#CBR9 Books 93-97: "Black Magic Sanction", "Pale Demon", "Ever After", "The Undead Pool" and "The Witch with No Name" by Kim Harrison re-read

So I've been doing a re-read of all of Kim Harrison's The Hollows books in audio since March this year. This is my review for the latter part of the series (with the exception of book 10, A Perfect Blood, which seems impossible to get in audio book format, either on Audible or in any library I've got access to. So with that one, I skim-read the relevant Rachel and Trent parts and moved quickly on to the next in the series. I have reviewed all of these books before, so if you want plot summaries, you can find my original reviews by searching my blog or Goodreads. These will be my observations from my revisiting of the books. Also, there will be spoilers!

Black Magic Sanction
Page count: 546 pages
Audio book length: 19 hrs 6 mins
Rating: 3 stars

This book is pretty much the definition of bridging or filler book. I started listening to the audio book in May and finished it in September. The plot just isn't all that engaging or exciting, hence my decision, upon which I clearly got distracted by other things and just forgot about it for a few months. Even when I picked it back up and managed to finish it, I was surprised at just how inconsequential the story was. Yes, we're introduced to the Coven of Ethical and Moral Standards, who seem hell bent on locking Rachel up and lobotomising her, so she can't do magic anymore. Nick shows up and is untrustworthy and becomes even more weaselly with each new appearance. Trent acts like he knows better than anyone else. Al wants Rachel to come live with him and the demons in the Ever After, since the humans don't appreciate her.

The only major thing that happens is the death of an important supporting character, which has an impact on several of the main cast and was still very sad to read about. But on the whole, there was nothing very memorable about this book (I'd forgotten most of the plot and was surprised when it ended without anything major really happening over the course of the book. Having now re-read the whole series, this is by far the weakest book.

Judging a book by its cover: Well, there's no doubt that this is an urban/paranormal fantasy book, is there? Full moon, gargoyle, lady who's likely wearing leather and holding a dagger. There is ominous mist obscuring the face of the cover model, probably so readers won't have to have their mental image of Rachel disturbed. The book isn't all that exciting, neither is the cover.

Pale Demon
Page count: 496 pages
Audio book length: 17 hrs 54 mins
Rating: 5 stars

What a delightful change this book is from the last one. Probably helped massively that some of the things that play out in this book were set up in the previous, not very exciting one (one book is all set up, this is pretty much all satisfying pay-off). Rachel has to get to the West Coast for her brother's wedding and Coven trial. Trent has to get to the West Coast for...reasons. Reasons he won't tell anyone the details of. Except Quen can't come with him, and wants Rachel to be his security. Rachel isn't allowed to fly, so they have to go on a road trip. They have three days to cross the country. Ivy and Jenks are along for the ride (because what would be the fun if the whole gang wasn't there? Partway through their journey, they are joined by Vivian, one of the Coven witches, and Pierce, sent by the demons to babysit Rachel and keep her safe. Let's just say, the car gets pretty crowded.

I don't know what it is about road trip stories, but they always tend to work out well and be very entertaining. It's probably putting people in close quarters in what is generally a rather tiresome and rather stressful way to travel, forcing them to spend time together and bond, sometimes against their will. This is the book where Harrison is clearly starting to map out her end game with regards to Rachel's happy ending. Only a few books earlier, she loathed Trent and wanted him locked up forever. Being forced to drive cross country with him, chased by elven assassins, hunted by a crazy demon and generally facing a number of challenges together, makes her see him in a new light and starts to trust him for the first time.

This book introduces Ku'Sox, the completely unhinged super-demon, who can walk in the sun and generally be controlled by no one, and while I don't like him much (he's just too over the top crazy), he makes for a good antagonist for a book or two. I love the reason for Trent's quest, I love that he and Jenks decide to work together and do it well. I like Rachel and Trent's changing perception of one another. It was especially fun re-reading this book, knowing where they would eventually end up. While Rachel's mum isn't in the book much, she's always a delight, as well.

Judging a book by its cover: The white leather dress the cover model is wearing is actually a match to one that Rachel wears in the book, while fighting a demon, so kudos to the cover designers for going with something less generic and more specific for this book. I'm not a huge fan of any of the covers in this series, they get a bit too "genre typical" for me, but in the grand scheme of things, this is probably one of the best.

Ever After
Page count: 516 pages
Audio book length: 18 hrs 36 mins
Rating: 5 stars

Two excellent books in a row, so while I might not like Ku'Sox as a character much, he certainly brings out the best in my other favourites, when they have to work together to deal with him. The Ever After is shrinking and all the lay lines have been corrupted somehow. Rachel is being blamed for it and Ku'Sox is trying to convince the other demons that the only way to fix their own lay lines and stop the shrinking is by killing Rachel. There is also someone kidnapping babies with the Rosewood syndrome, and it's highly likely that the cases are connected. When Rachel's friend and goddaughter are kidnapped to emotionally blackmail Rachel into giving herself up, things take a turn from very bad to pretty much disastrous. While she normally has many people to turn to for help, in this book, she's more or less on her own, with the few demons on her side being either incapable or unwilling to help her, Trent neutralised because his daughter is in danger and there being very few other magic users powerful enough to assist her, as she fights for her own life and to rescue innocent babies, on top of everything.

There is so much going on in this book, and pretty much all of it is gold. After their road trip, and the conclusion of the last novel, Trent and Rachel are now in a place where they trust one another and that builds in this story, as Trent's daughter is kidnapped and he has to rely on Rachel to make sure he gets her back safe. Since Rachel has to spend quite a bit of time in the Ever After, and do lay line magic, Jenks and Ivy are not the best people to help her, and subsequently take a bit more of a back seat. Not that they both don't get a few memorable scenes. We find out more about gargoyles, and after barely being present in the last book, Al returns with a vengeance when someone is framing his itchy witch. Not that he, or even Newt, are able to do all that much to help Rachel, it seems. She's short on time, and allies, but has come such a long way from the slightly klutzy, fly by the seat of her pants ex-runner she was in the beginning of the series. This Rachel is a force to be reckoned with, but she doesn't triumph without some casualties along the way. There is more than one death in this book and things get pretty dark and desperate for our heroine before they start getting better.

Judging a book by its cover: In all the early books in the series, the cover model's face was obscured, letting the reader make up their own mind about what Rachel looked like. Here we see her facing forward, and I'm not sure I'm a big fan. While the colour scheme of the cover is nice, the main image is rather generic and a book as action packed and exciting as this deserves a better cover design.

The Undead Pool
Page count: 528 pages
Audio book length: 16 hrs 13 mins
Rating: 4 stars

Magic is behaving unpredictably and even causing dangerous accidents all over Cincinnati. The undead vampire masters are all falling asleep, and leaving their living vampire charges unattended and unchecked. Things are getting chaotic pretty fast. Rachel has been acting as Trent's main security, and spending a lot of time with him. She's not looking forward to Ellasbeth, his soon to be fiancee, returning from the West Coast. Neither the elves nor demons want Rachel and Trent together and it would be both politically and financially damaging for Trent to reject the alliance with the West Coast elves that marrying Ellasbeth would provide. When Rachel unwillingly becomes a focus for a lot of the uncontrolled elven magic that is causing all the chaos in the city, and as a result becomes a desirable target for those plotting to kill all the master vampires and create a war with the elves, Trent needs to really take a long, hard look at his priorities and plans for the future.

Harrison's world building, creating an alternate US timeline in a world where supernatural creatures exist, and eventually learn to live more or less peacefully side by side with humanity, has always fascinated me. In earlier books in the series, we've seen more of the internal power structures of the werewolves and vampires, we've seen how pixy families can grow and thrive and how demon society is structured. In this penultimate book, we get a closer look at the elven power hierarchies, and while Trent is well on his way to becoming a decent person (with a lot of help from his friends), a lot of the other elves don't seem all that sympathetic.

Judging a book by its cover: On this book, we not only see a female model portraying Rachel, but a male one portraying Trent. Firstly, I really hate the outfit given to Rachel, which in no way reflects on anything she wears over the course of the story. Secondly, see my complaint above about seeing the characters' faces. I like being able to make up my own mind. That is not at all what Trent and Rachel look like to me.

The Witch with No Name
Page count: 510 pages
Audio book length: 17 hrs 28 mins
Rating: 4 stars

Considering this is the final book in the series, I really wish Ms. Harrison had written a more engaging, and less messy plot. Much of the main story is head vampire of Cincinnati, Rynn Cormel, threatening Ivy's life because he wants Rachel to figure out a way to save the vampires' souls when they die. Working with Trent and with some help from the demons, Rachel finds out where vampire souls go when they die, and there's a whole load of magical complications where undead vampires are reunited with their souls, but kind of go crazy with the guilt of all the bad stuff they did as soulless bloodsucking creatures.

Landon the weaselly elf priest makes his return and is no less unpleasant in this book. Ellasbeth is trying to ruin Trent financially and destroying his remaining political power, so she can get sole custody of the little girls and Rachel spends much of the book being convinced that Trent's going to dump her at any and go off and make some sort of marriage of convenience. This keeps on at tedious length, despite him clearly having already risked his name, fortune and reputation to be with her, and it's obvious to anyone that he's so much happier not being under public scrutiny with some sort of grand elven crown prince legacy.

The epilogue of the book, set about twenty-something years later is very sweet and closes off the series in a lovely way. I still wish less of the actual book had been about boring vampire stuff.

Judging a book by its cover: The white, gold, black and red colour scheme is pretty good. The cover designers still insist on dressing Rachel in corsets and mini skirts, despite the fact that she barely ever wears such things over the course of the series. Leather pants or jacket, yes. Thigh-high mini skirts and bustiers - no. At least she's facing away on this cover, no full frontal view (possibly because they got a different female model again).

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 47: "White Witch, Black Curse" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 558 pages
Audio book length: 18hrs 31mins
Rating: 3.5 stars

This is book seven in an ongoing series. Not the place to start. The review will also contain spoilers for earlier books in the series. Begin with Dead Witch Walking, if you're interested.

For someone who was really rather sceptical to anything but earth magic, considering even layline magic a bit suspect at the beginning of this series, independent runner (think supernatural private detective/bounty hunter) Rachel Morgan has sure come a long way. Now she's not only a fairly adept layline witch, but her blood (thanks to a rare genetic abnormality) can kindle demon magic and because of this, she's got a standing appointment every Saturday as an apprentice to an actual demon. Having once shuddered at the mere thought of demon magic, she's now willing to use all manner of spells, so long as no one gets hurt in the process.

In this book, Rachel and her roommate Ivy finally have some new leads on the individual who killed Kisten Phelps, Rachel's ex-boyfriend and Ivy's best friend (excepting Rachel). They are determined to track down the guilty party and get their revenge. In addition, thanks to the FIB psychologist, who can sense emotions, the residents of the little church discover that they have a ghost, and Rachel figures out who's been haunting them for more than a year. Not Kisten, but Gordian Pierce, a witch who Rachel temporarily summoned when she was 18, and helped get revenge on a child predator vampire. He was buried in their backyard, and has been stuck in the church since he was dislodged from his resting place after an altercation Rachel had with Al the demon. Rachel discovers she can see Pierce when they're both in the layline in her backyard, but Al comes and snatches the disembodied ghost with him to the Ever After, to use as his familiar. Rachel is livid, and decides that she's going to try to recreate the spell from when she was 18, to summon Pierce back and show Al once and for all that she is not to be messed with.

The ladies (and their pixie associate Jenks) have other serious business matters to attend to as well, after discovering that their friend, FIB Detective Glenn, the son of FIB Captain Edden, has been hospitalised after a brutal attack. Further investigation into the case reveals that the guilty party is a banshee and her husband. Banshees are pretty much the most dangerous supernatural Inderlander, because they syphon off people's life force to stay alive. Mia, the banshee in question, has a baby that she is willing to go to any lengths to protect, ad the supernatural branch of law enforcement, the IS, will do nothing to stop her. To complicate matters further, Ivy has a former connection to the lethal creature, and suspects that one of her actions is what enabled Mia to marry and have a child in the first place. Both Rachel and Ivy are determined to bring the deadly couple down, but Rachel quickly discovers that a toddler banshee is even more dangerous than an adult one.

Trying to avenge her ex-boyfriend's murder, capture a banshee and her serial killer husband, plus summon a ghost to prove to her demon teacher that she can't be pushed around is made even more complicated for a weakened Rachel by the fact that she's been shunned, because the Witch's Council for Moral and Ethical Standards believes she deals in black magic and is a demon practitioner. This means she can't buy supplies anywhere but the black market and anyone connected with her could get shunned as well. Her brother is appalled, her mother is sympathetic and understanding, but nevertheless decides to move across country to live closer to Rachel's brother. Marshall, the handsome witch she's been going on a number of platonic dates with for a few months can't handle the pressure. There is so much to deal with for Rachel in this book, possibly too much. With so may different story lines to deal with, it becomes difficult to know entirely what to care about.

I still enjoy the characters a lot, and Rachel has come such a long way. It's good that she finally gets closure on Kisten, and while Marshall turns out not to be strong enough to handle the chaos that is Rachel's life, a new potential love interest is introduced - or has Rachel finally learned from the mistakes of her past and learned to stay away from dangerous, morally ambiguous guys? There is very little Trent in this book, but quite a bit of Al.

This book is one of the bridging ones between the first half of the series, where all the characters are introduced and the second, where Harrison begins to reveal her end game. It ties up more of the plot strands left hanging from the last few books, and hints at interesting things to come. It's not one of my favourites, but it's still a fun read.

Judging a book by its cover: I really don't see why they keep giving the cover model portraying Rachel a gun, she's a witch and the only weapon she ever uses except her magic is a splat gun. In this, at least she isn't dressed all in leather in this cover. Not sure why there are cutouts on her elbows, that seems like a particularly bad fashion choice, even for Rachel. The gloomy green lighting and the creepy fountain seem appropriate, though.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 37: "The Outlaw Demon Wails" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 544 pages
Rating: 5 stars

This is book six in a series, it's very much not the place to start reading. In fact, there's a whole bunch of stuff revealed in this book that really requires prior knowledge to the books, so go start at the beginning with Dead Witch Walking.

Rachel still has absolutely no idea who killed her boyfriend, and because of the memory potion she drank, her memories of the event are still very fuzzy. Someone is summoning Algaliarept, the demon whom she owes favours to out of the Ever After every evening, and he's determined to cause trouble for Rachel until she agrees to show up in demon court to testify on his behalf. Naturally, she doesn't want to do any such thing. She discovers that Ceri is pregnant and Trent wants to hire her to go with him to the Ever After to steal back an ancient elven genetic sample, so he can fix the elves' genetic code once and for all and make sure Ceri's baby is born healthy. Quen, Trent's security officer (and pretty much father figure) appears to be dying, and from the same thing that killed Rachel's dad. She stays by his bedside and pretty much forces him to remain alive, and discovers the truth about her father's death (and a fair few other choice truths) from a distraught and angry Trent.

Still mourning the death of Kisten, Rachel really isn't ready to move on. Marshal, the handsome scuba instructor she met in Mackinaw is moving to Cincinnati, but they are both adamant neither of them are looking for a relationship. As Al's harassment of Rachel and those close to her gets worse, she figures that swapping summoning names with him is the best way to stop him. Since she needs to get his DNA from the Ever After, she agrees to Trent's stupid mission, but as is so often the case, the mission really doesn't go according to plan, and Rachel needs to make new and fool-hardy bargains with the demons to save her own and Trent's skin. If the ruthless businessman was suspicious of her and her dealings with demons before, their mission only makes things worse.

Rachel's come a very long way since the impulsive and rather inexperienced witch in the first book. She keeps having to make difficult choices that frequently earn her the condemnation of the general public. While she keeps having to make deals with demons, and twist the occasional demon curse, she always tries to do the right thing and goes out of her way NOT to harm people. In this book, her rather complicated living situation with Ivy seems to resolve itself, and it becomes clear that they simply cannot ever share blood, as Rachel is too terrified of ever being bound by a vampire. Of course, Ivy seems to think that the fact that Rachel wants to keep living together, despite their never taking their relationship to the next level is the biggest compliment she could get. The two women finally seem to find a balance they are happy with.

Rachel's mother plays a more prominent role in this book, and it becomes clear why she wasn't always entirely stable after losing her husband. Rachel discovers some hard truths about her parents, and while she wishes she never went digging, she also forces herself to accept the new status quo, happy that it may help her mother get better.

I always like it when Trent is a major character in the stories, and while Rachel has stopped trying to get him arrested for his illegal bio-drugs, she still doesn't entirely trust him. To his credit, he quietly takes her anger when she believes him to be the father of Ceri's baby, and he's determined to do whatever he can, no matter how dangerous, to make sure they get the genetic sample that can ensure future elven babies are born healthy. While Rachel offers to go into the Ever After herself, he insists on coming with her, and nearly pays for his insistence with his freedom. Of course, even when Rachel and Trent initially seem to be working well together, something's going to come along and trip them up, making sure they stay antagonistic, because it's a lot more fun that way.

I remembered this as one of the best books in the series, and I don't think I was wrong. So much that has been set up in earlier books come to their natural culmination here, while there's a whole lot of set-up for the second half of the series as well. Having listened to all the other books in this series on audio, this I had to read in e-book form, as the narrator I was used to, Ms. Marguerite Gavin, clearly took some sort of break. I was NOT ready to hear these characters narrated by someone else.

Judging a book by its cover: Another cover where I'm assuming the cover model is supposed to be Rachel, once again wearing tight-fitting leather. Not sure why she appears to be holding a gun, since Rachel never uses firearms, only a splat gun with sleep charms, and as far as I can recall, it doesn't really look like a real gun. I will give Harrison this, her covers, cheesy as they are, are generally better than Ilona Andrews'.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 31: "For a Few Demons More" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 532 pages
Audio book length: 17hrs 06 mins
Rating: 4.5 stars

This is book five in a series, and most definitely not the best place to start. Begin with Dead Witch Walking, and possibly skip this review if you don't want spoilers for earlier books in the series.

There are dead werewolf women turning up in the morgue, apparently having committed suicide. Someone else appears to be murdering werewolves after keeping them tied up, and after some investigation, independent runner and calamity-prone witch Rachel Morgan is pretty sure she knows what the connection between all the deaths is. During her last adventure, she retrieved an ancient and very powerful werewolf artifact, and she suspects someone may be killing people to figure out its whereabouts.

The artifact, valuable enough to spark a war among the supernaturals of Cincinnati, is currently hidden with her friend, lone wolf David Hue, but she's worried that he may be in danger if the wrong people connect the artifact back to her. In addition to this, Rachel's sometime nemesis, councilman and secret bio-druglord Trent Kalamack offers to pay her a truly staggering sum of money to work security at his wedding. Since the best man is going to be Lee Saladan, who both Rachel and Trent know is a demon's familiar, chances are high that something bad is going to go down during the ceremony and Trent still blames Rachel for Saladan becoming caught by the demon in the first place. Neither of them have any idea just how complicated Saladan's presence at the wedding would actually become.

Rachel knows Trent is marrying to form an alliance, as there really aren't all that many suitable elves around. She also knows he's working on a genetic cure to make it easier for elves to actually have children, and is starting to feel guilty about the fact that she's been keeping the existence of Ceri, an elf from the dark ages, and the demon Algaliarept's former familiar, hidden from Trent. A genetic sample from her could massively improve Trent's chances of helping the elven race survive.

In her personal life, Rachel is still figuring out whether she can ever let her roommate Ivy, a living vampire, bite her again, seeing as she nearly ended up dead the last time. At the same time, she is wondering about her future with Kisten, another living vamp. Because Ivy has feelings for Rachel, she won't accept anyone else taking her blood, and while Rachel is rather terrified of any vamp feeding on her, her feelings for Kisten are growing, and she wants a new level of intimacy with him. On top of everything else, Rachel is coming to see that both Ivy and Jenks are probably right about her being an adrenaline junkie, never quite happy unless she's near to risking her life, just to feel properly alive. She's about to see just how dangerous those impulses can get.

While the last book felt mostly like a chore to read, this book is back to being pretty much non-stop action. As in a lot of the books, there's a mystery sub-plot, in this case, who the unidentified dead were women in the morgue are, and the identity of the person abduction and killing fairly prominent werewolves to find the Focus that Rachel is hiding. It's been long enough since I  read this book that while I remembered the first part, and why the werewolf women ended up in the morgue in the first place, I'd completely forgotten who was responsible for the second part, and it's always good to have surprises, even on re-reads.

I did remember some of the twists and turns taken in this book, and most importantly, I knew what would happen in the last third, and did not look forward to re-living it. Without wanting to spoil too much, one particular plot development completely gutted me the first time I read this book and it wasn't until a year later, when the next book in the series came out (by the time I read this, I was caught up with a long wait between each one) that I began to even vaguely forgive Kim Harrison. I didn't cry this time, but I was still dreading having to read it.

Suffice to say, the very upsetting (at least to me) thing that happens late in the book is one of the many plot upheavals that continues to change the direction that Rachel's life is taking. Some really big things happen in this book, including a demon present at Trent's rehearsal dinner, Rachel being a very inappropriate bridesmaid, Trent and Ceri finally meeting, a very tense negotiation scene in a police conference room involving most of the major power players in Cincinnati and Rachel going to extreme lengths to keep those she loves safe, even going so far as to nearly sacrificing her life.

Knowing where the series has yet to go, I can read it without being too sad. It's a really good instalment of the series, and certain parts in the last third were a lot more enjoyable to me now that I wasn't quite so numb and heart-broken. Marguerite Gavin continues to be a really excellent narrator, and while her characters are normally very consistent, she seems to change Trent's voice from book to book. I also much prefer it when she has Al speaking with his crisp English accent, because that makes him seem so much more smugly evil, somehow.

Judging a book by its cover: My hardcover copy of this has the cover model in a shiny mini dress (probably meant to be leather again) walking across cobbles towards what appears to be the doors of a church, while holding a knife in one hand. The thigh-high leather boots are very Rachel, but I really don't know what scene this is supposed to be a callback to. The mass market paperback has the cover model in a black evening dress with a very high split up one leg and a very low back, also with the knife, which is if possible, even less like anything in the book. Rachel does wear a black bridesmaid's dress (even though Ellasbeth had picked a pea-green one), but she doesn't wield a knife while doing so. As always, paranormal/urban fantasy cover designs make me roll my eyes.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 30: "A Fistful of Charms" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 528 pages
Audio book length: 17 hrs 06 mins
Rating: 3 stars

Spoiler warning! This is the fourth book in an ongoing series, and not the place to start reading. Dead Witch Walking is where you want to begin. Also, there will be plot spoilers in this review, so if you want to avoid that sort of thing, don't read beyond the next four paragraphs.

Rachel Morgan, witch for hire, discovers that her ex-boyfriend Nick Sparagmos wasn't just a part-time librarian with a knack for demon summoning, but in fact a thief, specialising in supernatural objects. Now Nick is in trouble, and her business partner, Jenks the pixy, is ready to risk his life to travel to Michigan to find him, because Nick took Jenks' eldest son, Jax, with him as a backup. With the weather being much colder in Mackinac than in Cincinnati, Jenks would very likely freeze to death.

While she is now dating Kisten, a living vampire (and her roommate Ivy's ex) and considers herself thoroughly over Nick (especially after discovering that he was lying to her about his actual profession while they were together), he did save her life once and she certainly can't risk Jenks killing himself to retrieve his son. She discovers a ritual in one of her spell books that could turn Jenks big, allowing him to safely travel, and another one to allow her to turn into a werewolf (a necessity since a hostile werewolf pack currently has Nick as their captive). These spells are demon curses, forcing her to pay for the imbalance of what she's doing by tainting her aura, and forcing her to once again reevaluate whether using demon magic, when not actually harming anyone or anything, makes you a worse person.

Rachel and Jenks borrow Kisten's large van and travel to Mackinac, where they locate Jax and figure out how to get onto the werewolf-inhabited island to rescue Nick. He's being tortured because he stole an ancient, incredibly valuable artifact that could shift the power balance among the supernatural species, and he's refusing to reveal where he hid it. Rachel uses her spell/curse to successfully were into a red wolf and fights the alpha female of the leading pack, defeating her partially through luck and sneakiness. While the various packs try to deal with the upset, Jenks rescues Nick and they escape. Because it's quite clear that the aggressive werewolf packs aren't going to stop until they get hold of the artifact, and quite possibly Nick as well, they decide that they have to stage an accident, where both Nick and the artifact go off the Mackinac bridge, never to be seen again.

I haven't actually re-read a lot of the books in the later half of The Hollows series, but even without doing so, I'm pretty convinced this will remain my least favourite book in the series. There are some good things in the book, like Jenks being big (apparently he is unbelievably hot, something both Rachel and Ivy comment on with slightly alarming frequency). They go to a new location, so there's a change of scene from the usual Cincinnati. Yeah, that's pretty much all the good stuff I can think of.

This is the book where it very much becomes clear what a snivelling little weasel Nick actually is and he's a character I never had much time for, in the first place. Rachel keeps trying to defend his actions and treatment of her for much longer than is sensible, and it's only when she discovers that throughout their entire relationship, he wasn't just a thief, but he kept selling details about her and her life to demons for favours and increased magical ability. Ivy and Jenks were clearly never particularly fooled by Nick, even before they knew the full truth, but it's nice to see all of them being extremely wary of him (while also sympathetic about the wounds he got when tortured) and deeply sceptical of his motives, even when he claims to be going along with their plan.

The situation between Rachel and Ivy also comes to a head, where Rachel suddenly, after three books of resisting her and being incredibly leery about the whole idea of blood, without any warning pretty much forces Ivy to bite her, and pushes her triggers until she loses control and nearly kills Rachel in the process. Ivy only ever takes blood from someone she loves, but Rachel is adamant that she has no pants feelings for her roommate, leaving only mindless bloodlust and a near-death experience for Rachel. She later claims that she wants to do it again and find a blood-balance with Ivy, but the living vampire is obviously terrified and guilt-stricken after the incident.

This book just has a lot of things I don't like, Nick, Rachel being an idiot when trying to negotiate her relationship with Ivy, a really convoluted faking an accidental death scenario, and hardly any of the things I do like, Trent, Kisten, Al the demon. Considering what I know is coming in the next book, I can't blame Harrison for wanting to take a break from these things, but on this, my third re-read, I'm pretty confident that it's a book I'll never much like and I'm glad I'm done with it.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover model on this book appears to be wearing a long-sleeved mini-dress made entirely out of leather, which seems unbearably hot (not in a sexy way) to me, and just the thought of the clammy skin you'd get from it makes me slightly twitchy. I can see the benefits of leather trousers or a cool jacket, possibly even some sort of halter-top, but a long-sleeved dress? Nope. It also doesn't really match anything Rachel is described as wearing at any point in the book, although I'm assuming the landscape wreathed in mist in the background is supposed to be the werewolf island part of the story takes place at.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 27: "Every Which Way But Dead" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 501 pages
Audio book length: 16 hrs
Rating: 4.5 stars

This is book three in a series. This review will contain spoilers for previous books in the series, so if you mind that sort of thing, skip this, and start at the beginning, with Dead Witch Walking.

Never one to live a quiet life, Rachel Morgan, independent witch for hire is in trouble. She successfully took down the master vampire who was summoning demons to murder leyline witches and lived to tell the tale. She had to bargain with a demon in order to do so, and he now wants to make her his familiar. She tricks Algaliarept, however, accidentally freeing his former familiar, a beautiful elf from the dark ages in the process. While he was unable to compel her to become his new enslaved familiar, he's even more pissed off than before, and Rachel is in danger every time she taps a leyline.

Her boyfriend Nick has been distant and wary of her, ever since she had to tap a line through him (she accidentally made him her familiar in the previous book) to save her life. He leaves town suddenly without saying goodbye and while Rachel wants to deny it, it's clear to her and everyone around her that he's broken up with her and does not intend to return. To make matters worse, her business partner Jenks, the tiny pixy whose massive family are living with Rachel and Ivy, discovers that they knew the secret behind Trent Kalamack's identity from him, and he quits the firm and moves out.

Ivy's ex-boyfriend, Kisten Phelps, takes advantage of Rachel's vulnerability after Nick leaves to make his move. Like Ivy, Rachel's roommate and business partner, Kisten is a living vamp and while he knows Ivy is interested in Rachel, he also knows the witch professes to be straight. Once Rachel agrees to go on a date with him only if he can spend less than forty dollars total for the evening, he gratefully accepts the challenge. As Rachel only seems to enjoy hanging out with dangerous people, the date involves people trying to kill Kisten and a deadly curse being aimed at Rachel.

Lee Saladan, the casino boat owner who tried to kill both of them is making a power play in Cincinnati now that Piscary is in prison. He's also interfering with Trent Kalamack's business, and the influential and wealthy businessman comes to Rachel with an offer of employment. As his normal bodyguard, Quen, is susceptible to vampires, he won't be able to fully protect Trent when he meets with Saladan. While Quen still believes Rachel will require a lot more training, not to mention control, to be a really good security operative, he knows that she has long experience with fighting vampire pheromones and has recommended her for the job instead. While Rachel still strongly dislikes Trent, she learned more about him while clearing him of murder in the last book, and he does pay such ridiculous amounts that she can't really refuse. Trent also holds secrets about her father, who worked with Trent's dad in the past, and helping him offers her a chance to discover more of her past.

This is another very action-packed book, where Harrison starts to reveal some of the deeper connections between the characters. As someone who never liked Nick, Rachel's human boyfriend, even the first time I read the series (I hate him SO much more with all that I know about him now), it was never particularly sad for me that he leaves Rachel high and dry in this book. I do think she rebounds very quickly with Kisten, but as I much prefer the charming and sexy living vampire and his patience and understanding of Rachel (even when she frankly makes some dumb decisions), I can totally live with this. With Kisten introduced as a viable romantic interest for Rachel, it turns the already complicated with Ivy into a strange love triangle, though, and I could have done without that.

This book first introduces Ceridwen, or Ceri, Al's more than thousand-year-old elf familiar, who is released when Al makes Rachel his new familiar. She's managed to persuade the demon while still retaining her soul, but keeping her soul also leaves her with her free will and she's able to refuse coming into the Ever After (the place the demons live) with him. Suffice to say, the demon is not pleased by her trickery and tries more than once to sieze her and drag her back with him. Having been Al's familiar for a millennia, Ceri is extremely skilled in magic and deeply grateful to Rachel for freeing her and having her soul returned to her. She goes to stay with Rachel and Ivy's neighbour across the road, and tries to tutor Rachel in magic so she can withstand Al's unpredictable assaults.

Over the course of this book, once Rachel has risked her own life to keep Trent alive, once Lee Saladan proves especially ruthless and treacherous, Rachel discovers more about her past and her father's work with Trent's dad. She finds out why the enzymes of her blood allows her to apparently kindle demon magic, a trait shared only with one other (the aforementioned Saladan), thanks to genetic tinkering done to keep her alive as a child. Her discovery comes in useful when she's fighting for her life towards the end of the book, having to make some difficult choices in order to save her own hide from demons.

Rachel also discovers that she works rather well with Trent, a realisation she's not at all comfortable with. She has a rather uncomfortable run-in with his fiancee, a high-born and influential elf from the East Coast who is as rude and unpleasant as she is clearly rich and beautiful. Discovering that Trent is clearly going to enter into a marriage of convenience with a woman he can barely stand for the sake of furthering elven genes, Rachel feels uncomfortable about hiding Ceri's existence from Trent, but she also doesn't want her new friend to end up in one of Trent's labs, being experimented on, so keeps her mouth shut.

My love for this book has dimmed a little, as once again, it's quite clear that Rachel is less than gracious when it comes to women she dislikes. She has a lot of very derogatory terms for both Candace, the vamp assisting Saladan and Ellasbeth, Trent's fiancee. While both women aren't exactly friendly, calling them "bitches" and/or "whores" is just unnecessary and unpleasant. The very action-packed plot is also a bit all over the place, with Harrison cramming in just so many different storylines over the course of the book that it all gets a bit much. It's still a good book, but not as great as I once thought it was. Sadly, the next book up is probably my least favourite in the entire series.

Judging a book by its cover: The covers for these books make them seem a lot more sex-focused than they actually are. While there is one sex scene in the second one, and a pretty steamy one in this book, for most of the books, anything of that sort happens off page, so to speak. Of course, based on the way Rachel's dress sense is described, she'd bee perfectly likely to wear a supershort skirt and thigh-high leather boots. Not sure about the stiletto heels, though, she needs things she can run in (she gets chased a lot).

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 26: "The Good, the Bad and the Undead" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 468 pages
Audio book length: 14 hrs 23 mins
Rating: 4.5 stars

This is book 2 in a series. You'd be better off starting with Dead Witch Walking.

Rachel Morgan has successfully paid off the IS death threat and is in her third month of working as an independent runner. She still doesn't have a car, however, and hates relying on public transport or rides from friends to get around. She's also struggling to pay her bills from month to month, so when a werewolf pack refuses to pay her for snatching their pet fish back from another clan, she's in a bit of a bind. The FIB, the human-led, non-supernatural police force approach her for help on a new and potentially dangerous case.

There is a serial killer stalking Cincinnati, targeting layline witches. It seems the deaths occur around the full moon of every month. The FIB suspect one of the layline witches who teach at the University, and want Rachel to take one of her classes, to be able to more closely observe the woman. Rachel is deeply unhappy with the idea, as she's been flunked by this woman once before. She deeply distrusts layline magic in general and believes herself to have no aptitude for it. But as her paycheck from the FIB relies on her going back to school, she reluctantly agrees. Rachel, however, has an alternate suspect in the murders. She believes Trent Kalamack is behind the deaths, and works hard to find a connection between him and the victims, so they can get a search warrant for his compound.

Kalamack, however, professes his innocence and claims he is being framed by someone very powerful. He even offers to pay Rachel to clear his name. Speaking to him, she figures out that the demon attacks that she and Trent both survived a few months ago are connected to the case, and that they were in fact supposed to be the killer's first victims. Much as she dislikes and distrusts Trent, even Rachel doesn't believe he'd have himself nearly killed by a demon to prove his innocence. She needs to go looking for the murderer somewhere else, but is an individual powerful enough to summon an demon to kill for them someone she wants to go chasing after?

Having dealt with the heavy lifting in terms of set-up with regards to characterisation and world-building in the first book, Harrison is free to expand further here and get her protagonist into deeper trouble than before. She starts the book with Rachel and Jenks in the middle of a mission that ends rather tensely and the action doesn't really slow down for long over the course of the book.

While Rachel is brave and loyal, she's also stubborn, impulsive and frequently acts before she thinks. I don't know if I really noticed before how hostile and downright insulting she can be to other members of her gender (Ivy the notable exception). I know I did notice on this re-read, and the way she will frequently refer in derogatory terms to other women she dislikes bothered me. She's also rather rigid in her moral code in these early books, so very afraid to veer off the path of the righteous white witch, a little bit quick to judge most other people who have made more questionable choices in their life. She has a long way to go, that's for certain.

Her relationship with Ivy continues to be fraught with some tension, as it's quite clear that her vampire roommate is both physically attracted to her and wants Rachel's blood. Rachel is still very firm about a) being straight and b) terrified at the idea of being fed from, especially after her savage attack in the previous book. Nick, Rachel's human boyfriend is wary of the relationship and keeps trying to persuade her to move in with him instead. It's not his discomfort with Rachel's living situation which causes the biggest rift between them, however. Unfortunately, after Rachel makes a mistake during one of her layline classes, their relationship changes from happy to rather fraught due to the added strains Rachel's cock-up engenders.

I mentioned in my first review that Trent and Algaliarept, the demon who initially appears trying to murder Rachel, are among my favourite characters in the whole series. This book has prominent appearances by both and while I get why Rachel is so extremely determined to put Trent behind bars, I was very happy that she instead indirectly ends up clearing his name to the FIB instead. This is also the book where Rachel finally figures out the deep dark mystery of whether Trent is an Inderlander or not. Is he just a human who uses magic to seem more mysterious, or is he some sort of supernatural? I remember being rather delighted with the reveal the first time I read the book, and the scene where she deduces her way to the right answer is still an excellent one. While she tells Ivy, they both decide to keep their discovery a secret from their pixy partner, Jenks, a mistake which will come back to haunt them later.

While only the second book in the series, this is a really good installment and as I mentioned previously, there is a lot of action. Rachel has a knack for getting herself into some pretty uncomfortable and dangerous situations and the final show-down at the end of this one is a memorable one. I'm very glad that I didn't feel the need to adjust my previous rating of this book in any way.

Judging a book by its cover: While I really do like this series a LOT, the book covers are not the reason. While this one is better than the one on Dead Witch Walking, it's not exactly great, with the cover model in a dress shorter and skimpier than even Rachel would wear (especially when doin
g layline magic, which she hates). The pentagram and the lit candle hint at some of the magic done in the book, but the outfit and super awkward pose of the model's legs still annoy me.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR9 Book 25: "Dead Witch Walking" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 416 pages
Audio book length: 13 hrs 14 mins
Rating: 4 stars

Rachel Morgan is an earth witch (which means she uses wooden charms activated with drops of her own blood to do magic, as opposed to layline witches who draw their power from laylines) and works for the IS (Inderland Security), a police force consisting of supernaturals like witches, living vampires, werewolves, fairies and pixies. They police the supernatural crimes, while the FIB (Federal Inderland Bureau) is its mundane, human counterpart. For the last year, Rachel has had a run of truly awful assignments and what seems like very bad luck on top of things.

She's sick and tired of being jerked around and after being sent to reclaim a leprechaun for tax fraud, she decides that enough is enough. She's going to quit the IS and go into business for herself. For the leprechaun's three wishes, she makes it seem as if she had the wrong paperwork, so the little barmaid can go free, and Rachel can use her first wish to make sure she doesn't get caught. However, she promises her other two wishes to another IS runner, Ivy Tamwood, and Jenks, her pixy backup, to make sure they don't report her.

Unfortunately, although Rachel's boss tells her to her face that he's been trying to make her quit for the best end of a year, she's still under a death threat until she can pay off what remains of her contract. The IS seriously try to discourage people from defecting from their ranks. She is further surprised when Ivy, an incredibly talented and experienced IS runner, announces that she's going to buy her way out of her own contract and offers to go into business with Rachel instead. She claims to already have an office space they can share, which turns out to be an old converted church, where Ivy is currently living.

Because news travels fast, and everyone in supernatural Cincinnati knows Rachel is under the IS death threat, she's already been evicted from her apartment and all her possessions have been cursed. Until she gets them doused in salt water, they could kill her. So when Ivy claims Rachel can rent the extra bedroom, she doesn't really have any other choice. Nevertheless, she has reservations, as Ivy is a living vampire (she has the vampire virus in her system from birth which gives her quicker reflexes, enhanced senses, but she can choose whether to drink blood or not - although most do, but she won't be forced to stay out of the sun and subsist on only blood until she dies and becomes a full vampire). Ivy reassures her that she's not drunk blood for three years, and that Rachel will be safe in the church.

Until Rachel's able to find enough money to pay off the threat against her, she's in danger every time she sets foot outside her door. She decides that the way to make the money is by proving that the city's golden son, wealthy, charming, handsome and somewhat mysterious councilman Trent Kalamack has a double life as a large scale manufacturer and dealer in illegal bio-engineered drugs. When she tries to question him, she's shocked to find that he wants to hire her to work for him, offering a very lucrative salary, which would certainly make sure she was safe from the IS forever. She flatly refuses his offer and tries to sneak into his estate to find evidence while transformed into a mink. Trent is a very resourceful man, however, and Rachel ends up caught and put into a cage in his office. Even after she manages to escape and turn herself human again (after Trent took her to fight in the city's rat fights), she can't really act on the things she discovered about the ruthless businessman unless she gets proof.

To complicate matters further, it seems that the IS may not be the only ones who want Rachel dead. While working on a way to prove that Trent's a crook, Rachel is attacked by a demon, sent to kill her and only barely survives, after being forced to make a deal with it. Being an independent contractor turns out to be much more dangerous than Rachel ever imagined.

Looking back, I think Kim Harrison's books about Rachel Morgan and the Hollows was the first paranormal fantasy series I got into, way back in 2005, long before I started my meticulous logs recording everything I read and re-read. Even in 2007, I had no access to LibraryThing or Goodreads and just wrote everything down in a dedicated notebook (which I still keep, as backup. No chance of me losing my book records if the apocalypse hits and the internet fails). Hence I don't know exactly when I first read my now rather well-worn paperback copy of Dead Witch Walking, but I bought it in March 2005, so chances are it was shortly after that. All the other paranormal authors and series I now enjoy came later, probably at least in part because I liked these books so much. Patricia Briggs, Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, Nalini Singh, Meljean Brook, Anne Bishop and my beloved Ilona Andrews - all years after my first encounters with Rachel, Ivy, Jenks and Trent.

One of the things that hooked me into this world is the world-building. An alternate universe, where there are paranormal races living alongside humans, generally without conflicts or incident. Until the disastrous event in the 1960s, where a virus was spread through a genetically modified tomato, and a quarter of the world's humans died in a very short space of time, all the various supernatural creatures - witches, weres, vampires, elves, pixies, fairies, gargoyles, trolls (you get the picture) existed alongside humanity, but had to keep their otherness hidden. The humanoid ones were able to blend in pretty well, and some could even have children with humans, but the more unusual creatures had to stay out of sight and neared extinction when the Turn, as it became known, occurred. While the humans were in the majority, it was unsafe for the supernaturals (or Inderlanders) to come forward, but when so many died, the power balance was shifted and fronted by a very charismatic vampire politician, Rynn Cormel, they publicly announced their existence. Since the Turn, most humans completely shun tomatoes and tomato-based products, while Inderlanders happily still consume them.

While Rachel is a witch, she's never really needed to practise her arts all that much before she quit the IS. With the death threat hanging over her, she needs to craft her own spells, as anything she gets from a magic shop may be marked with a curse targeted to her. The IS actually has teams of magic users on retainer out looking for her, and can legally assassinate her if she doesn't pay off her contract. Rachel, who is normally both rather impulsive and headstrong, needs to learn to become more cautious and think before she acts. Because Ivy is from a very powerful and prominent family, Rachel is considered under her protection while they live together. She's fair game whenever she leaves the church, however. If she accepted Kalamack's job offer, she could end her predicament in a second, but she's convinced he is crooked (even before she witnesses the extent of it while trapped as a mink in his office) and unwilling to sell out her principles.

Before quitting the IS, Rachel partnered with Ivy for a while, but they didn't really know each other well, Suddenly finding themselves not only business partners, but roommates, requires adjustment from both sides. As Rachel discovers, while living vamps can choose whether they drink blood or not, voluntarily abstaining for three years has put Ivy rather on edge, and there are a number of behavioural patterns and unconscious signals Rachel needs to alter, to lessen the chance that Ivy loses control. By offering Jenks, a pixie, an equal share in their business and full access to the church garden, they secure the full gratitude and loyalty of the little winged warrior, who provides perfect backup and surveillance aid for them when they are out on missions. While all three have really been loners before (although Jenks has a wife and a massive family - pixies have a LOT of children), the three establish both a solid working relationship and develop a firm friendship.

The readers are also introduced to two of the more antagonistic characters in the series in this book. Trent Kalamack may be one of the most eligible bachelors in the country, a wealthy, charming and very powerful councilman, but strangely, no one knows if he's witch or human and even Jenks, with his uncanny sense of smell, can't determine it. As Rachel discovers, to her dismay, he has unparallelled security at his compound and is quite ruthless to protect his secrets. Trent is willing to pay generously to make sure he has the best working for him, and has watched Rachel's career with interest. If she won't come to work for him willingly, perhaps he can make her suffer long enough while trapped as a mink that she gives in and submits. I can promise that in the early books, even when he seems quite villainous, he has a lot of good reasons for acting the way he does, and his redemption arc over the course of the series is one of my favourite things about them.

In addition to Trent, there is the demon sent to kill Rachel, who remains nameless in his first appearances here. Able to shapeshift seemingly at will, he appears to his victims as one of their worst fears, usually killing them in horrible, yet creative ways. Demons have to be summoned by someone and controlled, however, and there is someone pulling his strings. Suffice to say, the demon becomes an important secondary character throughout the series, and while he too is utterly villainous and really very scary to begin with (leaving Rachel bleeding to death from a gushing neck wound), he too develops a lot throughout the series.

While, in my experience, a lot of paranormal series can take a while to really draw the reader in (for instance, the first Kate Daniels book by Ilona Andrews is not great, I had to struggle through the first THREE Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher, and even then, the series doesn't get really decent until book 5), Kim Harrison has a really strong introduction to her universe and her characters. While there are absolutely some books that are less enjoyable than others, and Rachel occasionally annoys the crap out of me (I will address this in later reviews), I can see why I was so instantly engaged and why this was my first proper introduction to paranormal/urban fantasy.

Since the series is now not only complete, but even has a prequel, there is no reason not to give it a chance if you're looking for something new in the paranormal genre.

Judging a book by its cover: I must admit, that fond as I am of Kim Harrison's books, the covers are NOT the draw here. It's quite clear to me which scene this is supposed to represent, but at no point is Rachel wearing only a small red bra, showing that much exposed skin on her upper body. The leather pants and the handcuffs with charms are a very nice detail, as is her no-nonsense stance and telltale red hair. But the glorified bikini top annoys me, and always has done.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR9 Book 22: "The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 448 pages
Audio book length: 16 hrs 20 mins
Rating: 4 stars

Spoiler warning! I found it impossible to review this book without revealing plot details that would probably be considered spoilery, so if you like to start a book without knowing much, probably skip this review. Also, this book is a PREQUEL, best read after you finish the full thirteen book series by Kim Harrison.

In a world where humans are the dominant species, they are fully unaware that there are a number of supernatural races living among them, trying to stay firmly under the radar, doing their very best to always blend in. Witches, vampires, elves and werewolves may look and act human, but have their own genetic makeup and customs and are always worried that the humans will discover and turn on them. In addition to the species who can pass for human, there are a number of smaller groups, like fairies, pixies, gargoyles and trolls, who have to stay completely out of sight and whose numbers are rapidly dwindling because of increased urbanisation and increased pollution. Calling themselves Inderlanders, the supernatural species often have scientific and technological advances far beyond those of the humans, but can't publicly reveal them for fear of being outed.

Elves are among the most vulnerable of the Inderlanders, with their numbers small, as they have incredible difficulties conceiving children, who often need a lot of very expensive genetic tinkering to live to adulthood and have children of their own. Among the elves, most of them are tall, blond and pale-eyed, with the dark elves, with their dark hair and eyes considered somewhat inferior. Felicia Eloytrisk "Trisk" Cambry is one such dark elf, and she's worked hard to become the best of her class at bio-engineering, despite the fact that most dark elves are encouraged to stay in the background, in security type jobs. Her fiercest rival is Trenton "Kal" Kalamack, a spoiled, arrogant and entitled man whose family was once rich and very influential, but are now left with Kal as their only scion, having spent most of their fortune to even have him. He's determined to make his once great name powerful again, and doesn't really care who he screws over to do it.

It's not like the 1960s was a hugely progressive and supportive time for women to begin with, and as a woman, dark elf and daughter of a minor house, Trisk has her work cut out for her. At their graduation work fair, she and Kal get into a big argument and cause a massive scene, ruining any chance either of them has of the best jobs. Kal has tormented Trisk for most of their lives, being a shallow and thoughtless bully and once Trisk's best friend, Quen, accepted a job as security for the Kalamack family, she didn't really have the restraint to hold back her contempt for the man. After the job fair, Trisk is approached by one of the elven leaders and asked if she would consider taking a job with a human lab, to act as a spy for the Inderlanders, making sure that the humans don't make genetic advances that could be harmful to the supernatural races. She's initially reluctant, but needs to make money somehow, so has no choice but to accept.

Three years later, Trisk has thrived in her job, engineering a new strain of drought-resistant tomato which should help eliminate hunger in the third world. In addition, she's been working to make sure that her human colleague Daniel's new tactical virus won't in any way affect any of the Inderland species when it's finally let out of a lab. The virus is meant to give people fever, sickness and a rash for 24 to 48 hours, before they get better again and recover. It's meant to help armed forces neutralise hostile populations for long enough that soldiers can move in and take over an area. Trisk has made very sure that no matter how it actually works in practise, it won't touch Inderlanders. The ruling council of Inderlanders are still not entirely convinced Trisk has managed to make the virus entirely safe (she is a mere woman, after all), so they send as a consultant to double check her work. He's still angry because he lost a chance to work at NASA after the graduation fair, and plans to either outright steal or sabotage Trisk's work, making sure her reputation is utterly ruined. If he can seduce her and break her heart while he's at it, that will just be a bonus.

Long story short, because of pettiness and jealousy, once Kal discovers how good a geneticist Trisk actually is and that her work is flawless, he instead sets about sabotaging her, by forging a link between the tactical virus and her T4 Angel tomato. Unfortunately, something in the drought-resistant tomato makes the virus very potent and within 24 hours, humans are dying everywhere. Living vampires, who possess the vampire virus, but are not yet dead, are getting sick, but not dying. Once Trisk and Daniel realise what has happened, but not yet how, they go on the run, fully aware that they are going to be blamed for the disaster. Trisk needs to make it to the elven council, and they need a way to notify everyone not to eat tomatoes or anything tomato based, as it seems the virus spreads more rapidly than they could have imagined and is completely fatal to humans who catch it. Trisk is pretty convinced she knows exactly who is behind the plague, but also knows that unless she can find proof, it will be her word against Kal's.

This prequel to Kim Harrison's thirteen book paranormal fantasy series goes back and shows the reader how the deadly virus that took out a quarter of the world's humans started (and it turns out it was all because of Trent's dad). This book is really best read after finishing the rest of the books in The Hollows, because it assumes you already know how Harrison's paranormal universe works. In the early books of her series, she explains how all her various supernatural species interact and how, after The Turn (as the plague event came to be known), humans were no longer the dominant species and the Inderlanders could come forward without fear of being hunted and eradicated. In fact, since they were immune to the virus, they were the ones that were able to keep some semblance of order and lend aid to the dying humans. Significantly, in Harrison's alternate paranormal universe, no one ever made it to the Moon and genetic engineering was made illegal after the Turn.

As a long-time reader, it was fun to see a young and dashing Quen, as well as catch a brief glimpse of heroine Rachel's dad. There are several appearances by one of my favourite characters in the series, the wily and charming demon Algaliarept, but the main focus here are Trent's parents. I don't know if Harrison is planning more prequels, but based on what she shows in this book, that man cannot have had a good childhood as his mother and father were bitter enemies and well, his dad twisted his mother's work to cause a world-spanning plague. Oh, and his family's chief of security clearly fancied his mum. That's not going to make for a tranquil and harmonious home life. No wonder the man is morally dubious in the early books of the main series.

Trisk is a really cool character, who works so hard to prove herself. I want to tell you that she gets a happy ending, but unless there are more prequels to come, I really don't think anyone can say that where she ends up at the end of this book is a place where she'll thrive. This was a fun book to read, but it nearly got an even lower rating, because I hated Kal so very much. Even having read the book, i can't believe Trisk let her be fooled by him for even a second and certainly not to let her guard down for long enough to get knocked up. While there are hints in the original series that Trent's dad wasn't exactly nice, there is nothing to suggest he was this noxious and inexcusable a character. I want more prequels, where he suffers a LOT and Trisk gets all the good things she deserves.

Since Kim Harrison finished The Hollows, I've been pondering a full re-read, to see how the characters and story develops over the thirteen books. This book was an excellent way to get me into the head space I need, and I suspect I'll now have even more affection for Trent (a character I always loved, even when he was a worthy nemesis of Rachel), because compared to his dad, he's a saint.

Judging a book by its cover: Kim Harrison has said on her blog that this might be her favourite cover of all of her books, and it really is atmospheric and lovely. While the cover model (what you see of her cropped face) looks nothing like I imagine Trisk (I'm pretty sure her hair is described as darker, as well), the sparse colour scheme of red white and black is eye-catching, with the billowing red dress (not really period appropriate for the 1960s) evoking thoughts of blood, the woman cradling the tomato tenderly, even as it's turned deathly black and putrid contamination is swirling from it, staining both the letters and the dress. In a different setting, the snow and trees in the background might bring thoughts to peace and serenity, but here also bring to mind loneliness and underscores how alone Trisk really is.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 104: "The Witch with No Name" by Kim Harrison - DOUBLE CANNONBALL!

Page count: 512 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This is the thirteenth and final book in the Hollows series, and as such, a really very stupid place to start reading. Start at the beginning with Dead Witch Walking. I also shouldn't have to tell you that this book will most likely contain spoilers for previous books in the series. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.

Rachel Morgan's life hasn't exactly been peaceful since she decided to become an independent runner and start her own business with her vampire friend Ivy and the pixy Jenks. There's been a lot of water under the bridge, extensive property damage, loved ones lost, secrets uncovered, truths discovered, villains vanquished and new alliances made. Rachel is an entirely different person, much more skilled in her magical abilities. She's found happiness with the man she once considered her worst enemy and while she fears that happiness is temporary, even though he's pretty much sacrificed much of his wealth and reputation in order to be with her, she is willing to take what she can get for as long as she can get it.

Of course, she's not going to live much longer if she doesn't figure out a way to save the souls of the vampires in Cincinnati. Rynn Cormel, leader of the vampire faction, is sick of waiting for Rachel to find a magical solution and threatens not just her life, but that of her best friend, Ivy, if she doesn't come up with a fix. The demons who she could once have counted on helping her are shunning her, and Al, her former mentor has threatened to kill her because he feels she has betrayed him by choosing Trent. To make matters worse, Ellasbeth wants custody and is willing to ally with Landon, weaselliest of all the elves to achieve her goals. In order to gain control over the elven council and wrest power away from the vampires for good, Landon may do something drastic enough to destroy all magic. Sorting all of this out is all in a day's work for Rachel Morgan.

I've been reading this series since 2005. It's one of the first paranormal series I can remember really being hooked on. It was such a lovely surprise to discover that while book 12, The Undead Pool, was released on schedule in February, I didn't actually have to wait a whole year to read the conclusion of the series. Of course, I also dreaded the ending, because these characters have been part of my world for such a long time.

I love how far Rachel has come and how, through it all, she's stayed true to herself. One of the reasons I've liked her so much as a protagonist is that she isn't perfect. She's brave, and stubborn and loyal to a fault and will frequently throw herself into insanely dangerous situations if it means protecting one of the people close to her. She's had to learn that there is more between heaven and earth than used to exist in her philosophy and she's become a better person with it.

There are so many things Harrison needs to finish off in this final book, and I sort of wish she'd managed to do it with a plot that didn't feel so messy. There is a lot going on here, and I didn't actually care all that much about quite a lot of it. There were a lot of threats to characters that I cared about, but the resolution of some of the plots felt confusing and a bit haphazard. I'm not sure exactly what I was hoping for or expecting, but while the book was good, it sadly wasn't great. I'm not going to complain, too much though. It's not like Rachel ended up with Sam in the end, just because he's the only dude she hasn't hooked up with. Endings are always tricky. You need to tie up all the story lines and try to satisfy all the readers who have followed your books for years and years. I thank Kim Harrison for the years she's devoted to these characters and this fascinating urban fantasy world. It's going to be fun to re-read the whole series from the beginning.

And with that, I complete my double Cannonball.

#CBR6 Book 19: "The Undead Pool" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 512 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This book is book 12 and the penultimate in The Hollows series, with several story lines that have been building throughout the series. It's absolutely NOT the place to start. If you haven't read these, start with Dead Witch Walking. Frankly, if you don't know the series, you'd probably be best just skipping this review.

Rachel is working security for Trent while Quen is on the West Coast. Despite her many former misgivings about working for and with the billionaire, she's been enjoying herself, possibly a bit too much. She's keeps fighting her increasing attraction to Trent, he's engaged to someone else, and would risk losing everything if he broke the alliance off. When a spell badly misfires while they're out on the golf course, Rachel gets worried that there is something wrong with her magic, or that her ley line is badly affected again. It turns out that her exploding the golf ball headed for Trent's head is just one in a long series of magic mishaps all around Cincinatti. Whatever is making the magic react unexpectedly and dangerously, is also affecting the vampire masters around the city and chaos is starting to erupt.

Having investigated, it appears Rachel's ley line is indeed involved, and somehow leaking wild magic, the magic normally only controlled by the elves. It also appears the wild magic is being syphoned off by rogue vampires, in some sort of conspiracy to kill off all the undead vampires in the city. There could be a war brewing between the vampires and the elves, and Rachel and her friends need to stop it.

The last few books of Harrison's Hollows series have focused more on Rachel accepting her identity as the only day walking demon and realising that being a demon doesn't mean she has to be evil or damned. The previous book, Ever After, featured Al, Newt and the other demons quite prominently. In this book, they take more of a back seat, with vampires, elves and werewolves taking centre stage. With the undead vampire masters asleep, their living vampire minions start exploiting their sudden freedom and there is a rogue group calling themselves Free Vampires want to kill off all the old undead masters. They've figured out a way to use wild magic to their advantage, and as wild magic is the kind controlled by the elves. The fact that Trent hasn't heard anything shows how much his recent dealings with Rachel have put him out of the confidences of the power factions among his own people.

It was nice to see supporting characters like Ivy and David featuring more prominently again, as well as Captain Edden. I also liked finding out more about the elven hierarchy and religion, but the best part of the book to me is, without a doubt, the changing relationship between Rachel and Trent. Trenton Aloysious Kalamack (I love the middle names Harrison gives her characters) has come a long way from the ruthless and unscrupulous villain who kept Rachel trapped in a cage (she was a mink at the time) in the first book. He's always been an interesting character, prone to steal every scene he's in, this series has been just as much about Trent redeeming himself, as it's been about Rachel growing up, discovering who she really is and how her unique heritage makes her so important to several of the supernatural races.

Over the course of the previous eleven books, Rachel's had several love interests, but her chemistry with Trent, even when they were bitter enemies, has always been undeniable. Yet it wasn't until they were forced to spend three days together on a road trip in Pale Demon that it was obvious that the two were perfect for each other. Yet it's quite clear that a lot of sacrifices will have to be made for them to have a chance together.

By the time Charlaine Harris got to her book 12, I was desperately ready for her to finish the series, and pretty much just stuck with it to see how it would end. Harrison has had some ups and downs in her series too, but generally, I've always at least enjoyed the books, and at best, absolutely loved them. My annual visit to the Hollows, hanging out with Rachel, Jenks, Ivy and Trent is something I look forward to. I'm sad that there is only going to be one more book until these characters hopefully all survive and get their happy endings (Harrison has in several interviews promised HEAs for all those who are alive at the end, making me worried about which of them who aren't going to make it through).

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR5 Book 9. "Ever After" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 448 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

SPOILER WARNING! This is book 11 in a series, and as such, not the best place to start reading Ms. Harrison's books. This review may contain spoilers for earlier books in the series, so if you're new to this author, skip this review, and go start at the beginning with Dead Witch Walking. You can come back and read this review once you've worked your way through books 1-10. It'll still be here.

Just as Rachel Morgan thinks that she's finally starting to get a semblance of stability in her life again, something comes along to turn everything on its head again. As various human and witch authorities stop trying to hound, trap and/or kill her due to her unique genetic abilities, Rachel finds herself on trial in the Ever After, the demon realm parallel to our own. The Ever After is rapidly shrinking, and the majority of the demons feel it's all Rachel's fault. She has only a few days to prove that it's a setup by the psychotic and extremely powerful Ku' Sox (who kills people and eats their souls for fun), who's tampered with the rift where the realm appears to be leaking, and on top of everything, he's kidnapped Rachel's goddaughter Lucy and her friend Ceri. Ku' Sox claims that the rift will close automatically once Rachel is killed, but Rachel knows that with the destruction of the Ever After, no one would have the power to control him.

So Rachel needs to stop Lucy's father (her former nemesis Trent Kalamack) from doing something incredibly rash to try to rescue his daughter, fix the leaking ley line, clear her name by proving that Ku' Sox set her up, rescue Lucy and Ceri, and try to figure out what the heck seems to be going on with between her and Trent, all in four days. If she fails, she will be killed, the Ever After will dissolve, all non-human and elven magic will stop working and Ku' Sox will become unstoppable. With her demon teacher Al out of commission and Trent unable to interfere because his daughter being held hostage, she's going to have to sort things out on her own, with only an adolescent gargoyle and a pixie to help.

Kim Harrison has said that there will be 13 books in The Hollows series, and it's clear that she's starting to move the story lines towards the conclusion of the series, slowly but surely giving the readers some indication of where the various characters are going to end up. She's not quite tied up all the loose ends yet, and this book shows that she still has surprises up her sleeve to keep loyal readers on their toes, but it's nice to know that things are building towards a finale, and a hopeful happy ending for Rachel and her friends.

Rachel has come such a long way from the beginning of the series, and she's constantly discovering that things are never as black and white as she once thought they were. In this book, she has to face some incredibly dangerous and tense situations, mostly completely unaided by any of her many friends and allies. Fans of Algaliarept, her sarcastic demon teacher, will be happy to hear that he's a lot more prominent in this story than in the last few, and as I've been a huge fan of Trent, even when he was a loathsome antagonist in some of the earlier books, it's so refreshing to see the relationship between him and Rachel changing into one of tentative understanding and trust.

If you've read and enjoyed the previous ten books in this series, this one will provide action and tension and a couple of shocking and really very unexpected losses. I stayed up until the early hours of the morning to finish it, and actually cheered at parts of the very dramatic final quarter of the book. I'm very excited about the direction Harrison seems to be taking the series in, and hope that it's not just some clever double bluff.

CBR4 Book 19: "A Perfect Blood" by Kim Harrison

Page count: 448 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: February 21st, 2012
Date finished: February 22nd, 2012

This is book 10 in Kim Harrison's The Hollows series. You don't want to start the series with this book, trust me. If you're interested, go pick up Dead Witch Walking. Don't read this review, it will contain spoilers for earlier books in the series, it's unavoidable.

You'd think Rachel Morgan's life would be easier once she got her shunning rescinded and the Coven for Moral and Ethical standards off her back? Unfortunately, no. Rachel is currently registered as legally dead, and has no social security number, no bank account, no driver's licence and is generally finding local bureaucracy less than helpful. On public record as a "good" demon, she wears a bracelet of charmed silver to cut herself off from her leyline powers, and thus also any ability to do demon magic. Yet someone out there is abducting witches, torturing and killing them, and making it look like a demon's work. Rachel will be blamed if she can't help the I.S and the FIB track down the real culprits.

The culprits in question seem to be part of a human hate group determined to rid the world of all supernatural races. They want to use demon magic to do this, and are trying to synthesise demon blood. If they were to get their hands on the newly power neutered Rachel, they'd be much closer to their goals. Despite the advice of her bodyguard (Rachel's parents don't really trust her to keep herself out of danger any longer), and her long time associates, Rachel puts herself right into the path of danger once again, and has to trust in her friends to get her out of trouble.

To say that Rachel has changed a lot since the first book of the series would be an understatement. She's not even the same species as she was. Rachel's naturally scared about the changes her life has taken, and her two closest friends, Ivy and Jenks, both seem to be moving on with their lives, leaving her feeling all the more lonely. She's terrified of Al and the other demons discovering that she is still alive if she takes the bracelet off, yet clearly can't function properly by cutting herself off from a major source of her own powers. After going on a road trip with, and sharing a very intimate moment with her former nemesis Trent, at the end of Pale Demon, she's also forced to reevaluate her relationship with him. When pretty much all the world were willing to condemn her, he stood by her side, and he keeps offering to help her, even at the risk of his own life. As Rachel's come to realise over the course of the books that there is very little black and white, and oh so many shades of grey, and that she herself is has to decide what is "good" and "evil" - Trent has had to make a lot of difficult decisions, and may not be a bad guy even though he's done some fairly ruthless things in the past.

While I think Harrison is a horrible tease, it's as of yet unclear if Trent is moving from becoming Rachel's enemy and some time reluctant ally, to being her new love interest. Rachel certainly spends a LOT of time thinking about how silky his hair is for someone she doesn't have any romantic feelings for. As a huge fan of Trent, I have no problem with more time being spent developing his character and friendship with Rachel, which is a large part of what happens in this book. The structure of the book is a bit meandering and the plot could probably be a lot tighter and more streamlined. But I read these books mainly to spend time with Rachel and all the other extremely colourful supernatural creatures of The Hollows, so I don't really mind if the narrative takes a few detours, especially when I get Trent and Rachel spending more time together, bantering and facing off against common enemies. Al and the other demons barely get an appearance in this book, though. I hope that changes in the next one.