This will be the last book in the 12 book series I read based on this on and the reviews I see for the rest of them. Cassie doesn't seem to learn anything. In this book I think about 1/3 of it was just rehashing stuff that happened to her in the past to catch new readers up. Pritkin has been some of the best parts of these books and he has way less involvement going forward from what I could see in the reviews. This is a great example of a series that should have been wrapped up before now. ( )

To read more reviews in this series and others, check out my blog keikii eats books!

68 points, 3 ½ stars

Quote:

“Sorry I’m late,” I said, shoving the chair toward the table. It was an ornate thing of gilded wood that made a loud screech, scratch, squaaaawk on the pretty new mosaic. But I finally got it wedged into a too small spot between a guy in a burnoose and a woman in a business suit. “I don’t have a secretary yet,” I said, climbing over burnoose guy. “And my bodyguards are terrible about reminding me of appointments. What were we talking about?”

Brave the Tempest follows the pattern of the previous book of the Cassie Palmer series. That is to say that the story of the series progresses infinitesimally overall and it is a series of crazy things that happen one after the other with no rest. I'm not annoyed or disappointed. I knew exactly what I was getting in for when starting this book. I just always have this secret hope that this time, something will actually advance the series along in great strides.

Brave the Tempest starts up about a week after we left Cassie in Ride the Storm. Which left us when Cassie was about to do something really big that apparently got put off for a week. Everyone is still planning on war with the fae, and we're getting hints that it is coming soon. So naturally, instead of being about the war front, Brave the Tempest adds in an entirely new thing for Cassie to take care of: the abominations. So Cassie deals with this new problem while also dealing with the old problems, all on a time crunch with no regard for how time works. We've seen this before.

The bright spot in Brave the Tempest were in the relationships between Cassie and Pritkin and Cassie and Mircea. I personally feel like everything is finally on track and exactly where it should be going. It was perfect and I'm genuinely ecstatic about this turn of events. The will-they-won't-they of Pritkin and the lying of Mircea have both settled down into acceptable levels. The only complaint I had was that I had to wait a third of the book for anyone but Cassie to show up. I was so worried up until that point that I would get nothing all book!

Brave the Tempest also shows the biggest amount of character growth for Cassie of any of the books. Even more than a lot of them put together, too. It is amazing to realize, but it has only been about four months since the start of the series for Cassie. Cassie has had to go through a lot of hell in these four months. Yet, she has become a much stronger person for it, and it shines throughout this book. Sure, she has been run ragged, she is out of energy, she is fighting to become respected for the Power she is. But she has become stronger, and she is becoming respected. Cassie is becoming a great character. She is still out of energy, though.

This was pretty much as I expected it to be, and I was glad for this. Fans of the series aren't likely to be disappointed. If you liked the previous books, you'll love this one. New readers will be completely and totally lost. Overall, it was a good installment to the series.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Karen Chance, Berkley Publishing Group, and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to review this copy! ( )

Brave the Tempest is the 9th book in the Cassie Palmer series and should be read in timeline order with the Dorina Basarab series. Cassie and Pritkin — that’s right, he’s back! — have killed two gods but the war still rages. Jo’s spirit, the last of Agnes’ acolytes, is still out there causing problems and Jonathan, Louis-Cesare’s nemesis, is back to his old tricks. Plus a couple of ancient demons get thrown in the mix.

This book has the complete cast of characters plus most of the characters from the Dory books. Which is so fantastic! Cassie and Dory finally have a conversation instead of trying to kill each other and it was everything I had ever hoped for. Caedmon apparently flirts with everyone and gets his just desserts. Cassie takes a trip to faerie and goes to a coven mall which was a major highlight for me (think Diagon Alley magical wonderment).

I love that Cassie has grown so much as a character. She’s embracing her position and the power that gives her in the supernatural community. She finally expects to be respected as Pythia and is no longer allowing the other leaders to roll over her. She’s also stepping it up on the emotional side and opening up to all the new people in her life. Having a court and a family no longer just means people to protect but people to love and let inside her emotional walls.

I think the best thing about this book is “the between times.” Most Cassie books are constant action and running from one crisis to the next. Which I absolutely love and there is plenty of that here. But there’s also quite a bit of downtime where they get to just talk to each other. Augustine opens up about his childhood. Cassie helps Rhea, Pritkin, and Mircea through some of their issues. And Marco helps Cassie through hers. We get to spend time getting to know Saffy and Vi from the covens, the young Pythian court members, and the latest vampire bodyguards. Cassie gets some unexpected help and training. And some Casskin hanky panky makes everything complete.

Karen Chance is one of my favorite authors. Not just for her endearing characters but the amazing, intricate storylines with insane fights and crazy politics. Read this book, well this whole timeline. It’s fantastic. I can’t recommend it highly enough. ( )

I loved this installment! I am delighted to see that Karen Chance can still enthrall me and keep things fresh at book 9. At this point I hope there are 11 more.
Cassie is a very busy goddess; she has to get all the races of the supernatural to get their stuff together and combine forces against the massive threats that are coming for their worlds. Everything feels so earned in this book - Cassie has faught to be where she is and command the respect she does (when she does in fact, command it in their eyes) and the battle is far from over. This is...not the most cooperative group!
Some excellent moments to look forward to include:
Cassie’s powers expanding (her newly developed and somewhat eerie clairvoyant/Pythia abilities blew my mind!) and her growth as a leader who has to make difficult decisions.
Pritkin and Cassie and SMORES.
Mircea becoming a little reckless and new.
Big meeting with the head honchos.
Cassie fighting for her family.
And okay just most of it is stuff to look forward to, I can’t even narrow it down! ( )