Etched in Bone

Dante has managed to wrest Lucien free from Gehenna and from the control of the Fallen – albeit while growing a set of wings in the process. But he is far from free of them as they demand a promise from him to return while they plot about how best to control him.

Things are not calmer on Earth as more and more of his enemies – a variety of rogue FBI and Shadow Branch Agents – manoeuver to find a way to bring him down or turn him into a tool. All the while he is still trying to control his broken mind, suffering from flashbacks, seizures and agonising pain.

But he has no time to heal – the local vampire boss, Mauvais has killed someone they care about and must be made to pay while the vampire factions also look to tie their own show more puppet strings on Dante.

Even Heather’s father is in town, with his own plans to ruin what life they’re trying to build.

There is a problem when it comes to reviewing series. The problem is that an author is (usually) unlikely to massively change their style. They’ll probably grow and change as a writer as the series progresses, but the fundamental nature of their writing usually remains somewhat the same.

Which means, as a reviewer, I run the risk of broken record syndrome. The same issues I have with book 1 are the same issues I have with book 2 and on to book 3 and, behold, the same issues arise again.

And so, here I am reading book 4 of the Maker’s Song series and, guess what? The same issues that have dogged the other books are still there. I’m sure you’re all shocked to hear that.

The characters are moving together and pairing off when their agendas are close – so we have Gillespie and Rutgers working together, we have Emmet and Merri joining the main gang, Underwood being derailed – a few of the lines are coming together or being snipped. Excellent

But more are being introduced – we now have another faction entirely, seeming to be pissed off, mind controlling Teodoro Dion (another new character, yay!) who really really hates the Fallen and is going to hurt Dante because that’ll show ‘em all! And then there’s Heather and Annie’s father who is running around with his own perverse ideas of putting their family back together again.

I have to say, again, that none of these storylines are bad.

The FBI/Shadow Branch tracking down Dante and torn between killing him, imprisoning him or monitoring him with the odd rogue agent along the side? It’s a great story and the characters are fascinating and really work well.

The Angels with their plotting for control and who gets to put the leash on Dante? Excellent storyline.

The vampire factions – both local and the grand global councils and circles all vying to see who can attach their strings to Dante? Great! I love this story.

But put them all together and then throw in Heather’s father, some more random rogue agents and Dion on an apparent revenge kick backed with Underwood’s quest to kill her daughter-in-law for killing her son, then there’s Von in trouble for being a naughty Ilygad –he’s supposed to be an independent observer and reporter and is now in trouble… and there’s far too much going on. The sheer number of characters, storylines and plots means, even with them all being pretty decent in isolation, that none of them can really advance in any real, meaningful way. The whole book covers 3 days of activities because we have to see what everyone is doing, everywhere .

It doesn’t help that it’s also terribly long winded. In the first book I called the writing gloriously gothic – and it was. But that gothic feeling has been eroded by the sheer number of people and the larger scale of the book. without that theme, it just feels repetitive. Dante’s beautiful, we get it. Heather’s worried about him. Various figures are angsting. We have a lot of descriptiveness, a lot of attempts to set the scene which involves overly long depictions of eating dinner or feeding pigeons or describing what people are wearing. Drop in some Cajun French, some Spanish, some Italian and some random-not!Welsh Elohim words and it’s a long long read. And we have a fair amount of recapping squeezed in there as well with extra bonus of Dante’s loose grasp of reality and constant flashbacks.

It further doesn’t help that the storylines that emerge as dominant – Heather’s father, Mauvais, the local vampire boss having a tantrum – are the ones that are probably the least important in the grand scheme of the series. The major players are still dancing around the periphery of the storyline while we’re concentrating on the elements that are probably the most skippable. Apart from anything else, they’re the elements that don’t know a thing about Dante’s powers so are only 2 minutes away from him having an unfortunate flashback and turning them into goo or merging them into a holy-chanting-chimera-thing (again).

So I’m left in the same place as I was in the previous books. I love the storyline. I actually like all the storylines. But everything is stuck on pause because there are so many storylines and characters that we have one, massive, snarled traffic jam of storylines jostling for position – and for some reason a couple of little vespas have broke out to the front of the pack and we’re following them while the big truck of interesting and vital story remains stuck in traffic. And that traffic analogy got a little convoluted in the end there.

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Review posted here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/04/review-etched-in-bone-makers-song-4-...

I finished this book last week, I know, once again, slow. But Lover Unleashed took up the time after that. It was my main focus, so this way, I can have two reviews back-to-back. This book was full of more action, more of the amazing characters we know and all (and a couple of new ones) and, of course, another fantastic storyline. Absolutely incredible from start to finish. This is one of my favorite series by one of my favorite authors and it definitely didn't disappoint.

Etched in Bone starts off as a flashback that within a few paragraphs had me cursing. We find out that Heather's and Annie's father, Special Agent James William show more Wallace, decides to make an appearance. He is "saving" his girls from the mind-controlling vampires who have "stolen" Heather's will. Obviously we know different, but James being the world's most terrible dad makes things even worse when he brings some heavy backup to kidnap his daughters and kill all their friends including Dante. When the first two chapter ends, we are given quite a few shocks and surprises that are a great start for this book.

We then end up in the past by three days right before Dante literally punches a hole to a different universe. Dante and Heather are being stalked by the great and drunk Shadow Branch chief, Sam Gillepsie who is still making plans to kill Dante. Then we get to where the last book left off and that is in Gehenna. Dante is both adored and feared in Gehenna and he is trying to save his friend (and just discovered father) Lucien. This is where we meet the other angels of Gehenna who want to keep him as prisoner to save their world. In a way I feel bad for them, but they are really going about it the wrong way. They expect him to do it now, but Lucien along with others have warned them on how he will be treated.

This series just gets more complicated by the page and I found it hard to put down especially when we get insight to one of the villains, Dion. Dion has the ability to erase memories and plant new ones and when it suits him or Shadow Branch, he causes aneurysms in the brain that erupt at the same time. I thought he was scary before, but getting into his head, just freaked me out that much more.

We also get more of the gang, not as much of the big and sexy Von as I would like. But then given what happened at the end of book 3, Beneath The Skin, his spark was sort of dulled. Also we get a small surprise about what happened to Heather's mom. Now in the book, we are told it was from her bond from Dante and that is why she saw a certain man's face (not spoiling), but I have the sinking suspicion that it wasn't the case.

Nonetheless, I could talk about this book forever. It was so well written, of course given that Phoenix is uber talented, and so complex. We are introduced to some new characters, given some surprises that had me screaming and the ending was quite the cliffhanger. Highly recommend this series. Do not try reading from the middle, start from the beginning because you will be lost for sure if you don't. But if you want a series full of action, mystery, suspense, romance, vampires, not so nice angels and insane government conspiracies, this is the series for you. show less

3.5 Dark, sad, and dark. This is not a happy book, there is so much sorrow and loss, it is a hard read. I love and hate these characters. There is full emotional value within Ms. Phoenix's writings. I struggled with this edition, it didn't offer any hope on the next page, only continued unhappiness. Yes, there where some points of light but they were darkened by other issues happening.
Dante has been tortured from the day he was born. He has had more unhappiness than I can handle reading without some hope for a change. He really gets hit hard here, some ways he will not even know till the next book. Yeah, the future pain looms on the horizon. EEKKK ! He learns more of his powers and develops some extraordinary parts. He is pure sex on show more legs and he is broken.
I will continue the series to the next book, but hope the author lightens it up. show less

Dante has managed to wrest Lucien free from Gehenna and from the control of the Fallen – albeit while growing a set of wings in the process. But he is far from free of them as they demand a promise from him to return while they plot about how best to control him.

Things are not calmer on Earth as more and more of his enemies – a variety of rogue FBI and Shadow Branch Agents – manoeuver to find a way to bring him down or turn him into a tool. All the while he is still trying to control his broken mind, suffering from flashbacks, seizures and agonising pain.

But he has no time to heal – the local vampire boss, Mauvais has killed someone they care about and must be made to pay while the vampire factions also look to tie their own show more puppet strings on Dante.

Even Heather’s father is in town, with his own plans to ruin what life they’re trying to build.



There is a problem when it comes to reviewing series. The problem is that an author is (usually) unlikely to massively change their style. They’ll probably grow and change as a writer as the series progresses, but the fundamental nature of their writing usually remains somewhat the same.

Which means, as a reviewer, I run the risk of broken record syndrome. The same issues I have with book 1 are the same issues I have with book 2 and on to book 3 and, behold, the same issues arise again.

And so, here I am reading book 4 of the Maker’s Song series and, guess what? The same issues that have dogged the other books are still there. I’m sure you’re all shocked to hear that.

The characters are moving together and pairing off when their agendas are close – so we have Gillespie and Rutgers working together, we have Emmet and Merri joining the main gang, Underwood being derailed – a few of the lines are coming together or being snipped. Excellent

But more are being introduced – we now have another faction entirely, seeming to be pissed off, mind controlling Teodoro Dion (another new character, yay!) who really really hates the Fallen and is going to hurt Dante because that’ll show ‘em all! And then there’s Heather and Annie’s father who is running around with his own perverse ideas of putting their family back together again.

I have to say, again, that none of these storylines are bad.

The FBI/Shadow Branch tracking down Dante and torn between killing him, imprisoning him or monitoring him with the odd rogue agent along the side? It’s a great story and the characters are fascinating and really work well.


The Angels with their plotting for control and who gets to put the leash on Dante? Excellent storyline.

The vampire factions – both local and the grand global councils and circles all vying to see who can attach their strings to Dante? Great! I love this story.

But put them all together and then throw in Heather’s father, some more random rogue agents and Dion on an apparent revenge kick backed with Underwood’s quest to kill her daughter-in-law for killing her son, then there’s Von in trouble for being a naughty Ilygad –he’s supposed to be an independent observer and reporter and is now in trouble… and there’s far too much going on. The sheer number of characters, storylines and plots means, even with them all being pretty decent in isolation, that none of them can really advance in any real, meaningful way. The whole book covers 3 days of activities because we have to see what everyone is doing, everywhere .

It doesn’t help that it’s also terribly long winded. In the first book I called the writing gloriously gothic – and it was. But that gothic feeling has been eroded by the sheer number of people and the larger scale of the book. without that theme, it just feels repetitive. Dante’s beautiful, we get it. Heather’s worried about him. Various figures are angsting. We have a lot of descriptiveness, a lot of attempts to set the scene which involves overly long depictions of eating dinner or feeding pigeons or describing what people are wearing. Drop in some Cajun French, some Spanish, some Italian and some random-not!Welsh Elohim words and it’s a long long read. And we have a fair amount of recapping squeezed in there as well with extra bonus of Dante’s loose grasp of reality and constant flashbacks.

It further doesn’t help that the storylines that emerge as dominant – Heather’s father, Mauvais, the local vampire boss having a tantrum – are the ones that are probably the least important in the grand scheme of the series. The major players are still dancing around the periphery of the storyline while we’re concentrating on the elements that are probably the most skippable. Apart from anything else, they’re the elements that don’t know a thing about Dante’s powers so are only 2 minutes away from him having an unfortunate flashback and turning them into goo or merging them into a holy-chanting-chimera-thing (again).

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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 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 show more 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

In the annoyingly correct words of A**hole James Wallace, the monsters, meaning the vampires and fallen, have done more to protect Heather and Annie, his own flesh and blood, from harm than any other freaking human, FBI, Special Branch, or otherwise; including the A**hole himself.

JW has absolutely no clue what it means to be a father. He betrayed his own wife, claiming she had infidelity issues and then stood back and watched her killed by a psychopath his own government created. He tosses Annie aside like she is damaged goods. Ok, so she's bipolar and now off her meds, does that mean she not worth attempting to save? Of course, I wonder what he will think once he finds out that Annie is pregnant! (unknown father possibly the show more Morningstar). Then, to claim you love your daughter, then drug her, kidnap her, and take her to a reprogramming facility against her will? I really hope that either Dane, Lucien, or even Heather, ends your life you sick ****! show less

Reviewed by http://urbanfantasyinvestigations.blogspot.com/

Adrian Phoenix absolutely rocks but OMG the frustration she makes me go through. Why am I frustrated? Because this is one of those book starts at one point and ends at the same point so that you read through the whole book devouring all the information and awesomeness only to find out you will have to wait for the next book to get the details you want so darn bad. AHHHHH. This is one of those reviews I'm having a hard time writing because of spoilers. ETCHED IN BONE is fast paced, the writing style is brilliant as always to bring you book full of suspense, action and great dialogue. I love Adrian Phoenix's books but I really hope book 5 doesn't leave me as frustrated at the end.