Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer, Book 1) by Karen Chance Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer, Book 1)
Book Review: Interresting but Confusing, the romance could be better
Summary: 2 Stars
The story is well grounded in a very interesting historical background. The locations are unique and having traveled a lot and lived in a lot of the places mentioned I believe it was an enjoyable head trip.
The writing is smart, the wording good even though at time the length of the monologues and flashback take away the rhythm and flow of the story.
The heroine appears open to work with powers no one exactly understand and know the extend of, so it is nice to open up a series of stories and she is a strong character a la Buffy.
My bigger issue was the fact that I could not find who the romantic counterpart was. The first part of the book insinuated it could be Tomas, the middle completely ignore that, and the end makes you think it could be Mircea. All in all, there was no romantic involvement at all in the book and that IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM for me. If you don't plan on having one then make a classic police novel with no suggestions at all of a possible love interest and concentrate on the story and the strength of the heroine only. That confusion between style is upsetting and I really wander if I can read more stories from this author with this type of ambivalence.
Book Review: More like 4 1/2 stars
Summary: 4 Stars
"Touch the Dark" was a great find. It's mainly a vampire novel, but it centers around a clairvoyant who grew up in the vampire world. A nice touch in this book was that, unlike most vampire novels, Chance didn't spend a ton of time on the backstory of every vamp we meet. She didn't have to because she used some familiar historical characters-everybody from Kit Marlowe to Mircea (Vlad Tepes' brother) to the painter Raphael, to Rasputin (the villain). This gives an idea to their age without spending the whole book on them.
The reason this lost 1/2 a star for me was the author's habit of stopping in the middle of an action sequence to infodump, which I found annoying. It was mostly interesting stuff, though, so not so very annoying. I was glad to see that the problem didn't show up in the sequel, so maybe a rookie mistake? Anyway, great premise and great book for the most part.
Book Review: Cool New Series
Summary: 5 Stars
The first line sets up the tone of the whole book:
"I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the obituary. The fact that it had my name on it was sort of a clue."
It's the kind of start that makes me want to keep reading, and I'm really glad I did! This book stands out in the field of fantasy/paranormal romances that have come out lately. It's the characters that really made it for me. All of them were individuals with their own personalities and quirks. Pritkin was especially fun-although I worried that he was about to have a heart attack whenever he appeared-and Mircea and Louis-Cesare and . . . oh, hell, I loved all of them. Billy Joe, Cassie's ghost friend, was especially funny. Which was another neat element. I didn't expect a dark fantasy (and this is really dark in places) to also be funny, but it was.
Very good start to a series. The second is Claimed by Shadow and it was even better than Touch the Dark, I thought. And the third is Embrace the Night, out in April of 2008. Come on April!
Book Review: Soldi start to a new fantasy series
Summary: 5 Stars
This book rocks hard! The characters are fantastic, no two-dimensional types here. The dialogue is smart and witty. And the sexual tension is steamy. To the reviewer who found the idea of a sexual situation involving vampires and a human to be icky-where have you been? Buffy come to mind, anyone? Or about a thousand other fantasy books that have come out lately? Only Cassie's "encounter" doesn't turn out quite the way I--or she--expected, and I loved it. It was a funny, sexy, smart scene--like the rest of the book. More, more, more!
Book Review: Excellent Urban Fantasy
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot recommend this series highly enough. Both Touch the Dark and Claimed by Shadow were original, exciting and substantial reads. I've read both books twice and I can't wait until next April for the third, Embrace the Night. Chance has created an amazing world that has completely sucked me in.
I don't want to say too much about the plot, because the book has a strong mystery element and I don't want to be responsible for spoilers. But, essentially, Cassie Palmer is a clairvoyant on the run from the vampire who brought her up and used her psychic talents for his own nefarious purposes. She escaped him and lived a fairly normal life for three years. But, as the book opens, he has caught up with her. She returns from a break at work to find her obituary displayed on her computer screen. She assumes that it's a warning from her old master, and that she must flee immediately. From there on, Cassie and the reader are transported into a world of magic, danger, intrigue and secrets, where nothing is what it first seems and everyone is a possible enemy.
Vampires, werewolves, fey, time travel, assassins, witches-the book has it all, but it is all very well done and quite believable. It's obvious that a lot of time was taken on the worldbuilding, something that I found very refreshing. I'm tired of reading so-called fantasies which are little more than romance novels in disguise, with poor world-building and little attention to detail. Touch the Dark has none of that. The characters are well drawn, the writing is solid, the mystery was excellent, and the pace just never lets up!
Highly recommended.