#CBR5 Book 62. "Gameboard of the Gods" by Richelle Mead

Page count: 464 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Book summary from Goodreads, cause I'm lazy, and because it covers all the pertinent points:

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military's most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills. 

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.

Gameboard of the Gods, the first instalment of Richelle Mead's Age of X series, will have all the elements that have made her YA Vampire Academy and Bloodlines such mega successes: sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; and relentless action and suspense.

I included the last "promo" bit as well, because this is the bit where I'm not entirely in agreement with whoever at Penguin writes the cover blurbs. In the last quarter of the book, there is absolutely quite a lot of action and suspense. To start with, however, the book is actually quite slow, as we are introduced to Justin, who is in exile in (decadent and clearly not as awesome as RUNA) Panama. Considering he comes from a society where organised religion and the supernatural is seen as something bad and dangerous, and he seems to keep the company of two wise cracking ravens (named Horatio and Magnus - or are they?) that only he can see, it's not surprising that his employers forced him into exile. Trying to ignore them, and the deal they're trying to make him seal, means Justin numbs his senses to an epic degree, with alcohol or drugs or casual hookups. Justin can't believe his luck, when after four years, he's promised his job back, a generous pay rise, and pretty much anything he asks for as long as he returns immediately. If he can't solve the ritualistic murders before the next full moon, though, his chances of staying in RUNA may be blown forever.

Mae Koskinen is a praetorian guard, the most elite of the soldiers swearing their allegiance to RUNA. With no organised religion, loyalty to the Republic is the closest most people come to beliefs. At the funeral of her ex-lover, Mae loses her temper, and gets into a vicious fight. As a reprimand, she's no longer allowed to wear the signature black uniform of the praetorians, and she's asked to assist in bringing Justin back to RUNA, then to act as his bodyguard while he investigates the murders. The job is complicated by the fact that Justin and Mae have a one night stand shortly after they first meet, when neither of them know who the other really is. Despite being irresistibly drawn towards Mae, Justin can't risk acting on his attraction a second time without binding himself into the service of the mysterious power who sent him the ravens (three guesses as to who this is - I called it on page 2 or 3, when the names of the ravens were revealed). Justin plays up his carousing and  womanizing ways to great effect, to keep Mae disgusted with him and at a safe distance.

There's a third POV in the book as well. Tessa is a sixteen-year-old Panamanian girl, and the daughter of the man who took Justin in when he was exiled. Justin promised to try to get their entire family entry into RUNA, but can only secure a student visa for Tessa. Through her chapters, the reader gets a lot of exposition and world building. RUNA is a much more technologically advanced and ideologically different from the "provinces" Tessa is from. She's constantly amazed at how prejudicial and narrow minded most people she meets are, despite them coming from an allegedly much more civilized nation. She's also sharp as a tack, and helps Justin and Mae with several aspects of their investigation.

While the blurb also promises "sexy, irresistible characters", one of the things I liked was that neither Justin nor Mae are all that likable at first. Justin is a born manipulator and extremely convinced of his own brilliance. Pretty much the first thing we encounter in the book is Mae beating a fellow soldier to a pulp. She's distant, somewhat elitist and clearly extremely dangerous. Yet as the book progresses, you get to know the characters better, and it's made perfectly clear that a book or two (hopefully, I hate when unresolved sexual tension is dragged out for too long) they will clearly become an item.

I don't know if it's me, or whether the references to various mythologies and gods was supposed to be quite as obvious as I found them. To be fair, I'm more than averagely interested in mythology, and I've also read a lot of urban fantasy, where quite a lot of various deities and belief systems feature. I liked that in a society where humans have tried to banish anything to do with religion, there's now such a power vacuum that the various gods are trying to gain supporters directly and seize as much control as possible. As I said, I can't think that the ravens weren't supposed to be a pretty huge clue as to who's trying to get Justin to become one of his acolytes, and I figured out the goddess who was trying to gain control of Mae with the second clue (to be fair, given the clue, it was bound to be that goddess - it always seems to end up being her).

While the book started slow, and I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, by about a third of the way in, I was hooked, and now I have another Richelle Mead series to wait impatiently for new books in. I just hope that, unlike the Dark Swan series, this one doesn't end disappointingly.

Disclaimer - this book was an ARC granted to me from Penguin Group Dutton through NetGalley. I've not let that influence my review in any way, and have given my opinions as honestly and ramblingly as I always do, whether I've bought the book myself, or been gifted it.

CBR4 Book 3: "Bloodlines" by Richelle Mead

Page count: 432 pages
Date begun: January 6th, 2012
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date finished: January 7th, 2012

Bloodlines is the first novel in Richelle Mead's spinoff, featuring some of the minor characters from her previous Vampire Academy series. It's obviously meant to work as a new starting point into the paranormal fantasy world Mead's created, but I suspect it works better if you've read some of the other Vampire Academy books as well.

Sydney Sage is an alchemist, part of a secret organisation which has worked to hide the existence of vampires, both Moroi (living "nice" vampires) and Strigoi (undead evil vampires), from humans. She's been rigorously trained for her duties since she was a child by her very strict father, and alchemists in general fear and try to avoid vampires as much as possible Due to events that transpired in the final two Vampire Academy books, Sydney's seen as someone who fraternizes with the Moroi vampires, and has forgotten her place. Yet when the only sister of the ruling vampire Queen is in danger of being assassinated, Sydney seems to be the best alchemist to help keep her safe and in hiding, as she's familiar with the girl, and young enough that she won't seem out of place in high school.

Sydney's happy to get a chance to work again, but horrified by the thought of having to share a room with and pose as the older sister of a vampire, albeit a Moroi one. However, if she refuses the mission, she'll be cast aside and replaced by her younger sister, who will have to work with an alchemist Sydney knows is a creep, so she agrees to go to high school in Palm Springs, and share a dorm room with a living vampire, helping to keep the girl safe. Already having learned that the Moroi vampires and their half-human servants/bodyguards are not so bad, Sydney becomes more and more open minded as her mission progresses.

At the school, she quickly makes a lot of friends, and discovers that while she excels academically, having been home schooled, she's got a lot to learn when it comes to social interaction. She also discovers that someone is giving the rich high schoolers performance enhancing tattoos, very similar to those of the protective tattoos given to the alchemists. Whoever's doing them is clearly doing something illegal, and Sydney tries to figure out where the tattoo parlor gets its supplies, while trying to fend off her hostile and scheming supervisor and organizing the lives of her vampire charges.

There's a lot of potential in Bloodlines, but compared to even the weaker Vampire Academy books, it falls a bit short. This is partially because Sidney is not as engaging a protagonist as Rose Hathaway was. While there is some action and mystery in this book, it's also not as exciting and fast paced as some of Mead's previous novels, and the story drags in places. The main reason I enjoyed this book was the return of Jill and Adrian from the Vampire Academy books, who were always interesting there, and get more to do in this book. I'm also curious to see where Mead is taking her spin off, she doesn't seem able to entirely distance herself from the characters of her previous series, and I hope that she's able to make this work on its own, otherwise I think the books will suffer more in comparison.

CBR3 Book 23: "Iron Crowned" by Richelle Mead

Publisher: Bantam
Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 24th, 2011
Date finished: March 25th, 2011

Standard introductory spiel about this being part of a series here, it's part three, in fact. This review will therefore probably contain some spoilers for the previous two books in the series. If you're thinking of starting with book one, you want to try Storm Born.


Eugenie Markham has started coming to terms with being the daughter of the legendary faerie Storm King, and is even getting used to ruling her own faerie kingdom, the Thorn Land. She's not entirely keen with the amount of time she has to spend there, as it cuts into her day job of being a shaman who banishes ghosts, spirits, faeries that have crossed over to the human world and so forth, as that's what pays her bills in the human world. Her roommate is starting to get annoyed with her, as is her assistant, who spend more time sniping at each other over the phone when Eugenie's not there to take her calls in person. She's enjoying her relationship with Dorian, King of the Oak Land, rather a lot, but they both find it a bit wearying that warriors keep showing up pretending to have killed Eugenie.

Most of all, Eugenie want to make peace with Queen Katrice of a rival land (who is naturally pissed because of the events at the end of Thorn Queen. Dorian and Eugenie's forces are tied up in what looks to be a long, gruelling and time-consuming struggle, and every day, more innocents die. When a seeress comes to Eugenie and tells her about the legendary Iron Crown, which is so difficult to get hold of that simply winning it is enough to terrify other Faerie rulers, she sees a way in which to end the conflict without further bloodshed. But because the crown is hidden in an area suffused with iron, Dorian won't be able to go with her, and she has to take her ex-boyfriend Kiyo as help instead.

I enjoyed the first two books in the series, but in this one, Eugenie made some decisions that annoyed the heck out of me. She acted like an irrational, spoiled teenager, not the mature and fairly reasonable woman she's shown herself to be in the past. She does a complete turn around on decisions she made in previous books, and makes a pretty rash and stupid decision, in my book. That said decision will have wide reaching consequences in later books is inevitable.

I like Dorian, and he doesn't pretend to be anything other than he is. I think Eugenie treats him appallingly in this book and that he's far too good for her. I hope he doesn't regret his decision towards the end of the book. I'm also hoping that after Kiyo's actions towards the end of this book, he's out of the picture for good. It would of course have been wonderful if Eugenie could be a strong and capable woman who manages on her own, without the support of a man at all, but as love triangles seem to be a staple of paranormal fantasy, I doubt that's going to happen any time soon.

This book was a bit of a let down, but I know from experience that Richelle Mead's series occasionally have ups and downs, and they tend to end up being mostly enjoyable, so I'll give the next book a chance and hope she makes it all better again then.

CBR2 Book 87: "Thorn Queen" by Richelle Mead

Publisher: Bantam
Page count: 480 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date begun: September 28th, 2010
Date finished: October 1st, 2010

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR STORM BORN, THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES!

At the end of the last book in the series, Eugenie Markham, shaman and most-feared killer of faerie and other Otherworld beings, managed to defeat the not very nice King of the Alder Land, and through some trickery from Dorian, King of the Oak Land, became Queen of the now renamed and reshaped Thorn Land. Instead of a lush and medieval rural setting under the Alder King, the land shaped itself to Eugenie's whims and wishes, and is now a warm desert-like land, with cacti and high humidity, very different for all those living there. There is a prophecy that states that the heir to the daughter of the Storm King will wage a devastating war on the humans, and the gentry will defeat them. Eugenie's half-sister is on the run, more than happy to be the one who gives birth to said heir.

So Eugenie has to deal with her newly discovered half-fairy heritage, and that her father wasn't some run of the mill gentry lord, but the most powerful fairy king around, with amazing weather powers. She needs to find her half-sister before said sister gets herself knocked up and proceeds to give birth to some war chief, and she needs to get used to the idea that she is now a Fairy Queen. Kiyo, her half-human boyfriend, is not happy with her growing control of her rather scary weather magic, and the amount of time she has to spend in her Kingdom, which is directly affected by her moods and feelings. But since she IS queen, and discovers that her people are starving, unable to grow crops in their radically changed land, and that several girls have been disappearing, she has no choice but to spend more time in the Otherworld, and get more familiar with her duties. Besides, Kiyo has to spend rather a lot of time with his ex-girlfriend, who is expecting a baby.

Just because her sister is off somewhere willing to bear an heir, does not make Eugenie less desirable as a consort. She still has to fight off gentry who want to rape her, and there are powerful gentry who would like her as their lover, hoping to father the Storm King's successor. One of those men is Dorian, but Eugenie has trouble trusting him after he manipulated her into taking control of the Thorn Land. Yet with Kiyo gone a lot, a bunch of missing girls to find, and weather magic she needs to learn to control, it's hard for her to avoid him.

Things take yet a surprising turn towards the end of this book, and I will be very interested in seeing where Richelle Mead takes the story next. Eugenie, Kiyo and Dorian all continue to develop as interesting characters, and as the love triangle appears to be resolved by the end of this book, I'm pretty certain it's not going to be dragged out over the course of the series. The next book is out in March, and I look forward to reading it.

CRB2 Book 85: "Storm Born" by Richelle Mead

Publisher: Bantam
Page count: 512 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: September 26th, 2010
Date finished: September 28th, 2010

Eugenie Markham is a shaman, which means that she has powers to banish faeries, spirits, ghosts and other otherworldly beings to either the Underworld or the Otherworld. The faeries, or gentry, live in the Otherworld, where there are a number of different kingdoms. Eugenie has been trained for this since she was a teenager, by her stepfather, another powerful shaman. She uses the name Odile Dark Swan when she communicates with the non-human beings. But lately, more and more of the otherworldly beings know her true name, and a lot of them seem to be making really creepy come-ons to her.

She is hired by a rather mentally unstable young man to find his sister, who he claims was abducted by a powerful gentry. Since human girls captured by faeries are coveted for their fertility, and the girl is only a teenager, Eugenie reluctantly agrees to help the guy, even though he seems like a bit of a whack-job. She then finds out that the gentry that kidnapped the girl is a gentry king, and that her best chance to rescue the kid is by forming an alliance with Dorian, King of the Oak Lands. She is reluctant to trust anyone non-human, even more so when she finds herself really attracted to him. She also has to figure out the identity of the mysterious man she met in a bar and had a hot night with, and why the scratches he left on her back won't heal.

With the first book of the Dark Swan series, I have now tried all three of Richelle Mead's paranormal fantasy series. Her Vampire Academy books are a half-guilty pleasure of mine, and there's still enough that I enjoy about her Succubus books that I keep reading them, even when a couple have been a bit underwhelming. One of the things she does very well, is world-building, and the world she describes in this series is fascinating. Some of the story is set in the "real world", but it's the parts in the Otherworld that are particularly well done. With a number of different Fairy kingdoms, all with very different rulers, and a geography that seems to constantly change, not to mention the many interesting types of gentry there appear to be - this was a good read.

Eugenie is a strong and capable heroine, like so many others in paranormal fantasy. She is very good at her job, and not afraid to do unpopular things if it gets the job done. She has been raised with a very strong work-ethic by her stepfather, and feels very ambivalent about the gentry, especially after she spends more time in the Otherworld and gets to know more of them.

The supporting cast are all well done, as well. I especially liked Dorian, King of the Oak Lands, although Eugenie's room mate, who pretends to be a Native American, and Kiyo, the half-Hispanic/half-Japanese mystery guy she runs into, are also cool. I really enjoyed, but was not very surprised by, some of the revelations and developments in the books and will absolutely be picking up the second book in the series.

CBR2 Book 43: "Succubus Shadows" by Richelle Mead

Publisher: Kensington
Page count: 304 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: April 4th, 2010
Date finished: April 5th, 2010

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE GEORGINA KINCAID SERIES!

Georgina Kincaid is an unhappy succubus. The man she loves is marrying one of her best friends, mainly because of the guilt he feels over the affair they had when Georgina temporarily lost her soul-sucking powers. Now her friend wants her to be a bridesmaid, and help plan the wedding. There's another succubus in town as well, who is trying to put the moves on Seth, not that it appears to be working too well. Roman, her roommate, seems to have gone from wanting to kill her to wanting to romance her - and she keeps having strange, dreamlike visions every time she's depressed (which is often) tempting her towards suicide.

I really need to start getting the Georgina Kincaid books with the UK covers. The US covers keep getting more awful with each book, as illustrated by this one. The UK one is much nicer, really need to get on that. In the previous book, I spent a lot of the book being really annoyed with Georgina and Seth. They were both behaving badly, now they have to deal with the aftermath of their actions. Georgina spends a lot of the book trapped in a sort of dreamworld, forced to relive both true and untrue memories from her past. We find out quite a lot more of what made her the person she is now, and there are more hints about her contract binding her to eternal service as a succubus is not entirely as it should be. Someone also seems willing to kill to keep Georgina from finding out what is really going on.

These books are entertaining enough, but I don't love them. Still, I've grown to know the characters, and unless Richelle Mead plans to string the series out for as long as Janet Evanovich without anything changing the status quo, I will probably keep reading them, just to see what happens.

CBR2 Book 18: "Succubus Heat" by Richelle Mead

Publisher: Kensington
Page count: 304 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date begun: January 1st, 2010
Date finished: January 5th, 2010

WARNING! THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES!

Georgina Kincaid is a succubus. This means her main goal in her eternal life is to sleep with men and steal their life-force. This happens every time she gets intimate with a man whether she wants it or not. Georgina has been in a foul mood since her boyfriend, bestselling author Seth Mortensen, broke up with her a few months back. None of her friends like her current boyfriend (they all think she can do better), and her boss, Seattle's arch-demon (who looks just like John Cusack) is so sick of her cranky attitude that he sends her to Canada to work for (and spy on) the arch-demon there.

As Georgina keeps running into Seth at the bookstore where she works (even the eternally damned need a day job) she is a bit relieved to get away from Seattle. However, her mission in Canada is to break up an inept wannabe Satanist cult, and this proves more difficult than previously expected. Then her boss, Jerome, suddenly gets himself summoned, and Georgina, and all the other demonic creatures who worked under him, get put in a sort of paranormal stasis. Georgina no longer has her succubus powers - and than means she's no longer a danger to Seth, whom she still very much loves, and wants. The only obstacle is that he's now dating her friend and co-worker Maddie, who's crazy about him.

This is the fourth Georgina Kincaid novel by Richelle Mead, and over the course of the books, she's done a good job of building up the cast of characters and slowly revealing more of the paranormal world the stories take place in. I really enjoyed the first three books, and was actually very upset with Mead for breaking Georgina and Seth up. In this book, however, Georgina's friends keep telling her to stop being a whiny bitch, and I must admit I very much agreed with them. She keeps sulking and being generally annoying, all through the book, and while her current boyfriend may not be awesome, she treats him like dirt. I was not happy with the direction her suddenly non-powered status made her take, and think both she and Seth are massively less likable now. A character from a previous book who I like makes his return in this one, though, and the end of the book does offer hope that Georgina will be less of a pill in coming novels - so I have hopes for the sequel, which is out at the end of March