What Have I Been Reading?
Here’s the blurb…
Once the night comes . . .
Will Thorne is living a nightmare, his sanity slowly being drained away by a force he can’t control. His talents have made him the perfect assassin for hire. But as he loses his grip on reality, there is no calming him-until he finds his next target: the mysterious Holly Evernight.
Love must cast aside the shadows
Holly cannot fathom who would put a contract on her life, yet the moment she touches Will, the connection between them is elemental, undeniable-and she’s the only one who can tame his bouts of madness. But other assassins are coming for Holly. Will must transform from killer to protector and find the man who wants Holly dead . . . or his only chance for redemption will be lost.
My thoughts…
I wanted to love this book. I really did. It’s by Kristen Callihan, so I knew it would be well-written. I’ve read other books in the series, so I knew I loved (LOVED!) her Victorian-steampunk-paranormal world. The hot bits are hot, and the cool bits are cool, but in the end, I only gave the story three stars.
Why?
Quick caveate: I’ve read a couple of other reviews that said variations of “well, this is a good book for a silly paranormal romance”, and yeah, I can sort of see that point. I have trouble with that attitude, though, because the book (and the series for that matter) takes itself pretty seriously. There’s not a lot of humor, or irony, or snarkiness, or other qualities that would make me cut it some slack. Because if a books going to take itself seriously, I’m going to review it seriously (and with spoilers, so be careful).
I’m going to start with a couple positives. I like Holly Evernight, the heroine, quite a bit. She’s smart and strong and she has that gift really intelligent people often have, the one where they never try to pretend because it simply never occurs to them not to be anything but themselves. At the start of the story she’s suffering from a fairly debilitating phobia as a result of trauma she suffered in book 4. She hasn’t been able to leave her house for a year, though she recovers – rather miraculously, thanks to Will, the hero – and pretty soon she’s (literally) kicking demon a$$. The moment when she confesses to Will that she’d hired a professional to relieve her of her virginity might have been my favorite in the whole book, and at the end she takes down the Big Bad too, saving the hero in the process. Kudos to Ms. Callihan for creating such a strong, interesting heroine.
I also liked the interaction between Holly and Will. He’s a Sanguis demon (read: vampire), and he’s gorgeously decadent- a sharp contrast to Holly’s intellectual restraint. The little snippet below is from Holly’s POV, right after she’s been in a fight with a demon…
Holly stopped short, grabbed hold of Thorne’s lapels, and hauled him close, setting him off balance. They both stumbled back, her shoulders meeting the cold wall of the tunnel. “Touch another one of my inventions without my express permission again, Mr. Thorne, and I’ll cut off your cods and feed them to the dogs.”
Heat flared in his eyes as his lips curled into a smile. Irritating man. He leaned into her, caging her smaller frame by bracing his arms against the wall on either side of her head. He watched her, not at all cowed but as if he’d soon gobble her up for his dinner. “We don’t own dogs, love.”
She gave him a little shake, wanting to push him away, yet somehow bringing those smiling lips closer. “I’ll bloody well purchase some then.” She let him go before she did something irrational, like kiss him.
Yeah, Holly, kissing Will Thorne could create all kinds of trouble, but it’s also kind of the whole point of the book. They finally do get to it, and as I mentioned at the beginning, the hot scenes work pretty well. Holly and Will are funny together, and the bond that grows between them is believable.
What is less believable is, well, the plot. Even by the sometimes creative standards of paranormal romance/urban fantasy, there were several moments that had me scratching my head. (Watch out for SPOILERS!) Why did Will go visit Jack Talent, then leave abruptly and go kill a bunch of people who had little to do with the proceedings? Why wasn’t there any mention of the Big Bad – Mab – until near the end of the book? And if Mab turned Will into a human, then started breaking his bones, how did he miraculously return to his Sanguis/platinum self when Holly destroyed Mab?
In addition to the plot quirks, I spent a good deal of time trying to connect all the relationship dots. I think having read the previous books was almost a handicap. A couple reviewers who hadn’t read the earlier books and thought Evernight worked fine as a stand-alone. I’m a reasonably intelligent person, and it hasn’t been that long since I read book 4 – it’s on my Pinterest page of books I’ve read this year – but I spent much of the first few chapters confused. The connections between the characters have become so complex, it’s hard to keep track of them anymore. I started this series with the second book, Moonglow, and had no problem figuring things out. But this one? Damn. Color me perplexed.
The changing points of view didn’t work particularly well for me, either. There’s a short bit from Syn’s POV near the beginning of the novel with very few clues as to WHO he is. Turns out, his older sisters starred in the first three books, and he definitely got mentioned, but it took me a while to put it together. I had this disoriented feeling, like I was watching the first episode of Buffy Season Five, the one where she has a little sister Dawn who hadn’t existed before. There was suddenly this character who had a relationship to Holly, Daisy, Poppy, and Miranda, and it took till midway through the book for me to stop feeling clueless.
So this wasn’t a bad book, but I think it could have been a better one. It’s worth reading simply because Holly Evernight is such a compelling character and her relationship with Will is a lot of fun. If the rest of the book had been as strong as the two main characters, it would have really rocked.
Let me know if you give it a read, and if you’re a fan of steampunk, suggest something for my TBR pile.
Thanks!
Liv
