Really liked this one. ( )

While I breezed through this book in one setting, it isn't one of Arthur's best. I think it's an early work of hers, which shows if you've read some of her newer books. I still enjoyed it and will read the other two books in this trilogy.

The book is about Maddie, who has abilities she doesn't really understand or know how to use, and Jon, who belongs to a group of supernaturals that use their abilities to help stop the bad things that go bump in the night. The book has some romance, some crime fighting and a little peek into what the world would be like if there were sorcerers and shifters.

If you can get through the repetitive descriptions and sometimes cheesy dialogue, it's definitely worth a read. ( )

Story revolves around Maddie dealing with her gifts and her family that hasn't accepted them, stop being afraid of her gifts and learn to control them, while Jon and her save her nephew and another teenager for an evil sorceress and her henchman. Then Jon dealing with his own relationship issues.
( )

Sometimes I get in a place where I read a series of books back-to-back. That's what I did with the Damask Circle books and that's why I'm reviewing them together.

The first book and the third are very much the same. Missing children. An evil femal supernatural being who is somehow and for some reason draining their lifeforce. One of the protagonists is related to a missing child. And in all the books one of the protagonists is unaware of/unwilling to use/unable to control their magical/supernatural ability.

I thought Circle of Fire was the worst of the trilogy. (Trigger Warning: Mention of domestic violence.) It felt like an earlier draft of the novel the author wanted to write. (A feeling that got stronger after I read the third book, which seemed like the evil supernatural draining kids book the author did want to write.) It wasn't a bad story, and Maddie's reluctance to use her power and inability to control it did make sense in the context of her life. But her quickly jumping into a relationship with Jon did not make sense in that same context.

I enjoyed Circle of Death, the second book in the trilogy, the most. Its plot was different from the other two, even though its protagonists were similar. In this book, Kirby, who doesn't believe she has much power, is being stalked by someone who seems to be out for revenge. Kirby must discover the parts of her past she's blocked out and Doyle, sent by the Damask Circle, will help her. This book had a lot of action and I liked Kirby quite a bit more than I liked the protagonists in the first book.

The third book, Circle of Desire, explained more about the Damask Circle and gave me a female protagonist who was highly aware of her powers and the responsibilities that come along with them. It also gave me a bonus character in her grandmother who was very powerful and with whom Kat had a very close relationship. It also had a werewolf in heat so that was a little odd for me, not being a trope I enjoy. Still, I think this book was better written than the earlier ones and shows the author really coming into her own style.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

It's not often I award low ratings to books with a shapeshifter as a main character but this was one of [a:Keri Arthur|7742|Keri Arthur|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1297828955p2/7742.jpg]'s earliest works and it showed.

Circle of Fire had a simple mediocre plot about missing teenagers including the protagonist's nephew, with shaky writing which failed to suck me in and was occasionally painful to read with it's cheesy and clichéd lines.

The characters appeared all-knowing, a bit of a stretch even with Jon's sharp instincts and the hawk's watchful eyes and Maddie's untrained, and therefore unreliable, psychic abilities.

I never truly cared about this couple or felt anything about their "romance" which to be honest wasn't very romantic at all. Jon in particular was difficult to relate to considering his lack of background. We knew very little about him other than him working as a supernatural PI for the Damask Circle. And strangely for an Arthur book there was only one sex scene, which again wasn't the best but not the worst I've read either.

Maddie's prejudiced brother-in-law, the character I was most intrigued by, was so sceptical about her abilities it bordered on murderous hatred. His behaviour towards her didn't bode well for his relationship with his similarly talented son. The quick mention of their apparently improving father-son relationship disappointed me. That was something I wanted to "see" for myself rather than have briefly described in the epilogue. I also wished to know whether Steve treated Maddie any differently after saving his son and learning of his talents, and if she would ever tell him the truth of what happened to her deceased husband.

The colourful cover is what drew me to this book but unfortunately I didn't enjoy it. I will however try out the next instalment of the Damask Circle trilogy in the hope that the writing improves. ( )