Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having read the second book in this series, I was quite eager to read the first book in this series.

It was good to read about the characters I’d already grown to know. I found Mira an easy character to empathise with and although I didn’t like the fact that there was a love triangle, it didn’t irritate me so much… and her emotions towards the other characters came across really well.

I wasn’t really sure of what to make of Blue at first, but as the book went on, I felt able to understand him much more easily. It was interesting to see how he and the other teenagers had to deal with their cursed lives… though I have to say, seeing Viv in this book and how she was with Henley, I lost some of the sympathy I’d had for her in the sequel to this.

I liked Freddie’s character, even though I did think he was a bit too naive and innocent. It was good to meet his brothers and I was very intrigued by Caspian’s legend. Since they would presumably know how the story of the Little Mermaid ended, I found myself wondering how things would go with him.

It was really interesting to see glimpses of how damaged people were even after their curses had been ended. For instance, Gwen had a really awful time of it… so it was good to see that happily ever after maybe wasn’t so much happily ever after.

I do think there were some issues with this book. For instance, I felt that Mira’s intelligence was shown towards the beginning… but later on, she seemed really lacking there. And she didn’t seem to spare much thought towards her godmothers… not to mention the fact that, although I thought her feelings for Blue came across naturally, I couldn’t see any real love towards Felix.

I did think Jewel was a really interesting character and it was sad to read about the Match Girl… though at least she did get saved. It was good to see why Mira didn’t put two and two together, since I felt the brothers’ curse was obvious.

I do think there were some things that could have been changed about this book and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for younger/more sensitive readers. But I did enjoy reading this and I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I had the chance to meet Max in the previous book, as well as earlier in the series as ‘the dragon in Sanctuary’. Although I didn’t know anything about his past (or remembered if I did), I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know him.

I really enjoyed the feeling of brotherhood that ran through this particular book, even where Falcyn was involved. I wanted to hate Seraphina and while I did at first, I did feel a lot of sympathy for her as I got to know her as a character and saw things from her perspective. However, I was glad to see that she knew and accepted what she’d done was wrong.

I was glad to see a return to humour with the characters like Fang, whose book had ruined him as a character. I loved seeing the banter between him and Fury especially… and there were some occasions I found myself laughing out loud.

I do think that the world’s grown a bit too big and confusing. While I knew the main characters reasonably well, there were constant changes in the scenes and POVs that confused me a bit. And I’m still not sure how Merlin (as a woman) fits into all of it.

There were a lot of really tense scenes in this book. I especially liked how Maxis interacted with his dragonets… and that they clearly wanted to meet him. I was very amused by the brother/sister banter that went on between them and it was obvious how much they cared for each other… and it was nice to see Maxis’ son have a sister who wanted to protect him.

I felt there were quite a few emotional scenes in this book and I was able to empathise with the two main characters really well. I did notice that there was one occasion where one of the characters were captured, but although they escaped, it wasn’t made clear how that happened, since the scene had ended with them helpless.

It was good to see how the tension between Arcadian and Katagaria started and I really didn’t like the King and how he treated the dragons he’d taken. I was a bit confused about the gallu demons and Apollo… but I’m now eager to read the next book and see what will happen with Illarion.

(This review may contain spoilers).

This comic book took me a little longer to read, due to the sheer length of it, but I still found myself reading it avidly… especially having seen the movie version of this arc.

I’ve only been dipping into the Marvel world. I couldn’t say I know every little bit of information about the universe, so I’m not sure how much of the pre-existing canon is contradicted by this particular arc. At the same time, I didn’t have many pre-conceptions, so I felt like I was getting to know Bucky from the start in this dossier.

It was good to have the opportunity to see glimpses into Bucky’s and Cap’s pasts and just how dark what they were supposed to do was. It was good to see that there was a lot of conflict in what they needed to do… though I was surprised to see just how dark Bucky’s actions were.

I really liked seeing Steve interacting with his fellow superheroes, such as Namor and the Torches, both in the past and in the present. It was good to see what his friendship was like with Bucky and how much his partner’s death had affected him.

I really liked seeing Steve interacting with other members of SHIELD… especially Fury and Agent Thirteen, though I was a bit confused by Steve’s exact relationship to Fury. There was quite a bit of tension between Steve and Sharon that came across really well.

I felt that this comic book was much darker than many of the others. I thought it was interesting to see how Jack was affected by the breakdown of the supersoldier serum. I did also feel sorry for him… even though the ending of that particular segment answered certain questions that made it clear Jack had fallen far.

I really liked being able to see Sam and Tony in this and in particular the scene where Steve asks Tony for a jet… and it’s clear their friendship is such that he can do that. And it was good to see them fighting alongside each other.

I thought it was good to see how Steve was torn about what to do about the Winter Soldier. The ending was something of a cliffhanger, but it was a proper ending… and it did make me want to read more about these characters soon.

(This review may contain spoilers).

It’s been a little while since I picked up any of the Dark-Hunter novels, but despite having become somewhat disillusioned with the series, I still really enjoy reading them. So when I got this (and the following book in the series) for Christmas, I was really excited.

I actually found this book a lot more readable than the other more recent ones. While there were still a lot of cliches (to the point of actually considering a drinking game), I liked being able to meet many of the characters I’d seen before… and get to know entirely new ones.

I did think Josette was a little too similar to Amanda… which, considering they were cousins, did make sense. I was intrigued by her meeting with Cadegun and although there was the instant attraction, it was nice to have the two of them get the chance to get to know each other.

Cadegun did have the tortured past and inability to trust that’s so prevalent in the Dark-Hunter series. He also climbed up into the ridiculously over-powered being that seems to happen with every hero of the Dark-Hunter series. But at least he didn’t spend half the book calling humans ‘boy’ and it was such a relief to see the ‘people in hell want ice water’ line missing.

There was a… very interesting gender-swap moment in this book. It did make me cringe, but I liked the fact that there were still difficulties in the different bodies. It wasn’t easy on either of them and I did like that.

I did also like Thorn’s connection to Cadegun, though I did get confused when he was referred to by two different names within the same page. It was a refreshing change to see that Cadegun’s brother wasn’t evil the same way certain other brothers were portrayed.

Speaking of… I really really liked seeing Acheron and Styxx in this, although it still garnered an eye-roll with Acheron being described as really attractive. I really enjoyed seeing Simi… she’s probably my favourite character overall. And Artemis voiced some things I really would have liked to see explored further.

I hope this book marks a change to the series and isn’t a one-off… because while I adore the Dark-Hunter series, up till Styxx’s book, the later ones read as torture-porn. But I will be reading Dragonbane.