TEMPT THE STARS

Tempt The Stars by Karen Chance
Book 6 of the Cassandra Palmer series
Narrated by Tara Sands and Allyson Ryan
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Tempt The Stars:

Being a goddess is a lot less fun than you might think. Especially when you’re only a half goddess, and you only found out about it recently, and you still don’t know what you’re doing half the time. And when you’ve just used your not-so-reliable powers to burglarize the booby-trapped office of a vampire mob boss.

Yeah, that part sucks.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Cassandra Palmer, aka the Pythia, the freshly minted chief seer of the supernatural world. After all, Cassie still has to save a friend from a fate worse than death, deal with an increasingly possessive master vampire, and prevent a party of her own acolytes from unleashing a storm of fury upon the world. Totally just your average day at the office, right?

Source: Info in the About Tempt The Stars was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12528745-tempt-the-stars on 29/11/2018.

Pritkin

My Thoughts:

It was hard getting into this book. I am an old fan of this series but my following of this series stopped with this book. Well, not really stopped but hit a considerable snag. So much so that it'd been donkeys' years since I read the book preceding this one and I have forgotten what happened in the story already. However I did remember that Pritkin got sucked back home. The force of that premise alone was the reason that this book got read at all! I wanted to know if there would still be a Pritkin in the subsequent books in this series. If not, I don't think I would be following this series still... Which is sad because some books in this series that I have read so far did gave me some laugh-out-loud moments. A rare thing in a lot of books I read. The pace did pick up about three quarters into the book, which is something. The plot is quite straightforward. Heroine is going from A to B, and that is exactly what happened. How she got there is the interesting part. Still, not much of a plot. The world building just got a little bit crazier. Opened up new angles into the story never before hitherto heard of and interesting possibilities blooms... And the ending while it closed the current story, it is also a cliffhanger and a titillation for the next book.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 3.5
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 1.5
Plot = 2
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Review: HUNT THE MOON

Hunt The Moon by Karen Chance
Book 5 of the Cassandra Palmer series

Genre: adult urban fantasy


About Hunt The Moon:

Cassandra Palmer recently defeated a god, which you'd think would buy a girl a little time off. But it doesn't work that way when your new job description is Pythia — the world's chief clairvoyant. Cassie is busier than ever, trying to learn about her power, preparing for her upcoming coronation, and figuring out her relationship with the enigmatic sexy master vampire, Mircea.

But someone doesn't want Cassie to become Pythia, and is willing to go to any lengths to make sure the coronation ceremony never happens — including attacking her mother before Cassie is even born.

Source: Info in the About Hunt The Moon was taken from the author's website at http://www.karenchance.com/books_htm.html on 14/02/2011.

Pritkin

Review:

Cassie, the main protagonist is still just slightly stupid to be a little bit annoying but not enough to deter from the overall wonderful reading experience of this book. Besides it seems that it's only Cassie who has the TSTL (too stupid to live) syndrome, because the rest of the cast have well developed characters! In fact I like Pritkin, a secondary character, more than the main protagonist. To the right is a nice image of Pritkin. Karen Chance gave me lots of laugh out loud moments which earned BIG brownie points with me! I credit the wonderful story telling quality as the one responsible for that. Not only is it compelling, it is also humorous! Another brownie point for the humor!! Overall, I enjoyed this book immensely although there were sections I got annoyed with Cassie's TSTL act. However it is not enough to bring the overall score of this book down to the boots, so I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 4

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

EMBRACE THE NIGHT (take 2)

Embrace The Night by Karen Chance
Book 3 of the Cassandra Palmer series

My review is here.

Further Input:
With Embrace The Night, the openning volley has our protagonist being chased and shot at by the bad guys at the cemetery as Cassie tried to play "tomb raider". Here I found a nice pic which nicely portrays my idea of that scene... (Image taken from artist Tony Mauro's website at http://www.darkdayproductions.com/ on 13/06/2010).

About Embrace The Night:

Recently named the world’s chief clairvoyant, Cassandra Palmer still has a thorn in her side. As long as Cassie and a certain master vampire—the sizzling-hot Mircea—are magically bound to each other, her life will never be her own …

The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire. The Codex’s location has been lost in the present day, so Cassie will have to seek it out in the only place it can still be found—the past.

But Cassie soon realizes the Codex has been lost for a reason. The book is rumored to contain some seriously dangerous spells, and retrieving it may help Cassie to deal with Mircea, but it could also endanger the world…

Source: Info in the About Embrace The Night was taken from the author's website at http://www.karenchance.com/books_embracethenight.html on 13/06/2010.

CURSE THE DAWN

Curse The Dawn by Karen Chance
Book 4 of the Cassandra Palmer series

About This Book:

Cassandra Palmer may be the all-powerful Pythia now, but that doesn’t mean people have stopped trying to kill her. Most of the supernatural power players don’t want the independent minded Cassie as chief clairvoyant—and they’ll stop at nothing to see her six feet under.

The Vampire Senate does support Cassie in her position, but their protection comes with a price: an alliance with the sexy master vampire Mircea, who has claimed Cassie as his own.

But even the vampires will have trouble keeping Cassie alive now that the self-styled god Apollo, the source of the Pythia’s power, has it in for her in a big way. To save her life—and the world—Cassie’s going to have to face down her creator once and for all.

Source: Info in the About This Book was taken from the author's website at http://www.karenchance.com/books_ctd.html on 28/10/09.

Cherry's Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries


Genre: urban fantasy, chicklit, time travel

This book has adult content.

Verdict:

• Best book in the Cassandra Palmer series
• Witty, funny and fast-paced

My Take On This Book:
The story-telling quality is quite compelling. The characters stay with you long after you've finished reading the book. Characters which readers can connect with. Like all Cassandra Palmer books, this one is also fast-paced and action-filled. I think the author has refined her writing skills because there is a definite improvement. No more of that annoying tendencies to paint the protagonist stupid just to add a bit more drama to the scene which I find irritating to read in a book. Another thing I really like about this book is the fine sense of humor in the telling of the story. Christ, it had me in stitches!! Ms. Chance was firing on all cylinders when she was working on this book! Over all I gave this book a 5 out of 5. Curse The Dawn has restored my love for this series which I lost after reading Claimed By Shadow (Book 2). I was so disappointed by book 2 that I stopped reading and buying Karen Chance altogether. But Tesco had a sale about three weeks ago and I ended up buying six books. Before reading this book, I would never pay £6.99 (which is the usual RRP) for Karen Chance's books. But now I would buy again.

EMBRACE THE NIGHT

Embrace The Night by Karen Chance
Book 3 of the Cassandra Palmer series.

About This Book:

Recently named the world’s chief clairvoyant, Cassandra Palmer still has a thorn in her side. As long as Cassie and a certain master vampire—the sizzling-hot Mircea—are magically bound to each other, her life will never be her own …

The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire. The Codex’s location has been lost in the present day, so Cassie will have to seek it out in the only place it can still be found—the past.

But Cassie soon realizes the Codex has been lost for a reason. The book is rumored to contain some seriously dangerous spells, and retrieving it may help Cassie to deal with Mircea, but it could also endanger the world...

Source: Info in the About This Book was taken from the author's website at http://www.karenchance.com/books_embracethenight.html on 25/10/09.

Cherry's Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Genre: urban fantasy, chicklit, time travel

This book has adult content.

Verdict: Fast-paced and never a dull moment.

My Take On This Book:
The story-telling quality is good although it has some annoying tendencies like trying to paint the female protagonist as stupid in an effort to create more drama in the story. I find that irritating to read. There is also too many time travels back and forth, back and forth, which is kinda dizzying to the reader. Having said that, the author has cleverly avoided paradoxes which is the usual pitfall of time tavel stories. This book is also fast-paced and never a boring moment. On the whole I would give this book a 3 and a half out of five.