Kim Harrison

While I love YA Teen books, this one confused me a little bit. I figured that since we knew Madison was dead, just from reading the blurb; that we would get a little more detail, or even a chapter out of what really happened that lead up to her being dead and walking around "alive". But really, you just get little flash backs and a few paragraphs after 3 or so chapters.
Once I understood what all was going on, it was easy-ish to get into the story. Madison, our main character, is dead, but not really dead. See she snagged what she thought was a Dark Reapers amulet and has been trying to learn to use it with the help of her Light Reaper. Now, confusing as that was, I kinda got it.. Dark Reapers are reapers who scythe the living before it is their time, and Light Reapers are there to stop them usually. All the power of the reapers; both light and dark; comes from the amulets that they wear, which contains their power and scythe (sword).
There are also Light and Dark timekeepers (which are humans), they make the amulets for the reapers. Light for light and Dark for dark... When Madison stole what she thought was a reapers amulet what she actually did was snag the Dark Timekeeper's (Kairos) amulet.
So, when Ron; the Light Timekeeper and Barnabas; Madison's Light Reaper; figure out that what she actually has is the Dark Timekeeper amulet, they disappear to talk with the seraphs leaving Madison in the care of a first-sphere guardian angel. Madison and Josh ( prom date the night she died) along with "Grace" the guardian angel, barely make it through two days without Ron or Barnabas....
The ending was kinda hard to believe, but then again, I know nothing of angels as I don't normally read any books about them ( just the Fallen ones!), but I am looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy to see what happens.… (más)

Well, who knew demons and curses could be a good thing? No doubt the fans of this series did, since this is book 12 in the series, and judging by the number of stars it's rated at, I'd say the fans were pleased with this one. I didn't realize this was part of a series when I downloaded the audio version from Overload, but it didn't take long to figure out, as the beginning seemed to be filling me in on how things work in this paranormal fantasy world of demons, elves, pixies, vampires, werewolves, zombies etc., but there was so much that I didn't feel like this was a first introduction. I'm thinking this book would have held my interest better had I started at the beginning, and I'm still pondering whether I will.… (más)

3.5 A rough-ish complicated start to a new series. First I hate Ashley. There was a lot of world building, a lot of character development, and a lot of explaining on the magical system. I had a bit of trouble getting the magical theory in felt complex to me and i'm not sure I got it all by the end. To be fair the magic was developing along with the story so that might all resolved it's self in the next book. First books are usually difficult to digest in a fantasy series for me, it's all so new. The MC's character was not consistent she'd act strong independent then say something so childish, or act so reckless, like a teenager. Another point that really felt off was the relationship with her ______ it didn't feel legit/believable even in the story, almost cartoonish. OH my Gawd the military- COMIC BOOK ! She didn't question these people showing up when she should have, she didn't really question anyone like any normal person would she just lalalalala ok you're here, lalalalala
Wait there was a part that was pure wrong. A character died, a character that didn't have any reason to be in the scene that made any sense. The whole time I'm thinking come on really do something with____ how are you going to get away safely ? Come on characters THINK !
I really am shocked Kim Harrison's female characters are usually much brighter than this girl. I didn't love this first book, didn't care for the comic book feel when the book was aiming for it.
What did I like ? I liked the set up, I liked the world, the possibilities, the future of the series. Yes I'll be reading more, at least one more.… (más)