'Tempt the Stars' Cassandra Palmer #6 by Karen Chance

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Being a goddess is a lot less fun than you might think. Especially when you’re only a half goddess, and you only found out about it recently, and you still don’t know what you’re doing half the time. And when you’ve just used your not-so-reliable powers to burglarize the booby-trapped office of a vampire mob boss.

Yeah, that part sucks.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Cassandra Palmer, aka the Pythia, the freshly minted chief seer of the supernatural world. After all, Cassie still has to save a friend from a fate worse than death, deal with an increasingly possessive master vampire, and prevent a party of her own acolytes from unleashing a storm of fury upon the world. Totally just your average day at the office, right?

‘Tempt the Stars’ is the 6^th book in Karen Chance’s ‘Cassandra Palmer’ series.

It’s been two years since fans last caught up with their favourite Pythia, Cassandra Palmer. Fans should go into this book remembering that even though it’s been a long wait and this is now the 6^th instalment, the timeline in the ‘Cassandra Palmer’ universe is still only a few weeks after the events of first book, ‘Touch the Dark’. I know – yikes! But this is an important aspect of the series to remember when you feel like grumbling about the lagging process in Cassie’s romantic entanglements with dark mage, Pritkin, and vampire “husband” Mircea. It’s also something to keep in mind when you think that this is a series with lots of time-travel elements that means the timeline has snapped and stretched like an elastic band over six books.

So, ‘Tempt the Stars’ kicks off where ‘Hunt the Moon’ ended – an epic battle saw Cassie’s bodyguard mage Pritkin (aka ‘Merlin’) sacrifice himself and he’s currently toiling away in hell working for his father, Rosier. Considering the way things heated up between Pritkin and Cassie in the last book, you can imagine that she’s pretty eager to drag him out of there ASAP.

The book takes place over two days – but that’s two days of backwards-forwards time travel and leaps to other dimensions (did I mention this series has a tricky timeline?). A whole host of new characters are introduced to a series that’s had pretty much the same, steady cast for six books – and ‘Tempt the Stars’ is all the better for these new introductions. Readers will also be pleased to learn a lot more about Cassie’s past in this book and exactly how little Cassie knows about herself because her parents were taken from her when he was so young.

I’m sad to say that Team Pritkin win the battle in this sixth instalment, and will be very pleased with themselves. If the book loses any points from me it’s because I remain a staunch Team Mircea fan-girl and he does not make an appearance in this book (the first he hasn’t appeared in since the beginning of the series!). I know that Chance released a third Dorina Basarab book last year, called ‘Fury's Kiss’, which I have not read yet. I’m hoping that Mircea’s absence in the latest Cassie Palmer is because he had a role to play in his daughter’s spin-off series, and as such I have bumped ‘Fury's Kiss’ up in my TBR pile (I need some sort of Mircea-fix!).

“I can get others to do what you do. They won’t be as good, but  .  .  . okay. It could work. But it doesn’t matter because no matter how good they are, they can’t replace you. They can’t because I don’t need you only for what you can do. I need you  .  .  . for you.” 

I always recommend the Cassie Palmer series to urban fantasy newcomers, and ‘Tempt the Stars’ just goes to show why. From ‘Touch the Dark’ to now, these characters and their relationships have come so far and gone through so many transformations together and now we’re into the sixth book and those relationships are starting to come to a calamitous, fascinating head. I can’t wait for more Cassie, and just hope it wont be two years until we meet again!

4/5  

'Hunt the Moon' Cassandra Palmer #5 by Karen Chance

From the BLURB:

Cassandra Palmer recently defeated a god, which you'd think would buy a girl a little time off. But it doesn't work that way when your new job description is Pythia — the world's chief clairvoyant. Cassie is busier than ever, trying to learn about her power, preparing for her upcoming coronation, and figuring out her relationship with the enigmatic sexy master vampire, Mircea.

But someone doesn't want Cassie to become Pythia, and is willing to go to any lengths to make sure the coronation ceremony never happens—including attacking her mother before Cassie is even born.

Two months ago Cassie Palmer was crowned Pythia of the supernatural realm. Now Cassie is seer to every fantastical community in the world today – vampires, mages and fey – it’s Cassie’s job to keep track of the past, present and future for all of them. Sure, there have been a few hiccups along the way – like Cassie’s accidental mating (marrying) to a vampire master of the Senate, her child-hood crush, Mircea. Not to mention that pesky God who tried to kill her . . .

But now all Cassie needs to worry about is her coronation. She gets to wear a pretty dress, smile for the paparazzi and begin her official reign as Pythia. . .

Except that this is Cassie Palmer. The words ‘safe’ and ‘easy’ are no longer in her vocabulary. Even with her ‘husband’ Mircea guarding her 24/7, and her dark mage, Pritkin, on body-guard duty, Cassie still finds a way to get into trouble. This time in the form of a possession – someone or something has control of Cassie’s body, and she’s trying to kill herself. When research into her enemies uncovers ties to Greek, Norse and Hindu mythology, Cassie must stretch her Pythia abilities beyond the limit . . .

‘Hunt the Moon’ is the fifth book in Karen Chance’s ‘Cassandra Palmer’ series.

We haven’t had a Cassie Palmer book since 2009. Unfortunately, Karen Chance had a few medical problems that had her running behind schedule on the series, and unable to promote the books. So 2011 is a glorious return for our girl Cassie – and she has been sorely missed. Reading ‘Hunt the Moon’ is enjoyment unto itself for being such a frolicking, helter-skelter joy ride. . . but more than that it’s just plain wonderful to catch up with these old friends who have been sorely missed.

The ‘Cassie Palmer’ series is always on full-throttle. From book one, ‘Touch the Dark’, Cassie has been on the run. First from her mob-boss vampire guardian, Tony, and then from the many and varied supernatural beings who were unhappy with her new Pythia status. Each book has followed the same peddle-to-the-metal speedy storyline; in fact, there’s a moment in ‘Hunt the Moon’ when Cassie reflects on her hectic life of late, and she states that she has only been Pythia for two months. Two months! From book one to this, the fifth instalment; the entire timeline trajectory has been two months . . . that’s a short bout of time to stretch over five books. But somehow Karen Chance does it seamlessly. Cassie is forever on the run, avoiding death and escaping enemies – she never stands still, but the adrenaline of the series is part of the charm. Everything seems heightened and grandiose in light of all Cassie’s impending dangers. And because Cassie can jump ahead and back in time (one of her many Pythia powers) the timeline feels quite malleable and never stunted (trust me, it was a shock to read that by book five, we’re still only two months into Cassie’s story!).

‘Hunt the Moon’ rides pretty closely on the coattails of ‘Curse the Dawn’. At the end of the fourth book we learnt some interesting factoids about beloved character (and one of Cassie’s romantic contenders), the mage Pritkin. We leant more about Pritkin’s past as Merlin (yes, the Merlin!) and his heritage as an incubus. Following those character clues, this fifth book delves even deeper into Pritkin’s past, and his evolving relationship with Cassie . . . since the beginning of the series Chance has written two very convincing love interests for Cassie. The first is Pritkin, someone who started out prickly and was one of Cassie’s biggest nay-sayers, but who has evolved into a viable love interest for our girl. Fans who are firmly entrenched in Team Pritkin will LOVE this fifth book for the baby-steps she takes in deepening Pritkin and Cassie’s connection.

The second romantic alternative is Mircea – Cassie’s childhood crush and current vampire husband. Now, fans should know by now that Karen Chance likes to keep Cassie’s romance neck-and-neck, so as much as Cassie’s relationship with Pritkin is altering, so too is her relationship with Mircea deepening. In this book Chance keeps Team Mircea happy by offering up some seriously sizzling sex scenes, and a show of trust between Cassie and her vampire husband. But for all that their relationship is coming leaps and bounds, you can tell that a long talk between Cassie and Mircea is long overdue, especially when his protectiveness becomes almost stifling, and Cassie feels like en eleven-year-old under his watch;

"It is not the same! You are this." He gripped my arms, hard enough to bruise. "You are flesh, soft and sweet and yielding and vulnerable. You need protection, but I can't -"

"Mircea! They've been trying to kill me for three days and I'm still here."

"Due to luck!"

I stared at him. "Then I must be the luckiest person alive!"

He just looked at me, and I'd never seen that expression on his face before, like he was really going to lose it. There was something going on here, some issue I didn't understand. But there was no time to figure it out.

"I have to fix this," I told him, as clearly and calmly as I could. "If you want to help me, then help me. Don't shield me, don't protect me, don't bury me alive. Help me."

I must admit that I have always been pretty firmly entrenched in Team Mircea – I quite like that he’s dark and mysterious, suave and seasoned. I enjoy Pritkin as an amusing and combustible character, but I have never been entirely convinced of him as a romantic interest for Cassie. However after reading ‘Hunt the Moon’ I am now utterly torn as to who I want Cassie to end up with. After a certain steamy scene I can now picture Pritkin as a romantic hero; and while I am still smitten with Mircea, I can now more firmly understand Cassie’s future love dilemma.

If I have any complaints about ‘Hunt the Moon’ it’s that there is a lot of action. I mean, a LOT. This wouldn’t be so bad, except that so much kick-butt action means pages and pages of summary. Pages of Cassie describing a fight that takes place on train tracks, and then inside train carriages; running around Piccadilly and a ballroom stampede. Now, I like the action and the storyline certainly calls for such high-octane scenes, but Chance’s action scenes don’t always flow. . . sometimes they seem stilted and clunky and overly descriptive until numerous pages of adrenaline become exhausting to read (to the point that you hope for a nice, quiet scene in which the characters just chat. Maybe have a cup of tea.) To be fair, I only believe this of Chance’s more complex, multi-character action scenes. My favourite moment in ‘Hunt the Moon’ comes early on, when Cassie is wrestling with her possessed body as she tries to drown herself in a bathtub. This scene was nuanced and chilling; Chance wrote it beautifully so that it had a claustrophobic and cinematic quality. Perfection.

‘Hunt the Moon’ is Cassie Palmer’s grand re-entrance. After a year-long hiatus Karen Chance has bought our beloved psychic back; and she’s better than ever. Her love life is complicated, ten-fold. Her body is possessed and demi-gods are out to kill her – so situation normal for our girl Cass. ‘Hunt the Moon’ is a deliciously frantic fight for Cassie’s life as her role of Pythia gets her in trouble, yet again. I have missed Cassie, so this fifth instalment is a welcome return for a beloved urban fantasy author in a series that I hope has no end in sight!

4/5

'Deaths Mistress: Dorina Basarab #2' by Karen CHANCE

From the BLURB:

Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. Subject to uncontrollable rages, most dhampirs live very short, very violent lives. So far, Dory has managed to maintain her sanity by unleashing her anger on those demons and vampires who deserve killing.
Back home in Brooklyn after the demise of her insane uncle Dracula, Dory’s hoping her life is about to calm down. But then she gets some visitors. A friend wants Dory’s help in finding a magical Fey relic, and the gorgeous vampire, Louis-Cesare, is desperate to find his former mistress Christine.

Dory and Louis-Cesare quickly discover that the same master vampire Christine is bound to is also rumored to be in possession of the relic. But when the master vampire turns up dead, they realize that there’s more at stake than a missing mistress. Someone is killing vampire Senate members, and if Dory and Louis-Cesare can’t stop the murderer, they may be next…

This is the second book in Karen Chance’s series ‘Dorina Basarab’, which is a spin-off of her popular Urban Fantasy series ‘Cassandra Palmer’.

One problem I have with Karen Chance is her penchant for a very slow beginning. I don’t know why, but all of her books seem to stall in the beginning – usually by having her title character carry out some menial task that has her flying solo for the first 60 pages or so before the cast of secondary characters burst onto the scene. The same thing happens in ‘Death’s Mistess’ as we read about Dorina going on a vampire-hunt sanctioned by the vampire senate and her father, Mircea.

It feels like ‘Deaths Mistess’ stalls more than any of Chance’s other books because a certain French vampire hottie is noticeably absent for the first 100 pages or so. Louis-Cesare is mentioned in passing and on Dorina’s mind, but he takes too long to make an appearance and it felt like the first half of the book was just a slow wind-up to that cameo. On the upside, when Louis-Cesare does enter stage right it’s a doozy as he and Droina pretty much pick up where they abruptly left off in ‘Midnigt’s Daughter’.

He grasped my hips, holding me tight as it went on and on, bright shock waves radiating outward to my skin, like my body was a live-wire that kept pulsing with pleasure. My hands fell away after a moment, too weak to hold on. He laid me back against the desk, kissing my neck under my sweat-slicked hair. My eyes slipped closed on a satisfied, groaning sigh.

“If that was hello, you need to go away more often,” I told him shakily.

I struggled with the storyline of this book. There’s lots of action and many over-lapping storylines as various vampires are murdered and runes stolen. It’s a lot to take in and a bit difficult to explain because of Chance’s penchant for summary over scene. What saves the book is secondary characters like Louis-Cesare and a beheaded vampire called Ray. But especially Dorina’s father, Mircea.

One of the reasons I enjoy this spin-off series so much is because of the character development of Dorina’s father (and Vlad Tepes brother) Mircea. Even though Mircea is lover to Cassie in her title series, he is still very much an enigma to readers of the ‘Cassie Palmer’ books. In ‘Dorina Basarab’ Karen Chance takes more time to flesh Mircea out and reveal more about his past – and in ‘Death’s Mistress’ we learn plenty about Mircea and his relationship to Dorina’s mother. I love the character development, but it’s making me impatient for Mircea to open up more to Cassie in that series. I can only hope all these little tidbits about him in ‘DB’ mean he’s ready to open up to Cassie the same way he has to Dorina.

The big question on most reader’s minds is ‘do Dorina and Cassie meet in this book’? Answer – no. BUT for the first time Cassie and her relationship to Mircea is hastily discussed (but not in any detailed way that makes sense to Dorina who overhears the convo). There were references to Dorina and her mother in the 4th Cassie book ‘Curse the Dawn’ – and I think all these sly mentions are leading up to a Dorina/Cassie crossover. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on reader’s parts, because the idea of wise cracking Cassie Palmer coming face to face with her lover’s lunatic daughter is just too good to pass up, surely? At this point I think fans of both series are biting their nails for a Cassie/Dorina meeting – and if we don’t get it soon I think interest will wane. Especially because Karen Chance announced on her website that there would be no fifth Cassie Palmer book until Summer 2011 (due to health problems).

Chance has tried to pacify fans by promising them at least 4 short stories told from various character perspectives (Pritkin, Mircea, Claire & Francoise so far). These short stories will be free and available from Chance’s website, the first is Pritkin’s story and will be released on March 31st.
But even with this appeasement I think Chance fans will be disappointed if the third Dorina and fifth Cassie book don’t have a crossover meeting of the two heroines.

I didn’t love this second installment. There’s a lot of action to keep track of and many overlapping plot lines. I appreciated the fact that Chance delves deeper into Mircea’s background, but I’ll be mightily pissed if all those character revelations don’t lead to a Dorina/Cassie crossover in the fifth Cassie and third Dorina.

3/5

'Cassandra Palmer' series by Karen CHANCE

‘Touch the Dark’ from the BLURB:

Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits-talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead. The ghosts of the dead aren't usually dangerous; they just like to talk...a lot.

The undead are another matter.

Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires. But when the bloodsucking Mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection. The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire-and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay...

When we meet Cassie in ‘Touch the Dark’ she has been in hiding for 3 years from the vampire master who kept her under lock and key throughout her childhood. The vampire used her ‘seer’ gifts for his own financial gains, and since running away and hiding from him, Cassie is sure that when he finds her he will kill her. As readers we are thrown right into the thick of the action – just like Cassie herself as an ordinary day turns into her worst nightmare when a mysterious message arrives telling her she has been found. From that moment on the pace of each book is high-speed, as Cassie’s magic matures and strengthens and more people become interested in owning her powers.

Cassie is a great character. Reading her adventures and near-misses you get the impression that she is holding onto her sanity by a string – juggling all of the curve balls life is throwing at her, hoping to hell she can just get through the day without a major catastrophe. She isn’t your typical kick-ass female lead. She’s clumsy, scared, a little bit naïve, and utterly ill-equipped to deal with her newfound powers. But she’s also determined to put on a brave face and ‘fake it till she makes it’. It’s great to read Cassie’s inner doubts in contrast to her ballsy attitude when dealing with the vampire community. Best of all she also enjoys a good whinge now and again. Cassie is at her funniest when she is fed-up and cursing lady fate – and it’s refreshing to read a powerful UF protagonist have a minor melt down; it humanizes and endears them to me.

This UF series also has one steamy love triangle at its centre. First, there’s Mircea – brother to the infamous Vlad Tepes (Dracula) who is also one of the most powerful masters in the vampire senate. Cassie has known Mircea (and had a crush on him) since she was a little girl.

Then there’s Mage (magician) Pritkin – initially sworn to kill Cassie for her affiliation with the vampires, he eventually (luke)warms to her and begrudgingly agrees to teach her to use her newfound powers.

Both romances are extremely sparky – and fans of the series are divided on who is more deserving of Cassie’s affections. Karen Chance clearly loves toying with her readers when it comes to writing ‘will they or won’t they’ for Cassie’s men – and it is great fun to get sucked into the triangle.

Warm lips found my neck. “The only humans here tonight are entertainment and food,” he murmured, a husky whisper in the dark. “Which are you?”

At first glance the Cassandra Palmer series isn’t that much different from lots of other Urban Fantasies currently knocking around. The ingredients may be similar, but it’s how Chance mixes it all together that makes this series so worthwhile. The added element of ‘time travel’ to a vampire-heavy story is also really fascinating to read. The time travel aspects gets a little more complicated as the books progress, but it’s clear that Chance knows where her series is going and the overall story arc for Cassie - so you don't mind tagging along for a sometimes bumpy ride.

I love this series; it is one of my favourites. Chance started a spin-off in 2008 called ‘Dorina Basarab, Dhampir’ which is a bit darker and a great read for Mircea fans. Highly recommend if you are a lover of urban fantasy (with a dash of paranormal romance).

5/5