Kim HarrisonReviews

DNF

The first few chapters were a slog to get through, and then after reading reviews that say there are numerous instances of animal harm and death I decided this ain’t for me.

I am a girl hero person and this series is filled with them! I love the world of the Hollows and am always happy to spend a day reading the next installment. I mean, who wouldn't be fascinated by a world filled with Pixies, Vampires, Demons, Witches, Elves, and Werewolves? If you are a fantasy fan then give this one a whirl you will not be disappointed.

While I love YA Teen books, this one confused me a little bit. I figured that since we knew Madison was dead, just from reading the blurb; that we would get a little more detail, or even a chapter out of what really happened that lead up to her being dead and walking around "alive". But really, you just get little flash backs and a few paragraphs after 3 or so chapters.
Once I understood what all was going on, it was easy-ish to get into the story. Madison, our main character, is dead, but not really dead. See she snagged what she thought was a Dark Reapers amulet and has been trying to learn to use it with the help of her Light Reaper. Now, confusing as that was, I kinda got it.. Dark Reapers are reapers who scythe the living before it is their time, and Light Reapers are there to stop them usually. All the power of the reapers; both light and dark; comes from the amulets that they wear, which contains their power and scythe (sword).
There are also Light and Dark timekeepers (which are humans), they make the amulets for the reapers. Light for light and Dark for dark... When Madison stole what she thought was a reapers amulet what she actually did was snag the Dark Timekeeper's (Kairos) amulet.
So, when Ron; the Light Timekeeper and Barnabas; Madison's Light Reaper; figure out that what she actually has is the Dark Timekeeper amulet, they disappear to talk with the seraphs leaving Madison in the care of a first-sphere guardian angel. Madison and Josh ( prom date the night she died) along with "Grace" the guardian angel, barely make it through two days without Ron or Barnabas....
The ending was kinda hard to believe, but then again, I know nothing of angels as I don't normally read any books about them ( just the Fallen ones!), but I am looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy to see what happens.

Well, who knew demons and curses could be a good thing? No doubt the fans of this series did, since this is book 12 in the series, and judging by the number of stars it's rated at, I'd say the fans were pleased with this one. I didn't realize this was part of a series when I downloaded the audio version from Overload, but it didn't take long to figure out, as the beginning seemed to be filling me in on how things work in this paranormal fantasy world of demons, elves, pixies, vampires, werewolves, zombies etc., but there was so much that I didn't feel like this was a first introduction. I'm thinking this book would have held my interest better had I started at the beginning, and I'm still pondering whether I will.

3.5 A rough-ish complicated start to a new series. First I hate Ashley. There was a lot of world building, a lot of character development, and a lot of explaining on the magical system. I had a bit of trouble getting the magical theory in felt complex to me and i'm not sure I got it all by the end. To be fair the magic was developing along with the story so that might all resolved it's self in the next book. First books are usually difficult to digest in a fantasy series for me, it's all so new. The MC's character was not consistent she'd act strong independent then say something so childish, or act so reckless, like a teenager. Another point that really felt off was the relationship with her ______ it didn't feel legit/believable even in the story, almost cartoonish. OH my Gawd the military- COMIC BOOK ! She didn't question these people showing up when she should have, she didn't really question anyone like any normal person would she just lalalalala ok you're here, lalalalala
Wait there was a part that was pure wrong. A character died, a character that didn't have any reason to be in the scene that made any sense. The whole time I'm thinking come on really do something with____ how are you going to get away safely ? Come on characters THINK !
I really am shocked Kim Harrison's female characters are usually much brighter than this girl. I didn't love this first book, didn't care for the comic book feel when the book was aiming for it.
What did I like ? I liked the set up, I liked the world, the possibilities, the future of the series. Yes I'll be reading more, at least one more.½

I'm a fan of her Hollows series, and I was looking forward to a new chain of stories. This story line, however, seems less polished than the previous series, and it drew me in far less. A large part of that is the characters. Petra is less engaging than Rachel; the love interests have less glamour and spark; the partners-in-crime are far more just backdrop than Ivy, Jenks, et al. are. Everyone's just a little flat, and I hope that they flesh out into more 3D in the coming volumes (because I will continue to see where this goes, at least for a bit).

On the plus side, the concept of magic in this series is imaginative. It's not gone into in any great detail or depth, but this is the first volume in the series, so there's time for that. There's certainly a fair amount of potentially interesting story there when coupled with the let's-go-hunt-bad-guys theme that seems to be the overarching direction.

So, in summary, fair and good enough that I'll continue, but not as good as The Hollows.

Three Kinds of Lucky
By Kim Harrison
This book was just the book I needed at the time! It's totally original and fresh! A new view on magic. We have a world where magic users are quite uppity and use magic that leaves a residue called dross. Not everyone can see it. Petra can and she is someone that goes around and cleans up the mess these uppity magic users make! They rarely clean up after themselves. The dross causes bad luck for anyone that comes in contact with it so Petra, and others like her, do their job and the dross is stored away so everyone is safe.
But something happens, something no one could have foreseen, now every thing is changed. Petra and her childhood friend, Ben, have to find the only one that might be able to help them before it's too late.
Great characters, twists, suspense, fantasy, situations, and unique and original story! I can't wait to find out more about these characters and what happens. This story has me hooked!
I want to thank the publisher for the opportunity to read this book!

Ugh

"yanked"

I really just didn't feel like reading this but it was the last in the series so I figured fine, what the hell.. It was very difficult to get through.

A magical freelance consultant makes poor life choices while dealing with vampires, demons and the police. There's a murder mystery too, but it's peripheral to the protagonist's relationship issues. The plot is unbelievable but the characters and situations are fun.

I didn't know this, until I looked it up, but apparently a short story set before these events explain in better detail what happened to Madison. The short story appears in the anthology Prom Nights From Hell. Also equally important to point out, far as I know this doesn't tie into her mainstream series The Hollows (or the Rachel Morgan books, whatever you want to call them). This is my first time reading Kim Harrison, in any form, as well.

My very first thought while reading this was that even though its a YA, I don't think its a great idea to have the MC finding her killer attractive. I don't care if he's David Tennant good looking, she shouldn't still think he's hot after being killed by him. It just...squicks me. That's a pet peeve however and shouldn't be counted against the book.

The book moved fast, keeping up the momentum that is started in the first chapter or so. It's not WHAM-BAM-THANK YOU MA'AM fast, but it moves along quickly enough to make you go 'huh? wait. back pedal' when character development emerges. Since I haven't read the short story, I can only assume that the lack of substantial coverage over Madison's Prom Night is covered in depth in that story, but for me I had to piece together most of it from the random comments made by Madison and company.

I was intrigued by the fact that there are 'light' and 'dark' reapers hanging around this mortal coil, duking it out to either kill or save a person who decides to march off the beaten path of fate. I would have been perfectly content if we just learned about them the entire time, since the dynamics were rather interesting to contemplate. We were also introduced to Timekeepers and seraphs however, making things a bit more complicated.

I think that Harrison over reached her audience a little bit. In mainstream paranormals, complicated entangled relationships are the norm, from my experience in young adult paranormals the complicated relationships tend to stay centered around a couple characters--not the main character and the entire cast of supporting. By the halfway point of the book I couldn't honestly tell you that I understood what was going on completely. Someone was after Madison, she had a lot more to worry about other then the phantom 'living' person feelings she was supposed to not be having and her mentor was starting to look shady. That's all I really got.

Like I said I was intrigued by the dark vs. light reapers and Madison was an interesting character, but there wasn't enough backstory to back up her feelings or frustrations properly. The world seemed distractedly built--or it might have been because I was too busy trying to keep Team Good and Team Evil straight to notice the world building details and the supporting cast was all over the place. The twist at the end left reasonable interest for me to want to read the next book however.

Oh and the banter/bickering with practically everyone in the cast that Nakita engaged in was priceless. She was my favorite character I think, with Grace in a close second.

I listened to this on Audible during a long car trip and it was thoroughly entertaining and fun! Sometimes you just need some mind candy to relax.

My take on the book:

It was good! A very different pace than my normal books but that was fine :) The plot is great and compelling and it has magic and dragon-like creatures... who doesn't love that hmm?

World-building was great, no matter where we were in the world, everything was described with an eye for detail, but not too much, which made it easy to just flow with the story and not be annoyed.

Character development was excellent! We see both Strell and Alissa grow (a lot actually) during their journey to the Hold and during their trials and tribulations at the Hold itself, growing up and growing closer to each other (which was so cute and had me face palming a couple of times... cute!).
We get a lot of insight into their reasoning, what their history is and why they are on this journey. Even when we look at our villain, the evil Keeper Bailic, do we get a lot of information, though at this moment, I'm still wondering about the big 'why'.

Pacing and flow were decent. Mind you, in my opinion, it is a very slow paced story with only the last few chapters that have a faster flow while working to the end of book 1.

The book in itself is well written, with no (noticeable) errors. There is also no sex in this book (if that is important to you).

All in all, a good start to a promising series, though perhaps for me a tad too slow and uneventful. However, I will surely be reading part 2 sometime soon (when I have a lot of spare time on my hands).

Fun enough, but I wanted the friendship between the two female leads to be more friendly and less angry.

I never did finish.

I’m going to say this to my dying breath… but Ivy deserves better.

But this was better the first time through.... I’m rereading the series yet again, so maybe I can catch up and see where things end… and hopefully not like I’ve heard.

I was so thrilled to find this book! Rachel Morgan is back and she's still kicking ass! I have already pre-ordered Trouble with the Cursed!

I admit, it took me about 3 tries to get through this book. Not my favorite in the series. But I'm glad I did as the next 2 flew by.

Hmmm...the plot thickens! As if it wasn't molasses already. At least we finally find out who Kisten's killer was, and what happened that night. Slow reading on this one, but glad I finally finished. On to the next one!

Wow. I have followed this series from the beginning, and can't believe that it is over. I have come to know and love all of the characters (well, not love ALL the characters). Al and Trent, Rachel, Ivy, Jenks, Newt, and many, many more.

What a fitting ending to a great series!

I love this series so much! This book has to be one of my favorite! oh, the last chapter was positively delightful, and I cannot wait to dive into the next book!

In this, we get to learn more about Rachel's mom, Rachel's own past, and a few other surprises. Flew through this book, enjoyed it very much.

I liked this one a teensy bit better than the other recent installments, but I really am (still) waiting for Rachel to show more character growth.

Imagine someone can erase an event that just happened and replace it with a timeline of their own choosing. It's not a large change, just thirty seconds or so, but enough to alter an event irrevocably: prevent a death, avoid a glance, save your own skin. But what if it cost you immeasurably, by losing sometimes large pieces of memory? Those thirty seconds might cost you three weeks, three months, or three years. Now imagine that there's someone there beside you meant to keep you anchored and aimed, but they're corrupt?

That's Peri Reed. She's just trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, and uncover a conspiracy of corruption, while losing pieces of her own memory to do it. It's James Bond with a serious supernatural power and some big-time drawbacks.

I've been reading this off and on for a week or so, and I think when I realized that this book was really good was when I was working on a project yesterday and I had a little niggle at the back of my head about a TV show I thought I'd been watching and wanted to see more of, but just couldn't remember what it was, and I suddenly remembered that it wasn't a TV show at all, it was The Drafter and I'd be able to go back to reading it when I was finished. Yep.