Review: Can't read just one!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2012
This book probably has one of the most compelling first lines in fiction, "Nathalia Lovejoy was dead, she had to be: she'd committed suicide." How can you not read on from that line?Nathalia wakes up on a marble slab not sure if she's dead or alive and from then on I was hooked. This book is more sci-fi than the first book in the Ishtar series. You have the angels  and the werewolves and the vampires...all called something different and there's a hierarchy to that is just really compelling. I think it's genius on Gibson's part of make all of it, which Nathalia has clearly lived through before, new to her so it's explained to us because, otherwise, it would have been difficult to keep up.  The world she's created is complex and layered.Again, the baddie is a sexual sadist but, again, it feels to this reader more like violence than sex. And, again, I don't think there's more sex in this novel than you'd find with an author like Barry Eisler. The energy and food does revolve around blood and sex so perhaps it seems more all consuming but, at the core, while I don't think this novel is for the more squeamish fans, I do think it's a good one for those who enjoy fantasy. This is less a romance novel than the first but I also think romance readers will like it a lot.We do get a look back at the characters of the first book and I, as a reader, really enjoyed the dynamic between Mauve and her guardian but I find that I must read on because he's up to something...and up to something big. Be warned, read one of these books and you will have a need to read them all.Highly recommend this read.