Otherworld is shaken by war and devastation. Thousands are dead and thousands more will die before the end.

But the war against the demons and their allies is not the only battle. Something ancient is awakening. Something from the depth of the world’s history – and something driven for revenge

To face such a power of old, only another ancient power will match it. But getting to him will be hard- and if they can awaken him from their long sleep, can they even guarantee he will help them?

I was reading this book, enjoying this book and waiting for the plot to get going. I saw the intro, was reintroduced to the characters again. I was reminded of the many adventures the team has been through, I was reminded of the terrible trials they’ve endured and also reminded of some of the allies they’ve made and powers they’ve gained over this huge series

I also remembered that in the last few books things got a lot more serious with outright devastating war tearing across the Otherworld

All laid out, with sufficient ominous foreshadowing and visions of something big and terrifying beginning to arise – time to enter an epic… what the hell we’re nearly half way through?

No, really, after covering all of that which was really more of a giant recap more than anything else, with a random encounter tucked in there as well, and half the book is gone. A huge chunk of the book has just passed and not a great deal of things has actually happened.

It’s not awful, because the world, these characters, this meta plot is all really fascinating and great fun to explore and roll around in. It’s one thing I’ve always loved about this entire series. I love this world. I love this series. I love this raising, shining metaplot. But half a book on recap and reiteration with a random encounter tucked in is a huge, vast amount of space to give without actually advancing anything.

That random encounter is a winter portal that opens up for random reasons, has a random witch involves and then we have yetis and pixies and… whyyyyy whyyy is this here? It’s not even a particularly epic fight. They shoo off some pixies… whyyyy? Why have this in here when we’ve already got so much padding going on?

When we finally get to the plot it’s more interesting – it greatly expands the story of three of the more intriguing characters: the Arthurian legend part of the storyline. They’ve always interested me, I’ve always wanted to see how much of the Arthurian legend actually affects these characters and how that fits the overall meta. I also really like the idea of old powers rising. I think there’s a risk of distracting from the main conflict, but I think it gives us an excellent opportunity to examine these ancient beings, the history of this amazing world and expanded outwards into the hard choices that those ancients made and how things were far less simple than the sisters originally thought. This meta is definitely meta I want to grow – bring it on

I also like the idea of the elder fae and a romp through the lands of these ancient, ominous and legendary beings is always something I’m going to be here for

So the second half of the book? Much much much much better… much better

Read More ( )

Otherworld is shaken by war and devastation. Thousands are dead and thousands more will die before the end.

But the war against the demons and their allies is not the only battle. Something ancient is awakening. Something from the depth of the world’s history – and something driven for revenge

To face such a power of old, only another ancient power will match it. But getting to him will be hard- and if they can awaken him from their long sleep, can they even guarantee he will help them?

I was reading this book, enjoying this book and waiting for the plot to get going. I saw the intro, was reintroduced to the characters again. I was reminded of the many adventures the team has been through, I was reminded of the terrible trials they’ve endured and also reminded of some of the allies they’ve made and powers they’ve gained over this huge series

I also remembered that in the last few books things got a lot more serious with outright devastating war tearing across the Otherworld

All laid out, with sufficient ominous foreshadowing and visions of something big and terrifying beginning to arise – time to enter an epic… what the hell we’re nearly half way through?

No, really, after covering all of that which was really more of a giant recap more than anything else, with a random encounter tucked in there as well, and half the book is gone. A huge chunk of the book has just passed and not a great deal of things has actually happened.

It’s not awful, because the world, these characters, this meta plot is all really fascinating and great fun to explore and roll around in. It’s one thing I’ve always loved about this entire series. I love this world. I love this series. I love this raising, shining metaplot. But half a book on recap and reiteration with a random encounter tucked in is a huge, vast amount of space to give without actually advancing anything.

That random encounter is a winter portal that opens up for random reasons, has a random witch involves and then we have yetis and pixies and… whyyyyy whyyy is this here? It’s not even a particularly epic fight. They shoo off some pixies… whyyyy? Why have this in here when we’ve already got so much padding going on?

When we finally get to the plot it’s more interesting – it greatly expands the story of three of the more intriguing characters: the Arthurian legend part of the storyline. They’ve always interested me, I’ve always wanted to see how much of the Arthurian legend actually affects these characters and how that fits the overall meta. I also really like the idea of old powers rising. I think there’s a risk of distracting from the main conflict, but I think it gives us an excellent opportunity to examine these ancient beings, the history of this amazing world and expanded outwards into the hard choices that those ancients made and how things were far less simple than the sisters originally thought. This meta is definitely meta I want to grow – bring it on

I also like the idea of the elder fae and a romp through the lands of these ancient, ominous and legendary beings is always something I’m going to be here for

So the second half of the book? Much much much much better… much better

Read More ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: An ancient wyrm is awakening, determined to wreak havoc. Camille must travel to the dangerous land of the Elder Fae in order to wake the Merlin so he can help her defeat the wyrm. While enjoyable, this book felt really slow and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Opening Sentence: I contemplated going back into the house, purse over my shoulder.

The Review:

Life has not been easy for the D’Artigo sisters lately. What they all really want and need is a quiet Christmas at home with friends and family. Of course, that’s not going to happen. Camille has a vision that predicts the awakening of a powerful wyrm, a predecessor of dragons. The sisters and their friends aren’t powerful enough in their own right to take him down, so Camille, Morio, and Delilah must travel to the land of the Elder Fae in order to wake up the Merlin. Only he has enough power and knowledge to defeat the wyrm with minimal loss of life. The voyage to find him is not going to be an easy one though, especially since they have to include three people Camille doesn’t trust on the trip with them. Will they be able to successfully wake the Merlin? If they do, will he be able to defeat the wyrm?

I was pleasantly surprised by the previous book in this series, which was also the first one in the series I had ever read. So, I was looking forward to reading this one and getting to see the perspective of a different sister. Unfortunately, while enjoyable, this book wasn’t nearly as engaging as the previous one. It had a much slower pace, and if I’m being honest, a lot of it felt like filler rather than content that was going to have an overarching effect on the series. There were many instances of repetition, which just served to draw me out of the story. To cap it all off, the final battle was very anticlimactic, and left me thinking, “That’s it?” There were plot lines that seemed to just disappear, and looking back, I’m not sure why they were there in the first place, as they didn’t advance the plot.

In addition, I had a much harder time connecting to Camille than I did to Menolly in the previous book. I can’t quite put my finger on why that is. I do have a hard time wrapping my head around her having three husbands, mainly because I just can’t figure out how that would work, but it doesn’t affect how I feel about her as a character. It’s definitely possible my opinion of her could change as I go back and read previous books in the series, but just basing my opinion on this book, I never really got a good feel for what kind of person she is, and it made it hard to care about her and what was happening.

On the good side, I was captivated by the side story involving Morgaine. I can’t really go into details since I want to avoid spoilers, but I really wish there had been more content involving her and what happens later in the book.

All in all, this was a disappointing installment in the series. It felt slow and unimportant, and I just had a very hard time keeping my interest up. I am still interested in continuing the series though, so Galenorn must be doing something right!

Notable Scene:

“Does anybody know what the fuck these are?” It would help to know what we were fighting.

“Not a clue.” Mordred’s voice was actually a little shaky and for once he didn’t seem quite so cocky.

“No idea.” Bran had less to worry about, but even he sounded cautious. The Elementals and their children were true Immortals. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t suffer pain or damage.

Morgaine and Delilah moved to flank my sides. Delilah was staring at the crystal creatures with a puzzled look, while Morgaine just looked pissed.

“I don’t think it matters whether we know what they are, the only thing we have to figure out is how to fight them.” Tanne glanced back at me. He’d moved up to Morio’s side and had his sword out. “I can tell you my Spell of Unraveling isn’t going to work on these – they’re actual creatures. They may have been in stasis, but they aren’t golems. That much I can tell.”

“Lovely, which is probably why Morio’s spell to dispel illusion brought them out from their frozen state. The trap was a spell that kept the wall invisible, and kept them at a standstill. The spell’s gone and so is their immobility.” I groaned. “The Fae Lords really had it all planned out, didn’t they?”

“Clever, very clever.” Morgaine cocked her head, eyeing the creatures. “They didn’t do anything by halves, did they?”

“Well, the creatures are made of rock – crystal, but still…rock. What can destroy rock?”

“Paper covers rock.” Delilah tried for a joke but it fell flat, even in her voice.

I thought for a moment, then realized that I did have one weapon that could disrupt them. And if we needed it, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. But first I wanted to see if we could put a stop to them without me dragging out the horn.

I glanced around. There wasn’t much room in which to back up now, and as I sucked in a deep breath, the storm broke, and they scuttled forward again, and this time, the fight was on.

FTC Advisory: Jove/Penguin provided me with a copy of Priestess Dreaming. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Love this series! And I love this author! You should check out this book and see for yourself how great this series and author is! ( )

oh the wait wow cami ( )