Adrian Phoenix

Fortune tellers and hippies are dying in large numbers in Oregon – only noticed by one man. A man sworn to protect the city, a hero in his own mind, a man who knows the secrets of the supernatural

Hal, a Dogcatcher, And he wields a mean catchpole.

I just… can’t even begin to express my opinions about the protagonist, Hal. On so many levels he’s a parody of awfulness. He’s clueless, arrogant and ridiculously full of himself and his abilities and his roles. He is also skilled, show more talented, brave and in some ways every bit the hero he thinks he is. At the same time, while he’s an appalling joke, he’s constantly treated as that – he’s often terrible and ridiculous but, at the same time, I think we’re fully expected to see him as that. He’s awful, but I don’t think we’re meant to ignore the fact – hence his constant abuse of poor cyclists for example. I don’t think we’re expected to see his truly epic fighting skills and not think that he’s also totally a cool person which he clearly isn’t.

And I can’t deny that he’s funny. His interactions with the people around him, his ridiculous belief that he’s not just a superhero but that everyone fully knows about it. His firm refusal to deal with reality, his happy poking of corpses… it’s funny, it’s really really funny.

I just don’t know with this guy. I alternate being repelled and amused by him – and I think that’s intentional

It helps that some of the characters around him – especially the two other main characters: Nicka and Galahad - is pretty amazing and hilarious. They are both yokai, kind of reverse were-animals, animal that become human during the day. So we have a cat, with all the immense sarcasm that requires, and a wolf – who can easily be distracted by a well thrown squeaky toy (of course, the cat can easily be fascinate by a bell as well).

The three of them make for a hilariously combination. And I like the idea if were animals that aren’t you classic human-to-animal because why not have both? I’m not so sure about calling them “yokai” though, especially in a setting that has no Asian characters.

I also like what Hal is, an animal control officer. I like the idea of a world setting where the supernatural is hidden and the question has to be asked, who would know? Who would know the reality of the world and, yes, a dogcatcher is a good example of someone who would probably know.
I hate the relationship between Hal and Desdemona. In some ways it starts well. Yes, is creepy and a stalker – and he is labelled as that. I actually liked how we repeatedly see him be revolting and disgusting to Desdemona and she keeps calling him. He’s ridiculous and awful and stalkery and disgusting and she treats him appropriately for that – insulting him, rejecting him, trying to drive him away. In a genre – and media in general – where this kind of creepy, stalkery, disgustingly predatory behaviour is repeatedly held up as romantic.

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And she did it again!
She exceeded my expectations once more!

This is NOT a book for your TBR pile, this is a book you need to read right away, (right after you read the first three – if you haven’t done so yet)!
And if read the first three of the series, you will know that it just can’t go on your TBR pile!

In book four, she pushes you right back into the action, and then allows you to take one step back, lets you catch your breath, but only for a second, just to offer you a hand to show more explore moments and times past! That gives you the rare chance to get to know the characters and events that led them to where they now are even better!
It was such a great surprise, that needs so much intelligence and skill to even think about that possibility.

And it covers so much more than “just” Urban Fantasy. It is Romance, Political Thriller, Science-Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, and Supernatural.

This book has everything, again!! It made me cry and then, still with tears in my eyes, laugh out loud!

I have never ever read any other author that describes things so well that it speaks to ALL your senses. There is nothing she describes that does not make you experience it for yourself, you seem to see it with you own eyes, feel it, smell it, hear it, taste it. And you want more!!
You literally go through the emotions with the characters!
The chacters turn into your friends, enemies, people you know, it is so real!

I never cared so little how the book ends, because I know there will be more to come! That being said, the book ends with a cliffhanger that will make the wait until the next book excruciating, but good things really are worth waiting for, and I’m sure “On Midnight Wings” will be well worth it.

Her stories keep you thrilled from beginning to end and beyond, so that you count the hours till you get to read more! I love her work more every day!

The beauty, suspense, and richness of her stories do not only feed your soul but capture your heart - FOREVER!!

I cannot express enough how lucky and happy I am that I stumbled across Adrian’s books one day and I loved her ever since!

It is not enough but all I can say: Thank you, Adrian!! show less

Dante and Heather are still separated by the various factions trying to hunt Dante down, while Lucien, Von and the gang continue to hunt for them. But between Fallen machinations and the call of the Llygad, neither is able to launch the rescue efforts they would like to.

Heather continues to extricate herself from tricky situations to try and reach Dante, but every time she breaks out of one trap there appears to be another waiting and time is running out – Dante, held by Dion and tormented show more by Loki, is fraying. His fragile mind is growing more and more damaged as he approaches his limit

If he breaks, he will become the Great Destroyer, the Unending Road, using his awesome powers of creation for destruction – and then the world is doomed or those who love him most may be forced to kill him.

Right, let’s start with some major positives. First and foremost, the 8 gazillion unnecessary cast members are largely taking a back seat. Largely. They’re still there and mentioned far too often in passing and in any other book I would be yelling “kill some side characters, damn it!” but for this series they have been cut down by them both teaming up (so forming less random groups with their own agendas) and by them just not getting the same level of page time as they have in previous books. For the most part, the book has managed to stay relatively focused on Dante and Heather with only a few distractions as you’d find in most books.

Another positive is that the bad guys that were actually relevant this book were fairly major powers. Mauvais was there, hanging around finally coming to terms with just how big a hornet’s nest he’s kicked which was great fun to read – I do like to see some good comeuppance. Heather’s father also took a step back but he’s still lurking in the corners so I don’t think we can say goodbye to him just yet. The FBI and Shadow Branch lurked around but after some initial forays fell back to leave the action more centred on the Fallen as secondary but mainly Dion. He’s a later arriving bad guy with a very petty, personal agenda more than the world destroying but at least he has some decent supernatural oomph.

Another major plus for me was that all of the overwrought emotional language, endless Dante flashbacks and fractured viewpoints, the little girl he saved, the endless memories of Chloe and papa Prejean – all the pointless minutiae of Dante’s tortured past and shattered psyche – actually came together and were relevant beyond the whole “woe is Dante, poor Dante, our tortured anti-hero is the most tortured of them all!”

It’s actually ironic considering how overwritten this series is that we haven’t truly had much information on the Great Destroyer, the Unending Road and what that means. This book brings it home – the true consequences of what they’re fighting for. Not true love. Not whether the Fallen get their creator to repair/renew/rebuild Gehenna. Not whether the various vampire societies get their shiny new True Blood vampire for whatever reason they want it – the ultimate ending is Dante’s cracked mind finally shattering, his Bad Seed programming coming up and his anger and pain exploding in horrible messy ways that results in the whole world being reduced to ash in the fires of his rage. And all those people pinning their hopes to him have to decide to stop him – if they can.

The epic consequences are here, the world shattering stuff, the elements that have been lurking in the background and slowly added to but generally have kept a step back away from the main story to date. And simply by shifting the tone like that, the whole overwrought language and flashbacks and general writing becomes more important, more useful, more fitting to the book because they’re all now relevant – whether storywise or simply thematically.

We also have some nice texture added to some worldbuilding with some more information on the llygad (albeit it being a distraction)

One thing I have to say about this book – in fact the whole series - is that it’s dark. It’s unrelentingly dark. It’s grim. And I don’t mean this in a “oooh where are my happy ever after and pink bunnies?!” way, I mean in the fact that nothing good ever happens. Good, in this series, is managing to escape from something bad in time for the next bad to happen. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it shows just how much Dante is in constant demand and how many people are harrying him, but at some point I kind of want him to catch a break. Or at least turn more of his enemies into goo or three-headed-holy-chanting-chimera.

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This is one of those awkward books where we find ourselves having differing opinions about the series – however we believe this is one of taste than impressions or fails – more a case of your mileage may vary. Still, one of us is quite happy to read this series, another would rather clean tile grout.

Keille Riviere, hoodoo and persistent user of a right hook to solve all problems is still facing the fall out of the events of Black Dust Mambo. Doctor Heron's misplaced crusade of revenge show more still casts long shadows – and her cousin, Jackson, has gone missing, perhaps Dr. Heron's latest victim. But, more pressingly, magic is failing. Every hoodooist, voodoo priest, magician and conjurer through Louisiana is finding their spells go awry. Some reflect back against their casters, some warp – some just become completely random. Worst of all, after Katrina, wards were set across the Louisiana coast to prevent another disaster. The wards have reversed – they're now attracting and increasing hurricanes – and another Katrina is on the way.

And if that wasn't enough to be getting on with, the loa Baron Samedi thinks Keille is responsible and is quite willing to kill her to solve the problem. Then throw in some werewolves and ongoing issues with her aunt's identity theft and you have a full set.

As I said, I liked the story. It has a wide world and it manages to maintain tension surprisingly well. It also managed to cover a lot of different things happening, often at once, without it ever getting lost, confused or any element feeling completely superfluous. It's a wide world,a deep, nuanced and fascinating story with plenty of twists to keep you amused and lots of curiosity to pull you further forwards – I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened, I wanted to see how various things worked, I wanted to see what the solution was, what the consequences where, how the world fit together

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