Words I Write Crazy: Week 45 Reviews: The Gauntlet, The Queen's Witch, The House at Cobb's End, Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow, Embrace the Night, Day of the Dead

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Week 45 Reviews: The Gauntlet, The Queen's Witch, The House at Cobb's End, Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow, Embrace the Night, Day of the Dead

From Goodreads:
Set in the England of Elizabeth I, it features Kit Marlowe as a newly created vampire and Gillian Urswick, a witch with a penchant for highway robbery. That little hobby landed her in trouble with the Silver Circle, the self-appointed guardians of the magical community. They don't like thieves, particularly not when they're also members of the Druid covens that have been nothing but thorns in their side. Now Gillian has a date with a noose and only Marlowe has a chance of breaking her out of the Circle's high security prison in time.

From Goodreads:
"The Queen's Witch" is a short story connected to the New York Times bestselling Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series of urban fantasy novels. It features Kit Marlowe in a supernatural thriller set in Elizabethan England.

From Goodreads:
A John Pritkin short. This story is set prior to the beginning of the Cassie Palmer series. It nonetheless contains spoilers for all five books. This is a little story about a house. It was written in answer to a question that came in for the Facebook Q&A asking: "How old is Pritkin's house in Stratford? In the book he stated that he had owned it for over 100 years, but I wondered when the house was actually built and if someone had owned it before him." I started to answer it in the Q&A, but thought it deserved better. So here it is, and hope you enjoy.

From Goodreads:
Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits—talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead. The ghosts of the dead aren't usually dangerous; they just like to talk…a lot.

The undead are another matter.

Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires. But when the bloodsucking mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection.

The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire—and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay....

From Goodreads:
Clairvoyant Cassie Palmer has inherited new magical powers-including the ability to travel through time. But it's a whole lot of responsibility she'd rather not have. Now she's the most popular girl in town, as an assortment of vamps, fey, and mages try to convince, force, or seduce her—and her magic—over to their side. But one particular master vampire didn't ask what Cassie wanted before putting a claim on her. He had a spell cast that binds her to him, and now she doesn't know if what she feels for him is real—or imagined…

From Goodreads:
Cassandra Palmer may be the world's chief clairvoyant, but she's still magically bound to a master vampire. Only an ancient book called the Codex Merlini possesses the incantation to free Cassie-but harnessing its limitless power could endanger the world...

From Goodreads:
"The Day of the Dead" features Tomas, a character from the Cassandra Palmer novels, who was last seen cooling his heels in Faerie. He'll show up again in the series, but what about in the meantime? What does a powerful, four-hundred-year-old vampire with a serious grudge against his old mass murdering master to do when he suddenly finds himself with too much time on his hands? Hang around Faerie, where there's nothing to eat (Fey blood=nasty) just because our intrepid heroine parked him there?

Uh, no. Not so much.

Because Tomas is obsessed, and has been for pretty much his whole existence, with one thing: taking out Alejandro, the aforementioned murdering bastard. In "The Day of the Dead," he slips back into our world to confront his nemesis, only to find unexpected help in the form of a band of magical mercenaries. Think the A-Team with spells and potions instead of (well, actually in addition to) guns and knives and things that go boom. It makes for a lot of mayhem down Mexico way.

My First review of Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow, Embrace the Night
My Review:
Yeah, it was just so awesome to be able to read these books, and in order, too! Things just seemed that more connected, and that was really great! Plus the fact that these books and stories were just so great the first time...yeah.

There's 4 short stories, and 3 full length novels in this part of the series, that I read and I'm reviewing now. All of whom are characters that have at least small parts in the series (like Marlowe) or big parts (like Pritkin) so it was great to have all those perspectives and their separate stories!

Then ahh, all the complications that Cassie goes through in this series! Knowing that all 7 of the full length novels take place over 4 months, and of these 3, about a month and a bit has passed, that while Cassie's gone through all this craziness, she's actually learned, despite what she thinks! That's just great!

How things are solved, how characters interact, and all the back and forth in time was just fantastic! From Louis-Cesare, Tomas, Mircea, and Pritkin, along with Cassie, it was just fantastic watching them go on this ride!

Really fantastic books and stories, and so enjoyable, and I need to read more!

Author: Karen Chance
Series: Cassandra Palmer #0.5, 0.6, 4.1, 1, 2, 3, 3.1
First Read: January 26th, 26th, 29th, 23rd, 23rd, 23rd, 25th, 2013
Read: November 5th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 6th, 2015
Source: Free, Own
Reason Why: Rereading! And they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2015 Books!
Publisher: Roc, Karen Chance
Published: October 12th 2010, May 14th 2010, November 14th 2011, June 6th 2006, April 2nd 2009, June 7th 2011, October 1st 2009

The Gauntlet: