Kasey Mackenzie

This was the second book of the Shades of Fury series by Kasey MacKenzie. It's about a world full of supernaturals called Acranes, where Mariss (Rissa) Is a Fury, who is also the law keeper of the supernatural world. She is trying to find a killer of Arcane members. While also dealing with a rising issue in the Fury Sisterhood. In this book Rissa plays undercover, in a posh wedding, to uncover who this killer is.

This book is intriguing, and really kept me on my toes on who the actual killer was. It definitely keeps me interested in this series.… (más)

I wanted to like this book, as it had a great premise, particularly because there's not a lot out about furies, especially as a main character. But this book just fell flat. So much so, I really had to push myself to finish it just to find out who was the ultimate baddie. Sadly, I say save yourself the trouble.

First, the writing was disjointed, and in many places, sounded very juvenile. First person narration can be tricky, especially with providing background and world information. This book clearly demonstrates the pitfalls of first person narration. Too much glossing over, too many assumptions, and the reader is left a bit confused as to why this world is as it is. Then many names and words were shortened (weps for weapons) for no apparent purpose. It didn't add to any one character's personality, as they all seemed to do it one time or another, and sounded rather dumb and awkward in places. The writing was disjointed enough that I ended up skimming most of the last half of the book.

The characters, particularly the main character Riss (short for Marissa, which you don't learn until later), all felt very one dimensional to me. Riss was too wishy-washy: a take no prisoners bad ass investigator one moment, then a whiney juvenile the next. While the author tried to explain this away to the fact she was a Fury, most of the time felt as if Riss was really two characters - either 100% bad-ass or 100% wimpy, and neither one had any depth. Plus, Riss didn't seem like she'd make a good investigator at all (so no idea how she had become Chief Magical Investigator), because most of the time she was too caught up in her own drama. Overall, Riss was just annoying. I couldn't like her, and her dialogue was awful. Then Riss's so-called romance with her ex Scott just had no oomph. The character of Scott was rather meh, and I really didn't understand why he would want to be with her. There was no heat in the "steamy" scenes between them. The apparent sexual "tension" was flat, flat, flat. And after setting the story up that Riss was in the wrong as to why she bailed (in high drama), there's a big scene where *he* apologizes to her. It made no sense.

As for the other characters, many were almost pointless. The author sets up potential issues/conflicts, such as the one between Riss and Scott's little bro Sean, but then Sean simply disappears. This happened to several other characters. Major issues with Ellie were alluded to more than once, but never developed. Ellie continued to be there, but was pushed into the far background. So conflict was alluded with several characters, but then that character disappeared. If they returned, there was no mention of aforementioned conflict. I don't know if this was because the author ran out of time, the conflict scenes were edited out after the fact, or there is an intent to discuss it in future books. But it came across as if these alluded conflicts were simply dropped, which made no sense and seriously detracted from the overall story.

As for the plot and the storyline. The descriptions focused too much on inconsequential areas and not enough on the places that were important. The background story (the war between arcanes and humans) was weak, almost as if it really wasn't thought out, The background seemed more created as the story went along to justify the current plot, which made it inconsistent and fall apart in some places. The description of the world and why it was the way it was (arcanes vs. mundanes) was rather glossed over, as if the reader should simply know the various races, their powers, and the dynamics between them all. Many places it was difficult to understand. Overall, I felt the background and description of this world was unfocused, disjointed, and slapped together just to support the plot - all of which contributed to it falling flat. While the plot was intriguing, there were too many holes, too little explanations on key points. Combined with a fractured background story, a weak world description, the book just failed.… (más)

I really love all the covers of this series. Riss's leave of absence doesn't end up going so well. There is actually a line in the book that explains it best, She is now taking a leave of absence from her leave of absence. I was looking forward to seeing Riss with her niece now that she is a fury so I was kinda sad that that was put off until later.

Riss and Scott are still very much together and happy, they don't really have any alone time with each other but they are still a great team and still growing their relationship together. There was a lot more mythology added into book 3, more gods and goddesses are introduced into the book and new situations fill the pages. I expected the bad guy to go down at the end but I was totally shocked by all the events that made it happen and the outcome of Marissa completing her task. I know that the new situations certain people find themselves in at the end of the book will bring plenty of action and excitement in future books.

Like the other book in the Shades of Fury series BLACK-HEARTED BETRAYAL is filled with action and suspense. Riss and her allies hardly have room to breathe before the enemies are on them again. I thought that there was a lot more brought to the table compared to book 2 and I hope that it continues with book 4.… (más)