Dayhunter

Now that it is absolutely clear that the naturi intend to break the seal and release their queen, Mira is placed into a situation in which she must choose who to be loyal to. If that were not enough, the threat of an inter species war looms over head. Mira is being manipulated from all sides. The fact that she was made a first blood by three different vampires means that at any time, the ancients may use her for their own purposes. Each of the ancients has a different plan of attack, which makes Mira the ultimate pawn.

As in Nightwalker, Mira continues to suffer from PTSD. Since this book was far more action packed however, there was less time for Mira to have any kind of self reflection. It would seem to me that because she kept having show more to deal with the group that originally threatened her life and caused the PTSD that should have resulted in an increase of her PTSD response, rather than a reduction. In many ways, it felt like Mira was too busy to be triggered.

The Dark Days series continues to travel swiftly from location to location, and Drake takes care to give us a strong sense of each location with extremely will written descriptive language. From the smell of the air in Crete, to the food in Venice, Drake gives the reader a rich sense of culture, while reminding us that we are dealing with creatures who have experienced these locations and watched them change over centuries.

Despite all who have the ability to control her, Mira continues to retain a strong sense of self. Quitting, or even compromising her morals, for the chance to save her life, is not an option she is willing to consider. Along the way, she becomes responsible for the life and well being of several characters, though she had previously sworn that she did not want a family. Mira becomes responsible for a vampire and a werewolf who are both male. Tristan is almost childlike which turns Mira into a maternal figure for him. This maternal construction is further emboldened by the continued reminder that Tristan is incapable of defending himself. In terms of gender, Tristan's role is the one often fulfilled by women and so to some degree the reversal of gender roles is appealing it does however fall short because of the fact that Mira's power is then turned maternal. It reifies the notion that despite thoughts to the contrary, that all women want to mother.

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Originally published on my blog, My Urban Fantasies

The naturi are back. Rowe is trying to release his queen. All that is needed is a human sacrifice, at the right place at the right time, to break the seal. The newly formed triad, Sadira, Jabari and vampire hunter Danaus, is humanity's only hope. They will use the most powerful weapon the nightwalkers have to defeat the naturi, Mira.

Mira has just learned that she is nothing more than a weapon. She was created to be a tool for the original triad, a way to focus their power through her. Mira finds out that the Coven has been experimenting on her for centuries, seeing who can control her and then wiping her memory of the entire thing. Mira is crushed to learn that Jabari, a man whom she show more thought was her mentor, savior and friend, thinks she is nothing more than a weapon to be used and disposed of when she is no longer useful. Lucky for Mira that she is still needed because not only can she be used against the naturi, Mira is the one who created the seal that traps the naturi queen.

Dayhunter picks up a few moments after where Nightwalker ended. Mira now has to stop the naturi while being tangled up in Coven politics. Mira finds that she is a pawn in a chess game, being manipulated by powerful nightwalkers, each with their own agenda.

It's hard to go into more detail without giving away spoilers. Needless to say Dayhunter is much better than Nightwalker. It's action packed and character relationships become more complicated, especially between Mira and Danaus. Mira is quickly becoming my favorite character, even though lately she doesn't know what the hell is going on or who she can trust. Despite all of this Mira tries to stick to her code of honor. Even under the haze of blood lust and fatigue Mira refuses to kill a human when she feeds.

My favorite scene is in the church, when Danaus and Mira have this incredible conversation about how good and evil are not as black and white as most people believe. And as an added bonus we find out who/what Danaus is. Sorry boys and girls, it's just to good to spoil. show less

I am two books into this series and already in love. I just can't get enough of these UF/PNR meshes. This book has a UF feel with enough of the sensual not to be a tease. I love the characters, the drama, and the plot of this book....so basically everything.
I think Mira is pretty bad ass as well as Danaus. We find out what he is in this book and I get kind of angry because he is (not going to tell you) something that everyone she be shunning, not him getting to shun everyone else. I also got mad about half way through the book when he did something that just wasn't kosher, with Mira or with me. I was totally feeling the same thing that Mira was feeling as I was reading. This author has that ability, so watch out.
There is also a scene show more towards the end that is a little like, wtf? I get why it's there but I also am thinking the author needed to throw some smex in there. I listed the few things that pinched my nerves but that doesn't mean I don't adore this book. They already set it up for the next book and I can't wait to see what will happen in Mira's world next. show less

In the beginning, I was very pleased with this book. There's a certain poetic sense to Jocelynn Drake's writing, and at first it's quite nice. Her vampires are pretty cool, appropriately insane, and the rest of the urban fantasy world is nicely fleshed out and interesting. The plot is engaging. Mira is actually pretty cool and rather original. I've always liked how she's already super old, super used to the world, and super talented with her special gifts.

But after a while... it just got old. Drake has this weird habit of recapping the book as she goes along, so it feels like we're constantly getting flashbacks to the previous chapter. Eventually it all starts to get tedious and I begin wondering just how much I care about the fabric show more and color and style of every character's wardrobe and how intense their eyes are. There's only so much play-by-play description I can take, honestly.

But still, it actually is a pretty good urban fantasy book. I definitely wouldn't label it paranormal romance, and I definitely appreciate that there's actually a cool plot and it's not focused on Mira's love life (if she even has one). Despite it's tediousness, I would still recommend it and I'm still going to continue the series if possible. show less

I liked this one more than the first, it's still a little predictable but there was more world building and I empathized more with Mira.

As in the first book some questions were answered at the cost of more being created, this one at leas has a resolution, one thing that bothered me in the first was that it just ended, with no clear conclusion to the storyline.

Now I really hope the origins of Danaus is better explored in the future books, no one likes a tease Jocelynn.

Mira isn't your average vampire. Well, unless of course you consider a fire starter vampire normal. She's teamed up with a vampire hunter, one of her so-called makers, and a few other people that want her dead. But the crisis at hand is more important and they need her if they want to survive.

Mira doesn't want anyone to depend on her and she sure as hell doesn't want to have to depend on someone else. Or so she thought. When she decides to take Tristan under her wing and save him from his creator, she convinces herself that once the danger has diminished, they will go their separate ways. But as time passes she begins to question everything. She will have to put her trust in her enemies and she's less than comfortable with that idea. Is show more she capable of relying on someone else for help? Even the ones who wish her dead? She knows deep down that they all must put aside their differences and work together if they wish to defeat the naturi who will reek havoc on the entire planet. Can they work together if it means saving themselves and humanity?

The only problem I had with this book is that it came to an end and the next book in the series Dawnbreaker, won't to be released until September 29,2009 show less

Spoilers

Mira is summoned by the Coven following the events of the preceding book. Danaus, Tristan, and her maker all accompany her to the seat of the Coven's power.

Once there she claims Tristan as her own, creating a family, something she swore she'd never do. The only reason she does it now is because she knows their maker will never protect him from the court's games, and as chum, Tristan will never survive.

Even more troubling, once she gets there she realizes there's already a Naturi on the island.

My problem with this book is that it felt like the story didn't advance all that much. We already knew the Coven was split on what to do with Mira and the naturi, we already knew about the horrible things that went on at Court.

That show more there's a split in the supernatural world is important but doesn't feel particularly surprising. It's more surprising that there's a split among the naturi.

We learned a little more about Danaus' background but for some reason it didn't impact me the way it was supposed to.

I did think the plan for revealing the presence of supernatural beings was interesting, particularly the background work of making supernatural creatures popular in fiction and film.

It's not fair to say that nothing happened in this book, but it definitely felt like it was mostly set up for the next book in the series. show less