Beneath the Skin

This installment in the Maker series, slams you right into the action and never lets you rest. I think it is even better than the first tow books and darker. There is also some of the sweetest moments to date. Fantastic !!!
Heather gives up her agent job to stay with Dante he is still having terrible seizures and is being hunted. It seems everyone wants a piece of him, of his power. His father is gone and the pain of that along with his powers are driving him over the edge. He struggles just to hold on to his sanity. Von, my favorite character really shines and reminds me why I like him so much. I would like to read his book someday.

Review posted here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/01/adrian-phoenix-beneath-skin-makers-s...

This is the third installment to Adrian Phoenix's amazing series Maker's Song and just like the rest of the series, Beneath the Skin was fantastic. The characters were intriguing and the story was as complex as ever which is both good and bad (I will explain later). We find that Dante's story is even more messed up than I previously thought and it makes things even more scarier for Dante and those he loves.
We start off a little after where In the Blood ended. The daughter of Rodriguez (the man who got his throat chewed out by Dante, for good reason). She is being debriefed by a creepy dude we only know as Mr. Dion. I hate that we show more don't get to know more of his story. We get a sense of something from most of the villains in Phoenix's series, but I would've liked to have known more about him. Apparently he has the ability to erase your memory and put in new ones or as he did later in this book, dispose of a useless agent by giving him multiple aneurysms and bursting them. Yeah, That brutal. So while debriefing the poor girl, he asks her questions and she has seen Dante and the other agents involved in the mess the Shadow Branch has started, so he erases her memory.
Then we are introduced to two new agents, Emmett Thibodaux (human) and Merri Goodnight (vampire). I really like these two, they had great chemistry. But again, I would have liked to know more about them. We know Goodnight has something planned when she finds out what Dante did. Well sort of. After she hears about hears the beating of the hearts in the supposed statues, she knows that Dante is more than a vampire. Now she is on the ever growing list of people that want Dante, but fortunately it doesn't seem like she'll do anything bad. Same for Cortini who travels with Dante and Heather after In the Blood, she helps, but still has her own agenda. Speaking of which, her mother has her own agenda within her agenda which leads to one sad ending to this book. But I didn't know what to make of her and that is not including to the really uncomfortable relationship between her and her son. They seem a bit too close for me (Creeeeepy!)
We also get more of Von, who I adore so much. I hope he gets his own book in the future. He is big and sexy, hilarious as hell and always watches out for Dante and everyone around him. Oh that and he scares the hell out of people. When he is involved, vampires cower and show respect, even Dante who is very wild.
Now on to the vampire of the hour, the amazing and disturbed Dante. The Shadow Branch really screwed him up. We found out what happened to Chloe, his adopted sister he protected, but was forced and fooled into killing. Dante is suffering the lose even more since the "lose" of his best friend and just discovered father, Lucien. Dante thinks he is dead and believes the angels are responsible. So with all of this on his shoulders, plus being a puppet for the Shadow Branch, Dante's mental state is dangerous and gruesome for himself and those near him.
But with all that said and going on, I have to say this book was the most complex in the series so far. There are so many plots and subplots, I don't even know how Phoenix herself stays on track with the storyline. I didn't get all that confused due to the fact I sort of read this one slowly. Also reread some and had to go back a few pages to make sure I got certain things right. I love Phoenix because it is obvious she is a smart writer, but Beneath the Skin alone can be split into a couple of books and still have room left over for a spin-off. But it isn't so bad that I put the book down because no matter what, it is still focused, which takes real talent and that is what Phoenix has.
Overall, this is a wonderful addition to the series. The ending was sad and yet good, just one more weight on (or off, depending on the way you look at it) Dante's shoulders. Heather and Dante are inseparable. Heather has balls of steel for taking on Dante's uncontrollable situations and that makes her an even more amazing heroine. Even though Dante has the powers of a vampire and a god, and could pretty much kill anyone no matter what, he still has a heart. Wild and curses like it is going out of style, but he is an amazing male lead and we all love him. Really can't wait for book 4 Etched in Bone coming out February 22nd (Hooray!) show less

This is one of my favorite urban fantasy series, but I didn't love this book as much as I did the other two. Much of the first third of the book took place in the few minutes after the second book ends, and there just didn't seem to be a whole lot going on. There are so many parties involved, and folks changing sides, and good guys turning bad (and vice versa) that there was a lot of set-up that had to be accomplished. The writing is still great and it pulled me in and kept me engaged until the second half when things started moving a little more quickly again.

This is the third book of a very enjoyable, very original series. Part psycho-thriller, part urban fantasy, part paranormal romance, there's a little something in here for everyone.

The two main characters, Heather and Dante, are wonderfully created. Heather is smart and tough without being overbearing. Her actions drive the story, from gun fights to romantic interludes.

But if Heather is the lens through which much of the story is focused, Dante is the indisputable core of the entire series. There's nothing and no one else like him -- he's as complex and compelling as they come.

From the moment I sat down to read the first book, this series has been on my 'auto-buy' list. I highly recommend all three 'Maker's Song' books.

Dante, Heather, Von and Annie head back to New Orleans, back home. But there are a lot of people hunting them after what happened in the last book – and Dante’s secret is now well and truly shattered

With multiple FBI agents, the Elohim from Gehenna, assassins, agents, vampires from several factions all vying for Dante’s attention, his life or his power, it’s a twisty maze to navigate

Especially since Dante’s mind is shattered, the past continually intruding into his daily senses and him constantly being brought down by agonising seizures as he tries to absorb his newly resorted memories and the horrors he’s lived through. Only Heather can anchor his damaged psyche to the present and control his omnipotent power.



I’m show more wondering if this book was held upside down and somehow this caused all the story to pour to the end?

Because it’s a 350 page book that has endless amounts of foreshadowing and the 8 gazillion characters all carefully moving into position before we actually get some stuff happening at about page 300.

It’s not that there’s nothing in the rest of the book – but it’s either from the VAST CAST of side characters or it’s repeating what we already know.

Dante is unstable, dangerous, has an extreme problem holding onto reality and keeps getting lost in flashbacks of his horrendous past which, unfortunately, means his quite literally omnipotent god powers go out of control. And it’s really well done – it’s extremely well written how these moments are described and you can feel the different realities colliding in his head. Sometimes with just a line of dialogue, sometimes a full seen which is brilliantly evocatively described. I take my hat off to this writing, it’s truly a master piece

And it was good the second time. And the third. And the fourth. The fifth was pretty good too and… ok, I get it! We don’t need more repetitions.

And Heather loves Dante and Dante loves Heather and Annie is disturbed and shouldn’t trusted. Repeated a hundred times.

Then there’s an FBI chase that gets called out. There’s an FBI cover up of the dramatic proportions – so we see all the detail. We see them discovering in shock and horror what happened, the sheer extent of Dante’s power and try desperately to put a lid on it. It’s, again, really well written, exciting and extremely evocative as FBI and SB agent after agent look at what happened and struggle to come to terms with the sheer power of what has happened. I love it, I love their realisation, I love their struggling to understand, I love their hurry to get control over it…

And then there’s a several page radio interview of civilians reporting on the FBI cover up… why? I already know what the FBI are doing. I saw them do it. Why do I need it rehashing? Why is this section even here.

Then there’s the FBI and SB agents running around and, in the revelation, more and more of them splintering into various factions as they grasp what is happening, what has happened and what that means for them.

So we have Merri and Emmet, vampire and human team who I like, agents of the SB they know their boss is lying to them and run away before being messed with. They go rogue and possibly hitting up a faction of vampires.

Then there’s their boss, Gillespie, who lied to them who has decided to go rogue and ignore his orders because of various reasons. He’s a separate rogue from them.

Then there’s Rutgers, who we remember went rogue last book, well she’s gone well and truly rogue now to be a full blown loose cannon.

Then there’s Underwood, the woman who drove Rutgers into going rogue. Guess what? She’s going rogue! Only less dramatically, she’s being all sneakily rogue instead.

We have Caterina, SB assassin, who already went rogue last book. But her handler is going rogue a DIFFERENT way to kill his boss because he disagrees with the rules. And she disagrees with both the boss and her handler, so she’s like rogue twice over.

Seriously, this many agents ready to go rogue it makes me wonder how such ethically questionable (in fact, let’s not mince words about assassins and torturers) managed to hold it together at all! How do they make any decisions without half of the organisation heading to the hills with guns to play loose cannon? I look forward to the day they switch to decaf – and then the caffeinated hordes of SB and FBI agents will head to the Starbucks, gun in hand ready to bring down the system and do what is right – no matter the cost (it sounds better if you read it in a dramatic movie voice over style).


Read Me show less

This was my favorite of the series so far. Dante is still losing his mind, Heather is still trying to be everything to everyone, and everyone else is following their own agenda as per usual. The end was great and I suspect Gabriel will be plotting revenge and murder in book 4!

Vampires, Fallen, FBI... everyone wants Dante and he's having trouble keeping in the here and now and controlling his Fallen magic.