The war continues to rage in Otherworld with the D’Artigo
sisters hearing more and more stressful news as the world hangs in the balance
But the D’Artigo sisters cannot focus on the tragedy and
devastation in Otherworld. A Daemon cult is trafficking slaves and attempting
to invoke a demigod of vice and corruption capable of unleashing utter
devastation across the city. With vampire businesses targeted as well, the D’Artigo
sisters have to act – they have no time to mourn; not for their father, not for
the dead of Elqaneve and not for those who died in Menolly’s bar.
This book is pretty much a continuation of Autumn
Whispers, the last book. So much so that they almost feel like one book
especially since Autumn Whispers
ended without any real ending
A lot of what I said in the last book pretty much applies
to this as well – it feels like a distraction and a frustrating one at that. We
have Shadowwing and his demon army trying to invade Earth. His allies are
launching a huge invasion cross Otherworld. An alliance is forming to try and
push them back and one of the major nations of the Otherworld has fallen. Many
of the spirit seals have been lost and now need to be quickly reclaimed for
fear of Shadowwing getting his hands on them, ripping over the portals and
invading Earth.
And the sisters are focused on… something else entirely.
There’s a possible daemon plot (daemons are different from demons), the raising
of a demi-god and a kidnapping/trafficking/slavery ring as well as threats
against vampire businesses and… this is all unrelated to Shadowwing and I have
to ask why it is here and why are the sisters involved?
I’m not saying these events are important but they’re
literally in the middle of world destroying invasion against both the
Otherworld and Earth. So why is this on the sister’s to handle who already have
way too much on their plate? We have Carter, the half-demon, half-titan why
doesn’t he step up? Vampire businesses are being targeted, why can’t Roman take
this over, since he’s the major vampire authority? Fae and other supernaturals
are being kidnapped so can’t the Earthside far queens step forwards? The
shapehifters?
Why aren’t the sisters trying to form their alliances
against the invasion – or hunting down the spirit seals or calling on the
dragonflights to honour their commitment and fly to battle. The sisters have
enough on their plate without being the first responders to every single issue
everywhere
This is an added problem of this book and the last book
and not ending. Because we not just have this somewhat distracting side plot –
but we also have it still not concluded at the end of this book. That demigod
is going to be still around, some elements have been resolved but this whole
side plot is turning into a metaplot all of its own.
On top of this I feel a little repetitive because a lot
of my old criticisms about unnecessary recapping and description, sadly, still
apply.
I also really aren’t a fan of new characters being
introduced, especially their human cousin who conveniently turns out to be a
spy/master thief with super convenient skills just as they need. It feels
unduly convenient, far too quickly integrated and accepted and really really
really we do not need more characters in this series, we really do not.
What I do like about this book is the personal
relationship. Menolly’s pain over her destroyed business and her feeling
responsible for those whom died. It’s poignant and sad and also really well
used to develop Menolly further. We see Menolly is still recovering from a lot
of the horrors in her past – her whole arc over this series has been watching
her recover from this. But this book we see she isn’t completely healed, there
are still elements of her that have been hurt by her past and that she still
hasn’t really recovered from and by identifying them, spurred by this grief,
she can work to address them. This is especially powerful with her wife Nerissa
and Menolly realising how her issues are still badly affecting her
relationship. I love to see how much Menolly values her relationship with
Nerissa and, even with her also being in a relationship with Roman who, in turn,
as a vampire can do thinks Nerissa cannot, she still values Nerissa most
highly. Menolly is bisexual and Nerissa is a lesbian and their love is
passionate and powerful and clear.
The only real element of Menolly’s sex life I’m not keen on is how BDSM is used with both Nerissa and Roman. There’s little indication that they actually enjoy what they’re doing or have fun with it – it’s treated as therapy, almost pathologised as treatment rather than actual fun, enjoyable sex between them. Sex that regularly ends in tragic tears is… discomforting.
I have the same ongoing issues with the comparative lack
of POC considering the utter vastness of this cast.
My whole issues with this book are largely issues because
of my issues with the whole series. A several book distraction into a sideplot
of dealing with daemons and demigods wouldn’t be a problem if the whole book series
didn’t equally have so many distractions and diversions with every book. This
lack of focus that has been such an issue for so long makes me much less
tolerant of a several book deviation to something random and seemingly
unrelated. And I leave this book thinking almost exactly what I thought about
the last one - albeit with some important improvements that made it more worthwhile
