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Bitter Night A Horngate Witches Book Diana Pharaoh Francis 9781416598145 Books

Download As PDF : Bitter Night A Horngate Witches Book Diana Pharaoh Francis 9781416598145 Books

Bitter Night A Horngate Witches Book Diana Pharaoh Francis 9781416598145 Books

I've been going through good book withdrawal lately, especially good urban fantasy books. So, armed with a truckload of good reviews and an interesting premise, I decided to give "Bitter Night" a try. Its success was marginal at best.

Max is a trained assassin. In fact, she is the head of an elite group of warriors called Shadowblades, who serve and protect powerful witches. She was tricked into service and is bitter and resentful about the whole thing. While out on a mission, she meets a rival blade, Alex who captures her interest. Her and Alex must band together (along with her other blades and even enemies) to neutralize the "Big Bad" that is coming their way.

Max started out strong as a character. I understood her resentment and felt her rage. But somewhere in the middle, she lost me. I found her actions to be reckless, childish and stupid. She constantly made the same types of mistakes. She would do things that a well-trained, effective, competent team leader would not. Part of me thought that Max had a death wish, but suicidal tendencies are not something that I look for in a heroine. The only saving grace for her was Alex.

Alex is a rival blade who has been around over 100 years. He has seen it all. Alex has been betrayed and abandoned by his witch and his band of Shadowblades before he hooks up with Max and her crew. I liked Alex. He was smart, capable and effective. The wild, recklessness that was ever present with Max, wasn't there with him. I respected this character in ways that I couldn't respect Max.

I won't bore you with a regurgitation of the mythology involved in this story. It wasn't that inspiring. It managed to be boring and somewhat confusing all at the same time. Character development and plot are the most important elements in a book. While the mythology bored me, the author did a great job of sucking me into the characters that inhabit this world of Shadowblades and witches. I understood most of their motivations and reasoning. The biggest problem with the book was her heroine, Max.

Great urban fantasy transports the reader into a dark and gritty world where the heroes fight the good fight against overwhelming odds and huge obstacles. The characters aren't perfect, but they have the intelligence and grit to make the reader respect and like them. "Bitter Night" had several characters that I could plug into. Unfortunately, Max wasn't really one of them.

"Bitter Night" had just enough qualities to make it an okay read. The verdict is still out on whether the series will turn into something special.


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Bitter Night A Horngate Witches Book Diana Pharaoh Francis 9781416598145 Books Reviews

I have to say that through the first 2/3rd of "Biter Night", I was not impressed. In fact I almost quit reading it a few times. But I plunged ahead because I liked the concept/world and I liked the main characters Max and Alexander. The premise is that Max is the Prime Shadowblade for a witch named Giselle. Besides a witches' Shadowblades, they also have Sunspears warriors as well. Both groups protect the witch and are bound to the witch and they also have very unique powers. I agree with other reviews who say they are almost like vampires. When the sun comes up, Shadowblades must find shelter or they can die. Anyway the story quickly became bogged down when it became a back and forth with another witch named Selange. Alex is Selange's Prime and must battle Max. From there on a huge chunk of the story is either Max and/or Alex being hurt or kidnapped and the other one is trying to help or rescue them. It just felt like the same thing over and over again. I was bored. Then toward the end of the book, things got very interesting and the two witches had one common enemy to fight. I loved that part of the story and I was shocked to find that I immediately downloaded the sequel in the series. One thing that kept me reading is that I really like Alex and Max's flirtation. I believed in their attraction to each other and adored how loyal Alex was to Max so quickly. I also liked the supporting cast of characters, especially Alexander's friend Thor. There were some hints of upcoming storylines that I think sound more interesting than those in this first book and so I am going to try the next book to see if it catches my interest more completely. I also think some parts of this world could have been more clearly explained and I think that would have made the story more enjoyable.
NO SPOILERS or plot summaries.

HIGH LEVEL YES! Just that. YES! Yes, you should read this. Yes, you will like it. It was a seriously great read. Fast paced, high stakes, rich magical world with vivid, down to earth characters. I honestly wasn't sure after reading the first couple pages, but a few more pages in and I was HOOKED.

MYTHOS & STYLE This is more of an Urban Fantasy than a romance, though there is a stronger element of romance than in many UFs. It was something of a blend of the two- a well-crafted blend. The magical world was cleverly written and diverse, ranging from witches to angels to hags. This could be considered a unique take on vampires- the Shadowblades and Sunspears. It was all very clever. Story is told from two perspectives- the female and male leads, which is interesting specifically because it isn't a true para-romance. It worked VERY well. The violence was fast and bloody and devastating. Not a faint hearted book.

CHARACTERS Max, our heroine, is a strong lead. She makes a great central character- she has depth and flaws and enough anger to boil the words off the page. I felt her struggles from page one until the back cover. The supporting characters were all vibrant and full. Each of them sympathetic in their own way making up a great "band of brothers" type team. The "bad guys" were a little too stereotypical and lacked the same depth that the others had. Alexander, who was the male lead, was perhaps an even BETTER character than Max. He was something of a tragic hero- his 100+ year lifespan was very clear in how he was written. His loyalty, his strength, his struggles- wow. It was a real treat to watch Max & Alexander cautiously dance around each other.

BOTTOM LINE I just loved this book and I could just go on and on about why. I couldn't put it down and I had no idea what to expect when I picked it up, so I'm sure I missed an appointment or two.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Ilona Andrew's gritty, post-apocalyptic magic vs technology world Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, Book 1)
2. Karen Chance's two highly energetic, very sexy vamp series Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer, Book 1) and the related series (start reading Cassandra's series first) Midnight's Daughter (Dorina Basarab, Dhampir, Book 1)
3. Jocelyn Drake's vampire/were/demon centric series full of grit Nightwalker (Dark Days, Book 1)
4. Jennifer Estep's stone-magic wielding, hard, cold, vicious assassin Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin, Book 1)
5. Jeaniene Frost's vamp mystery packed with action Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 1)
6. Chloe Neill's spunky vampire themed Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 1)
7. Marjorie Liu's cold and murky, though somewhat abstract series of inherited heroism The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss, Book 1)
8. Lilith Saintcrow's two series, dark & gritty Night Shift (Jill Kismet, Hunter, Book 1) and Working for the Devil (Dante Valentine, Book 1)
9. Nalini Singh's creative use of angels and vampires in Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter)
I've been going through good book withdrawal lately, especially good urban fantasy books. So, armed with a truckload of good reviews and an interesting premise, I decided to give "Bitter Night" a try. Its success was marginal at best.

Max is a trained assassin. In fact, she is the head of an elite group of warriors called Shadowblades, who serve and protect powerful witches. She was tricked into service and is bitter and resentful about the whole thing. While out on a mission, she meets a rival blade, Alex who captures her interest. Her and Alex must band together (along with her other blades and even enemies) to neutralize the "Big Bad" that is coming their way.

Max started out strong as a character. I understood her resentment and felt her rage. But somewhere in the middle, she lost me. I found her actions to be reckless, childish and stupid. She constantly made the same types of mistakes. She would do things that a well-trained, effective, competent team leader would not. Part of me thought that Max had a death wish, but suicidal tendencies are not something that I look for in a heroine. The only saving grace for her was Alex.

Alex is a rival blade who has been around over 100 years. He has seen it all. Alex has been betrayed and abandoned by his witch and his band of Shadowblades before he hooks up with Max and her crew. I liked Alex. He was smart, capable and effective. The wild, recklessness that was ever present with Max, wasn't there with him. I respected this character in ways that I couldn't respect Max.

I won't bore you with a regurgitation of the mythology involved in this story. It wasn't that inspiring. It managed to be boring and somewhat confusing all at the same time. Character development and plot are the most important elements in a book. While the mythology bored me, the author did a great job of sucking me into the characters that inhabit this world of Shadowblades and witches. I understood most of their motivations and reasoning. The biggest problem with the book was her heroine, Max.

Great urban fantasy transports the reader into a dark and gritty world where the heroes fight the good fight against overwhelming odds and huge obstacles. The characters aren't perfect, but they have the intelligence and grit to make the reader respect and like them. "Bitter Night" had several characters that I could plug into. Unfortunately, Max wasn't really one of them.

"Bitter Night" had just enough qualities to make it an okay read. The verdict is still out on whether the series will turn into something special.