As the circle of six prepares for its final clash with the dark army of the vampire Lilith, the battleground shifts. In Ireland, a stone circle serves as the portal to another land and an ancient time. To complete preparations and round up forces to fight, the circle travels through time to Larkin's world, where Blair Murphy must choose between battling her overwhelming attraction to him - or risking everything for a love that can never be.
It's interesting to me how you can read a book, finish it and grade it, but then later think "why did I give it that grade". For me, this is one of those books. I finished reading it on Christmas Day, and graded it as 4 out of 5, which is a pretty good grade really. And that is fair enough because it was a pretty good read. Can you hear the but coming??
But here's the thing - the events of this book are completely fuzzy in my mind after less than three weeks, which normally doesn't happen. If I apply myself I can remember what happened but it does take a little bit of effort on my part. So if I was going to be grading this book now, I would probably rate it about a 3.5 as opposed to a 4.
To start with the romance - whilst it was obvious that the romance was coming the onset of the relationship between Blair and Larkin seemed really, really quick to me. There didn't seem to be enough build up between the two of them. I did enjoy some of the humour, like Larkin's addiction to Coke....know that feeling well!!
As individuals I didn't really empathise with Blair's daddy issues, so found her a little difficult to understand. Loved Larkin though. The idea of him being able to shape shift at will into creatures like dragons was very cool.
I thought that some of the ideas that were presented in respect of the enemy Lilith were quite interesting, and I am keen to see where some of them lead.
I did enjoy the tension that is building up between Cian and Moira. After all this time I am number 3 on the hold list at the library for Valley of Silence, and I am looking to see how this series gets resolved.
Overall, this was an entertaining enough read, with a good lead in to the third and final book in the trilogy, but it hasn't left a terribly strong lasting impression.
Rating 4/5
After having read most of Roberts backlists the stories and characters do seem to blend into one another after a while. The only reason I enjoyed this one as much as I did, I think, was because Roberts covered something different with the whole vampire hunter dealies.
ReplyDeleteThe things that intrigued me about Lilith and her partner was how humanised she made them, rather than just stock villains or nameless evil forces (like the Three Sisters trilogy). Those scenes with them looking in the mirror were pretty good and I'm curious about how it ends.
Oh yes, those scenes were really cool. I actually find Lilith's sidekick whose name escapes me at the moment the most interesting of the two. I am looking forward to finishing their story.
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