Agave Kiss

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Associate Reviewer - Kathy M:
*Copy received from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Agave Kiss, Ann Aguirre’s 5th book in her Corine Solomon Novel series, is an action packed, emotional ride that keeps the readers on the edge of their seats.

Corine has a lot to do and only a short amount of time in which to do it. Somehow she must find a way to release a friend from a curse, rescue her guardian angel, and bring her lover back from the dead. Oh, and she has to do it without her magic. Needless to say,Corine has her hands full. And if she can keep herself from getting killed in the process, just maybe she will be able to accomplish it all and find her HEA.

Agave Kiss has a lot of stuff packed into 309 pages. As Corine finds herself overwhelmed, I found myself sometimes also overwhelmed. But despite that fact, I did enjoy this book.

LITERAL ADDICTION's Associate Reviewer gives Agave Kiss 4 skulls. ( )

I don't use star ratings, so please read my review!

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“Chance was gone; he’d sacrificed himself so Shannon and I could escape Sheol. We’d raised him on Shan’s spirit radio, which meant his soul wasn’t wholly destroyed by the demon gate….

Once Corine Solomon only had the touch—the ability to read an object’s past by handling it. Then she inherited her mother’s magick, and that ended up being a hell of a burden. But if Corine can wrestle a demon queen and win, she can bring back her lover Chance after he’s made the ultimate sacrifice. Can’t she? All Corine knows is that she can’t leave Chance behind if there’s anything she can do about it.

But the clock is ticking—and she still has to deal with debt-collecting demons and a maniacal archangel who’s running a recruitment drive. The stakes have never been so high…and this time it’s truly Corine’s last chance to save the love of her life.”

This book wrapped up the series fairly well. In the last novel, Chance died, but there was some hope of resurrecting him and finally letting him and Corine be together for good. That’s what takes up the lion’s share of this book: the search for a way to bring back Chance. Given that the series began with the two of them and their tumultuous relationship, putting the focus on them at the end works well to close out the story.

There are, however, some side trips on the way to this conclusion. The biggest one is a side plot involving Booke, Corine’s enigmatic English friend. He is much more than we’ve been led to believe until now, and he plays a key part in the final outcome of the novel. I would have liked it more if he’d shown up before the final book, because the story feels a bit rushed with trying to cover his story and Chance’s at the same time. Another side plot involves Kel and circumstances surrounding his servitude to the higher powers. Again, this is a lot to cram into one novel.

It is, however, nice to see Corine and all of her friends working together, rather than Corine going off on her own and only finding allies incidentally. Everybody pulls together in this book to create the feeling that Corine has a family that will stand by her no matter what. This is most evident at the climax, when one final effort is made to bring Chance back to the world of the living.

I also liked the little moments of humor and normalcy (for varying values of “normal”) that Aguirre includes. My favorite ones involve Butch the Chihuahua. Quite a bit smarter than a normal dog, he communicates using Scrabble tiles and he definitely has a big-dog attitude. The party at Chuch and Eva’s house was also a nice touch, allowing the characters to interact without being in the middle of a crisis.

Even though I wish some of the sub-plots had been dealt with before the last novel, I still enjoyed reading them. Agave Kiss is a great wrap-up to an interesting and action-packed series.

This review originally appeared on Owlcat Mountain on April 1, 2013,

My Review: 9 - Couldn't Put It Down

Funny, because until I saw Ann Aguirre update her Facebook page, I didn't realize that Agave Kiss was the last in the Corine Solomon series. So if you haven't started this series yet, don't start here! Aguirre's urban fantasy has definitely been quite enjoyable. Admittedly, it took me a bit to warm up to the debut, but I was so enthralled with her Sirantha Jax space opera series that I was bound to feel that way. Yet there's so much that's wonderful in the Corine Solomon books. My favorite? Butch the chihuahua. He answers yes or no questions with a given set of barks, and he also talks to the characters using Scrabble tiles. It's awesome. Butch is more than welcome in my imaginary fantasy home (which also includes a rose goblin and Aeslin mice).

At any rate, this is definitely a finale. Still reeling from the events that capped book four, Devil's Punch, Corine ends up on a path that definitely resolves arcs and subplots, sometimes giving me answers to questions I never knew I had. We finally meet Booke. We finally met Kel's boss. And Corine learns the value of friendship and family in a way that you know puts her on a better path. There's sacrifice, some predicable plot twists, but damn if I didn't enjoy it all the same. I had a horrible time putting the book down once I got started, so it was just as well that I had the weekend to read it. Fans of this series won't be disappointed.

One last note: the covers to this series have been so boring and bland for me. Devil's Punch is, by far, the bright and shining jewel of the bunch, and I figured after THAT awesome cover, that Agave Kiss would be just as awesome, if not more so. Nope, not so much. We're back to the weird, just-obvious-enough, Photoshop blandness. ( )

I'm always so sad when a series ends. Corine has had many ups and downs throughout her life and AGAVE KISS rounds everything up and throws everything out there.

The events of AGAVE KISS start up immediately after DEVIL'S PUNCH. Events move at a pretty nice pace from start to finish without any downtime for the characters. Corine's newest situation was apparent to me from the beginning but I still enjoyed her ups and downs until she realized what was going on. I loved that we finally get to KNOW Brooks. He has been in the background for a while now and it was great to have him front and center. We had all our favorite characters in the final installment. Everyone comes together to help Corine and everyone who makes it to the end is closer because of it. I don't always agree with things that have happened in the series but in the end I didn't have a huge issue with any of it.

She lost, she gained, she cried, she laughed, she conquered. I was happy with how everything ended. Everything was tied up nicely and Aguirre ended the series on a nice note. ( )