Help - If anyone has read Touch the Dark, I am so confused!

[~Leslie~]

I am reading Touch the Dark right now and while enjoying it, I am totally lost in this world. If anyone has read this series and would like to converse - I would love some help.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

Lol, if you mean the first book of the Cassandra Palmer series...the story has some bends and twists. The second book is so much straight forward and moves smoothly.

[~Leslie~]

Yes, I do mean the first book. I plan on reading the 2nd book this month as well, and all the reviews say it is much more straightforward. I am just lost in the UF infodump at the moment. I like the writing and it is definitely intriguing, but OMG.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

The flashback were the worst for me (rather long and too descriptive). It's no surprise that Cassie's gift grows and let's just say that when she start participating rather than simply looking....the story flows way better.

There is also her other series (Dorina one) that takes place in between the Cassie story line. You get to see Mircea and Louis-Cesar from another perspective too. Better read up to book 2-3 before starting the other series because of mild spoilers.

[Lenore]

Keep with these books though. Like many series the first has some major issues that the sequel clears up on. They only get better! And just in! She's writing another Cassie Palmer coming out in October!! Squeee!

[~Leslie~]

I'm just confused - I'm confused about the whole thing to do with Pythia, I'm confused as to what happened when she was in Vegas. I'm confused about the different courts. I'm at 90% done now - I'm a little annoyed that the sex with Mircea got interrupted. That relationship was a surprise!
I'm glad that I have to read the second one this month because of a challenge. Otherwise I would probably put this one aside for awhile.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

It's one of my favorite series. About the Mircea interruption bit....well it's UF so you did not expect to have a steamy sex scene so soon in the series did you? The wait, the build up so so much more enjoyable. Don't worry, Cassie gets it at some point in time.

[Sally]

Love this series! I mostly listen to it and the Dorina books and love them too.

[Sara]

I felt lost in the first book as well. it pulls together on the second book but honestly I'm constantly trying to catch up yo this work. regardless I love the constant action. there are many books that branch off which is cool. john has some stories also.

[Geli]

I read that a while ago. And like you was confused. There were just too many characters and each one has a backstory.

[~Leslie~]

It's good to know that everyone was so confused. And no, Val, I wasn't expecting a sex scene so soon since it is UF, you are right! And then it looked like I was going to get one. But there was some creepiness to it - the part about her sitting on his lap at 11 was a little icky.
I'm glad that I am reading the second one so soon after the first. I've heard good things about that one.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

@Leslie, the second book will shed some light about the relationship between Mircea and Cassie.

[Alison]

I just started reading this, but had read the Dorina books first. Maybe that's helping me to follow this a little bit? Or maybe I just haven't gotten far enought into it!

[Kamil]

Leslie wrote: "I'm just confused - I'm confused about the whole thing to do with Pythia, I'm confused as to what happened when she was in Vegas. I'm confused about the different courts. I'm at 90% done now - I'm ..."

The Pytia was an oracle devoted to the greek god Apollo, and her powers had to do whith her chastity yet ( you've probably read it already) the oracle was fed of the whole thing and wanted to " experience life".
The flashbacks and body-swapping were annoying, yet were necessary to show the dormient powers in Cassie.
In vegas her powers awakened and all the powerfull and un-immaginable beings could feel it, and one tried to sway her to the dark side

[Travis]

I enjoyed the book, but she definitely had some issues with exposition in the info dump scenes of which there were several.

My take on it: Cassie has a number of different factions of vampires warlock/witches and shifters that all want control of her and her gifts for various reasons, or they would rather kill her if they can't control her. A pretty good setup for lots of tension and conflict.

Cassie is clairvoyant empowered with the ability to time-travel within her visions. Through the convoluted but entertaining discovery process we find out Cassie has the ability to change the past by physically manifesting while in the midst of a clairvoyant vision. She can also inhabit another person's body in that time.

So we get the paradoxical development of her remembering one version of events while others do not, because the changes she made changed history, if only a very slight change.

The question of chastity, whether or not Cassie was to remain chaste in order to retain her gifts adds a nice touch of sexual tension to the mix. But Cassie doesn't seem to really have a clue if she's coming or going in the sex department. She is young, virgin, and being seduced by a centuries old scoundrel vampire. Her chances of evading Mircea's skilled manipulations are pretty slim.

It's a very complex world in the scheme of Urban Fantasy world building, but she hooked me enough to want to read the rest of the series. I will get to it eventually, someday.

I am just enough of a UF addict, that I am willing to look past the info dump issues to enjoy the storyline anyways.