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zeezeemama11's review
4.0
I really really liked this book. And I loved the different perspectives. I don't think you witness the world from the main characters perspective until half the book has gone by. I love Mercedes Lackey though period and would recommend her to anyone. She is a brilliant author and I've never read anything by her that wasn't at least a three stars of entertainment (more often then not four or five!) Didn't realized I had read the second book of the Diana Tregarde series. So I will have to go back now and read the first. Stand alone novel though! Don't need to read before or after to get the story told!
jasmyn9's review
4.0
Occult meets real life crime solving...and it worked! A great mesh of the supernatural witchcraft and good old fashioned detective foot work creates an intriguing and captivating story. Diana is an "average" girl that just happens to be a witch. While her witchcraft plays an important role in helping to track down a murderous cult, she would not have been able to do it by those means alone. With an ending that at first leaves you a bit upset, Mercedes Lackey ties everything up quite neatly and satisfactorily in the last few pages without giving the reader a rushed feeling.
While some of the occult references aren't quite accurate to historical accounts, the story is written in a way that makes it easy to forgive and accept the slight inaccuracies.
While some of the occult references aren't quite accurate to historical accounts, the story is written in a way that makes it easy to forgive and accept the slight inaccuracies.
johanna_lytle's review
I love this book and read it a long time ago. I just can’t get into it right now so I’m taking it off my currently reading shelf.
elkieb's review
3.0
Odd mix of regressive, of the time language (from the 80s) and forward acceptance in explaining Wiccan practice. The storyline was ok - if a bit predictable.
hashtag_alison's review
1.0
I wanted to like this book because I liked [b:Firebird|176803|Firebird (Fairy Tales #1)|Mercedes Lackey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388967916s/176803.jpg|3338009] so much but her storytelling skill just doesn't translate as well to modern times. It's hard to explain but the reason the mystery doesn't get solved is literally "magic made me forget to check the most obvious thing." I love a good mystery and that does not make a mystery good.
Oh, and she compares Wiccans to Holocaust survivors. I have no words.
Oh, and she compares Wiccans to Holocaust survivors. I have no words.
ptaradactyl's review
4.0
I really enjoyed a different universe. Reading it decades later made the “real world” setting feel like a fun throwback.
(Oops- checked pub date. It was kind of a throw back setting. Still, a lack of ubiquitous cellphones and old computers)
(Oops- checked pub date. It was kind of a throw back setting. Still, a lack of ubiquitous cellphones and old computers)
azagee's review
2.0
DNF @ 50%. Its weird, I usually love Mercedes Lackey, even her weirder, dated stuff, like the car racing elves series. But this was... I don't know. I had to force myself to read it. The characters were so flat and cliché. I know the "private investigator does magic" trope hadn't been done often at the time of publication, but from a modern standpoint it really does feel like someone rewrote the Dresden Files to have worse world building and a less charismatic spellslinger.
telegramsam's review
2.0
This may have been a great book. The writing seemed okay but it was dated. At another time it might have worked, but for now it is not. It wasn't horrible and if you enjoy paranormal romance, I would suggest a try.
xeni's review
3.0
This book was fascinating because of the tie in to Aztec culture. Of course, Diana Tregarde comes to the rescue at the last minute, but up until then the plot was kind of interesting. For me, the best part was the Aztec culture tie in. Everything else just seemed like despair.
myth's review
3.0
This isn't the first time I've read this. I went through a craze several years ago where I tried to read everything Mercedes Lackey had ever written, and this one, along with select books out of the Heralds of Valdemar series, is one of the ones that I still like.
The good? It's a portrayal of strong women written in the eighties, when the rapetastic Old Skool romances were still being written (not that they're not being written now, unfortunately, it's just a much less widespread phenomenon. Also, nowadays it is often diluted into stalking/emotional abuse/extreme possessiveness=sexy, which... no. And it often involves the supernatural, maybe in an attempt to justify it in some way? This is a topic for another time)
This book is one of a trilogy, though I think she meant it to be a longer series. They include werewolves and vampires (though the vampires are more psychic vampires than blood-drinking ones. Sort of. It has both, okay?) and witches. A strong heroine, men who don't see it as a problem, men who she is just good friends with, men (or a vampire) who thinks it's sexy as hell. Aztec gods. Loving and longing from a distance. Women who get along. On paper (no pun originally intended)? This book sounds like the best book ever, tailor-made to fit my interests. That's how I feel about a lot of ML's books, actually - in theory, they are perfect.
Because I'm contrary, I of course have some problems with them.
My main problem is that Di is just so damn preachy. About everything. She is the most open-minded person on the planet, and she will tell you so. And that you should be more open-minded. And that your third cousin twice removed should be more open-minded. I am all for open-mindedness. I love open-mindedness. I write entire papers about open-mindedness. But I feel the same way about telling people to be open-minded as I do about Avatar telling people to save the trees, dammit. It doesn't work if you beat them over the head with it, and to those of us who agree with you, it's downright annoying to have it every five pages or so.
Also, Di just bugs me sometimes. I should like her, and often I do, but sometimes I just want to shake her and be like 'stop going on and on about how open-minded you are! Stop being so infernally omniscient! Have a little more difficulty in taking on a freaking god!' (the ironic thing is that ML has Di tell an aspiring writer the same thing in another book)
Oh, and did you notice how often I used italics up there? Was the enforced stress beginning to hurt your brain? Try reading three hundred and twelve pages of it.
I don't remember the other two being like that, and I should probably mention that they were published out of chronological order if you're thinking about picking them up. Burning Water is smack-dab in the middle chronologically but published first, and unfortunately, that reflects poorly on Di, since you can see more development in the first (chronological) one.
Please don't take all of the above as meaning I don't like the book. I do. I wouldn't reread it so many times if I didn't. It's just that Mercedes Lackey almost always does these things, and after a while you begin to sense a pattern. And a little while after that, you begin to wonder why Diana has to be so crazily and amazingly awesome without being shown that she's worked for it while the narrative keeps telling us that it is showing us that she's working for it.
I give it a 3.5/5, partially for nostalgia, partially because it introduced me to Aztec mythology, and partially because it is advertised as a mystery and you do really want to figure out who the hell is killing every-freaking-body.
The good? It's a portrayal of strong women written in the eighties, when the rapetastic Old Skool romances were still being written (not that they're not being written now, unfortunately, it's just a much less widespread phenomenon. Also, nowadays it is often diluted into stalking/emotional abuse/extreme possessiveness=sexy, which... no. And it often involves the supernatural, maybe in an attempt to justify it in some way? This is a topic for another time)
This book is one of a trilogy, though I think she meant it to be a longer series. They include werewolves and vampires (though the vampires are more psychic vampires than blood-drinking ones. Sort of. It has both, okay?) and witches. A strong heroine, men who don't see it as a problem, men who she is just good friends with, men (or a vampire) who thinks it's sexy as hell. Aztec gods. Loving and longing from a distance. Women who get along. On paper (no pun originally intended)? This book sounds like the best book ever, tailor-made to fit my interests. That's how I feel about a lot of ML's books, actually - in theory, they are perfect.
Because I'm contrary, I of course have some problems with them.
My main problem is that Di is just so damn preachy. About everything. She is the most open-minded person on the planet, and she will tell you so. And that you should be more open-minded. And that your third cousin twice removed should be more open-minded. I am all for open-mindedness. I love open-mindedness. I write entire papers about open-mindedness. But I feel the same way about telling people to be open-minded as I do about Avatar telling people to save the trees, dammit. It doesn't work if you beat them over the head with it, and to those of us who agree with you, it's downright annoying to have it every five pages or so.
Also, Di just bugs me sometimes. I should like her, and often I do, but sometimes I just want to shake her and be like 'stop going on and on about how open-minded you are! Stop being so infernally omniscient! Have a little more difficulty in taking on a freaking god!' (the ironic thing is that ML has Di tell an aspiring writer the same thing in another book)
Oh, and did you notice how often I used italics up there? Was the enforced stress beginning to hurt your brain? Try reading three hundred and twelve pages of it.
I don't remember the other two being like that, and I should probably mention that they were published out of chronological order if you're thinking about picking them up. Burning Water is smack-dab in the middle chronologically but published first, and unfortunately, that reflects poorly on Di, since you can see more development in the first (chronological) one.
Please don't take all of the above as meaning I don't like the book. I do. I wouldn't reread it so many times if I didn't. It's just that Mercedes Lackey almost always does these things, and after a while you begin to sense a pattern. And a little while after that, you begin to wonder why Diana has to be so crazily and amazingly awesome without being shown that she's worked for it while the narrative keeps telling us that it is showing us that she's working for it.
I give it a 3.5/5, partially for nostalgia, partially because it introduced me to Aztec mythology, and partially because it is advertised as a mystery and you do really want to figure out who the hell is killing every-freaking-body.