An electric, often tantalizing installment enhances this vampire series.
In this erotic thriller sequel, a New Orleans vampire and his human lover struggle to understand their enigmatic but undeniably strong bond.
Dante Gabriel and Erin Hamilton’s first time together culminates in her consenting to the vampire biting her neck and consuming her blood. But coming out of her euphoric haze, Erin is disconcerted by the full realization that her lover is a vampire. Though she steers clear of “the V word,” she can’t deny their mutual allure. This, according to Dante, is a blood bond, an occurrence so rare that information on it is scarce. The Vampyre Texts may explain it, but Dante’s grandfather Bill hasn’t yet finished the translation. But why has it been so long since anyone has translated the ancient tome? That’s just one of the countless mysteries challenging the couple. Erin, for one, has bite marks on her thigh and doesn’t know where they’re from, which likely means a vampire—most assuredly not Dante—has attacked her. There are also patients disappearing from University Hospital, where Erin, an emergency room nurse, works. She connects the missing patients by blood: They’re B positive, the same type the hospital keeps running out of. And though she’s trying to accept that vampires exist, Erin soon encounters more of the supernatural, including ghosts and, maybe, werewolves. Dante, meanwhile, is still recovering from his decade of captivity, courtesy of a female vampire known only as the queen. Her voice is constantly in Dante’s head, insisting she retains control of him. As in the preceding novel, Hardt’s (Unchained, 2018, etc.) second installment, though split into three parts, is one cohesive story. In fact, this book picks up immediately following the earlier one, carrying over mysteries ranging from Erin’s inexplicable bite marks to the still-unknown queen. The couple’s relationship shows unmistakable progress: While the first book teased their inevitable sex, Dante and Erin now face entirely new hurdles post-coitus. The most striking example is Bill’s claim that if their blood bond is broken, both will die. The author’s simple, concise prose sets an impressive pace. Succinct but descriptive details make periodic scenes in the ER exhilarating, as Erin and fellow nurses or doctors need to make quick decisions. Similarly, brevity during the explicit sex scenes amps up passion: The two are so desperate for each other that they typically forgo foreplay, leading to a fair share of thrusting and animalistic growling. The story grounds much of the supernatural elements, making the highlighted romance more believable. Dante, for instance, stresses that vampire myths are generally baseless (vamps are born and can’t transform humans by biting them). And, like others of his kind, he is akin to humans. It’s consequently amusing when this vampire hero doesn’t seem to believe in ghosts. Along with spirits, Hardt adds numerous mysteries in the second volume and leaves quite a few questions unanswered. Nevertheless, there’s some resolution (for example, the fates of Dante’s father and uncle, who vanished while searching for their abducted relative) and plenty of material for the third book.
An electric, often tantalizing installment enhances this vampire series.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64263-014-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Waterhouse Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.
The third installment of this fantasy series (The Bone Season, 2013; The Mime Order, 2015) expands the reaches of the fight against Scion far beyond London.
Paige Mahoney, though only 19, serves as the Underqueen of the Mime Order. She's the leader of the Unnatural community in London, a city serving under the ever more militaristic Scion, whose government is based on ridding the streets of "enemy" clairvoyants. But Paige knows the truth about Scion's roots—that an Unnatural and immortal race called the Rephaim, who come from the Netherworld, forced Scion into existence to gain control over the growing human clairvoyant community. Scion’s hatred of clairvoyants now runs so deep that Paige is forced to consider moving her entire syndicate into hiding while she aims to stop Scion's next attack: there are rumors that Senshield, a scanner able to detect certain levels of clairvoyance, is going portable. Which means no Unnatural citizen is safe—their safe houses, their back-alley routes, are all at risk of detection. Paige’s main enemy this time around is Hildred Vance, mastermind of Scion’s military branch, ScionIDE. Vance creates terror by anticipating her opponent’s next moves, so with each step that Paige and her team take to dismantle Senshield, Vance is hovering nearby to toy with Paige’s will. Luckily, Paige is never separated for long from her Rephaite ally, Warden, as his presence is grounding. But their growing relationship, strengthened by their connection to the spirit world, takes a back seat to the constant, fast-paced action. The mesmerizing qualities of this series—insight into the different orders of clairvoyance as well as the intricately imagined details of Paige’s “dreamwalking” gift, with which she is able to enter others’ minds—fade to the background as this seven-part series climbs to its highest point of tension. Shannon’s world begins to feel more generically dystopian, but as Paige fights to locate and understand the spiritual energy powering Senshield, it is never less than captivating.
A tantalizing, otherworldy adventure with imagination that burns like fire.Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63286-624-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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