Title: Masks
Series: Cassandra Palmer #4.3
Author: Karen Chance
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads 

My Rating:

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Blurb

Fifteenth century Venice is a safe haven for the masterless dregs of the vampire world, a city where they can live without the fear of retribution for violating another’s territory.

Still, there are plenty of ways for a young vampire to die in the glittering city, a lesson that prince turned pauper Mircea Basarab must learn quickly. But there are opportunities, too—in the service of a secretive courtesan, in the bed of a beautiful senator, and in the hunt for an ancient assassin.

As a vendetta older than Venice itself comes to a climax, Mircea struggles to evade the dangers of his current life, to come to terms with his past, and to uncover the truth hidden behind a city of masks…
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My Review

Masks is the long-awaited story of Mircea Basarab, one of the main characters of the Cassandra Palmer series by Karen Chance.

As Mircea is a hero I definitely want for myself, my expectations were high. I expected to learn about his background story: his life as a human, his Change, and his years until he had become one of the most influential and powerful vampire senators.

Instead of this, the story covers a short period of his early life as a vampire which he had spent in Venice, in the fifteenth century. It was two years after his Change, when he was still mourning his human life, was still suffering from his losses: home, family, and a possible future.

All he wanted to know was that this pain, this longing, this terrible guilt he felt every time he thought about the past, was going to lessen, perhaps one day to stop. All he wanted was a reason to go on.

Through 70% of the story I was persistent, I really was. I love Mircea, and I wanted to love his book so much. But I just skimmed the last 30% because I lost interest, patience, and all my goodwill.

In one sentence, it was boring as hell.

First, a significant part of the story is like a 15th century travelogue of Venice. Both the atmosphere and the physical beauty of Venice were depicted meticulously. But enough is enough!
Second, not only Venice, but everything else, such as cloths, masks (of course), fabrics, cosmetics, even types of candies were unmercifully detailed.

While I enjoyed as Mircea slowly accepts his new situation, and learns about the nature of vampires, their rules, laws, etiquette, customs, politics, and power relations, the repetition of his thoughts exhausted me.

Eventually he realizes that he is the same man as he was before: his intelligence, morals, and confidence survived the Change. He is still a fighter, still a leader.

The erotic scenes were the most remarkable parts of the story thanks to Ms. Chance’s sensual and vibrant descriptions.

The dialogues were slow, and often irrelevant, the plot couldn’t capture my interest. Scenes and chapters ended abruptly, making the story hard to follow and enjoy. The epilogue was sweet, with his daughter Dorina, but still lots of things remained in shadow.

Masks has its moments, and some meaningful thoughts, but overall it left me unsatisfied.

See my favorite quotes on my Tumblr page,
Daily Quotes by Exina.

Title: Shadowland
Series: Cassandra Palmer #4.2
Author: Karen Chance
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads 
Free on the author’s website

My Rating:

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Blurb

A John Pritkin short and a sequel to A Family Affair.
Shadowland is a novella set between Curse the Dawn (Cassie Palmer #4) and Hunt the Moon (Cassie Palmer #5).
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“Your viewpoint isn’t the only viewpoint;
your logic isn’t the only logic.”

My Review

Another assassination attempt takes place against Cassie – this time it seems to be successful. The grief-stricken, guilt-loaded, vengeful Pritkin goes to Shadowland – formerly a marketplace, now the capital and main meeting place of Hells – to find and kill Rosier whom he considers responsible for the outrage.

“All his training, all the meticulous plans and preparations, had been useless when it counted. The knowledge of his failure writhed through him, the pain more shocking, more intimate, than the deepest wound carved into his flesh.”

So as characters, we have Cassie, Pritkin, Rosier again, who is still a very cheap antagonist, Casanova’s incubus, Rian, and poor, poor Casanova, who is involved in Cassie’s newest adventure much more actively than he ever wanted to be, and whose casino is in the worst shape ever by the end of the story. Hope Ms. Chance recompenses him later. He really deserves it.

The created situation is very tricky and complicated, and what Cassie makes out of it is really fun, and typically ‘Cassie’.

John looked back at Cassie. “Where—” he cleared his throat. “Where did you get the weapons?”
“Downstairs,” she told him happily. “The senate’s using this as a base now, remember?”
“But they must have guards—“
“Of course.”
“–and you’re without your powers. How did you get in?”
She looked at him like he might be slow. “I’m pythia. I told them to unlock the goddamned door.”

The beginning of the story is dynamic, and the situation is surprising, but later I was bored a little by Casanova and Rian’s chats, as well as Pritkin and Rosier’s pointless fight. Furthermore, Shadowland doesn’t look like an actual dangerous and scary metropolis, but a sleazy dead-city. I am disappointed in Rosier (again), Pritkin is great (as always), Casanova is okay, and Cassie is just cool!

Title: A Family Affair
Series: Cassandra Palmer #4.1
Author: Karen Chance
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads 
Free on the author’s website

 

My Rating:

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Blurb

A John Pritkin short and a prequel to Shadowland.
A Family Affair is a novella set between Curse the Dawn, Cassie Palmer #4, and Hunt the Moon, Cassie Palmer #5. It contains spoilers for Cassie Palmer books 1-4.
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“It was epic,” Rosier said…
John scowled.

My Review

In A Family Affair, John Pritkin is made to make a deal with his father, Rosier, the Lord of the Incubi: Pritkin has to find and imprison an ancient demon battle queen, Ealdris, in return Rosier stops attempting to murder Cassie.

As Pritkin’s main occupation nowadays is to protect Cassie, it is worth considering, so he delegates Casanova to take care of Cassie, while he is away to chase Ealdris. Casanova is tired of all the fuss over the new pythia, so to sum it up, he is not happy.

She was like a disease, a human virus that infected everyone around her, turning off their good sense and making them do things completely against their own best interests. Someone should lock her up, study her, figure out a vaccine before the whole damn world caught the madness —
                                                                                – Casanova about Cassie

And with that, the deadly, insanely fast-paced and action-packed, surprising, mysterious, and horrific hunt begins.

The events run on two scenes simultaneously, and join at the very end. Enemies have to unite forces, and help comes from where they have never expected. Pritkin has to deal with his hated heritage, and to use something that he has never thought would be profitable for him.

This story is an interesting peek into the realms of the demons, as there are many hells, not only one, and into different races of demons, making Chance’s fantasy world more and more layered and detailed, consequently more believable.

“Then take us somewhere else!”
“I just told you…  I would need a portal to go somewhere else, and the master knows that —”
“Another hell, then. Somewhere safer.”
Rian looked at him like he might have lost his mind. “A safer hell?”

A Family Affair is a great addition to the Cassandra Palmer series, a real thriller only on a couple of pages, with a conspiracy so colossal that it easily can be the topic of a full-length novel.

Don’t miss it!