Twice Dead

A huge improvement over Once Bitten, Kalayna Price’s second Haven book, Twice Dead, had the imagination of the first installment, with none of the boring descriptions of endless walking around looking for clues, and a lot less annoying behavior from Kita. Kita’s introduction to the vampire world in Once Bitten was the most interesting thing about the book, and Price played to that strength in Twice Dead. The addition of Avin the necromancer was fun, and the progress of the relationship with Nathanial, Kita’s ongoing discovery of her vampiric powers, and the question of whether or not she’ll eventually be able to completely shift all give me plenty of reason to look forward to book three in the Haven series. Glad I stuck with the show more series after Once Bitten. show less

Review first posted on http://rubysreads.com

I warn you now: this review has spoilers for Once Bitten. Don’t read on if you don’t wish to get spoiled.





I am already suffering withdrawals. I think I actually liked Twice Dead better than Once Bitten. It had all of the good stuff from the first book and less of the bad. Like, we don’t see much of Bobby. Yea! And there’s a lot less of Kita being contrary for the sake of being contrary. In a way, I guess we had to go through all that stuff in the first book in order for the absence is believable in the second one.

Twice Dead continues Kita’s story, picking up about two weeks after the end of Once Bitten. In the last book, Nathaniel (Kita’s sire) agreed to become part of head show more vampire Tatius’ council in exchange for being allowed to keep Kita as his own. As the story opens, we learn that Bobby’s still in town and Kita’s been feeding on animals in order to survive. She has two reasons for doing so: One, she’s still squeamish about the whole blood-drinking thing. Two, there’s the risk that every time she bites a person they could become “tagged”, or get turned into a shifter. Which would be bad because Kita’s gotten in trouble for that already. It’s only her special status as a rare vampire/shifter that saved her life.

Kita learns pretty darn fast that Nathaniel’s been urging her to drink from him for pretty compelling reasons. With her usual knack for trouble, Kita discovers the decapitated body of a visiting vampire’s servant. This, of course, brings Kita and Nathaniel to the attention of all the VIVs, as Kita calls them: Very Important Vampires. And when Tatius discovers Kita’s malnourished condition–well, let’s just say the consequences are severe. Even worse, Kita soon becomes implicated the death of the servant. To add insult to injury, Gil, the mage, pops up every so often to get Kita’s help, taking her away at inconvenient moments. Things are also complicated by Kita’s very uniqueness. Other people have tried to change shifters before–but their attempts weren’t as successful. That Kita survived the transformation brings her to the attention of The Collector, a vampire who got her name for surrounding herself with objects as rare as Kita.

I feel like if I go too much further into the plot, I’m going to give too much away. What I can tell you is that Kita, as usual, has a lot on her plate. Of course, I’m a romance addict, so the part that thrilled me the most was the further development of Kita and Nathaniel’s relationship. Things are really, really complicated between them. Things are complicated by Tatius’ interest in Kita, too. With the events of Once Bitten under her belt, Kita is more accepting of the fact that she and Nathaniel have a strong connection. What comes into question in Twice Dead is how much of their connection is vampire magic and how much is just the two of them. It’s a question that they’re not going to get away from anytime soon. No matter the origin of their attraction, they’re hot together. There’re also sweet together. And they have the kind of tactile relationship that you usually get in books about shifters. Touch is comfort. Nathaniel is still a big mystery. We learn a major piece of the Nathaniel puzzle–but it only brings up more questions about him.

On the subject of Nathaniel, I want to give Price props for creating a hero that is strong but not omnipotent. I’ve admitting to liking alpha heroes and part of my reason for liking them is that they’re strong. However, writers often over the top with this and heroes become so untouchable as to become unbelievable. And when there are two contenders for a heroine’s heart, all too often she takes a moment to reflect that, in a fight between the two men, she doesn’t know who would win. Nathaniel knows his limits. In particular, he knows that Tatius is more powerful than him. What’s so delicious about Nathaniel is that he doesn’t let that fact prevent him from trying to protect Kita in whatever way he can, even at the risk of his own life. His desire to protect her remains unwavering throughout the book. How can I not love him?

I can’t wait to read Third Blood. It’s going to take us into the Firth. We’ll get to meet Kita’s dad and hopefully learn more about her decision to run away. I’m creating a new point category for this book. It gets five and half points: I would have this book’s babies. show less

I sign up for nearly every book I can when ever Early Reviewer batch comes up, hoping to receive something, maybe widen my chances. I also do it because I receive something I normally wouldn't read.

Though I'm a fan of urban fantasy, I likely wouldn't have picked up Twice Dead as it seems like just another book capitalizing on the skinwalker/vampire/werewolf/wizard craze of late. However, I was completely wrong. Twice Dead is a second book in a series yet I had little trouble picking up the story having not read the first.

Shapeshifter Kita is a newly turned vampire suddenly thrust into the high stakes political world of vampires and Kita often finds herself in dicey terrain, sometimes literally. The story moves quickly, so much so that I show more would find it difficult to find a suitable place to stop as the characters scarcely had a rest between scenes. If the novel was longer this might have become a rather tiresome contrivance but at roughly 200 pages, it just made the pages seem to fly by enjoyably.

Kita is an interesting narrator, stumbling along making stupid mistakes everywhere (though not enough for the reader to think that she's a moron).

All in all I found the world within the book to be quite interesting. I liked the take on shifters and the slightly different take on vampires. It gave the novel just enough of it's own mythology to separate it from the masses of other vampire novels. It was definitely a fun read and I think I'll be looking for more novels from this author. show less

I loved Twice Dead in an extreme way. It's almost as though Kalayna Price snuck into my head and wrote the perfect book for my tastes. There is a creative balancing that portrays vampires, shapeshifters, mages and other things that go bump in the night in the human world.

In this second book of the Haven series, Kita's situation between Nathaniel and Tatius reached new heights. The previously touched upon vampire council was featured in some fun ways and we a few more hints as to how Kita's shapeshifter past is effecting her current vampire state. Combined that with an insane mystery that threw me though a loop and you have yourself a fast-paced, can't put it down read.

This is one of the very best urban fantasy series I have read. Price show more has cemented herself as one of my new favorite authors. Calling this book perfect doesn't begin to do it justice. show less

(Note: This was supplied as a PDF. Reading PDFs is a pain on my eReader, so that meant computer time, and as I usually find myself doing things on the computer instead of reading it slowed finishing this down, a lot, which may reflect in a slightly tetchy review. ePub please!)

I'm still trying to decide if I liked this book or not. The series has potential. Against that, it does hit some of my 'annoying' buttons - the heroine seems a little more whinging (though its nice not to see yet another Anita-Blake-super-competant clone) than warrented, the world was solid enough to feel real, and the rest of the characters were pleasantly interesting.

Having got MY whining out of the way - I did enjoy the book while I was reading, and the world show more and characters were deftly enough sketched that I didn't generally suffer a lot of those argh! moments. If you like Urban Fantasy, pick up a copy or skim a few sample pages to see if you'd like the book, and if you do, grab the first in the series (Once Bitten) at the same time. show less

A fun, action-filled story of vampires, shape-shifters and mages. I haven't read the first book in the series, though Price fills in the back story well enough, which can be a challenge I"m sure - not to bore readers following a series with too much old news, yet give new readers enough background that they're not floundering. I would probably have enjoyed the characters a bit more if I'd read Once Bitten, the first book in the series, but that's likely just personal preference.

This story has Kita, a shape-shifter and fledgling vampire, and Nathaniel, the vampire who turned her, smack in the middle of some intense vampire politics. At the same time Kita is trying to fulfill a quest to track down people she may have "tagged" as show more shape-shifters during an attack that occurred in the first book. Complications ensue, including murder and mayhem. I think I'll go find a copy of the first book to see how things start out. show less

Different from the stereotypical vampire novels populating the market now, “Twice Bitten” by Kalayna Price is so well written, you can almost picture the scenes in front of your very own eyes. In fact, where the writing and plot waivers, however few and far between this happens, converting this manuscript to film would remove these shortcomings. I have not read the first book in the series, which accounts for some of the confusion in the plot but writing style of Mrs. Price is so good, and the story is so interesting, that I have put a call into my local bookshop to get the first novel in the series. Can’t wait until there is more on this trilogy.