Saint City Sinners (Dante Valentine, #4) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Dec 22, 2011 Patrick rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, book-series

So far, my favorite of the Dante Valentine series.

Perhaps it’s because I rushed through some of the previous books is why I couldn’t appreciate them as much. Saint City Sinners is the Dante Valentine novel I’ve come to appreciate the most. Like many of the other novels, it centers on Dante investigating a new case. This one, however, hits closer to home for her. Her two friends, Eddie and Gabe, have both been brutally murdered by the hands of an unknown assailant. Dante swears revenge on the kil So far, my favorite of the Dante Valentine series.

Perhaps it’s because I rushed through some of the previous books is why I couldn’t appreciate them as much. Saint City Sinners is the Dante Valentine novel I’ve come to appreciate the most. Like many of the other novels, it centers on Dante investigating a new case. This one, however, hits closer to home for her. Her two friends, Eddie and Gabe, have both been brutally murdered by the hands of an unknown assailant. Dante swears revenge on the killer.

The storyline isn’t 100% dedicated to Dante hunting down this killer. I’ve come to realize that the author does tend to stray from the main story a lot. Then again, it does give the story much-needed depth and allows the reader to see different character interactions and whatnot. While I do wish the main story had been developed and focuses a lot more, the story does have a way of staying fresh and interesting throughout. It doesn’t suddenly resolve its problem at the end, but does find a good balance between the main murder mystery and all of the side plots. It does cover a lot of ground including the little details as to how her sword was able to hurt Lucifer.

Somehow, I was able to fully appreciate the drama here. Dante has her usual disputes with Japh who seems to be acting quite out of the ordinary here. She also laments about how so many of her closest friends have died. (There is quite a bit of them.) However, the drama feels sincere and real. Despite her outer tough-chick persona, Dante’s quite emotional on the inside. While she does tend to complain too much for some people’s liking, the emotional tension does keep the story’s excitement afloat.

The story has quite a number of excellent cliffhangers and a lot of foreshadowing. Near the end of the book there are two major cliffhangers that beg for the next book to be started. I won’t try and spoil them, but Eve does make her much awaited reappearance and what Dante is looking for is not what she expects. The cliffhangers have always been strong throughout the series, but knowing that there is only one book left, I must admit that I was too suckered into wanting to find out what happens next.

I couldn’t think of much to say for this review, aside from keep up the good work Saintcrow!
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Aug 07, 2010 Grace rated it it was ok

Definitely not my favorite of the series. Dante complains a lot but not as much as she does in Saint City Sinners. I admit that I skipped some of her internal dialogue in which she repeats her constant conflicting emotions about Japh. I bought the entire series so I am going to try and finish the last book. I wanted to have more of Eve and the Devil but alas it was not so in this Dante installment. Hopefully, To Hell and Back successfully concludes the Dante series. If not, oh well. At least the ...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Cat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own

Danny finally got some balls and told Japh to bugger off. I was really glad to see that and enjoyed this book much better than the last one. Loved that she toughened up some and cant wait til the next book.

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