Review: Waking the Witch

Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book begins a set of three Savannah-centric stories. I was never a big fan of the cocky teenage witch/warlock/demon hybrid, but I’m hoping that she grows on me now that she’s out of her teen angst phase.

Savannah has been left alone to keep an eye on the business while Paige and Lucas are away on a rare vacation. Yes, she’s still the cocky kid we know and love to hate on, but she’s showing signs of being more responsible (or at least not starting any race wars in the coming months…). When one of Lucas’s contacts (confirmed via photo file) asks for help with a case nearby, Savannah jumps at the chance to prove herself a worthwhile employee (and more than a receptionist). She fights for all the leads she gets, tries to balance her gut reactions with legitimate investigative work, and tries not to be too much of a schoolgirl about her crush on Adam. I really thought we’d get a little further with the Adam story, to be honest, but I guess this was more about Savannah’s development and the plot itself. Fooey. At least we get some good mystery and crime-fighting action thrown in to make up for the lack of romance.

I am really glad that Savannah got knocked around a little in this one. I’m sure she’s just going through some growing pains, but the ego was out of control in this story. Also, if you’re looking for a solid wrap-up and HEA, this book will not give you that. It reads as a standalone (plot-wise), but the overall story certainly leaves a lot up in the air at the end. If the next book wasn’t available, I would’ve been more than a little upset. Yes, I want Adam and Savannah to live happily ever after, but I sure do want her to learn some lessons before we get there. I guess that’s the ultimate goal in this book. It could be titled “Savannah, grow up.”




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Review: Frostbitten

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book went back to where we all fell in love with this series. There’s Elena and Clay, hunting mutts, protecting the pack, and fumbling around in their relationship. Sure, they’ve got kids now, but that doesn’t change the level of chemistry or even the risks they are willing to take.

Elena and Clay have taken an uncharacteristic time apart due to their respective assignments. This put Elena in a bit of a strange situation and left her off-kilter for what should have been a regular mutt chase. She gets spooked by a visit from her past and it puts her on a collision course with disaster. Oh, and Alaska. We meet yet another type of supernatural (hmm, is this a theme?) and are confronted with the upcoming changes in pack dynamic. There was a lot of action, lots of romance (for Clay and Elena at least, it was adorable watching them snipe at each other), and interesting amounts of knowledge sharing.

This book, while darker than I expected, was also a little bit of a relief. Sure, there were some bad guys and lots of close calls, but it was almost like a vacation for Clay and Elena to work out any issues. They were far enough away from their usual paranormal allies that it focused completely on them. It was really nice to have a book that reminded me why I started reading this series.




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Review: Deadly Wrong

Deadly Wrong by S.M. Reine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really wonderful addition in a rapidly growing story. While the previous books in this series have revolved around Cesar, this book was completely Cesar-free and revolved around Isobel and Fritz. Looking for answers about her past? This book is filled with them!

We pick up a few months after Isobel got her memories back. They’re still trickling in but she now knows enough to be straddling the two “selves.” She’s almost at the end of her contracted “zombie” time when she finally reconnects with Fritz. While I was firmly on Team Cesar for a little bit, I can definitely say that I’m over him (as, it appears, Isobel is too). Now on Team Fritz, I was happy that this book was really just about the two of them. Their relationship (or relationships?) is anything but simple, filled with all sorts of revelations throughout the book. Yes, there’s some romance and some good stuff, but this book still bears the stamp of a nice and gritty urban fantasy.

For fans of other books by this author, we get some nice little nods to things you know already (but other readers might not). There’s some good foreshadowing and setups happening along the way that I can appreciate fully. I don’t think it would hurt if you didn’t read any other series. It might be nice to re-read after you do, though (and you should completely read the other stories). This book really “rebooted” this series for me. Cesar was really starting to grate on me and I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to be in his head any more. While there is a distinct lack of his sarcastic wit, I didn’t miss it at all. This book was a fun and quick read that left me completely satisfied.




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Review: Living with the Dead

Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I had a lot of trouble getting through this book. While I love the series, I am not in love with these characters. I found it difficult to care about what happened to this group of new people. Will the next book continue with them? We didn’t even get a HEA…

This book bounces back and forth between 4 POVs: Hope (who we met in the last book), Robyn (who we meet in this book), Finn (who we meet in this book), and Adele (who is a bad guy we meet in this book). Hope and Karl are visiting LA on a “work exchange,” that she orchestrated to check on her friend Robyn. Robyn lost her husband suddenly 6 months ago and hasn’t quite gotten out of the depression spiral. She can find a way to swing just about anything back around to memories of her husband. Taking a job as the PR rep for a minor celebrity hasn’t really helped things either. Her celebrity is killed and Robyn is set up as the likely suspect. While on the run, Hope and Karl aim to assist but things never actually go as planned. We did, however, get some good cameos and name dropping along the way.

I think the real point of this book was the proper introduction of clairvoyants as a supernatural race. While we’ve seen them before, this showed the darker side, complete with abusive cult mentality. There’s torture, rape, and brainwashing just to name a few things that we encounter in their world. Maybe the best thing to come out of the book was Rhys, who I hope shows up again to be further fleshed out. While not my favorite book of the series, I suppose this is a necessary step to set up some sort of massive supernatural war?




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Review: Personal Demon

Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Hope is the central character in this story. We met her in a few of the previous books, but she has certainly never had such a main role. To balance this jarring change from the “formula,” the POV is changes between Hope and Lucas. While it was nice to see where Lucas and Paige are, this book threw Lucas into a whole bunch of trouble. I guess we’ll see where this goes, but I suppose it gave a good push to the overall Cabal storyline.

Hope is, as we know, the daughter of Lucifer. Gifted with a heightened chaos sense (which at first seemed kind of lame) appears to be a really good selling point for her to the council, the Cabals, and (apparently) rogue Cabal gangs. Lucas’s father approaches Hope at the start of this story to offer her a way to close out her debt. In the history of things, it was actually Karl and Hope’s debt, but being the wannabe tough chick that she is, she absorbs it without even mentioning it to Karl. The Hope/Karl love story has been building for a little bit, but I wasn’t 100% sold on seeing Karl as anything but a killer/businessman werewolf… until this story. The book does a really good job convincing me that this horrible guy is actually a perfect love interest for Hope.

As far as the gang story, Hope uses her reporter skills and her chaos skills really well (maybe too well) and might actually make herself into another sleuthing council representative (like Paige and Lucas). She infiltrates the gang with ease and probably could have solved whatever mystery was happening if there weren’t tons of shocking reveals involved. To be honest, I was more interested in Karl and Hope for the majority of the story (and some super sexy chaos demon sex) than this Cabal storyline. Towards the end, though, I was completely sucked into the drama. I loved watching Lucas take action and become a real leader. I loved being baffled by the mystery plot. I loved all of it, which is really the only reason I can get behind this book in the series being mostly about a side character. It really moved a lot of pieces into place for some good action to come.




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Review: No Humans Involved

No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book has been a long time coming. After a few books spent watching Jaime bumble through her relationship with Jeremy, this book finally forces a big decision on the two of them. It was really satisfying to finally not have the “will they or won’t they” looming anymore.

So if you’ve read my previous reviews, you might recall that Jaime was not my favorite. I found her annoying and didn’t quite get the appeal. Well, somehow, through all these books, Jaime has managed to creep into my list of favorites. Maybe it was her school girl crush on Jeremy. Maybe it was the fact that she always gets kidnapped. I have no idea how it happened. Suddenly I’m wishing for a book from her POV when it should have been the last thing I wanted. No matter the driver, this book delivers in a big way. It accomplishes some big things in my book: 1) Jeremy and Jaime alone time (enough said) 2) There is finally a reason that I read the Eve book 3) Did I mention Jeremy and Jaime alone time? That comes complete with Jeremy insight and revelations. I guess number 4 should be the overall premise of the book, but who knows if that’s going anywhere further than this book. The series has a habit of doing some big build up and then not touching that story for a while.

Jaime is invited to be on a TV show where she and a bunch of other “spiritualists” will try to contact the ghost of some famous movie stars. Obviously, things go wrong from the start, forcing her time with Jeremy to be dangerous (and fun) and filled with bad guys (or good guys, or both). Luckily, danger and excitement force the two of them together in new ways that bring up the attraction Jaime has been trying to hide for many years. I was happy to see Jaime evolve from the awkward love struck woman into a self-confident “I’m not going to be kidnapped again” woman I kind of always wanted her to be. Her conversations with Jeremy are some of my favorites and are filled with such yummy little tidbits.

If you’ve been tricked into liking Jaime (like I have), this is the book you’ve been waiting for. It truly delivers exactly what I wanted from a Jaime (and Jeremy) book. In looking ahead, I’m sad that we don’t get a follow-up book right afterwards, but I’ll be happy with my very satisfying ending from this one.




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Review: Broken

Broken by Kelley Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This installment of the series might be one of my new favorites. While it doesn’t have more than a dash of Paige and Lucas, we get a whole lot of uninterrupted Clay and Elena time. Yes, there’s the added complication of her “condition,” but she certainly doesn’t let that change the way she lives her life (as much as she can fight Clay and Jeremy on it).

Admittedly when I skimmed the synopsis I was a little hesitant to start this story. Jack the Ripper? Really? I just want some Clay and Elena time. That being said, the book is really not about Jack the Ripper. The story is about how Clay and Elena can depend on one another, how they adapt to deal with a unique ghostly threat, and how all of their relationships have grown. Yes, there is a mystery of sorts in the form of a mystical portal, a letter from Jack the Ripper, and the ever present backstabbing. Oh, and there’s Jaime and Jeremy, still not dating each other, but also not dating other people. I can’t wait for the book that throws them at each other.

Elena is still the tough chick that we’ve come to expect, fighting off the bad guys while she makes sure she takes care of her growing pack. All in all, this was a really great read from start to finish, complete with HEA (although not for Jaime, yet!). This series has a way of “fast forwarding” time and switching storytellers just enough to keep me consistently interested in where it is headed.




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