Usually by book 3 I’m able to determine whether or not I love a series. Well, I’m now fully into the world of Alex Craft and while good, I still don’t feel as invested in the long haul.
There are some interesting developments in Nekros City; a string of suicides leaves Alex with many questions and few answers as she investigates these occurrences. The shades of these bodies all possess no memory of their final days, meaning that there’s a big chance these people are actually murder victims. Facing magical adversaries she has never encountered before is always risky, especially as she navigates through her own evolution into her fae heritage, but this time the stakes may be too high.
While I am not totally in love with this series, in terms of the overall actual story, I thought this was the most interesting. I mean, suicide that may not be suicide? What a mindf*ck! I was quite invested in how Alex would solve the crime this time. My favorite scene for this series is still probably the last quarter of the second novel, Grave Dance, where she is fully immersed into the world of Faerie, but the overarching mystery was more compelling here.
All of everyone’s favorite supporting characters are back and just as involved as ever. I do like that her problems strike close enough to home to put her friends in real danger, not just the fodder characters. It makes me wonder how far Kalayna Price is willing to go. I’m most interested in learning more about her Faerie roots and her destiny. It seems all but certain that she will be a huge player when it comes to its future.
One can’t talk about this series without bringing up the love triangle. I was all but expecting to pull a switcheroo and get on the Team Death bandwagon, but after reading it I still prefer Falin. I’m not anti-Death and he gets more points here, but I was hoping for more substantial screentime with him this time around. Price still spends more time telling us about him and Alex than showing us like we get to see with Falin and Alex. There is undoubtedly more movement for them (I’m coining it Dalex if nobody has yet); I know he loves her and will sacrifice for her, I get it. But to keep this triangle going it’s becoming formulaic, so I wonder why I should still care at all. I can certainly say this isn’t changing my mind about love-triangles. They still blow.
Book 4 is due out next year, so maybe I will have some time to miss this world and it will be refreshing to see it again. Things are certainly about to get REALLY interesting based on the semi-cliffhanger ending…
Since I just included it in my order when ordering Into the Woods, glad to hear then 🙂
hope you like it!