The second book of the Negotiator trilogy picks up soon after the end of Heart of Stone. Lawyer Margrit Knight has become all too entwined in the centuries-old threads that bind and strangle the Old Races in New York City. A slick vampire wants her to work as his assistant, a dragonlord pulls all the strings in the underworld, and if looks could kill, a djinn would have killed Margrit several times over. Then there is Alban the gargoyle, the being she loves, the one who will barely talk to her because he fears further contact will only imperil Margrit. That involvement happens, whether Alban wants it or not: the lost race, the Selkies, have returned and want a say, and Margrit is the best mediator for the job.

This series continues to delight me. I liked Margrit much more in this book - she lost some of the abrasive edge that made her unlikeable at the beginning of Heart of Stone. The cast of Old Races really brings heart to this book; it's full of haggling, manipulation, and political intrigue far beyond human comprehension, and I enjoyed seeing all of the major players come together. ( )

This is book 2 of The Negotiator Trilogy. I wasn't as in to this one as I was into Heart of Stone, but I think that had more to do with my own mental distractions than the storyline itself.

Margrit is still wrapped up in the world, and as is typical in part two of a trilogy things get more messy, complicated and violent. The shit hits the fan so to speak. Murphy does a good job keeping things interesting. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1123327.ht... ( )

Just got this in the mail not very long ago, so it wasn't exactly my fault that I didn't get around to this for such a long time, but... It works out for me, since the next one isn't going to be another couple of months, and now I won't have to wait nearly as long. So yes, I did enjoy this one, and it didn't disappoint when compared with where the first book left off, which is nice. It's not very often that a book doesn't disappoint when I’ve already set my expectations.

Anyway, the cover still doesn't quite match with the description of Margrit, but it doesn't matter much to me. The way it left off seemed to me like their relationship would have a rocky start at the beginning of the next book again, and now that she half agrees with her friend Cole, who's going to be the champion of the old races? After all, what made her special was that she refused to distinguish between the races and humans--if she loses that, she's no longer the heroine that's made all the readers cheer for her. I don't think I entirely got what made Alban that scary, which sort of made her reaction to him a little over the top.

As it is now, the next book is out in a month. It shouldn't hurt too much to wait for that one, and I wonder if that's the conclusion of the series. I would certainly hate for it to be, because I’m finding I like interspecies mixes in fantasy--not too much as to border on bestiality, but it seems nice for two different beings to come together and understand each other. I know Margrit is meant to make differences in Janx and Daisani's perspectives too, and can't wait till that happens.

P.S. - Is it just me, or does anyone else keep thinking of the spring water brand when they read the name Daisani? I do wonder at all their histories though, and how Daisani came to be. Curious stuff. A minor note though: there were a lot of spelling, sometimes grammar, errors throughout the book. I can't help but think that the copyeditor wasn't as awake as she should have been, or maybe that before the editor combed through this there were even more errors, hence why she missed some of these really obvious ones. I understand we're all human, but word processors do have a spell check option... ( )

I really enjoyed this book. The series continues to improve, and the characters are well defined and developing in new ways. ( )