A review by otherwyrld
Fury's Kiss by Karen Chance
4.0
Karen Chance writes two series, Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Bharasab. I've always rated the latter lower than the former, not because of the absence of a certain war mage (though this may be part of it) but because I've found the authors take on vampires to be less than enthralling. Dorina is a dhampire - half human, half vampire - and is one of a long line of feisty female outsiders who have to make their way in a rigidly patriarchal society (vampires in this case). As such, she is a pretty one-note character, and I wasn't expecting to give the book anything more than 3 stars, which is my version of OK but forgettable.
It didn't start out great, with a lot of plot points that I simply didn't remember, mostly around a Fae war. The bits about the Fae were a lot more entertaining than a lot of vampire politics.
Halfway through the book, I was forced to change my opinion. There is a battle at this point that is by turns exhilarating, terrifying, and hysterically funny. Who else but Karen Chance could have had our heroine escape from a fight by using an enchanted frozen, floating vampire as an escape balloon? And then have the enchantment fail while she was still several storeys up and have to be rescued by a fallen angel?
Even more surprising is that our Dorina has some honest-to-god character development along the way, and ends the story in a very surprising place.
It all falls apart somewhat towards the end with a denouement that could have come out of Scooby Doo, but the signs for the next book are encouraging. Maybe not quite a 4 stars, possibly a high 3 1/2 but I'm back on board with this series.
It didn't start out great, with a lot of plot points that I simply didn't remember, mostly around a Fae war. The bits about the Fae were a lot more entertaining than a lot of vampire politics.
Halfway through the book, I was forced to change my opinion. There is a battle at this point that is by turns exhilarating, terrifying, and hysterically funny. Who else but Karen Chance could have had our heroine escape from a fight by using an enchanted frozen, floating vampire as an escape balloon? And then have the enchantment fail while she was still several storeys up and have to be rescued by a fallen angel?
Even more surprising is that our Dorina has some honest-to-god character development along the way, and ends the story in a very surprising place.
It all falls apart somewhat towards the end with a denouement that could have come out of Scooby Doo, but the signs for the next book are encouraging. Maybe not quite a 4 stars, possibly a high 3 1/2 but I'm back on board with this series.