A review by snarkymotherreader
Grave Dance by Kalayna Price
5.0
Grave Dance, the second book in the Alex Craft series by Kalayna Price, is tricky. It starts off all nice and slow, with a few random left feet (no bodies, just left feet) and an abduction of the independent fae by the Winter Queen under the pretense of “protecting” them from the human authorities. Then things start picking up. Alex learns of the repercussions of killing Coleman and what it means to the fae; Death and his soul collector buddies throw in a few delectable nuggets of info about their world; rips in the Aetheric and constructs made of magic and glamour seem to follow Alex wherever she goes. If that isn’t enough, there are events that even made me respect her dad!
Seriously, Grave Dance is jam-packed with paranormal weirdness and some hot, hot tension between Alex, Death, and Falin. There’s enough going on in this book to easily span two or three books, and very little of it gets resolved. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining one bit. It just means we get to see more of these imaginative, flawed, and mysterious characters, which makes me completely ecstatic.
Alex has a few very large roadblocks between herself and happiness right now, one of which is her own heritage. I have a feeling it’s going to interfere with her work with the police department and her friends there. People, even other non-human people, don’t seem to trust “her kind.” I’m curious to see how this is all going to pan out, especially with Falin’s parting words to her and Death’s parting look. Her heritage is going to make both of those relationships a real pain.
Before I enter spoiler territory, I want to give a small but significant mention to my new favorite, shadowy character in the Alex Craft series: Kyran. You came. You saw. You confused the hell out of me. Well played, sir. Well played.
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So who is Death, really? If my theory is correct, he hasn’t been dead long, and I think there’s a reason he hangs around Alex so much other than the sizzling sexual tension. Also, how did the bad guy see the reaper?? I must be missing something extremely obvious.
Seriously, Grave Dance is jam-packed with paranormal weirdness and some hot, hot tension between Alex, Death, and Falin. There’s enough going on in this book to easily span two or three books, and very little of it gets resolved. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining one bit. It just means we get to see more of these imaginative, flawed, and mysterious characters, which makes me completely ecstatic.
Alex has a few very large roadblocks between herself and happiness right now, one of which is her own heritage. I have a feeling it’s going to interfere with her work with the police department and her friends there. People, even other non-human people, don’t seem to trust “her kind.” I’m curious to see how this is all going to pan out, especially with Falin’s parting words to her and Death’s parting look. Her heritage is going to make both of those relationships a real pain.
Before I enter spoiler territory, I want to give a small but significant mention to my new favorite, shadowy character in the Alex Craft series: Kyran. You came. You saw. You confused the hell out of me. Well played, sir. Well played.
S
P
O
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Spoiler
I’m going to leave names out of this as much as possible and play the pronoun game to leave some sort of mystery. Remember, this is all theory and can’t be substantiated in any way, shape, or form unless Kalayna emails me and says, “Yes, yes you brilliant beast, you are correct!” This is what I think happened and why it doesn’t bode well for Alex and Death: The bad guy had to collect souls for a spell to merge his/her reality with the realm of the dead because that’s where his/her lover was. This lover happens to be a reaper, or soul collector, just like Death. I don’t know how the bad guy could see the reaper, though, because he/she was, at least in part, fae, not a grave witch. From what I’ve gleaned from the series, only grave witches can interact with ghosts, shades, and soul collectors. Then there’s the gray man’s ominous words: “Remember this day. Remember this place…This is why the two of you can never be.” The only conclusion I can come to is that reapers are ghosts – albeit bad-ass ghosts – and the bad guy knew the reaper before he/she died.So who is Death, really? If my theory is correct, he hasn’t been dead long, and I think there’s a reason he hangs around Alex so much other than the sizzling sexual tension. Also, how did the bad guy see the reaper?? I must be missing something extremely obvious.