Susan Krinard

In the second Roaring Twenties novel, newspaper reporter Gwen Murphy is investigating the mysterious death of three men at the New York City docks. A strange man saves her from nearly drowning and takes her home with him. She thinks he’s a vagrant since he’s a little dirty and living at the waterfront in an abandoned warehouse, but he’s different from most homeless men she’s met.
Former mob enforcer Dorian Black survived the gunfight in the previous book and has been living in show more self-imposed isolation for a few months. He’s severed all ties with the vampires in the city and suffers from bouts of uncontrollable madness for a few days of each month. After he saves Gwen, he tries to push her away, fearing he could hurt her, but she’s tenacious in wanting to help him.
I absolutely loved this story.
Gwen and Dorian have a strong connection despite their blood bond. She’s strong-willed, open-minded, and giving to a fault. She works in a male-dominated profession and is determined to be seen as an equal, and she goes about it with sophistication and intelligence.
Dorian is protective over his few loved ones, but he’s wracked with guilt. He’d blindly followed and obeyed Raoul, his patron and the vampire who’d converted him, for decades and each act of violence chipped away at his soul. Gwen shouldered his pain and hopelessness, and gave him something to fight for.
Their friendship bloomed quickly. Though they desired one another, neither really acted on it. I mean, the first and only sex scene is in the Epilogue, but waiting for this union made sense because he needed to work through his problems first and they needed the extra time to really understand one another. Despite the lack of actual sex scenes, there was a lot of sexual tension and I could really feel their growing love and acceptance for one another.
There weren’t as many secondary characters/side plots in this story as there were in the previous book, which made this story tighter and faster paced. Vampires, not werewolves and human gangs, were the primary focus.
One thing I just don’t understand after reading the first two books of this trilogy is why vampires need permission from older, more powerful vampires to create new vampires, called protégés. I understand too many vampires in one area would alert the humans and cause problems, but why must vampires earn the privilege to create protégés when it’s a natural need for them to procreate?
Anyway, I really enjoyed this story.
4.5 Stars show less

I was working in a bookstore at the time this came out, and I snatched it up immediately. I was a huge fan of Hamilton at the time, of her Anita Blake series in particular, and I had just recently began reading and loving Robb's In Death series.

This book began my disappointment with Hamilton. First off, her story here, "Magic Like Heat Across My Skin", isn’t a stand-alone; it’s the first hundred pages of her next novel. It doesn’t even really have an ending here. The hundred pages just show more end where that chapter ends, and then there’s a little note at the bottom of the page informing the reader that the story will continue in the novel Narcissus in Chains coming out later that year. I finished reading it thinking what a cop-out this was.

I did purchase and read the Narcissus novel when it published, and that’s were the last of my enjoyment with Anita Blake went away. I got rid of my copy of that book, so I can’t leave a review for it specifically, but there was one scene that really stood out to me because of how poorly written it was. It wasn’t even a sex scene (I was fine with those, in this book at least); it was a scene were where Anita was confused about S&M terminology, asked what the word “top” meant, and had it defined for her... and then the same scene was repeated nearly word-for-word two hundred pages later. Argh — I despised the shoddiness of the writing, and Hamilton, her editor, and her proofreader all should have caught that duplication before the novel ran to press. Leaving it in just drives home that either Anita is too stupid to remember the simple definition of an important word, or Hamilton thinks her readers are stupid and needs to have the word spelled out for them twice, or Hamilton is too stupid to realize she already wrote the scene that discussed that word. None of which I believe Hamilton wants her readers to think.

Robb’s In Death story was very good, and I keep the book in my library solely for it. I don’t remember the other two stories in this anthology, but I don’t believe they struck me as anything special. I’m hopeful that Robb will someday do a collection of all her In Death short stories so that I can have all of them in one book — and I can get rid of this one.

ETA:
With the publication of Robb's collection Three in Death, I now CAN! show less

Una delle storie d'amore più belle e "reali", benché fantastiche, che io abbia mai letto. Una storia che coinvolgerà anche le lettrice più ciniche con i suoi paesaggi straordinari, la cura dei particolari e i personaggi indimenticabili.

Non c'è possibilità d'errore: una storia che verrà amata in tutte le sue cupe, fresche e "umane" sfaccettature. Una storia che rimane dentro e accarezzi i cuori riuscendo a toccare le corde della realtà di "coppia" quando spesso un romance si limita a show more narrarne l'innamoramento fulmineo dettato dal colpo di fulmine.

Non c'è colpo di fulmine fra Joelle, americana alla disperata ricerca del punto in cui anni prima morirono i suoi genitori in un incidente aereo, e Luke, solitario e ricco don giovanni dall'aria misteriosa e dal presente ancor più complesso.

Entrambi giocheranno una partita senza via di uscita, si sfideranno e si aggireranno come bestie pronte a saltarsi alla gola inconsapevoli che la resa è, per entrambi, vicina.

Joelle, bella ma tosta, con la sua aria solare e disponibile verso tutti che nasconde, però, la sua anima dietro uno spesso scudo che la proteggerà fino alla fine dietro alla sua incrollabile logica e pratiocità.

Luke, ricco proprietario terriero, che designa la nuova arrivata come sua prossima "preda". Un gioco veloce ma soddisfacente che però lo sbalordisce non appena vede che Joey non è per niente interessata a cedergli. La caccia, senza pietà, facendo leva sul suo indiscusso fascino fino a quasi piegarla. Poi, inspiegabilmente, ci ripensa e la evita, scomparendo.

Peccato che Joey non sia un tipo da darsi per vinta e si addentra nella vita di Luke con la forza, ignorando quando in realtà lui la stesse evitando per il suo stesso bene. Lei non ci sta e si insinua senza preavviso nel mondo e nel cuore di Luke... Fino a quando non scoprirà una verità che ha sempre avuto sotto gli occhi, non riuscendo veramente a comprenderla.

La trama in sé non è assolutamente originale, fin dall'inizio si sa dove andrà a parare. E' lo sviluppo di questa e la crescita del rapporto dei personaggi che rende il tutto assolutamente unico e magico. E' "umano" e "reale" come lo sono gli errori e le ferite che entrambi si infliggono, senza pietà.

Assolutamente consigliato a chi cerca un romanzo molto curato fin nel minimi dettagli e con un'attenzione particolare all'evoluzione del rapporto fra i due protagonisti. show less

I would like to thank NetGalley & Tor Books for giving me a copy of this e-ARC to read in exchange for an honest review. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review.

New York Times bestselling author Susan Krinard continues the thrilling urban fantasy series that began with Mist in Black Ice.

Centuries ago, all was lost in the Last Battle when the Norse gods and goddesses went to war. The elves, the giants, and the gods and goddesses themselves were all destroyed,

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leaving the Valkyrie known as Mist one of the only survivors.

Or so she thought.

The trickster god Loki has reappeared in San Francisco, and he has big plans for modern-day Earth. With few allies and fewer resources—but the eyes of the gods and goddesses of an old world upon her—it’s up to Mist to stop him before history repeats itself.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Thankfully this sequel lives up, and exceeds, to the standards set for it. Mist is still struggling to control her magic, which continues to grow at an astounding rate. But for her to learn about her magic she must trust Dainn, and trust is in short supply between those two. Although she wants to trust him there are a few too many incidents during which he has revealed either a lie or partial truth he's told to Mist - always claiming they were for her own protection or that of someone she cares about. Dainn seems almost allergic to sharing the entire truth, at least to Mist.

Yet they share a growing attraction, and Mist has yet to stop defending him. Possibly because she understands part of his pain, both of them having been deceived by Loki in the guise of their lover. Though of course Dainn suffered a far greater punishment, one that seems to keep getting worse as time goes by.

Mist has been thrust into the role of leading the opposition against Loki's planned takeover of Midgard. And though Freya, her recently discovered mother, may arrive in time to help, Mist can't wait for her arrival. Not too mention, Mist isn't too sure how much she trusts Freya. Why ignore her daughter all these centuries only to 'claim' her as kin on the eve of the next Ragnarok? And Dainn seems to run hot and cold whenever the top of her mother comes up.

Poor Mist has a large role to fill, and she keeps getting hit time after time with shocking surprises, few of them good. Though she does find some of her Valkyrie Sisters, unfortunately some are still unaccounted for, and that could mean that they're either still out there, or that Loki's found them first. She also must come to grips with her new magical ability, but there are problems with doing so, problems she is unaware of. And time may run out before she learns of the danger she's facing. She also must come to terms with the 'glamor' she's inherited from her mother, the ability to turn heads without even knowing it. But in this sense it's her newfound ability to draw people to their cause, people who feel the call to save their way of life. Too bad most of those people are just average people rather than the trained warriors she so desperately needs. But even the average person can rise up and surprise themselves. Can they do it when facing frost giants? That remains to be seen.

Full of action, and high on emotion, this second book is everything the first book promised and so much more. It's got forbidden love, family drama, teenage rebellion, deceit, betrayal, stunning alliances, revelations to shock even the most stalwart reader, and plenty of hints of things to come. The majority of the action and drama centers on Mist, Dainn, and Loki, however that doesn't discount all the other crucial characters: Vali, Ryan, Bryn, Anna, Orn, Vidarr, Gabi, Danny, Tashiro, Eir, Edvard, and so many others. There are plenty of shocks throughout the book, and certainly not all just for Mist. The end of this exciting read is not only a cliffhanger, but a very thought provoking one. It will challenge you to think of all the different ways in which the final statements could be fulfilled, ensuring the story stays present in your mind until the next book is released. show less