Fury’s Kiss – I *might* just have a new #2…favorite series that is

“We got unfinished business,” he reminded me.
“My name’s not Bill.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I loved that movie. Shoulda brought a katana, but it seemed like an unfair advantage.”

– I love that movie too!

“I wasn’t the kind of gal who wore designer and knew what all the forks were for. I was the kind of gal who thought the nightgown drawer was where old T-shirts went to die and who had only started using forks in the last century. And who frankly still thought them kind of a waste when there were perfectly good knives handy.”

Dorina is awesome. Yeah, yeah, I know that’s not news, but we could SO be besties if it weren’t for her little quirk of blacking out into nasty dhampir rages that can level a whole village (think Saya from Blood+).

Though Dorina’s dhampir heritage has made her the pariah and enigma of the paranormal community, her skills are still quite useful to the Vampire Senate.  If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.  While working with them to smuggle magical items and weapons out of Faerie, the operation hits a snag that leads to Dorina’s capture.  Though eventually saved by master vampire Louis-Cesare, she has no memory of what happened, but she has to find out fast or else the vampire community and herself will be dangerously vulnerable.  This leads to new enemies, new revelations about her past, and ultimately a war residing completely within…herself.

She did make readers wait two years for it, but this is definitely the longest Dorina book to date! Karen Chance doesn’t let up when it comes to the twists, turns, and action sequences that you wouldn’t believe.  Chance proves herself to be a master story teller with the continuous world building, complex plot, and super fast pace; it makes me wonder how she keeps up with it all. There HAS to be a secret.

For the most part I was really with it, but I did have a couple of annoyances.  I sometimes felt like I was reading about a character with ADHD because there are a number of times when she doesn’t complete a thought before something else happens.  That felt a bit unnecessary because the books are fast paced enough.   By the 80% mark it sort of hit a wall, though it didn’t last for very long because the end was beyond stellar.

As much as I love her Louis-Cesare (they are probably in my top 3 ships now), the developments with Mircea were probably my favorite parts of this book.  Chance’s love of time travel is as present as ever.  She skirts the time travel idea often used in her Cassie Palmer books by pretty much turning Dorina’s mind into a time machine. Being 500 years old, she has a lot of memories she can recall.

We see romance all of the time in this genre books, but so rarely do we see such a the delicate father-daughter relationship like theirs develop and evolve over the course of a series. Absolutely it is unconventional, but at the root of it, we are seeing a bond that is unbreakable, as it should be.  They are both hundreds of years old, so it’s hard to navigate their relationship in a convincing way, but Chance does it and it works so well.  I got some serious warm fuzzies and my only complaint is that I wish we got a little more.  Though I would have liked more, what I want to see is probably more suited for the last book…woohoo for 4 more years! That’s assuming she ends this series at 5 books.

I would say that slightly less action, more Mircea, more Louis-Cesare, or just less pages would have put this book on the path to perfection.  These little things took it from perfection to NEAR perfection. It was definitely one of my most satisfying reads of the year!

This article has 10 Comments

  1. I really loved Ray in this one and how the story came together. I asked Chance how long a wait for the next one but she said she hasn’t even written it yet. 🙁 Just curious what was your #2 series before Dory came along and swept you off your feet?

  2. I loved Ray and everybody really. I just didn’t want this review to get much longer, lol. My #2 before the Dory books would be the Fever Series. I had the lovely benefit of reading them after all 5 books were out. And I read them in 6 days. Mac and Barrons is the definition of explosive. And I’ve still got books to go. I am starting the October Daye series probably next week (unless I give up on the Charley Davidson series and then it’ll be this week). And then I have Night Huntress that I’ll read after that, but I’m skeptical there. And then I still have Jim Butcher to read (won’t be getting to that until 2014 likely). And then I plan to read all 13 Sookie Books once the final one is out. Her HEA will determine if I bother reading it at all. I watch the show and know the books are different, but I’m biased, lol.

  3. You must be excited about ICED coming out at the end of the month. One book you might like is FULL BLOODED by Amanda Carlson you might want to add it to you TBR pile. Even though I know it’s full already. I like the Charley Davison novels but I only get the audiobooks for that series so I’m not sure if the experience loses something and I know for me sometimes when I can’t get into a book having it preformed changes things. If you haven’t bought Third Grave, I would be willing to get you an audio copy to see if it makes a difference, if you would write something you would let me feature on my site about it. If you already have the third one we can try it on Fourth Grave. Let me know if it’s something you’d be interested in.

    1. I am excited about ICED, but not as much as if it were a Mac and Barrons book. I’d be marking an X on my calendar everyday if that were the case, lol.
      I am reading the third grave book right now and I actually almost put it down, or was about to resort to skimming to demon stuff, if any. But something seems like it’s about to happen now so I will read a little more. The second book was better, but this third book is rough, lol. I know my issues with it and am trying to get through book 3 before I hang it up. Unless I am blown away by the rest I’m not going to continue with the series. I’m going to write a review and you can feel free to feature it, but I don’t think it will be a favorable one in this case. We could always try it for another book if you’d like it to be a favorable review.

      1. I don’t care if it’s favorable, I like that you don’t love the series, I’m just interested in if the audiobook version adds something to it compared to your experience reading the rest of the series. Did the format change help you get through it, was it more enjoyable, or was it just as bad for you as the others. If it sounds like an interesting experiment I’ll get you the audiobook version of Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet when it comes out on iTunes, Audible, or on CD.

          1. Sorry I have that problem sometimes too, I’m going to contact you on your contact page to so I can get format and email you want the book sent to.

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