Night Huntress (Sisters of the Moon, Book 5)
by Yasmine Galenorn
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Book Reviews of Night Huntress (Sisters of the Moon, Book 5)
Book Review: Night Huntress
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a very exciting book. Delilah is leading the group in trying to find the fourth Spirit Seal. Vanzir, a dream chaser and Roz, an incubus, we met in the last installment, are now new additional allies who have joined the fight to help stop Shadow Wing from gaining the seals. Karvanak, a minion of Shadow Wing, abducts Chase, in order to gain control of the sisters. There are great parts where Zach and Delilah's were interact. Those parts seem to have a natural flow. There's a lot of humor throughout. Roz and Menolly seemed to be getting quite close. It's great to see Menolly become a mama to Maggie. I really loved the story but some things simply irritated me. I have always hated Chase and Delilah together. He seems petty and jealous. In the first couple books in the series, he's actually trying to get into Camille's pants not Delilah's. Then all of a sudden he stops being this huge douche-bag and is serious about Delilah? His character is completely despicable and unredeemable, with the way he treated both Delilah and Erika. He doesn't deserve Delilah and his character is boring. One last complaint about him, he is so selfish in bed. The sex always seems to be Delilah doing all the work. All the focus is for Chase and he never seems to put out at all, just takes what's given and never reciprocates. Now Zach, he's a keeper. I hate the way Zach is tossed aside all the time. Even after what he did for Chase, Zach seems to be an after thought to Delilah. Like some idiot stand-in. How can Zach and Delilah's weres have mated but she's head-over-heels in love with Chase? It just doesn't make sense. Their were half is intense and is always there under the surface. There's no way she can ignore Zach like she does if they are indeed mated. Zach is a sexy alpha for christ sake, why would some ordinary jerk be enough for her to ignore her were-cat? Anyhoo, despite the inconsistencies w/ Zach and Chase this was still a great read. Extremely entertaining, with lots of action. I recommend this book as well as the entire series. I also look forward to Demon Mistress in June 2009.
I also recommend:
Wages of Sin (A Cin Craven Novel)
Bad Blood (Crimson Moon, Book 1)
Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1)
Night Life (Nocturne City, Book 1)
Night Season
Book Review: A solid addition to the series
Summary: 4 Stars
Night Huntress / 978-0-425-22546-2
The fifth in the Sisters of the Moon series, "Night Huntress" places us once again in the point of view of middle sister Delilah, as she struggles to sort out her relationship issues in the face of an oncoming potential apocalypse.
Like the previous novel, "Night Huntress" contains a large dose of "middle-of-the-series" syndrome, as at least as much time (if not more) is spent dissecting Delilah's love life as if spent on the search for the spirit seals. This is tempered, however, by Delilah being a more sympathetic and realistic character to sink into, and the problems with her lovers (infidelity and love-vs-lust issues) are more complex and less quickly solved than her sister Camille's one-trick-pony solution to all her relationship problems.
Bravely, Galenorn shakes things up a bit by making the search for the spirit seal the focus of the first half of the book, instead of the second, with the actual climax combining both a demonic showdown and some relationship drama all mixed in together. This choice breathes some fresh life into a series that otherwise seemed destined to follow the same format verbatim: Introduction, Relationship Drama, Spirit Seal, Repeat. The new format also serves to characterize the sisters as distinctly proactive forces, no longer just reacting to the demonic activity as supernatural firefighters.
This freshness is somewhat undermined, however, in the constant struggle to move things forward for long time fans without leaving new readers behind. Of course, all authors want to be able to snag new readers at any point in the series, but "Night Huntress" crams in massive back-exposition and repetitive re-angst of all the difficulties that have gone before. Long-time readers of the series will no doubt become frustrated with the repetition - there's only so many ways to repeat the backstory of the previous four books, the childhood history exposition, and all the relationship drama that has gone before - and large swaths of the book feel like you're turning the pages to get to the actual *new* material.
Overall, though, "Night Huntress" is a solid addition to the series, and even better than the previous entry (which also suffered from "middle-of-the-series" syndrome), and if you've stuck with it this far, I'm fairly confident you won't be disappointed. Chase-shippers may be disappointed with the character development (derailment?) that occurs for him in this novel, and the resolution may stick a little as a bit of a Family Unfriendly Aesop, but the overall plot is excellent and will keep you coming back for more.
~ Ana Mardoll
Book Review: Mixed Feelings
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoy the Delilah books in this series - perhaps because I feel she is just written better than either of the other sisters. I love reading about her position as a Death Maiden and about the ways she grows because of her additional forms and what they mean for her and those around her. I really enjoy her interactions with the Autumn Lord, and with all the other people around her.
I DO however have some huge problems with this book. One centers around her relationship with her boyfriend and all the bad things he has done to her, and to other women in the past - if you read you'll find out, and if you don't read, it won't really matter will it? I'm not going to spoil it anyway. The other is the fight scenes - which is just a general problem with Galenorn's books anyway (at least the ones I've read) - any action has to have some kind of talk or thinking about happening before the action. I remember one of the other books had some huge fight coming up and then there everyone was, waiting 2 days to do anything - one of the sisters was even buying lingerie! She should have been preparing for a fight and getting right on down to it (along with her sisters). That flaw is still present in this book, the 5th in the series, even if it is not near as bad as in the first. At least I can say, with heartfelt relief, that the books are improving. The books take so much from the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton, I truly worried that they were going to become the mass of problems that made me stop reading Hamilton's books. One problem with all the books is that the person who is the main focus of the book some how becomes the leader for that book, and then a follower in the next. It feels like they're all told from the same person's point of view, with some changes to make it look like multiple people - and it's only partially successful for me. Good thing I can pretty much ignore it, once I get into the book.
All in all, I did enjoy the book a lot while I was reading it, but found there to be several problems that did still bother me. I love the world Galenorn is building, but I still see problems with her writing and character formation. I absolutely hate two of the characters now, one I hate because of some events that happened in this book, and the other because of events that will happen in the next (based on the excerpt of Demon Mistress in the back of the book). These events also seem like changes that are uncharacteristic of the characters she had related to the reader in the earlier books, and so that kind of thing feels like it is forced, and perhaps just a plot device. I like more natural character evolution.
Book Review: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Summary: 4 Stars
The D'Artigo sisters are back for the fifth time with werecat Delilah to tell the story. With four previous stories there's a lot of background that has lead us up to this latest adventure. In short the three sisters have come to Earth from their home in Otherworld, have become Earth's protectors from the demons of the Sub-Realms and made some interesting friends and enemies along the way. Delilah was marked by the Autumn Lord in Changeling. Becoming his only living Death Maiden she has gained the ability to shapeshift not just into her little tabbycat form but into the form of a panther. But having a new form isn't really a gift it's part of her new job. Sending Delilah on a special mission he lets her know he has plans for her, one in particular she may not be sure she is ready for.
Meanwhile, Karvanak, the nasty demon the sisters have faced before, has kidnapped Chase (Delilah's full blooded human boyfriend) to use as a hostage. He wants the fourth Spirit Seal in exchange but there's no way in hell the sisters are willing to risk their homes for the life of one man. It's up to them to find a way to rescue Chase, protect the fourth Seal and destroy Karvanak before the tables get turned.
Bah! I really was hoping for another story I would love as I had the last two. Unfortunately, Night Huntress just fell short in several ways. For one, the storyline direction that the author took with Chase and Delilah's relationship felt unnecessarily random. For fans who have liked their relationship this change may be a disappointment. Once again the author had her characters doing a lot of conflict-meets-instant-solution type plotting which left me frustrated because I enjoy seeing characters struggle to come up with a good plan or needing some outside power to guide them to the right solution. There was a lot of talking when it wasn't suited to the scene and over-description to the point of beating dead horses at times. When there's too much "what should we do?" going on in the middle of a fight it bogs the action down.
While those things definitely frustrated me there were many good parts of the book as well. Carefully sprinkled throughout are important little additions to the story that serve to help the many different sub/side stories move forward. Finding out what's happening with the civil war in OW and hints about Menolly's vampire group strengthen to plot of the series. The list of secondary characters in this series has gotten a bit overloaded (in my opinion) but again some of those serve important purposes.
Night Huntress is definitely not my favorite of the series so far but it was by no means awful.
Book Review: Delilah is one of my favorite shifters..
Summary: 4 Stars
Delilah D'Artigo isn't your average girl, she's half-Fae, half-human, Were-tabby, and Were-panther, as well as being one of the Autumn Lord's Death Maiden's. She has enough on her hands with having to be all of these things. Just when she thinks it can't get any worse, her boyfriend Chase mutters another woman's name in his sleep. This throws her for a loop, and she's not sure whether she should be upset because he could be cheating on her, even though she had told him she had slept with Zachary Lyonnesse of the Rainer Were Puma Clan. Life as a Fae isn't about fidelity, as they aren't monogamous, but with her half-human blood she feels the green head of jealousy looming on the horizon. It doesn't make matters any better when the cat in her feels as though someone has just stepped on her turf.
With the appearance of the fourth spirit seal, the D'Artigo girls must get together to collect it before Shadowwings cronies can get their mitts on it. But when Chase gets himself captured by Karvanak, a deadly Raksasa general of Shadowwings army, Delilah has to decide whether Chase's infidelity is even a major problem, now that his life is on the line.
This is the fifth installment to the Sisters of the Moon series. Delilah D'Artigo is honestly my favorite character of all the combining books. She has problems, and she's not afraid to admit it, but she knows when it's time to fight she needs to put them aside and do whats right.
I wanted to like this book more than I did, but I just couldn't. The storyline itself is fabulous, with lots of history and information to make your brain just have a field day. There are plenty of Fae, Demons, and other otherworldy creatures that will be sure to give you your weekly dose of supernatural. The one thing I can't get over is how these girls just collect men like I collect books! I know, I know, that shouldn't be a major problem because it's just a book, but I'm purely monogamous myself, and it's hard for me to get into their many relationships.
All in all, I do recommend this book purely for the story line itself. If you love Fae, Witches, Weres, Dragons and the like, your sure to love this book. I highly recommend you start from the beginning of the series with Witchling, the story of Camille D'Artigo. I can't wait to see what happens next with the sisters in the newly released Demon Mistress. There is also a seventh book on the horizon for 2010, Bone Magic.