Great Start to a Wonderful Series, 12 Oct 2008
Loved it! Wonderful characters, a swift moving plot, a deft sense of humour and a surprising ending--this book had it all. And unlike many series I've read, this one keeps getting better with each book. Claimed by Shadow, the sequel, is also a very strong title, and Embrace the Night, the third book in the series, is simply brilliant. The three work together to tell one complex and fascinating tale. Curse the Dawn, the fourth book, is out in April and I can't wait! If you're looking for something a bit different with a stronger plotline and better characterization than normal for genre fiction, this is it!

I really wanted to say I liked this book, 11 Oct 2008
This is the sort of book that anyone who reads Laurel K. Hamilton or Kim Harrison will probably end up reading.

It's set in an underground of vampires and werewolves that exists in parralel to the human world, and sees a female heroine do battle against the powers that be in that world.

One of my biggest grumbles about Hamilton and Harrison is the fact that there's too much 'love interest' and too little story in their books. That's why I turned to this book. I hoped that I'd get more story. I can't work out quite how wrong I was yet.

Don't get me wrong, the lead protagonist isn't jumping into bed with people, but the story (which sees her try and work out who's killing the Vampire Council in America and how to stop him) feels a little clunky all the same.

I don't know about you, but when I tell a story I try to weave the back story into the main text fairly seamlessly. I don't want people getting confused about what's going on, but I don't want the back story to get in the way of the story's flow either.

That didn't happen here. Every so often she'd stop to lay this whole exposition about the past on you.

This was ok at first, but it got on my nerves after a while. If you can get your head round that irritating tendency the author has, you might enjoy this book. If you can't you should go elsewhere.

I would read the sequel, 02 Sep 2008
Deliciously gory and sexy. I liked the well-established supernatural world that Chance created and her exploration of ideas. The magic involved was unusual (in that I hadn't come across it quite like that in a novel before) and the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, though I don't think I would read it again. The story is a series of detailed, lengthy scenes that takes place over a fairly short space of time and I did find the sometimes slow pace of events irritating at times, but I would buy and read the sequel for more.

Fascinating... Enjoyable, 27 Jul 2008
First book I have read by Karen Chance, and found it enjoyable.

I liked Cassie, at times she could be infuriating... but thats normal, charactors can't always do what you want them to do.

I liked the fact that we got loads more magical creatures like demons and mages, and can't wait to read the 2nd in this series.

I definately recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, vampire, werewolf type fiction.

Pretty rubbish read, 14 Jul 2008
Started slow and lost me... it got good only in the last 3 chapters. I was recommended this by Amazon 'cos I loved the Twilight series but the only thing this book had in common with Twilight was the vampires.

Great Start to a Wonderful Series, 12 Oct 2008
Loved it! Wonderful characters, a swift moving plot, a deft sense of humour and a surprising ending--this book had it all. And unlike many series I've read, this one keeps getting better with each book. Claimed by Shadow, the sequel, is also a very strong title, and Embrace the Night, the third book in the series, is simply brilliant. The three work together to tell one complex and fascinating tale. Curse the Dawn, the fourth book, is out in April and I can't wait! If you're looking for something a bit different with a stronger plotline and better characterization than normal for genre fiction, this is it!

I really wanted to say I liked this book, 11 Oct 2008
This is the sort of book that anyone who reads Laurel K. Hamilton or Kim Harrison will probably end up reading.

It's set in an underground of vampires and werewolves that exists in parralel to the human world, and sees a female heroine do battle against the powers that be in that world.

One of my biggest grumbles about Hamilton and Harrison is the fact that there's too much 'love interest' and too little story in their books. That's why I turned to this book. I hoped that I'd get more story. I can't work out quite how wrong I was yet.

Don't get me wrong, the lead protagonist isn't jumping into bed with people, but the story (which sees her try and work out who's killing the Vampire Council in America and how to stop him) feels a little clunky all the same.

I don't know about you, but when I tell a story I try to weave the back story into the main text fairly seamlessly. I don't want people getting confused about what's going on, but I don't want the back story to get in the way of the story's flow either.

That didn't happen here. Every so often she'd stop to lay this whole exposition about the past on you.

This was ok at first, but it got on my nerves after a while. If you can get your head round that irritating tendency the author has, you might enjoy this book. If you can't you should go elsewhere.

I would read the sequel, 02 Sep 2008
Deliciously gory and sexy. I liked the well-established supernatural world that Chance created and her exploration of ideas. The magic involved was unusual (in that I hadn't come across it quite like that in a novel before) and the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, though I don't think I would read it again. The story is a series of detailed, lengthy scenes that takes place over a fairly short space of time and I did find the sometimes slow pace of events irritating at times, but I would buy and read the sequel for more.

Fascinating... Enjoyable, 27 Jul 2008
First book I have read by Karen Chance, and found it enjoyable.

I liked Cassie, at times she could be infuriating... but thats normal, charactors can't always do what you want them to do.

I liked the fact that we got loads more magical creatures like demons and mages, and can't wait to read the 2nd in this series.

I definately recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, vampire, werewolf type fiction.

Pretty rubbish read, 14 Jul 2008
Started slow and lost me... it got good only in the last 3 chapters. I was recommended this by Amazon 'cos I loved the Twilight series but the only thing this book had in common with Twilight was the vampires.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Great Start to a Wonderful Series, 12 Oct 2008
Loved it! Wonderful characters, a swift moving plot, a deft sense of humour and a surprising ending--this book had it all. And unlike many series I've read, this one keeps getting better with each book. Claimed by Shadow, the sequel, is also a very strong title, and Embrace the Night, the third book in the series, is simply brilliant. The three work together to tell one complex and fascinating tale. Curse the Dawn, the fourth book, is out in April and I can't wait! If you're looking for something a bit different with a stronger plotline and better characterization than normal for genre fiction, this is it!

I really wanted to say I liked this book, 11 Oct 2008
This is the sort of book that anyone who reads Laurel K. Hamilton or Kim Harrison will probably end up reading.

It's set in an underground of vampires and werewolves that exists in parralel to the human world, and sees a female heroine do battle against the powers that be in that world.

One of my biggest grumbles about Hamilton and Harrison is the fact that there's too much 'love interest' and too little story in their books. That's why I turned to this book. I hoped that I'd get more story. I can't work out quite how wrong I was yet.

Don't get me wrong, the lead protagonist isn't jumping into bed with people, but the story (which sees her try and work out who's killing the Vampire Council in America and how to stop him) feels a little clunky all the same.

I don't know about you, but when I tell a story I try to weave the back story into the main text fairly seamlessly. I don't want people getting confused about what's going on, but I don't want the back story to get in the way of the story's flow either.

That didn't happen here. Every so often she'd stop to lay this whole exposition about the past on you.

This was ok at first, but it got on my nerves after a while. If you can get your head round that irritating tendency the author has, you might enjoy this book. If you can't you should go elsewhere.

I would read the sequel, 02 Sep 2008
Deliciously gory and sexy. I liked the well-established supernatural world that Chance created and her exploration of ideas. The magic involved was unusual (in that I hadn't come across it quite like that in a novel before) and the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, though I don't think I would read it again. The story is a series of detailed, lengthy scenes that takes place over a fairly short space of time and I did find the sometimes slow pace of events irritating at times, but I would buy and read the sequel for more.

Fascinating... Enjoyable, 27 Jul 2008
First book I have read by Karen Chance, and found it enjoyable.

I liked Cassie, at times she could be infuriating... but thats normal, charactors can't always do what you want them to do.

I liked the fact that we got loads more magical creatures like demons and mages, and can't wait to read the 2nd in this series.

I definately recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, vampire, werewolf type fiction.

Pretty rubbish read, 14 Jul 2008
Started slow and lost me... it got good only in the last 3 chapters. I was recommended this by Amazon 'cos I loved the Twilight series but the only thing this book had in common with Twilight was the vampires.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Gotta have faith!, 14 Jul 2008
I was a late convert to the world of Buffy. Like many I had watched it as a teenager, enjoyed it, and then been persuaded by who knows who, that it was not something one should be proud of watching. Then I watched Serenity and thought it was great, backtracked to firefly and loved that too. Then one day somebody told me that the same guy that did those, did buffy. "WHAT!" I said, "That cant be!", half clouded by the fact that everybody said that Buffy was rubbish, half trying to cover up my embarrassment of not making this ling earlier.

So to cut a long story short, I watched all of Buffy in a very short time, and I loved it. And then I watched Angel and I loved it less, but loved it all the same.

Before Mr. Whedon ever entered my life, and then during, and still now, I've been an avid reader of comics. All comics, from the good, to the bad, to the fugly. Some of my favourites in the world of comics were the likes of Y the last man, and Runaways. Boy, I'm rambling here. Bear with me. What I'm really trying to say here, with probabl too much context, is that this comic is great. It's great as a part of the Buffy canon. I couldn't be happier with how the series has been carried on, and BKV's addition is on par with Whedons.

This is probably not a comic that is going to be among the greats. It's no Maus, it's no Watchmen. But it does what it sets out to do well, it carries on the story of our favourite vampire slayer (or whichever is your favourite). It's not a comic that revels in the medium of comics. If it was adapted into another series or a film, it may be even better. But that aint going to happen. And honestly, i'm not complaining.

Sorry for the diatribe, one last thing i'd like to say... Keep it coming.

P.S. It's also way better than Angel: after the fall. Seriously.

Disappointingly unoriginal 'new' story, 08 Jul 2008
I was severally disapointed by this new part in the so-called Season 8 of Buffy. Not because it is a bad tale overall or badly written or anything like that, but because the story is completely unoriginal and tired. A story about a rogue Slayer trying to kill Buffy has been done already in Season 3 of the original TV series, with Faith herself as the rogue Slayer. An episode of Angel Season 5 also featured a rogue Slayer trying to kill Spike. And Giles asking Faith to help track down the rogue Slayer to redeem herself is also a bit silly considering the events at the end of Season 7. I think her saving Buffy's life at the end should have been more than enough to be forgiven for her past sins. Original ideas needed for the next installment please!

so after reintroducing buffy and co we then move away from them to faith., 07 Jul 2008
Which in some ways seemed an odd idea, because it focuses so much on Faith that buffy barey gets a look in. Grumble over, it is still a fine read and faith has been part of buffy for years so why whinge anyway.
The same flaws with the art apply, as well as the same benefits. Brian k vaughns handle on faith is pretty good, his Giles is perfect.
The story is fairly simple but well handled and leaves a few more dangling threads.

Revisionist history?, 17 Jun 2008
I'm somewhat confused about the plot of this one. It seems to me that Faith was more than redeemed during S7 of the show and more than made up for her previous evil and mistakes. Seems rather churlish to be talking about wiping the slate clean after that!



Buffy lives on and on, 12 Jun 2008
The first volume of the 'season 8' comics left me slightly confused; some interesting plot twists and developments but little of the feel of the real Buffy, little of the claustrophobic sense of the small American town fighting bravely back against supernatural foes. The second volume has really developed the narrative arc, introducing a subplot involving Faith and Giles. The dialogue is strong and really develops the flavour and tone of the original series,whilst the illustrations are well-constructed and allow the authors to introduce much of the humour of the TV series.

Great Start to a Wonderful Series, 12 Oct 2008
Loved it! Wonderful characters, a swift moving plot, a deft sense of humour and a surprising ending--this book had it all. And unlike many series I've read, this one keeps getting better with each book. Claimed by Shadow, the sequel, is also a very strong title, and Embrace the Night, the third book in the series, is simply brilliant. The three work together to tell one complex and fascinating tale. Curse the Dawn, the fourth book, is out in April and I can't wait! If you're looking for something a bit different with a stronger plotline and better characterization than normal for genre fiction, this is it!

I really wanted to say I liked this book, 11 Oct 2008
This is the sort of book that anyone who reads Laurel K. Hamilton or Kim Harrison will probably end up reading.

It's set in an underground of vampires and werewolves that exists in parralel to the human world, and sees a female heroine do battle against the powers that be in that world.

One of my biggest grumbles about Hamilton and Harrison is the fact that there's too much 'love interest' and too little story in their books. That's why I turned to this book. I hoped that I'd get more story. I can't work out quite how wrong I was yet.

Don't get me wrong, the lead protagonist isn't jumping into bed with people, but the story (which sees her try and work out who's killing the Vampire Council in America and how to stop him) feels a little clunky all the same.

I don't know about you, but when I tell a story I try to weave the back story into the main text fairly seamlessly. I don't want people getting confused about what's going on, but I don't want the back story to get in the way of the story's flow either.

That didn't happen here. Every so often she'd stop to lay this whole exposition about the past on you.

This was ok at first, but it got on my nerves after a while. If you can get your head round that irritating tendency the author has, you might enjoy this book. If you can't you should go elsewhere.

I would read the sequel, 02 Sep 2008
Deliciously gory and sexy. I liked the well-established supernatural world that Chance created and her exploration of ideas. The magic involved was unusual (in that I hadn't come across it quite like that in a novel before) and the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, though I don't think I would read it again. The story is a series of detailed, lengthy scenes that takes place over a fairly short space of time and I did find the sometimes slow pace of events irritating at times, but I would buy and read the sequel for more.

Fascinating... Enjoyable, 27 Jul 2008
First book I have read by Karen Chance, and found it enjoyable.

I liked Cassie, at times she could be infuriating... but thats normal, charactors can't always do what you want them to do.

I liked the fact that we got loads more magical creatures like demons and mages, and can't wait to read the 2nd in this series.

I definately recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, vampire, werewolf type fiction.

Pretty rubbish read, 14 Jul 2008
Started slow and lost me... it got good only in the last 3 chapters. I was recommended this by Amazon 'cos I loved the Twilight series but the only thing this book had in common with Twilight was the vampires.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Gotta have faith!, 14 Jul 2008
I was a late convert to the world of Buffy. Like many I had watched it as a teenager, enjoyed it, and then been persuaded by who knows who, that it was not something one should be proud of watching. Then I watched Serenity and thought it was great, backtracked to firefly and loved that too. Then one day somebody told me that the same guy that did those, did buffy. "WHAT!" I said, "That cant be!", half clouded by the fact that everybody said that Buffy was rubbish, half trying to cover up my embarrassment of not making this ling earlier.

So to cut a long story short, I watched all of Buffy in a very short time, and I loved it. And then I watched Angel and I loved it less, but loved it all the same.

Before Mr. Whedon ever entered my life, and then during, and still now, I've been an avid reader of comics. All comics, from the good, to the bad, to the fugly. Some of my favourites in the world of comics were the likes of Y the last man, and Runaways. Boy, I'm rambling here. Bear with me. What I'm really trying to say here, with probabl too much context, is that this comic is great. It's great as a part of the Buffy canon. I couldn't be happier with how the series has been carried on, and BKV's addition is on par with Whedons.

This is probably not a comic that is going to be among the greats. It's no Maus, it's no Watchmen. But it does what it sets out to do well, it carries on the story of our favourite vampire slayer (or whichever is your favourite). It's not a comic that revels in the medium of comics. If it was adapted into another series or a film, it may be even better. But that aint going to happen. And honestly, i'm not complaining.

Sorry for the diatribe, one last thing i'd like to say... Keep it coming.

P.S. It's also way better than Angel: after the fall. Seriously.

Disappointingly unoriginal 'new' story, 08 Jul 2008
I was severally disapointed by this new part in the so-called Season 8 of Buffy. Not because it is a bad tale overall or badly written or anything like that, but because the story is completely unoriginal and tired. A story about a rogue Slayer trying to kill Buffy has been done already in Season 3 of the original TV series, with Faith herself as the rogue Slayer. An episode of Angel Season 5 also featured a rogue Slayer trying to kill Spike. And Giles asking Faith to help track down the rogue Slayer to redeem herself is also a bit silly considering the events at the end of Season 7. I think her saving Buffy's life at the end should have been more than enough to be forgiven for her past sins. Original ideas needed for the next installment please!

so after reintroducing buffy and co we then move away from them to faith., 07 Jul 2008
Which in some ways seemed an odd idea, because it focuses so much on Faith that buffy barey gets a look in. Grumble over, it is still a fine read and faith has been part of buffy for years so why whinge anyway.
The same flaws with the art apply, as well as the same benefits. Brian k vaughns handle on faith is pretty good, his Giles is perfect.
The story is fairly simple but well handled and leaves a few more dangling threads.

Revisionist history?, 17 Jun 2008
I'm somewhat confused about the plot of this one. It seems to me that Faith was more than redeemed during S7 of the show and more than made up for her previous evil and mistakes. Seems rather churlish to be talking about wiping the slate clean after that!



Buffy lives on and on, 12 Jun 2008
The first volume of the 'season 8' comics left me slightly confused; some interesting plot twists and developments but little of the feel of the real Buffy, little of the claustrophobic sense of the small American town fighting bravely back against supernatural foes. The second volume has really developed the narrative arc, introducing a subplot involving Faith and Giles. The dialogue is strong and really develops the flavour and tone of the original series,whilst the illustrations are well-constructed and allow the authors to introduce much of the humour of the TV series.

Four and a Half Stars, 06 Oct 2008
I remember the first book in the Cassandra Palmer series finished on something of a cliffhanger and I admit here to only having a vague memory of Book 1 when I started Claimed by Shadow. I do remember having a problem with some infodumping in Touch the Dark (Bk1) and that Karen Chance is very good at writing first lines.

The first line situation is still the same

"Any day that starts off in a demon-filled bar in a casino designed to look like Hell isn't likely to turn out well."

But the info-dumping? Gone. Or at least become so much smoother and integrated into the plot that I didn't notice it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Even though I spent a fair bit of time confused about what was going on, especially at the beginning - mainly because Claimed by Shadow does not pick up smoothly from the end of Touch the Dark. However, I do think on a second read through things will gel together more, and I'm a big fan of books with high re-readability.

Essentially Cassie is still trying to clean up the mess from the end of Touch the Dark. Still not completely in control of her powers she's pursuing Tony, attempting to keep her friends safe and trying to stop Myra from messing with the timeline, without making things worse than they already are.

The plot itself, starts with a bang and doesn't let go. This does mean that moments of internal reflection are few and far between. Some terrible things happen and Cassie doesn't really get a chance to process them, she just has to cope with each impending crisis as it looms. So this is something of a rollercoaster ride, leaving you frantically turning the pages wanting to know what happens next. But it works. Cassie is a character (not dissimilar to Kate Daniels) who things just happen to. She's almost like a magnet for bad karma.

The book is chock full of snappy banter and quotable dialogue. And though some characters only appear briefly they have a big impact on the storyline. Claimed by Shadow made me smile, made me teary and made me hungry for the next book. Highly recommended (I think Ilona Andrews fans would like this series, if they aren't reading it already).

Book 1 - Touch the Dark
Book 3 - Embrace the Night
Book 4 - Curse the Dawn (April 2009)

Karen Chance has a new series set in the same Universe.

Midnight's Daughter (Dorina Basarab #1) October 2008.


Not quite as good as the first, but still essential reading!, 09 Dec 2007
Having been enthralled by the book previous to this, Touch the Dark, I dove straight into this one when I finished it. And I'm very glad I did. It was definitely better to read the two books back-to-back as the plot is complicated in places. I think Claimed by Shadow will be much easier to follow when the first book is still fresh in your mind.

Anyway, onto the action. We left Cassie Palmer as heir to the role of Pythia - an immensely powerful magical being whose job it is to travel back and forth in time to solve problems and eradicate any rogues that are trying to alter history. The only problem is, Cassie doesn't want the job. If she becomes Pythia, she will have every type of magical creature after her (even more than usual) to either eradicate or use her power for their own devices. She already has an immense amount of this power due to a chance meeting with the old Pythia in the previous novel. But Cassie doesn't dare to use the power because she's not entirely sure what will happen. Cassie just wants a quiet life, but unfortunately for her, this is never going to happen.

The narrative continues with Cassie desperately trying to get out of trouble without using her power, but she is endangering other people in the process. If it wasn't for the fact she was still chasing the vampire Tony to avenge her parents, she probably would have disappeared without a trace by now. But with the mage Pritkin by her side, she is still attracting trouble from every direction. And to add even more problems to Cassie's list - it appears that the vampire Mircea has put a geis on her - which basically is a spell that makes her "belong" to him. If any other man got close to her then the spell would prevent anything from happening between them. This also has the additional effect of making the two very attracted to one another. And the geis appears to be working whenever they meet, in whatever time, which certainly complicates matters.

Cassie is less than impressed that everyone is trying to control her and her life. This is the reason she doesn't want to become Pythia, because the Fey, mages and vampires alike will all be trying to tell her what to do in that role. So she decides to fight back, and go against expectations of her and how she should behave. Oh, and try to stop her rivals killing her, of course.

I did really enjoy this book, but I don't think it was as good as the first one. Given the way the first one ended I was expecting literary fireworks with the second. It did start off really action-packed and exciting, but I think there was potential to add to this. The whole thing about Mircea and the geis was exciting... and the sizzling-hot passion between Cassie and Tomas certainly got me hot under the collar, but I almost felt this book was simply "padding" to make way for the next book. But I'll still definitely be getting the next one, I'd love to see what happens next.

Don't let this review put you off though. It's still an excellent book that had me hooked. I love the characters (particularly Cassie, a true modern-day heroine) and the supernatural elements, but I thought there would be more loose ends tied up than there were.

Slightly Disapointed - Touch the Dark was better, 08 Sep 2007
Did not live up to expectations. The ending was not good. What happened to Tomas in the end? Maybe I skipped more than I should have.

I was hoping Mircae was going to perform the ritual. After all it was Tomas who did it under not so special circumstances.

The title should read Claimed by the shadowS.

However, sadly, i think i will continue to reading further series for Mircea character.

How long until the next one........???, 14 Jul 2007
I loved 'Touch the Dark' and have been dying for the next installment to arrive. Fortunately, it didn't disappoint!

The plot traces Cassie's journey from partial Pythia to the real deal, while acquiring some new problems in the form of a malfunctioning geis and a quest for a book of Merlin's spell - and she's still looking for her vampire nemesis, Tony. The ongoing war that pitches the Vampire Senate and the Silver Circle against Rasputin and the Black Circle is rumbling on, but is not central to developments.

The plot meshes beautifully with the previous novel, with little strands being picked up and developed.

The author's style is fluent and highly engaging. The book is written in the first person from Cassie's perspective and it works really well.

It's also extremely funny in places.

The descriptions in the book are wonderful. Scenes such as Dante's casino are vividly described, but so are the action scenes - and there are some real gems like Mac's tatoo parlour.

Most of the characters from the first book return and there are a few lovely new characters.

Cassie is a great lead character, with lots of personality and her conflicted feelings about her new powers and the motivations of those around her are nicely pitched. Her relationship options get a bit complex, with her getting intimate with one character, desperate to get in the same position with another and rather alarmed to discover another one apparently rather likes her. This is all well handled and the differing responses to each make sense.

Mircea returns and is still enticing although he doesn't have a lot to do apart from respond to the geis and help Cassie out.

We also get to meet Mac, a retired war mage. He's a lovely character and rather uniquely 'good' person in the book.

But the standing ovation has to be reserved for Pritkin. He is such a fantastic character - one of those that just spring up of the page with the force of their personality. He's as aggressive as ever, but occasionally shows some other facets to his personality. Most of my favourite bits of the book had him in.

I can't wait until the next installment.

Claimed by Shadow- review by MelEagles, 08 May 2007
This is the second in the Cassandra Palmer series and is as good as the first (Touch the Dark). If you enjoy Laurell K Hamilton, Christine Feehan and the like, you will enjoy these. It took me a while to get into it but once I did I just had to keep reading. Cassie is a great lead character- she is resourceful, with out knowing everything- she manages her way through all the bad stuff without suddenly getting extra magic powers right at the end-a flaw in Hamiltons work- both "Merry Gently" fairy books and "Anita Blake" vampire ones.
In this second look she is still trying to get out of perminantly becoming the "Pythia", the worlds cheif clairvoyant. She has to deal with the "hands off"/love spell that Mircea put on her when she was 11 that has now blown up in both their faces- they can't keep there hands off each other- and Cassie can't get together with anyone else as the spell burns anyone she gets to close too- like Pritkin, the Mage assisin whom she has formed an uneasy truce with while she searches for Tony (bad Vamp) and Myra (Would be evil-Pythia) to stop them from killing her or Mircea. A fun time travelling vampire/witch tale. I reccomend it to you- but only after you have read Touch The Dark first!

Great Start to a Wonderful Series, 12 Oct 2008
Loved it! Wonderful characters, a swift moving plot, a deft sense of humour and a surprising ending--this book had it all. And unlike many series I've read, this one keeps getting better with each book. Claimed by Shadow, the sequel, is also a very strong title, and Embrace the Night, the third book in the series, is simply brilliant. The three work together to tell one complex and fascinating tale. Curse the Dawn, the fourth book, is out in April and I can't wait! If you're looking for something a bit different with a stronger plotline and better characterization than normal for genre fiction, this is it!

I really wanted to say I liked this book, 11 Oct 2008
This is the sort of book that anyone who reads Laurel K. Hamilton or Kim Harrison will probably end up reading.

It's set in an underground of vampires and werewolves that exists in parralel to the human world, and sees a female heroine do battle against the powers that be in that world.

One of my biggest grumbles about Hamilton and Harrison is the fact that there's too much 'love interest' and too little story in their books. That's why I turned to this book. I hoped that I'd get more story. I can't work out quite how wrong I was yet.

Don't get me wrong, the lead protagonist isn't jumping into bed with people, but the story (which sees her try and work out who's killing the Vampire Council in America and how to stop him) feels a little clunky all the same.

I don't know about you, but when I tell a story I try to weave the back story into the main text fairly seamlessly. I don't want people getting confused about what's going on, but I don't want the back story to get in the way of the story's flow either.

That didn't happen here. Every so often she'd stop to lay this whole exposition about the past on you.

This was ok at first, but it got on my nerves after a while. If you can get your head round that irritating tendency the author has, you might enjoy this book. If you can't you should go elsewhere.

I would read the sequel, 02 Sep 2008
Deliciously gory and sexy. I liked the well-established supernatural world that Chance created and her exploration of ideas. The magic involved was unusual (in that I hadn't come across it quite like that in a novel before) and the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, though I don't think I would read it again. The story is a series of detailed, lengthy scenes that takes place over a fairly short space of time and I did find the sometimes slow pace of events irritating at times, but I would buy and read the sequel for more.

Fascinating... Enjoyable, 27 Jul 2008
First book I have read by Karen Chance, and found it enjoyable.

I liked Cassie, at times she could be infuriating... but thats normal, charactors can't always do what you want them to do.

I liked the fact that we got loads more magical creatures like demons and mages, and can't wait to read the 2nd in this series.

I definately recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, vampire, werewolf type fiction.

Pretty rubbish read, 14 Jul 2008
Started slow and lost me... it got good only in the last 3 chapters. I was recommended this by Amazon 'cos I loved the Twilight series but the only thing this book had in common with Twilight was the vampires.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Gotta have faith!, 14 Jul 2008
I was a late convert to the world of Buffy. Like many I had watched it as a teenager, enjoyed it, and then been persuaded by who knows who, that it was not something one should be proud of watching. Then I watched Serenity and thought it was great, backtracked to firefly and loved that too. Then one day somebody told me that the same guy that did those, did buffy. "WHAT!" I said, "That cant be!", half clouded by the fact that everybody said that Buffy was rubbish, half trying to cover up my embarrassment of not making this ling earlier.

So to cut a long story short, I watched all of Buffy in a very short time, and I loved it. And then I watched Angel and I loved it less, but loved it all the same.

Before Mr. Whedon ever entered my life, and then during, and still now, I've been an avid reader of comics. All comics, from the good, to the bad, to the fugly. Some of my favourites in the world of comics were the likes of Y the last man, and Runaways. Boy, I'm rambling here. Bear with me. What I'm really trying to say here, with probabl too much context, is that this comic is great. It's great as a part of the Buffy canon. I couldn't be happier with how the series has been carried on, and BKV's addition is on par with Whedons.

This is probably not a comic that is going to be among the greats. It's no Maus, it's no Watchmen. But it does what it sets out to do well, it carries on the story of our favourite vampire slayer (or whichever is your favourite). It's not a comic that revels in the medium of comics. If it was adapted into another series or a film, it may be even better. But that aint going to happen. And honestly, i'm not complaining.

Sorry for the diatribe, one last thing i'd like to say... Keep it coming.

P.S. It's also way better than Angel: after the fall. Seriously.

Disappointingly unoriginal 'new' story, 08 Jul 2008
I was severally disapointed by this new part in the so-called Season 8 of Buffy. Not because it is a bad tale overall or badly written or anything like that, but because the story is completely unoriginal and tired. A story about a rogue Slayer trying to kill Buffy has been done already in Season 3 of the original TV series, with Faith herself as the rogue Slayer. An episode of Angel Season 5 also featured a rogue Slayer trying to kill Spike. And Giles asking Faith to help track down the rogue Slayer to redeem herself is also a bit silly considering the events at the end of Season 7. I think her saving Buffy's life at the end should have been more than enough to be forgiven for her past sins. Original ideas needed for the next installment please!

so after reintroducing buffy and co we then move away from them to faith., 07 Jul 2008
Which in some ways seemed an odd idea, because it focuses so much on Faith that buffy barey gets a look in. Grumble over, it is still a fine read and faith has been part of buffy for years so why whinge anyway.
The same flaws with the art apply, as well as the same benefits. Brian k vaughns handle on faith is pretty good, his Giles is perfect.
The story is fairly simple but well handled and leaves a few more dangling threads.

Revisionist history?, 17 Jun 2008
I'm somewhat confused about the plot of this one. It seems to me that Faith was more than redeemed during S7 of the show and more than made up for her previous evil and mistakes. Seems rather churlish to be talking about wiping the slate clean after that!



Buffy lives on and on, 12 Jun 2008
The first volume of the 'season 8' comics left me slightly confused; some interesting plot twists and developments but little of the feel of the real Buffy, little of the claustrophobic sense of the small American town fighting bravely back against supernatural foes. The second volume has really developed the narrative arc, introducing a subplot involving Faith and Giles. The dialogue is strong and really develops the flavour and tone of the original series,whilst the illustrations are well-constructed and allow the authors to introduce much of the humour of the TV series.

Four and a Half Stars, 06 Oct 2008
I remember the first book in the Cassandra Palmer series finished on something of a cliffhanger and I admit here to only having a vague memory of Book 1 when I started Claimed by Shadow. I do remember having a problem with some infodumping in Touch the Dark (Bk1) and that Karen Chance is very good at writing first lines.

The first line situation is still the same

"Any day that starts off in a demon-filled bar in a casino designed to look like Hell isn't likely to turn out well."

But the info-dumping? Gone. Or at least become so much smoother and integrated into the plot that I didn't notice it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Even though I spent a fair bit of time confused about what was going on, especially at the beginning - mainly because Claimed by Shadow does not pick up smoothly from the end of Touch the Dark. However, I do think on a second read through things will gel together more, and I'm a big fan of books with high re-readability.

Essentially Cassie is still trying to clean up the mess from the end of Touch the Dark. Still not completely in control of her powers she's pursuing Tony, attempting to keep her friends safe and trying to stop Myra from messing with the timeline, without making things worse than they already are.

The plot itself, starts with a bang and doesn't let go. This does mean that moments of internal reflection are few and far between. Some terrible things happen and Cassie doesn't really get a chance to process them, she just has to cope with each impending crisis as it looms. So this is something of a rollercoaster ride, leaving you frantically turning the pages wanting to know what happens next. But it works. Cassie is a character (not dissimilar to Kate Daniels) who things just happen to. She's almost like a magnet for bad karma.

The book is chock full of snappy banter and quotable dialogue. And though some characters only appear briefly they have a big impact on the storyline. Claimed by Shadow made me smile, made me teary and made me hungry for the next book. Highly recommended (I think Ilona Andrews fans would like this series, if they aren't reading it already).

Book 1 - Touch the Dark
Book 3 - Embrace the Night
Book 4 - Curse the Dawn (April 2009)

Karen Chance has a new series set in the same Universe.

Midnight's Daughter (Dorina Basarab #1) October 2008.


Not quite as good as the first, but still essential reading!, 09 Dec 2007
Having been enthralled by the book previous to this, Touch the Dark, I dove straight into this one when I finished it. And I'm very glad I did. It was definitely better to read the two books back-to-back as the plot is complicated in places. I think Claimed by Shadow will be much easier to follow when the first book is still fresh in your mind.

Anyway, onto the action. We left Cassie Palmer as heir to the role of Pythia - an immensely powerful magical being whose job it is to travel back and forth in time to solve problems and eradicate any rogues that are trying to alter history. The only problem is, Cassie doesn't want the job. If she becomes Pythia, she will have every type of magical creature after her (even more than usual) to either eradicate or use her power for their own devices. She already has an immense amount of this power due to a chance meeting with the old Pythia in the previous novel. But Cassie doesn't dare to use the power because she's not entirely sure what will happen. Cassie just wants a quiet life, but unfortunately for her, this is never going to happen.

The narrative continues with Cassie desperately trying to get out of trouble without using her power, but she is endangering other people in the process. If it wasn't for the fact she was still chasing the vampire Tony to avenge her parents, she probably would have disappeared without a trace by now. But with the mage Pritkin by her side, she is still attracting trouble from every direction. And to add even more problems to Cassie's list - it appears that the vampire Mircea has put a geis on her - which basically is a spell that makes her "belong" to him. If any other man got close to her then the spell would prevent anything from happening between them. This also has the additional effect of making the two very attracted to one another. And the geis appears to be working whenever they meet, in whatever time, which certainly complicates matters.

Cassie is less than impressed that everyone is trying to control her and her life. This is the reason she doesn't want to become Pythia, because the Fey, mages and vampires alike will all be trying to tell her what to do in that role. So she decides to fight back, and go against expectations of her and how she should behave. Oh, and try to stop her rivals killing her, of course.

I did really enjoy this book, but I don't think it was as good as the first one. Given the way the first one ended I was expecting literary fireworks with the second. It did start off really action-packed and exciting, but I think there was potential to add to this. The whole thing about Mircea and the geis was exciting... and the sizzling-hot passion between Cassie and Tomas certainly got me hot under the collar, but I almost felt this book was simply "padding" to make way for the next book. But I'll still definitely be getting the next one, I'd love to see what happens next.

Don't let this review put you off though. It's still an excellent book that had me hooked. I love the characters (particularly Cassie, a true modern-day heroine) and the supernatural elements, but I thought there would be more loose ends tied up than there were.

Slightly Disapointed - Touch the Dark was better, 08 Sep 2007
Did not live up to expectations. The ending was not good. What happened to Tomas in the end? Maybe I skipped more than I should have.

I was hoping Mircae was going to perform the ritual. After all it was Tomas who did it under not so special circumstances.

The title should read Claimed by the shadowS.

However, sadly, i think i will continue to reading further series for Mircea character.

How long until the next one........???, 14 Jul 2007
I loved 'Touch the Dark' and have been dying for the next installment to arrive. Fortunately, it didn't disappoint!

The plot traces Cassie's journey from partial Pythia to the real deal, while acquiring some new problems in the form of a malfunctioning geis and a quest for a book of Merlin's spell - and she's still looking for her vampire nemesis, Tony. The ongoing war that pitches the Vampire Senate and the Silver Circle against Rasputin and the Black Circle is rumbling on, but is not central to developments.

The plot meshes beautifully with the previous novel, with little strands being picked up and developed.

The author's style is fluent and highly engaging. The book is written in the first person from Cassie's perspective and it works really well.

It's also extremely funny in places.

The descriptions in the book are wonderful. Scenes such as Dante's casino are vividly described, but so are the action scenes - and there are some real gems like Mac's tatoo parlour.

Most of the characters from the first book return and there are a few lovely new characters.

Cassie is a great lead character, with lots of personality and her conflicted feelings about her new powers and the motivations of those around her are nicely pitched. Her relationship options get a bit complex, with her getting intimate with one character, desperate to get in the same position with another and rather alarmed to discover another one apparently rather likes her. This is all well handled and the differing responses to each make sense.

Mircea returns and is still enticing although he doesn't have a lot to do apart from respond to the geis and help Cassie out.

We also get to meet Mac, a retired war mage. He's a lovely character and rather uniquely 'good' person in the book.

But the standing ovation has to be reserved for Pritkin. He is such a fantastic character - one of those that just spring up of the page with the force of their personality. He's as aggressive as ever, but occasionally shows some other facets to his personality. Most of my favourite bits of the book had him in.

I can't wait until the next installment.

Claimed by Shadow- review by MelEagles, 08 May 2007
This is the second in the Cassandra Palmer series and is as good as the first (Touch the Dark). If you enjoy Laurell K Hamilton, Christine Feehan and the like, you will enjoy these. It took me a while to get into it but once I did I just had to keep reading. Cassie is a great lead character- she is resourceful, with out knowing everything- she manages her way through all the bad stuff without suddenly getting extra magic powers right at the end-a flaw in Hamiltons work- both "Merry Gently" fairy books and "Anita Blake" vampire ones.
In this second look she is still trying to get out of perminantly becoming the "Pythia", the worlds cheif clairvoyant. She has to deal with the "hands off"/love spell that Mircea put on her when she was 11 that has now blown up in both their faces- they can't keep there hands off each other- and Cassie can't get together with anyone else as the spell burns anyone she gets to close too- like Pritkin, the Mage assisin whom she has formed an uneasy truce with while she searches for Tony (bad Vamp) and Myra (Would be evil-Pythia) to stop them from killing her or Mircea. A fun time travelling vampire/witch tale. I reccomend it to you- but only after you have read Touch The Dark first!

Brilliant!! Vampire fiction at it's best, 11 Jul 2008
First book I have read from Charlaine, and I will be reading more!

I thought it was funny and well written, the charactors likeable.

Buy it you won't be disappointed

Disappointed!, 07 Jul 2008
A classic example of what happens when a mediocre writer happens to have a very good idea. The central conceit - vampires "out" themselves and live among us - is a great one, but not taken anywhere really interesting. For example, what actually happens when somebody is made a vampire? What thought processes would lead them to shun other vampires and live among humans? What are the philosophical and theological implications - are the vampires trying to recover lost humanity, or redeem themselves? And the book conspicuously backs away from some really interesting possibilities in exploring the parallels between the newly-outed vampires and the post-slavery southern states.

I think someone on here uttered the dreaded words "Bridget Jones" in conjunction with this book, and to be fair, that should have warned me that this is really just chick-lit with a gothic gloss. It's lightweight, insubstantial, frustrating, and the characters are poorly drawn. Sookie's not a very sympathetic heroine - her constant reference to her mind-reading abilities as a "disability" is pretty offensive - yep, you can hear other people in your head, but are you confined to a wheelchair, or a hospital bed? Nope.

Bill's a total enigma - the reader has no idea why she finds him attractive (other than he's "shiny", in which case he might need a mattifier) - he's totally devoid of any kind of charm other than the ability to uproot trees, which I guess would make him handy round the garden.

Like I said- nice idea, poorly executed.

Funny, Sexy and Completely Heartfelt!, 27 May 2008
This book was bought to me by mistake and after 1 year of it collecting dust in my bedroom i decided to give it a read before donating it to my local library. I have to say that i have red this book 4 times now and bought another set for my library so that others can enjoy it as much as i did. I related to the death in sookies family so much i cried a little.

I loved the funny moments between eric and bill!

Great modern Vampire story,.... think 'Buffy', 21 Apr 2008
I have just read this first book in the series, and I have ordered the second! I didn't know what to expect before I started reading as I had not seen any reviews, boy am I glad I found this little gem! From the beginning it had strong resemblance to Buffy the Vampire slayer TV show, what I mean by that it is not too dark or gory, and there are a few similar situations. I have been waiting for a book with an interesting plot, something to keep me reading, twists, humour, this book has it all. I loved the fact that I did not know who the killer was! unlike some books I have read in the past.

Mix a mind reading waitress, a dark mysterious kind and charming vampire with a small town, throw in a few murders, more vampires, a mix of VERY interesting characters, romance and a great story line, and you have a really entertaining book!

I was unsure to start with about the vampire content, but I have to say this book is a cosy light murder mystery! The only difference is the cast of characters. I also noticed how many different themes run under the main story, such as the story behind the vampires, sookie's past, the town history, unusual bad guys and subtle humour! It makes this book multi faceted, and very interesting..............you really want to read more, I want to know what happens next, I actually care about the characters. To me that says the author has done something right, and I want to thank her!

Priscilla x

Quite simply the best light-hearted vampire books you'll ever read!, 29 Dec 2007
I'm always excited when I come across a new author in the vampire genre, because although I have always been a massive Anne Rice fan, sometimes you really have to be in the mood for all that gothic prose. That's why I love Charlaine Harris. She manages to create an almost believeable world in which vampires 'come out' after a japanese synthetic blood is developed which means they don't need to feed on humans anymore. Throw in one of the most likeable central characters you can think of - Sookie Stackhouse, a clairvoyant Louisianna cocktail waitress - and you are set for one of the most enjoyable series around. These books are about the normal problems any young woman could face, along with those associated with going out with a guy who has been around since the American Civil War!

These books are lighthearted without being silly, and are really great for when you want an exciting but easy read. If you like these, check out Charlaine Harris' new series, beginning with Grave Sight, which concern a similar genre but with a completely diffenent central character and storyline, and seem really promising so far.

Great Start to a Wonderful Series, 12 Oct 2008
Loved it! Wonderful characters, a swift moving plot, a deft sense of humour and a surprising ending--this book had it all. And unlike many series I've read, this one keeps getting better with each book. Claimed by Shadow, the sequel, is also a very strong title, and Embrace the Night, the third book in the series, is simply brilliant. The three work together to tell one complex and fascinating tale. Curse the Dawn, the fourth book, is out in April and I can't wait! If you're looking for something a bit different with a stronger plotline and better characterization than normal for genre fiction, this is it!

I really wanted to say I liked this book, 11 Oct 2008
This is the sort of book that anyone who reads Laurel K. Hamilton or Kim Harrison will probably end up reading.

It's set in an underground of vampires and werewolves that exists in parralel to the human world, and sees a female heroine do battle against the powers that be in that world.

One of my biggest grumbles about Hamilton and Harrison is the fact that there's too much 'love interest' and too little story in their books. That's why I turned to this book. I hoped that I'd get more story. I can't work out quite how wrong I was yet.

Don't get me wrong, the lead protagonist isn't jumping into bed with people, but the story (which sees her try and work out who's killing the Vampire Council in America and how to stop him) feels a little clunky all the same.

I don't know about you, but when I tell a story I try to weave the back story into the main text fairly seamlessly. I don't want people getting confused about what's going on, but I don't want the back story to get in the way of the story's flow either.

That didn't happen here. Every so often she'd stop to lay this whole exposition about the past on you.

This was ok at first, but it got on my nerves after a while. If you can get your head round that irritating tendency the author has, you might enjoy this book. If you can't you should go elsewhere.

I would read the sequel, 02 Sep 2008
Deliciously gory and sexy. I liked the well-established supernatural world that Chance created and her exploration of ideas. The magic involved was unusual (in that I hadn't come across it quite like that in a novel before) and the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, though I don't think I would read it again. The story is a series of detailed, lengthy scenes that takes place over a fairly short space of time and I did find the sometimes slow pace of events irritating at times, but I would buy and read the sequel for more.

Fascinating... Enjoyable, 27 Jul 2008
First book I have read by Karen Chance, and found it enjoyable.

I liked Cassie, at times she could be infuriating... but thats normal, charactors can't always do what you want them to do.

I liked the fact that we got loads more magical creatures like demons and mages, and can't wait to read the 2nd in this series.

I definately recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, vampire, werewolf type fiction.

Pretty rubbish read, 14 Jul 2008
Started slow and lost me... it got good only in the last 3 chapters. I was recommended this by Amazon 'cos I loved the Twilight series but the only thing this book had in common with Twilight was the vampires.

Ghosts in December, 18 May 2008
It's been over a hundred years since Henry James' novella was published. I'm sure readers at the time were spooked by its tale of ghosts threatening the innocence of two children, and the attempts of a quasi-hysterical governess to save them. It was that period of the Victorian era when séances and ghosts were popular, when spiritists promised to bridge the road between the living and the dead. People enjoyed sitting around a fire and sharing ghost stories, specially during Christmas time.

But times have changed and this novella is now more interesting as a controversial piece of lit crit rather than a frightening ghost story. Did the ghosts in the story really exist? Or was it all part of the governess' imagination? You are never given the answers. One interesting question which resonates with today's world is what kind of "evil" was inflicted on the children. It's suggested that a deceased governess and her lover did "depraved" things to the children, only to later return as ghosts in order to continue their evil influence. But what kind of evil exactly?

If you enjoy puzzles and hard-to-read English writing, this novella is for you; if you are after an easy page-turner, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Screw turner not Page turner, 07 Dec 2007
And this is the author who dared to belittle Thomas Hardy. Henry James, born of insipid wealth and Hardy, wrought of the brown Wessex earth, and so their writing shows.

Turn of the Screw is a novel that could only be written by James. Which is to say that if a room full of socialite closet homosexual virgins with infinite typewriters were allowed infinite time to come up with a spooky story, this would be the inevitable result.

James' pathological will to translate the world's broadest language into the prose equivalent of C++ code is on show at the height of its powers here. Marvel at 5 page diatribes that could otherwise be summed up as "She saw a man and he saw her". Gasp at 50 word sentences that translate as "Oh what a beautiful child he was; and oh what a beautiful child she was; and oh what a beautful..." Oh what's the point.

The point is that Henry James is every bit the author that deserves raucous deliberation amongst the Oxbridge set as they blaze through their short-lived literary phases, prior to a career in private equity. James is also every bit a writer that merits insecure puzzlement from everyone else (its not you its HIM).

Apparently this is a spine-chiller. Hilariously having assumed this category, it has the timeless excuse that people, you know, "in those days" would've found it chilling. Because, of course, people in those days were all Mr Darcy types who shielded wilting debutantes from the most villanous of stiff breezes.

Personally i prefer to think of turn of the century readers of Turn of the Screw frowing the same frown, yawning the same yawn, then rolling over for the same night's sleep as i did.



Atmospheric, 01 Nov 2007
I almost gave up on this tale but persevered because a trusted friend had told me that it would be worth it. She was correct. Wow! What a chilling ghost story. It has a very atmospheric setting, in a country home in England, during the 1840s. The tale begins with friends chatting round a fire. One of the group begins to tell a tale about a governess who was employed in the home to look after two young children. Their guardian, who is their Uncle, tells her he wants nothing to do with her or the children, and that she mustn't bother him. The governess begins to see two ghosts, whom she believes are the previous governess and her lover. She thinks these ghosts are meaning to harm the children. The children claim to not be able to see any ghosts and the rest of the household staff are equally bemused. The reader is left wondering whether the governess is suffering from delusions, or genuinely needs to save the children from the ghosts. The final pages had me gripped and the ending left me breathless.






One good turn., 04 Apr 2007
I adore this book! I have read it so many times I need a new copy. This is definitely not a pleasant read, it is disturbing. It is in the skillful writing of James that creates a gripping story that leaves more questions & mystery on each new read. This ia a classic gothic tale that all fans of the genre should read.

The big book of commas, 18 Oct 2006
What becomes apparent upon first opening the book is that Henry James loves commas. Each long winded sentence ,seems, to stretch for half a page, which, without wanting to the press the point,makes,a very slow,hard to read novel.
The opening was promising! I thought the author wrote in such a style as to create suspense in the reader until i found myself dying to hear the story (the book is in the format of a tale read by an arbitrary character to a group of friends). But when the story begun, i realised that this was in fact not a deliberate attempt to create suspense, but instead was just the way in which James writes!
I was required to read this for an english literature course, and cannot see how anyone would want to read this for leisure. It realy is an uphill struggle, and even being an avid literature fan myself, i had to sit with a dictionary and look up every second word.
The plot does not make up for the battle one must put themselves through to reach the end of the book. Perhaps at the time the book was a shocking "ghost story" of a tale. But it stirred no feeling in me, was far too descriptive of mundane things with distracted from the plot, and was ,to put it plainly, boring.
I had hoped that the end would redeem the book, but without giving anything away, i was extremely dissapointed.

All in all a very difficult to read book which provided me with no enjoyment whatsoever.

Gotta have faith!, 14 Jul 2008
I was a late convert to the world of Buffy. Like many I had watched it as a teenager, enjoyed it, and then been persuaded by who knows who, that it was not something one should be proud of watching. Then I watched Serenity and thought it was great, backtracked to firefly and loved that too. Then one day somebody told me that the same guy that did those, did buffy. "WHAT!" I said, "That cant be!", half clouded by the fact that everybody said that Buffy was rubbish, half trying to cover up my embarrassment of not making this ling earlier.

So to cut a long story short, I watched all of Buffy in a very short time, and I loved it. And then I watched Angel and I loved it less, but loved it all the same.

Before Mr. Whedon ever entered my life, and then during, and still now, I've been an avid reader of comics. All comics, from the good, to the bad, to the fugly. Some of my favourites in the world of comics were the likes of Y the last man, and Runaways. Boy, I'm rambling here. Bear with me. What I'm really trying to say here, with probabl too much context, is that this comic is great. It's great as a part of the Buffy canon. I couldn't be happier with how the series has been carried on, and BKV's addition is on par with Whedons.

This is probably not a comic that is going to be among the greats. It's no Maus, it's no Watchmen. But it does what it sets out to do well, it carries on the story of our favourite vampire slayer (or whichever is your favourite). It's not a comic that revels in the medium of comics. If it was adapted into another series or a film, it may be even better. But that aint going to happen. And honestly, i'm not complaining.

Sorry for the diatribe, one last thing i'd like to say... Keep it coming.

P.S. It's also way better than Angel: after the fall. Seriously.

Disappointingly unoriginal 'new' story, 08 Jul 2008
I was severally disapointed by this new part in the so-called Season 8 of Buffy. Not because it is a bad tale overall or badly written or anything like that, but because the story is completely unoriginal and tired. A story about a rogue Slayer trying to kill Buffy has been done already in Season 3 of the original TV series, with Faith herself as the rogue Slayer. An episode of Angel Season 5 also featured a rogue Slayer trying to kill Spike. And Giles asking Faith to help track down the rogue Slayer to redeem herself is also a bit silly considering the events at the end of Season 7. I think her saving Buffy's life at the end should have been more than enough to be forgiven for her past sins. Original ideas needed for the next installment please!

so after reintroducing buffy and co we then move away from them to faith., 07 Jul 2008
Which in some ways seemed an odd idea, because it focuses so much on Faith that buffy barey gets a look in. Grumble over, it is still a fine read and faith has been part of buffy for years so why whinge anyway.
The same flaws with the art apply, as well as the same benefits. Brian k vaughns handle on faith is pretty good, his Giles is perfect.
The story is fairly simple but well handled and leaves a few more dangling threads.

Revisionist history?, 17 Jun 2008
I'm somewhat confused about the plot of this one. It seems to me that Faith was more than redeemed during S7 of the show and more than made up for her previous evil and mistakes. Seems rather churlish to be talking about wiping the slate clean after that!



Buffy lives on and on, 12 Jun 2008
The first volume of the 'season 8' comics left me slightly confused; some interesting plot twists and developments but little of the feel of the real Buffy, little of the claustrophobic sense of the small American town fighting bravely back against supernatural foes. The second volume has really developed the narrative arc, introducing a subplot involving Faith and Giles. The dialogue is strong and really develops the flavour and tone of the original series,whilst the illustrations are well-constructed and allow the authors to introduce much of the humour of the TV series.

Four and a Half Stars, 06 Oct 2008
I remember the first book in the Cassandra Palmer series finished on something of a cliffhanger and I admit here to only having a vague memory of Book 1 when I started Claimed by Shadow. I do remember having a problem with some infodumping in Touch the Dark (Bk1) and that Karen Chance is very good at writing first lines.

The first line situation is still the same

"Any day that starts off in a demon-filled bar in a casino designed to look like Hell isn't likely to turn out well."

But the info-dumping? Gone. Or at least become so much smoother and integrated into the plot that I didn't notice it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Even though I spent a fair bit of time confused about what was going on, especially at the beginning - mainly because Claimed by Shadow does not pick up smoothly from the end of Touch the Dark. However, I do think on a second read through things will gel together more, and I'm a big fan of books with high re-readability.

Essentially Cassie is still trying to clean up the mess from the end of Touch the Dark. Still not completely in control of her powers she's pursuing Tony, attempting to keep her friends safe and trying to stop Myra from messing with the timeline, without making things worse than they already are.

The plot itself, starts with a bang and doesn't let go. This does mean that moments of internal reflection are few and far between. Some terrible things happen and Cassie doesn't really get a chance to process them, she just has to cope with each impending crisis as it looms. So this is something of a rollercoaster ride, leaving you frantically turning the pages wanting to know what happens next. But it works. Cassie is a character (not dissimilar to Kate Daniels) who things just happen to. She's almost like a magnet for bad karma.

The book is chock full of snappy banter and quotable dialogue. And though some characters only appear briefly they have a big impact on the storyline. Claimed by Shadow made me smile, made me teary and made me hungry for the next book. Highly recommended (I think Ilona Andrews fans would like this series, if they aren't reading it already).

Book 1 - Touch the Dark
Book 3 - Embrace the Night
Book 4 - Curse the Dawn (April 2009)

Karen Chance has a new series set in the same Universe.

Midnight's Daughter (Dorina Basarab #1) October 2008.


Not quite as good as the first, but still essential reading!, 09 Dec 2007
Having been enthralled by the book previous to this, Touch the Dark, I dove straight into this one when I finished it. And I'm very glad I did. It was definitely better to read the two books back-to-back as the plot is complicated in places. I think Claimed by Shadow will be much easier to follow when the first book is still fresh in your mind.

Anyway, onto the action. We left Cassie Palmer as heir to the role of Pythia - an immensely powerful magical being whose job it is to travel back and forth in time to solve problems and eradicate any rogues that are trying to alter history. The only problem is, Cassie doesn't want the job. If she becomes Pythia, she will have every type of magical creature after her (even more than usual) to either eradicate or use her power for their own devices. She already has an immense amount of this power due to a chance meeting with the old Pythia in the previous novel. But Cassie doesn't dare to use the power because she's not entirely sure what will happen. Cassie just wants a quiet life, but unfortunately for her, this is never going to happen.

The narrative continues with Cassie desperately trying to get out of trouble without using her power, but she is endangering other people in the process. If it wasn't for the fact she was still chasing the vampire Tony to avenge her parents, she probably would have disappeared without a trace by now. But with the mage Pritkin by her side, she is still attracting trouble from every direction. And to add even more problems to Cassie's list - it appears that the vampire Mircea has put a geis on her - which basically is a spell that makes her "belong" to him. If any other man got close to her then the spell would prevent anything from happening between them. This also has the additional effect of making the two very attracted to one another. And the geis appears to be working whenever they meet, in whatever time, which certainly complicates matters.

Cassie is less than impressed that everyone is trying to control her and her life. This is the reason she doesn't want to become Pythia, because the Fey, mages and vampires alike will all be trying to tell her what to do in that role. So she de