and both he and Nora get locked into a room.  They have a nice moment playing I spy, until Nora sees some writing on the wall.  The writing is actually a warning, stating that all of the werewolves have died.  At this point, George knows that come what may, they have to get out of there.