A laudable denouement that may tempt audiences to read this skillfully fused fantasy series again.
In this conclusion to a trilogy, a witch heals and protects her cursed vampire mate, a wanted criminal with the potential to stop a fallen angel bent on destroying humanity.
Faithful witch Katherine O’Hickey believes the goddess has guided her to her mate, Julius Crowley. People on both Earth and the daemon realm of Machon are hunting Julius for various crimes, such as putting “daemon kind back into” humans’ consciousness. But he committed these acts while possessed by a Watcher (fallen angel) for three centuries. Though the Watcher has been exorcised, Julius remains cursed, with a voice often persuading him to kill himself. Kat heals his wounds, primarily self-inflicted, and Julius gradually recollects memories of atrocities the possessed vampire perpetrated. Kat also keeps Julius’ presence hidden from friends, including witches Lilith and Trina, who share the title of the Original, which makes them the rightful leaders of daemon kind. An ancient poem further declares the Original will vanquish the wayward Watcher determined to end humanity—with help from the Knight. Kat is certain her mate is the Knight, if only she can keep him alive long enough. This won’t be an easy feat, because there’s a good chance she’s slowly losing her Magic. For each book in her fantasy trilogy, Crescent (The Shadow, 2017, etc.) has created an engrossing tale that is both part of a whole and a stand-alone. This novel, for example, inserts a previously established villain (Julius) into a fresh romantic storyline. It’s done convincingly, as Kat’s belief in her goddess-given mate is steadfast, despite his behavior sometimes resembling madness. This makes the couple’s anticipated sex profuse with tenderness, though the author doesn’t scale back on titillating passages: “He licked the crease of her leg. Nipped the underside of her breast. Suckled her earlobe.” Still, there’s room for plenty of supernatural action: to thwart the wayward Watcher, humans and daemons alike must battle the fallen angel’s monstrous children, the Nephilim.
A laudable denouement that may tempt audiences to read this skillfully fused fantasy series again.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9971872-9-8
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Cara Crescent Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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