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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
I would have liked to rate this to a 3.5 because I'm getting tired of the 3-way relationship Alex has with two unattainable men. The author needs to beef up the other characters relationship drama or add a new guy.
What? A somewhat cliffhanger ending??? NOOOO! And now we must wait and wait and wait for Book 4. While I like the world created here, I will be honest and say I don't feel as much urgency here as I do to read Karen Chance's Cassandra Palmer books, but the protagonist Alex is a likable character in that she's genuine and a little bit naive, but not of the sarcastic, snarky protagonist mold (which makes her a non-cliched character to me). She does seem to almost die way too often for someone who claims to be a professional. This book is action-packed and I am curious to see what happens next. So much is hinted at as far as what is "true" and what Alex knows, that the suspense is keeping me engaged and I am curious about how characters grow.
It seems that each book is now going back and forth between either Falin or Death being in her life as her Significant Other, although she hasn't committed to either one yet (which makes for an interesting triangle of angst), but given that we know so little about either character and Alex seems to be agency-less (as in she refuses to make any moves of her own), it could get frustratingly old soon.
If you're contemplating this book and haven't read the series, I wouldn't read this without having read the others first.
It seems that each book is now going back and forth between either Falin or Death being in her life as her Significant Other, although she hasn't committed to either one yet (which makes for an interesting triangle of angst), but given that we know so little about either character and Alex seems to be agency-less (as in she refuses to make any moves of her own), it could get frustratingly old soon.
If you're contemplating this book and haven't read the series, I wouldn't read this without having read the others first.
This book started out on my "so excited for this book" list after the first 2 sucked me in. I got the impression from the second book that there was going to be a heavy focus on the love triangle starting NOW. I've survived more than one love triangle and the ideas in the first two books were so good I thought the series could handle a little silliness. There are just not enough good fairy and ghost stories out there amongst all the werewolves and vampires and this one had both. Yeah!
Unfortunately I feel like there's more interest in throwing Alex's relationships into chaos then developing the world or powers of the main character. Alex and Rhianna have just started there own business, basically supernatural PI's and witches for hire. They start all this just in time to witness a suicide. The problem is the suicide's ghost has no memory of the last three days of his life much less jumping off a building. Alex quickly comes to the conclusion something is riding the bodies of people throughout the city before killing them. To compound that ghouls are roaming the graveyards of the city, her roommate Holly is addicted to fairy food, boy toy Falin is under the Winter Queens thumb and boy toy Death has been told to stay away from her.
The build up over the first 2/3's of the book is slow. There's angst over Falin, and talk of "betrayal" although Falin is probably literally the only male in any UF book over who can truly claim he can't help his bad behavior. Alex is apparently not bright enough to figure this out and protect them both by just staying away from him. I do so hate the heroine so in love she doesn't act rationally. Unfortunately she has two men to act irrational over and put at risk by "loving" them. Yeah. It quickly got annoying for me.
What I think disappointed me the most in the book it's the lack of world building I love in UF. The cross over of worlds where the land of the dead drives everything into rot was so interesting the first book. By now we get a sentence about rust or ashes and that's it. C'mon, be poetic, give me an image to work with. Nothing. Now, when we finally get to the sex scene we get down to every little thrust and touch ad nauseum. Really there's very little description beyond what she's doing with the boys. We go into Fairy, get a description of the courts and then just talk about her hanging out with Falin. I want to here about Fairy, I want that built up. She's supposed to go to fairy to pick a court, instead we hear about Falin and watch her be stupid enough to once again get sucked into fairy games. Saw it all coming. We get to see one brief lesson with her dad, finally, because apparently being a fairy princess means you can ignore it.
Just overall the story felt slow as we figured things out. Angst over boys. Angst over boys. And then, ooh, tie it up! Rush the end! Yeah!
I thought of giving this book 2 stars, but it's only a 2 star book in consideration of what I was hoping for. The writing is overall good. I just wish there was more building of the world and the magic. Less love triangle. More rules for the world so I can tell she's not going to become the all powerful Mary Sue. The reapers exist for a purpose. Why? Is there a god or leader that rules their decisions? We might have met one but he's no more fleshed out then anyone else, just useful to the plot. Oh, and she's not exactly an Anita Blake but she's rapidly gaining powers over just about everything she touches. And sleeping with multiple boys is coming soon. I think this series is dead for me. I dragged myself through hoping it would drag me in. There's huge potential for the world building here. Huge potential for beauty and awesomeness. Mostly it feels like a paranormal romance with an underdeveloped world and a set of rules that after 3 books still hasn't managed to catch up to the main characters specialness.
Unfortunately I feel like there's more interest in throwing Alex's relationships into chaos then developing the world or powers of the main character. Alex and Rhianna have just started there own business, basically supernatural PI's and witches for hire. They start all this just in time to witness a suicide. The problem is the suicide's ghost has no memory of the last three days of his life much less jumping off a building. Alex quickly comes to the conclusion something is riding the bodies of people throughout the city before killing them. To compound that ghouls are roaming the graveyards of the city, her roommate Holly is addicted to fairy food, boy toy Falin is under the Winter Queens thumb and boy toy Death has been told to stay away from her.
The build up over the first 2/3's of the book is slow. There's angst over Falin, and talk of "betrayal" although Falin is probably literally the only male in any UF book over who can truly claim he can't help his bad behavior. Alex is apparently not bright enough to figure this out and protect them both by just staying away from him. I do so hate the heroine so in love she doesn't act rationally. Unfortunately she has two men to act irrational over and put at risk by "loving" them. Yeah. It quickly got annoying for me.
What I think disappointed me the most in the book it's the lack of world building I love in UF. The cross over of worlds where the land of the dead drives everything into rot was so interesting the first book. By now we get a sentence about rust or ashes and that's it. C'mon, be poetic, give me an image to work with. Nothing. Now, when we finally get to the sex scene we get down to every little thrust and touch ad nauseum. Really there's very little description beyond what she's doing with the boys. We go into Fairy, get a description of the courts and then just talk about her hanging out with Falin. I want to here about Fairy, I want that built up. She's supposed to go to fairy to pick a court, instead we hear about Falin and watch her be stupid enough to once again get sucked into fairy games. Saw it all coming. We get to see one brief lesson with her dad, finally, because apparently being a fairy princess means you can ignore it.
Just overall the story felt slow as we figured things out. Angst over boys. Angst over boys. And then, ooh, tie it up! Rush the end! Yeah!
I thought of giving this book 2 stars, but it's only a 2 star book in consideration of what I was hoping for. The writing is overall good. I just wish there was more building of the world and the magic. Less love triangle. More rules for the world so I can tell she's not going to become the all powerful Mary Sue. The reapers exist for a purpose. Why? Is there a god or leader that rules their decisions? We might have met one but he's no more fleshed out then anyone else, just useful to the plot. Oh, and she's not exactly an Anita Blake but she's rapidly gaining powers over just about everything she touches. And sleeping with multiple boys is coming soon. I think this series is dead for me. I dragged myself through hoping it would drag me in. There's huge potential for the world building here. Huge potential for beauty and awesomeness. Mostly it feels like a paranormal romance with an underdeveloped world and a set of rules that after 3 books still hasn't managed to catch up to the main characters specialness.
The third novel, Grave Memory, has Alex officially opening up a private eye firm with her best friend, Rianna, another grave witch. Her friendly ghost, Roy, is back and declares the broom closet as his new office. Barely open a day, they stumble upon a suicide down the street from their office. But something fishy is going since the man’s ghost swears he didn’t kill himself. He was about to have a baby with his wife. His last memory was at a bar and the next just moments after jumping off a building to his death. The evidence all points to no foul play, but Alex agrees to work for the ghost’s widow. After raising the shade, Alex’s grave magic uncovers a supernatural serial killer. As for romance, this book takes her relationship with Death to a new level.
I didn’t intend to get hooked on a new paranormal romance, but here we are! I like that Alex doesn’t necessarily seek out danger, but it always seems to find her. Lucky for her, she has lots of friends and two love interests who step up when things get hairy. With each book, we learn more about her family and heritage, which is a mystery of its own. There is a nice balance of romance and mystery involving supernatural beings. But this time no vamps or werewolves like in The Hollows or Sookie Stackhouse books. There are strong similarities to Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson series, which I started for CBR10. Both protagonists can see the dead, consult as private detectives, AND have potential love interests named Death! Charley, however, is a grim reaper while Alex is a witch specializing in the dead. Although both supernatural hunks make their protagonist’s hearts flutter, they have very different personalities. Alex is a witch who isn’t all-powerful in magic, which makes it unique and interesting enough for me. If you’re a fan of any of the series I mentioned, definitely check out Kalayna Price’s series. She recent released book 6 and I’m halfway there in only a few months.
Full review on my blog: https://teresaelectro.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/cbr11-review-567-alex-craft-grave-witch/
I didn’t intend to get hooked on a new paranormal romance, but here we are! I like that Alex doesn’t necessarily seek out danger, but it always seems to find her. Lucky for her, she has lots of friends and two love interests who step up when things get hairy. With each book, we learn more about her family and heritage, which is a mystery of its own. There is a nice balance of romance and mystery involving supernatural beings. But this time no vamps or werewolves like in The Hollows or Sookie Stackhouse books. There are strong similarities to Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson series, which I started for CBR10. Both protagonists can see the dead, consult as private detectives, AND have potential love interests named Death! Charley, however, is a grim reaper while Alex is a witch specializing in the dead. Although both supernatural hunks make their protagonist’s hearts flutter, they have very different personalities. Alex is a witch who isn’t all-powerful in magic, which makes it unique and interesting enough for me. If you’re a fan of any of the series I mentioned, definitely check out Kalayna Price’s series. She recent released book 6 and I’m halfway there in only a few months.
Full review on my blog: https://teresaelectro.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/cbr11-review-567-alex-craft-grave-witch/
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the series has lost it's spark for me, although i enjoyed the mystery in this book--the strongest case in the series so far.
when it comes to the love triangle, i think that death is a poorly written character. we are told numerous times by alex that his man is her oldest friend and confidante. but that's all it is...TELLING. we are never shown the extent of this closeness, so the writing feels quite hollow. the winter queen situation with falin is getting stale, and the ending felt contrived, to manufacture more alex/falin angst. i love angst, but even i have limits.
when it comes to the love triangle, i think that death is a poorly written character. we are told numerous times by alex that his man is her oldest friend and confidante. but that's all it is...TELLING. we are never shown the extent of this closeness, so the writing feels quite hollow. the winter queen situation with falin is getting stale, and the ending felt contrived, to manufacture more alex/falin angst. i love angst, but even i have limits.
Since starting the Alex Craft series just three books ago I've really grown to love the characters already. Price does a great job at character building of both Alex, her current/potential love interests, and even the secondary characters. So the characters are probably what I love most about this series.
Unfortunately therein lies the first problem I'm having. I almost love the two love interests too much because I think I'm going to be upset either way when she finally chooses between them. There are issues preventing her from fully being with one or the other, but as the series progresses she (and I) become more and more attached to both of them. I'm not a huge fan of love triangles, in fact I almost always dislike them. Sometimes though, as with this case, they have a way of building upon the main character better. Here's what I mean:
In this case both Death and Falin represent two parts of Alex's life and basically a fork in the road for her. Death represents the part of her that is a grave witch and he is the "comfortable" choice, even though there are some big barriers keeping them apart. On the other hand Falin represents her faerie half, which she only recently found out about. She can only be with him (according to the Winter Court Queen) by choosing a court within Faerie, which ultimately means she must move to Faerie and give up being a grave witch.
For those reasons, the love triangle makes sense. Whereas some books (mostly YA) have two love interests simply for the sake of creating conflict, in this case they do represent critical choices Alex must make in her life. I still hate the fact that I love both of them, but I can appreciate why Price went the love triangle route for this series.
As for the story itself, I liked this one and I liked how the pieces fit together in the end. I didn't have a clue where her case was going with this one until it got there so that was a good surprise. But even though all the right elements where there, I didn't get drawn into the story as much as with the previous books.
Overall another good installment of the Alex Craft series. Although it wasn't as good as the first two books, I still really like this series and I can't wait for the next book. I'd definitely recommend it to Urban Fantasy fans who like reading about witches and faeries and who don't mind a well-placed love triangle.
Unfortunately therein lies the first problem I'm having. I almost love the two love interests too much because I think I'm going to be upset either way when she finally chooses between them. There are issues preventing her from fully being with one or the other, but as the series progresses she (and I) become more and more attached to both of them. I'm not a huge fan of love triangles, in fact I almost always dislike them. Sometimes though, as with this case, they have a way of building upon the main character better. Here's what I mean:
In this case both Death and Falin represent two parts of Alex's life and basically a fork in the road for her. Death represents the part of her that is a grave witch and he is the "comfortable" choice, even though there are some big barriers keeping them apart. On the other hand Falin represents her faerie half, which she only recently found out about. She can only be with him (according to the Winter Court Queen) by choosing a court within Faerie, which ultimately means she must move to Faerie and give up being a grave witch.
For those reasons, the love triangle makes sense. Whereas some books (mostly YA) have two love interests simply for the sake of creating conflict, in this case they do represent critical choices Alex must make in her life. I still hate the fact that I love both of them, but I can appreciate why Price went the love triangle route for this series.
As for the story itself, I liked this one and I liked how the pieces fit together in the end. I didn't have a clue where her case was going with this one until it got there so that was a good surprise. But even though all the right elements where there, I didn't get drawn into the story as much as with the previous books.
Overall another good installment of the Alex Craft series. Although it wasn't as good as the first two books, I still really like this series and I can't wait for the next book. I'd definitely recommend it to Urban Fantasy fans who like reading about witches and faeries and who don't mind a well-placed love triangle.
So good to be back with Alex and crew.
This is book three in a series that's gradually becoming a top favourite of mine. What makes it a favourite? Well, you've got the imaginative world-building, the diverse cast of characters of all ages and from all walks of life, the new spin on the Fae race, the interesting take on witch magic, including its harsh drawbacks, and all the inter-layered plains of existence and creatures that live in them. And also the potential love interest characters are none too shabby either.
Now, I know a lot of people hate love triangles with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, but this one I feel is more than worth while getting involved in. Because you've basically been given two good (mostly) men, both of whom love Alex and who I like to think she loves in return in slightly differing ways, and then Price has just complicated the ever living hell out of it, making each potential pairing seemingly impossible for one reason or another. It's very interesting and I'm completely torn over how I feel about each of them. I was pleased, therefore, that this book had a little more time devoted to Death and the Collectors, to try and balance out my opinion since Falin was hogging the limelight for most of the first two books.
It's really hard to watch what's happening with Falin at the moment. He's tied through compulsions to the Winter Queen (can you say bitch in a tiara?), who, despite her animosity towards Alex, wants her to join her Court. The way she's been trying to "gently persuade" Alex to her side has been to dangle the prospect of being with Falin in her face.... by sending him to raid her house every couple of weeks on bogus charges and searches as part of his F.I.B job. Just to torment her with the fact that she can see him, talk to him, but he's been compelled to only have contact with her in an official capacity. No small talk, no niceties. It's painful for Alex and more than a little cruel of the Winter Queen. I'm dying to see what else she has up her sleeve after what happened in the final pages.
Death, as I mentioned before, gets more time to shine in this instalment. I enjoyed learning even more about the Collectors and Death himself. He's so yummy. I really struggle to find fault with him. I guess his main fault is that he's unattainable.
Alex is having a slightly hard time of things. Her friend John seems to be giving her the cold shoulder, she can't seem to do right for doing wrong in the investigation currently ongoing, and her love life is a disaster. Still, she's trying to make the best of things and is thrilled to have her childhood friend Rianna back in her life. They've decided to do something they planned as kids together; open a P. I. firm called 'Tongues for the dead.'
I enjoyed the plot surrounding the 'Rider' once it got going. Unfortunately that seemed to take quite while. Also, there was not much sign of either Falin or Death in the first half so I found it a little slow going. It did have plenty of recaps in the opening chapters for anyone who, like me, has forgotten a lot of the details since the last book. I was worried at first that I'd forgotten too much as I couldn't even remember the names of her house mates, but it all came back to me with the gentle re-introductions provided. By which I mean, we were given just enough info to jog the old memory box, but not pages and pages of character bios copied and pasted from past books (take note, Estep!).
All in all a great instalment, definitely one for the Death fans, and a great progression of the series.
4 Stars ★★★★
This is book three in a series that's gradually becoming a top favourite of mine. What makes it a favourite? Well, you've got the imaginative world-building, the diverse cast of characters of all ages and from all walks of life, the new spin on the Fae race, the interesting take on witch magic, including its harsh drawbacks, and all the inter-layered plains of existence and creatures that live in them. And also the potential love interest characters are none too shabby either.
Now, I know a lot of people hate love triangles with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, but this one I feel is more than worth while getting involved in. Because you've basically been given two good (mostly) men, both of whom love Alex and who I like to think she loves in return in slightly differing ways, and then Price has just complicated the ever living hell out of it, making each potential pairing seemingly impossible for one reason or another. It's very interesting and I'm completely torn over how I feel about each of them. I was pleased, therefore, that this book had a little more time devoted to Death and the Collectors, to try and balance out my opinion since Falin was hogging the limelight for most of the first two books.
It's really hard to watch what's happening with Falin at the moment. He's tied through compulsions to the Winter Queen (can you say bitch in a tiara?), who, despite her animosity towards Alex, wants her to join her Court. The way she's been trying to "gently persuade" Alex to her side has been to dangle the prospect of being with Falin in her face.... by sending him to raid her house every couple of weeks on bogus charges and searches as part of his F.I.B job. Just to torment her with the fact that she can see him, talk to him, but he's been compelled to only have contact with her in an official capacity. No small talk, no niceties. It's painful for Alex and more than a little cruel of the Winter Queen. I'm dying to see what else she has up her sleeve after what happened in the final pages.
Death, as I mentioned before, gets more time to shine in this instalment. I enjoyed learning even more about the Collectors and Death himself. He's so yummy. I really struggle to find fault with him. I guess his main fault is that he's unattainable.
Alex is having a slightly hard time of things. Her friend John seems to be giving her the cold shoulder, she can't seem to do right for doing wrong in the investigation currently ongoing, and her love life is a disaster. Still, she's trying to make the best of things and is thrilled to have her childhood friend Rianna back in her life. They've decided to do something they planned as kids together; open a P. I. firm called 'Tongues for the dead.'
I enjoyed the plot surrounding the 'Rider' once it got going. Unfortunately that seemed to take quite while. Also, there was not much sign of either Falin or Death in the first half so I found it a little slow going. It did have plenty of recaps in the opening chapters for anyone who, like me, has forgotten a lot of the details since the last book. I was worried at first that I'd forgotten too much as I couldn't even remember the names of her house mates, but it all came back to me with the gentle re-introductions provided. By which I mean, we were given just enough info to jog the old memory box, but not pages and pages of character bios copied and pasted from past books (take note, Estep!).
All in all a great instalment, definitely one for the Death fans, and a great progression of the series.
4 Stars ★★★★
3.5 Stars
I really like this series, but I am more interested in the story line and charactors then in the relationship problems Alex is having with Death and Fallon.
I really like this series, but I am more interested in the story line and charactors then in the relationship problems Alex is having with Death and Fallon.
Damn. These books just keep getting better and better.