Petru itibaren Woodland Hills, UT, Birleşik Devletler
August 24, 2014 We recently watched all the movies again and I just had a desire grow in me to reread the series because I was missing all the elements that were left out of the movies. I really enjoyed getting the fuller story, seeing the characterizations more clearly, and filling the story with the little nuances that just can't be captured in a film. I was surprised by some of the things I have come to accept as the way they 'really' happened because that is the way it was done in the film, but like the original book version better. So glad I am reading these again. 2nd time reading: I haven't read this since it first came out - 12 years ago! That is hard for me to believe. I am so used to the movie version now, that I forgot just how fun this book is. I really enjoyed it. Read almost the entire book in one sitting (literally - I was on a plane :) I just changed my rating to a 5 because I think it is amazing what JK Rowling started with this story, the lives and world she created and the great story she tells.
This book is the best so far in the series! I totally loved it. After kidnapping one of the Dominae vampires, Tanith, Sabina makes her way to the Queen Faery's court, where Tanith tries to set up a deal by giving Sabina the location of where her sister Maisie is being held, although she doesn't know the precise place. Will Tanith be honourable and keep to her end of the deal? I doubt it! But we'll have to wait and see! Sabina is soon off on the trail to find her missing twin sister, kidnapped by their vampire grandmother during a big fight between the vamps and the mages at the end of The Mage in Black (Book 2 in this series). This trail takes her to New Orleans, where she has to find a friend of Rhea's, a human voodoo priestess and her faery cross-dressing drag queen friend. Initially Sabina is reluctant to trust a human, but gives in as she knows there is no other way that she will be able to trace Maisie if she doesn't accept Zen's help. Sabina and Adam also meet a local werewolf, who gives her a lead to where some vamps might be staying, but instead vamps in the house, they find a pair of mages and some humans who are in a famous rock band together enjoying an orgy of sorts. Soon after they finished peeking through the windows they are attacked by a group of mages from the Caste of Nod. Immediately Sabina believes that the werewolf has betrayed her, but it wasn't her or her vampire contact. Stryx the owl also follows Sabina around a lot and they eventually capture him and perform a spell of sorts on him in the graveyard to try and get Maisie's exact location from him. She gets some very bizarre comments from him and at the same time her Chtonic magic does something rather new and strange! On this same night Zen's magic store gets attacked and so does Brooks, the faery. Very badly attacked as well and Sabina believes it was the werewolf again, but it wasn't! It was the same people who attacked her and Adam before and she has an idea of who the leak might be. And her gut instinct was correct! Brooks reinvents himself as Pussy Willow and manages to get rid of the leak once and for all! Sabina takes a sort of out of body vision quest in which she meets the ghost of David, her old vampire friend that she had to kill in the first book, who basically tells her that she has some very difficult decisions to make in the near future and whatever she does will have dire consequences. Through this vision she finds the exact location of where Maisie is being held, but before she can go and save her Sabina has to consult Orpheus, the leader of the mages and the faery Queen, who seems to take over the whole situation, giving out orders that no-one else really agrees to, but they have to accept because they need the faeries help. Sabina does as she always does though, and doesn't follow the orders at all. She decides to save Maisie by herself and leaves everyone else behind. However, Adam soon works out her plans, follows her and after a bit of a heated argument goes with her to save Maisie, but it doesn't go exactly to plan! well you didn't expect it to really did you? That would have been a very boring ending to the story. A huge fight entails and Sabina manages to save Maisie and eventually they all win! Yay!!! Can't say any more without giving away any more details! I loved how Sabina developed in this story. She finally gave into her emotions and she even manages to admit to Adam how she feels, using the big L word! I did wonder how much longer Adam would wait for her, and even though he was willing to give her time, I think she had to make a decision sooner rather than later, so she didn't keep stringing him along. I glad she didn't wait that long! Adam did annoy me at times. He's a Pythian guard and always will be, following orders to the letter, whereas Sabina does what she wants when she wants and Adam finds it hard to accept this in her. Even on the big fight night when Sabina goes off on her own, he throws a bit of a wobbly at her, despite knowing why she went off. I am glad they got together properly in the end though. Giguhl wasn't as funny this time round though as he had been dumped by the Vanity demon. I don't really know the details as they weren't revealed as such in this book, but I do know there is a short novella about this episode out, but it's not yet available over here in the UK - why not?!!! It's not necessarily essential to this story though, but I do like knowing all the details! Giguhl does have some funny moments with Brooks, who provided lots of laughs instead. Gighul tends to be more serious and has lots of close moments with Sabina giving her advice on matters of the heart, which I thought was a lovely side to him, especially after the breakdown of his whirlwind romance! Overall I totally loved this book. Glad Adam and Sabina got it together. Glad they found Maisie. Glad they got rid of the one who caused all this! Looking forward to reading the next one in the series, but I have to wait until January for the release!