From the Bookshelf of The MacHalo Asylum for Mischief and Mayhem (MAM²)…

Grave Visions (Alex Craft, #4)

Kalayna Price

Start date: February 12, 2016

Finish date: February 29, 2016

Discussion: Fantasy and Sci-Fi

Why we're reading this: New release.
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What Members Thought

Jan 22, 2014 Choko rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, i-see-dead-people, kick-ass-ladies

*** 3.75 ***

A buddy read with my friends at the MacHalos:-)

After all the waiting, we finally got our continuation of the Grave series! What is bad about letting so much time elapse is that people grow distant from the characters... In order not to feel like strangers with Alex and her Fae, the MacHalo Freaks did a re-read of the previous 3 books just on time for the release of the 4th one. This definitely helped and it was easy to get back into the world of humans, Fae and magic coexisting in al *** 3.75 ***

A buddy read with my friends at the MacHalos:-)

After all the waiting, we finally got our continuation of the Grave series! What is bad about letting so much time elapse is that people grow distant from the characters... In order not to feel like strangers with Alex and her Fae, the MacHalo Freaks did a re-read of the previous 3 books just on time for the release of the 4th one. This definitely helped and it was easy to get back into the world of humans, Fae and magic coexisting in almost harmony... Almost is the operative word, of course.

The book picks up about a month after the previous one ends. Alex is getting used to the realization that she is a Fae and despite that, she stands firm on her decision to stay in the mortal world and not commit to a Fae Court. Those Courts are still vying for her attention and want her skills for their own. She is a Plane Weaver and such has not been born in a very long time.

Alex and her friends are dealing with another mystery this time around and it has to do with a new drug killing the mundane citizens who take it in very dramatic ways. Apart from this, Fae are dying in Fairy and the Winter Quin wants Alex on the case. Said queen has already made her Knight live in Alex's house and observe her at all times. This is a problem for Alex, since he is her somewhat of an ex and maybe current love interest, which complicates things with her now boyfriend (although I have a real issue with that), the Reaper whom she calls Death (for goodness graces, she doesn't even know his name!!!). There is also the complication, of which she learns at this time, that she has been engaged since birth to a dude in the Shadow Court... Lovely! And we were not happy with the love triangle...

The good things about this book are as always the ease of writing and the cool world of magic and Fae creatures. My issues are with Alex. She has become tooooo.....hmmm... timid, that is what it is, kind of placid and timid, when she used to be more kick-ass than this... I miss that... I also miss friendly, talkative Falin. What happened with him? He is all grunts and warnings, no fun left to him at all... It is kind of sad to take the fun out of them like that... The banter is gone and there is mostly Alex musing over everything and running around wandering what is going on... Death, hmmmmm, I think this ship has passed... There is no spark between them, no matter how much she calls him "her boyfriend". But this is my opinion only. All this said, it is not a bad read, just not as good as the previous ones. I also think that this is a transitional book, a set-up for things to come, and very few authors do this well, so I give her a pass. She will need some adjustment period after so much time not writing, but I am very happy to have this series back!!!

I hope we get more wonderful books in this series and I hope you all enjoy reading them!!! Happy reading! ...more

38 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2019, for-review-read, books-i-own-print, books-i-own-kindle

I think it was the very long break between the release of Grave Visions and the previous book that led to me loosing track of this series the first time I started reading it but I'm really glad I discovered these books again as it's such a fun series to read. Anyway, I'm glad that I reread the previous three books before jumping into this one because there was just so much I'd forgotten about both the world and the main characters.

This story sees Alex working two different cases that are possibl I think it was the very long break between the release of Grave Visions and the previous book that led to me loosing track of this series the first time I started reading it but I'm really glad I discovered these books again as it's such a fun series to read. Anyway, I'm glad that I reread the previous three books before jumping into this one because there was just so much I'd forgotten about both the world and the main characters.

This story sees Alex working two different cases that are possibly connected in ways she can't even begin to imagine. Firstly she's still dealing with the fallout of learning that she's half fae and the fact that she has to choose a court to belong to. She's desperate to avoid joining the Winter Court but unless she can get the queen to agree to Alex living in her territory as an independent she will be forced to move away from Nekros City. As Alex has rare abilities the Winter Queen is reluctant to lose her skills entirely but she reluctantly agrees to give Alex independent status IF she finds out who killed one of the Queen's handmaidens.

At the same time she's looking into a string of increasingly bizarre deaths in the city, where the victims have injuries that just don't make any sense. When she discovers the cause is a new street drug that causes the victim's hallucinations to become temporarily real she knows it is vital to uncover who is behind the drug and find a way to stop them. But with the Queen giving her a deadline on her murder investigation and her own increasing ill health things are getting really complicated.

I really enjoyed the investigation side of this story, there's a lot going on and it's interesting watching Alex try to come to grips with her newly discovered fae heritage and how that affects her daily life. I am hoping we'll get a resolution in terms of the love triangle soon though. I like Falin and we see a lot more of him in this book but his ties to the Winter Queen, and the fact that he has already betrayed her once because of those ties, make it very hard to trust him. There's a big gulf between them right now and I don't see any way for them to bridge it unless he somehow manages to break away from the Winter Queen and I really don't see that happening. I actually prefer her with Death anyway but her relationship with him is just as impossible, if not even more so. I just wish Alex didn't hold herself at quite such a distance from everyone, her friends included, I want to see her opening up more and letting people in even though I understand why she's so scared of doing that.

The last few paragraphs of this book were hilarious and have definitely left Alex with a lot of explaining to do so I can't wait to see the fallout in the next book. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Oct 27, 2012 Kira rated it really liked it

Shelves: ghosts, love-triangle, urban-fantasy, magic, witches, fae

3.5 stars

After waiting years, this did not disappoint although it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for either. Alex’s life was still a mess. There were serious complications with the two men in her life. Her relationship with her father was strained. Discovering she was fae made her life very complicated.

Alex discovered that she had get a connection to Faerie or her life wouldn’t last long, but she didn’t want to tie herself to any court. The only way to gain her independence was to take a job f 3.5 stars

After waiting years, this did not disappoint although it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for either. Alex’s life was still a mess. There were serious complications with the two men in her life. Her relationship with her father was strained. Discovering she was fae made her life very complicated.

Alex discovered that she had get a connection to Faerie or her life wouldn’t last long, but she didn’t want to tie herself to any court. The only way to gain her independence was to take a job from the Winter Queen. The case she worked on was really interesting. People were dying in some bizarre ways, and all of the evidence wasn’t congruent. Alex was needed to raise the shades to find out what really happened. I was surprised to find out who was behind it all. This was my favorite mystery in the series so far.

Not much progress was made with Alex’s personal life. She is aware of the fact that she is afraid of commitment. She’s probably afraid of being abandoned since many of the people in her life left her for one reason or another. She has strong issues with Falin and Death, much of which is due to circumstances outside of everyone’s control. There are ways she could be closer to them and learn more about them, but ultimately she chooses not to. Alex rarely asks personal questions or gets into deep conversations. It’s aggravating that she expects them to pour their hearts out to her when she constantly holds back from them. Her inability for form deep relationships extends to her friends and family. She doesn’t tell them anything until she absolutely has to. I’d like to see some growth in all of her relationships.

The love triangle took a backseat to the mystery. Falin had plenty of page time. He and Alex spent a fair amount of time together, but they interacted as little as possible. Falin wasn’t acting like normal. My guess is he wanted to keep his distance as much as he could so there would be less to report to the queen. They got along fairly well considering the circumstances, but I can’t say things improved between them either. Death was barely around, so there was no development there. Now a new guy has been thrown into the mix making this a love quadrangle.

Nothing was resolved with any of the overarching issues, but this was entertaining. I read the whole book in one sitting. It didn’t drag in some parts like some of the other books have. The world building is good. The more she learns about the world the more questions are raised about it, but I want some answers.
...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2016 Vanessa *the Pixie Princess* rated it really liked it

Another buddy read with some of the MacHalos!
3 1/2 stars. I like this series and this installment was good. I liked the mystery, the ending just fell a little flat for me. And we still have the love triangle (view spoiler) although I think it was more subdued in this one. Alex is still trying to figure out the court politics and how she fits in as a fae and I enjoyed reading about it.
I'll be reading the next one to see where this is all going!

...more

2 likes · Like · see review