CBR4 Book 72: "Grave Memory" by Kalayna Price

Page count: 348 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: July 5th, 2012
Date finished: July 9th, 2012

This is the third book in the series, and as such, this review can and probably does contain spoilers for the previous two books. So if you don't like that sort of thing, avoid this whole review, and start at the beginning with Grave Witch instead.

Plot summary from Goodreads:
When the dead need to talk, Alex Craft is always ready to listen...
As a Grave Witch, Alex solves murders by raising the dead - an ability that comes at a cost, and after her last few cases, that cost is compounding. But her magic isn't the only thing causing havoc in her life. While she's always been on friendly terms with Death himself, things have recently become a whole lot more close and personal. Then there's her sometime partner, agent Falin Andrews, who is under the glamour of the Winter Queen. To top it all off, her best friend has been forever changed by her time spent captive in Faerie.

But the personal takes a backseat to the professional when a string of suicides occur in Nekros City and Alex is hired to investigate. The shades have no memory of the days leading up to their brutal endings, so despite the very public apparent suicides, this is murder. But what kind of magic can overcome the human will to survive? And why do the shades lack the memory of their deaths? Searching for the answer might mean Alex won't have a life to remember at all...

Having eagerly anticipated this for months, ever since I finished Grave Dance, I must admit that the book didn't entirely live up to my expectations. I think this is partly due to the fact that the book starts very slowly, and the action part of the plot doesn't really kick in until about a third of the way through. What the readers do get in this book, is a lot more Death. More of his back story is revealed, and there's further developments in his relationship with Alex. Falin, on the other hand, barely makes an appearance, but the very end of this book suggests that book 4 is going to be a lot more focused on him. While I'm not normally a fan of the drawn out love triangle, I must admit that Price does a marvellous job of making me root for both guys, and making both options seem both extremely appealing, yet seemingly impossible for Alex. I can't wait to see where Price is going with this.

If you liked the first two books, you'll enjoy this one too, and I suspect that if I hadn't had my expectations turned up so very high, and if I'd known it was a slow starter, I would have been less impatient and enjoyed it more. You'd better believe I'll be getting the next one in the series, eager to find out more about Falin and the various Faerie courts.

CBR4 Book 50: "Grave Dance" by Kalayna Price

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Date begun: May 3rd, 2012
Date finished: May 4th, 2012

This is the second book in the Alex Craft series, and I'm yet again resorting to a plot synopsis from Goodreads because while I love these books, I apparently suck at making them sound exciting to others:

After a month spent recovering from a vicious fight with a sorcerer, grave witch Alex Craft is ready to get back to solving murders by raising the dead. With her love life in turmoil thanks to the disappearance of Fae Investigation Bureau agent Falin Andrews and a shocking “L” word confession from Death himself, Alex is eager for the distractions of work. But her new case turns out to be a deadly challenge.
The police hire Alex to consult on a particularly strange investigation in the nature preserve south of Nekros City. The strange part: There are no corpses, only fragments of them. A serial killer is potentially on the loose, and Alex has no way to raise a shade without a body, so she’ll have to rely on the magic of others to find leads. But as she begins investigating, a creature born of the darkest magic comes after her. Someone very powerful wants to make sure the only thing she finds is a dead end—her own. 

Looking at it, that still makes the book sound a bit lame. It's not. It's really very exciting, and if I hadn't had to do actual work, I would probably have read the whole book in one sitting, having the husband bring me food so I didn't have to waste precious reading time acquiring nutrition.

I really liked Grave Witch, where Alex Craft was introduced. In the sequel, Kalayna Price expands on the world she created, and lets the reader find out more about Alex' family and friends, the complicated hierarchy of the Fae, more about the soul stealers and complicates Alex' love life a whole lot more. Love triangles tend to either frustrate or bore me, but in the case of Alex, Falin and Death, I'm actually struggling to see who she should pick, as both guys are deeply intriguing and clearly care greatly for Alex, to the point where they will both do rather ill-advised things in order to prove their love for her. 

This book is even more action packed and tense than the first one, and because I've already come to care a lot about all the central characters, the suspenseful scenes affected me even more. I now eagerly anticipate the third book in the series, which is out at the start of July. 

CBR4 Book 49: "Grave Witch" by Kalayna Price

Page count: 336 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: May 1st, 2012
Date finished: May 2nd, 2012

Plot summary from Goodreads, because I've been trying for about half an hour to recap this in a decent way, and failing miserably:

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around...

To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life...and her soul.

I picked up this book because it was the first book featured in Internet geek queen Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy Hangout, an online book club that features exactly the sort of stuff I love to read. Never one to let a chance to add another first person narrated female paranormal heroine series to my already looong list (doing a rough count in my head, I think I'm currently following and enjoying 15 different ones), I was still pleasantly surprised by Grave Witch.

The world building is nice, and there are no vampires or werewolves anywhere. The paranormal races introduced so far are witches and the Fae (who come in a variety of wicked and devious and intriguing). Then there's the soul collectors, of which Death is only one of several (they made me think of the reapers in Dead Like Me, which is never a bad thing. There are a whole range of different types of witches, as well, with different skill sets and abilities.

Alex is a great heroine. She's determined and independent, and has changed her name and become estranged from her father and sister because her witchy powers would not help her dad's political career. Unlike a lot of paranormal heroines, she's not super powerful or the best in the field at what she does, but she takes pride in her abilities, and will unfortunately often push herself to the limits of her endurance to help her friends. Using her powers takes a definite physical toll on her (she can go temporarily blind if she overuses her grave magic), which also makes a nice change from a lot of other books out there. 

As well as an engaging, and well rounded (she's got her fair share of flaws) heroine, the book has a very cool cast of supporting characters, including the seemingly unavoidable love triangle. Detective Falin Andrews starts out as an annoyance to Alex, but sparks obviously fly, even when Alex knows she should probably stay away from him. Her long friendship with the soul collector she calls Death is also changing, after he literally pushes her away from a bullet. As she's the only one she knows who can see him (and his "colleagues"), it can create complications in the romance department though. 

The story really grabbed me, and I hated having to put the book down. I don't think I've been as excited by a series since Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series or Patricia Briggs' early Mercy Thompson books. Absolutely recommended to fans of paranormal fantasy with romantic elements.