Monday 29 February 2016

Review: Reap the Wind by Karen Chance


Reap the Wind by Karen Chance book cover

Title: Reap the Wind
Author: Karen Chance
Series: Cassandra Palmer Series, #7
Format: Paperback, bought
My rating: 2 / 5

Add to Goodreads


You’d think that being Chief Seer for the supernatural world would come with a few perks. But as Cassie Palmer has learned, being Pythia doesn’t mean you don’t have to do things the hard way. That’s why she finds herself on a rescue mission skipping through time—even though she doesn't entirely understand her dimension-bending new power.

Rescuing her friend John Pritkin should have been an in and out kind of deal, but with the near-immortal mage’s soul lost in time, Cassie has to hunt for it through the ages—with Pritkin’s demon dad in tow. He’s the only one who can reverse Pritkin’s curse, but with the guardians of the time-line dead set on stopping anyone from mucking about, Cassie will have to figure out how to get her friend back without ruffling too many feathers—or causing a world-ending paradox or two...

-- As seen on Goodreads


My Thoughts


The Cassandra Palmer series is one of the few Urban Fantasy series I’ve kept up-to-date with from my pre-blogging days. It was one of the first UF series I read, and it still remains a firm favourite to this day. This is going slightly off-topic, but I find wait times between books in a series can be painful at the best of times, but when it’s a favourite series, that wait can become excruciating. Add in the fact that the sixth book in this series, Tempt the Stars, ended on yet another cliff-hanger, it was extra frustrating when I found out that Reap the Wind was set to be pushed back by an entire year. When the book finally arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago, I began reading straight away and my expectations were through the roof!


I don’t know what went wrong, exactly, but frustration was the main emotion I was left with after I finished reading. While I was reading, I kept thinking ‘was I satisfied with the things that were happening?’, and ‘was it worth the extra wait time?’ If I have to answer those questions, my answer would be no. This isn’t a small book by any stretch of the imagination, – 514 pages – yet I felt it turned into a giant recap of the previous six books in the series. It has been a long time since I read the previous books, so yes, this recap was appreciated. But, to be perfectly honest, getting a recap of the series wasn’t the reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place! Maybe if I wasn’t waiting for several dozen Cassie and Pritkin situations to be resolved, maybe this wouldn’t have bothered me so much. I hate to say this, but a part of me feels a little cheated. I expect what’s mentioned in a books synopsis to be solved – that’s its selling point, so I expect at least what’s mentioned in the synopsis to be addressed and resolved within that book. I don’t want to say any more, but I wasn’t satisfied with how little progress was actually made.


Here’s the thing: Cassie and Pritkin have been bickering and bugging the hell out of each other since the beginning of the series, and their dynamic together is AWESOME. It’s the main reason why I’ve stuck around for so long! I love it. In this book, however, there was a huge Pritkin shaped void. It was tolerable for a while, but by the half way mark, I was starting to get a bit angry with his continued absence. Also, I was starting to get tired of more and more unresolved stuff being piled on top of even more unresolved stuff . It became too much, and in honesty, and there are so many things going on I can’t keep it straight in my head anymore. What makes me really sad, though, is I’ve started not to care, and this breaks my heart. I LOVE Cassie and Pritkin, I really do, and I don’t want to be feeling this way after reading the latest instalment in the series.


Before I wrap up, I have to mention Mircea. I liked him in the first book, but by the second book I had jumped on the Pritkin bandwagon and haven’t looked back since. While I like Mircea’s character in general, I (surprisingly) found him extremely creepy in this book. There are some sexy time scenes with him, and honestly, I felt they were more unsettling rather than hot. I’m really glad Cassie FINALLY grew a pair and stood up to him – it only took seven books, but hey, better late than never, right?! Let’s hope she continues on this way in the future… but I’m not holding my breath.


I have to say, I think I went into this book expecting far too much. Reap the Wind isn’t really a bad book; it just didn’t live up to what I was expecting on any level. I guess my final thoughts come down to whether I want to continue with the series… well, erm, surprisingly yes. Yes I do! Seven books worth of investment isn’t something I’ll sacrifice on a whim, and Cassie and Pritkin mean too much to me abandon them just yet… but my patience will only last for so long. I’ll give the series one last chance, and I really, really, really hope Ride the Storm will deliver on all its promises. If it doesn’t, I’m gone.





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