Karen Chance has Released a few more Q & A to go with the release of Ride the Storm
http://www.karenchance.com/news/2144-2/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-61/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63-2/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/qa-64/
Fiction
Penguin
2017-08
608
Cassie Palmer can see the future, talk to ghosts, and travel through time--but nothing's prepared her for this. Ever since being stuck with the job of pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world, Cassie Palmer has been playing catch up. Catch up to the lifetime's worth of training she missed being raised by a psychotic vampire instead of at the fabled pythian court. Catch up to the powerful, and sometimes seductive, forces trying to mold her to their will. It's been a trial by fire that has left her more than a little burned. But now she realizes that all that was the just the warm up for the real race. Ancient forces that once terrorized the world are trying to return, and Cassie is the only one who can stop them...
Review Of Karen Chance’s Ride the Storm
I have long been a fan of Karen Chance’s body of work. I am a loyal fan and have remained undaunted in the face of all the machinations of the publisher and publishing machine. Karen Chance has long kept the faith with her readers. She often offers free stories that add to her published works to create a more complex, multifaceted and fulfilling world in which all her novels take place. Readers who only read the novels from the publishing house lose a lot of the details and the joy of seeing the characters in multiple lights. All that being said, Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer novel Ride the Storm has been one of the most anticipated novels in my memory. This is not the fault of Karen Chance and that cannot be said firmly enough. The publishing house has been moving dates on this novel for over a year with little to no explanation.
The previous book, Reap the Wind was judged too long by the publisher when submitted by the author. This led to a quick rewrite and the split of the book almost in half. This also left an unfulfilled feeling at the end of Reap the Wind. Many plotlines were left hanging, which left some readers unhappy and the continuous manipulation by the publishers with moving dates and little communication lost even more of the fan base. Ride the Storm is the second half of the previous book with a little bit of newer information which furthers the plot of the Cassandra Palmer novels.
I was recently asked by a friend to explain the Cassie Palmer novels and I drew a bit of a blank—how do you explain such a complicated and multifaceted storyline as the one Karen Chance has created? I told her she just needs to read it and we will talk about it once she has. To say that all of the Cassie Palmer novels are fast paced is kind of like saying a quadruple shot espresso is a little bit energizing. These books move along at a frenetic pace and always have plot twists that are unexpected to say the least. It is impossible to have predicted where the main characters end up at the beginning of this book, let alone at the end of the book.
So much happens in this book to move the plot along that after reading it 3 times, I am still finding new details to enjoy. This is not a book to start when you have a deadline coming up or really anything planned. Depending on your reading speed and availability, you should plan to be unavailable until you can finish the book. This is not one you are going to want to put down as there are no really good stopping places. My recommendation is to start it on a Friday so you can have the weekend to take a break from reality and a trip into the Cassandra Palmer universe.
This book brings resolution to a lot of the ongoing plot lines that readers have been gnashing their teeth to know. We find out why MIrcea is so interested in Pythias. We get to see Pritkin rescued. We get to see Cassie find her feet and establish her own space independent of all the forces tearing at her. We learn more about Cassie’s parents. Dorina and Cassie finally meet. We go careening through the story and learn so much along the way that it’s hard to even begin to summarize it so I am not going to even try. Despite this, there is a seeming resolution to the love triangle between Cassie, Mircea and Pritkin but it is open ended enough that I see it more as an affirmation of the fact that Cassie has complicated emotions and feelings for both men.
This book is a solid addition to the Cassandra Palmer world and yet leaves a lot of storylines open for more exploration. It is my sincere hope that Karen Chance continues to publish Cassandra Palmer books for a very long time. In order for that to happen, fans have to not only buy this book, but review it. Talk about it with friends and build it up so that the publishers contract with Karen Chance for more Cassie Palmer books.
I look forward to discussing all of this with fellow fans at my site bestbooklover.net and at the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BestBooklovernet-336745780072074/
In the interest of full disclosure, I received an ARC ebook in return for this review.
Ride the Storm
Cassandra Palmer
Paranormal
Berkeley
August 1, 2017
606
The New York Times bestselling author of Reap the Wind returns to the “fascinating world”* of Cassie Palmer. Ever since being stuck with the job of pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world, Cassie Palmer has been playing catch up. Catch up to the lifetime's worth of training she missed being raised by a psychotic vampire instead of at the fabled pythian court. Catch up to the powerful, and sometimes seductive, forces trying to mold her to their will. It's been a trial by fire that has left her more than a little burned. But now she realizes that all that was the just the warm up for the real race. Ancient forces that once terrorized the world are trying to return, and Cassie is the only one who can stop them...
booksthatbleeds Review : Midnight’s Daughter (Dorina Basarab #1)
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Mircea has a daughter! That’s who Cassandra saw in the photos in the “Cassandra Palmer” series.
Dori Basarab is quite the rebel. She drinks beer and smokes weed, in part to quiet down the negative side effects that come with being a Dhamphir. Dhamphir’s are susceptible to blackouts and uncontrollable rage. In the book, her best friend goes missing. Along with a friend of Mircea, she sets out to find that friend and do her father a favor that can cost her, her life. Another great K.C. novel.4/5
(review from May 31, 2010)
Dory Predictions
Dory and Cassie are going to have their first “official” introduction. Probably in RtS, but possibly in the next Dory book? Either way, it’s bound to be equal parts intense and likely pretty funny (in a painfully awkward way).
I think that from Dory’s POV there is definitely going to be some resentment. First, that her father never bothered to tell her (though I highly doubt she’ll be surprised by this); and second that this is the waifish little blonde that sent her ass out to pasture, as it were. But, I don’t figure Dory to be the type to see any of Mircea’s romantic entanglements as anything but a passing thing, so I doubt (aside from understandable wariness of her power) that Dory will give her much thought at all.
Cassie on the other hand, is going to be embarrassed as hell that she spent months worrying about Mircea’s “mistress”, just to end up shifting his dhamphir daughter (and new senate member) to a cow field. After the initial embarrassment however, I think her primary emotions are going to be centered on a general feeling of betrayal. How could he fail to mention to her that he had a daughter? He had plenty of opportunity, he told her so much about his history, he claimed that she knew him better than most, so why leave this monumental detail out? Was it just a side effect of his secretive nature, or because he actually doesn’t trust her? I have a feeling this is really going to eat at her, and likely lead to quite a reckoning between Cassie and Mircea.
So, maybe I’m wrong, but…Cassie has been keeping quite a bit from Mircea as well. As for Dory, well Radu told her in book 1 that if she kept up with the family she would already know about the “whole time line thing” and I think she’s gonna be pretty damn busy integrating Dorina. And Cassie has had opportunities to talk to Mircea and chosen not to. I think that the revelation that Marco and Rico make in book 7 is more important. Mircea told them everything he knows about whats going on so they can protect Cassie, but they are “her men”. They aren’t reporting on her actions to Mircea. So, maybe, she could have brought them into the loop. After all. Marco gives her the tears.
[Top]One day, you will say it to me again. You will be sober. And you will mean it.” I was actually terrified that I already meant it. A guy might just be a keeper who hears your cry for help in his head. And comes into a den of thieves to get you out. And then holds your hair while you throw up for ten minutes. Then again, I was in no condition to judge. But that old saying kept rattling around in my head. “ In vino veritas ,” I whispered, faintly appalled. “What?” “Nothing.” I looked up at him as he pulled me back to my feet. “Let’s go home.
paused. What was I saying? Was I actually thinking about this? Was I actually doing this? Because out of a lifetime of crazy things, this had to take the prize. Dhampirs didn’t have relationships—not long-term ones, at least. And certainly not with the creatures we were supposed to be hunting. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and this was probably going to end in disaster. Everyone knew, there was no such thing as happy endings, and princes didn’t end up with the family pariah. But now it seems that I am a pariah, too, drifted through my head. “Stop it,” I said, leaning back against him. His arms were tight around me, but his hands were gentle. I could hear a heartbeat in my ear, and it sounded natural, soothing. “What are you saying? That I can’t corrupt you?”
Radu nodded, but he didn’t leave. “You know, even if she hadn’t been an evil mutant, she was always quite bad for him. Not that I meddle.” “Of course not.” “But she was. He needs a nice, levelheaded girl. You’re levelheaded, Dory.” “I’m insane, ’Du.” “Well, not all the time. And when you’re not, you’re quite lovely… in your own odd little way.” “Uh, thank you?” Radu patted my arm. “You’re welcome.”
Midnight’s Daughter
So, I am skipping around a bit and I know it all to well…but here’s the thing. I am trying really hard to do reviews of all the Karen Chance books but there is just too much. Each book is a gazillion things and I’m working hard to try and list them all,but my reviews end up being books themselves, even if I only write one sentence per event and I end up writing way more than 1 sentence. So, while I am struggling through page by page to make sure you get everything I’m also reading on my own time. So I’m about 2/3 through Midnight’s Daughter and only 1/3 through the review of Touch the Dark…
But I just can’t keep my mouth shut. I’m giggling over Dory. Shaking my head at Louis-Cesar. Totally enchanted by Radu. Laughing at Radu telling Dory he had to stay way from Louis-Cesar because of the “timeline thing” which is a summary of Cassie book 1. Dory says that thing I’d know about if I knew what was going on in the family? and Radu just keeps right on going like she know what in the sam hill he is talking about. Imagining a dinner with Radu dressed flamboyantly and miniature cows herding around on the table then falling in the lap of the guests. The King and the Troll Widow and stinky all trying to eat the cows. Radu’s dismay at the chef being upset. The Sheer absurdity of it all! Then, Dory turning down sex with the king of the fae-only to bite him and have it be the opposite of what she wanted to happen! And the hilarity of her and Radu talking in the parlor as the chandelier swings from the fight between Louis-Cesar and Caedmon over Dory’s honor…Its just too much to stay quiet. I have to share it, but I don’t know how!
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