Tag Archives: Karen Chance

Review: Shatter the Earth by Karen Chance

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Shatter the Earth (Cassandra Palmer Series Book 10) by Karen Chance
Urban fantasy/paranormal romance released by Karen Chance on February 4, 2020

Shatter the Earth by Karen Chance book coverIronically for the time traveling, chief seer of the supernatural world, time has never been on Cassie Palmer’s side. There has always seemed to be too much to learn, too much to master, and never enough hours in a day. But the tables have now turned, and the fluctuating timelines of earth and faerie are diverging, slowing time in faerie relative to earth, and giving humans an advantage for the first time in their war with the fey. It is one they desperately need, for a literal war of the worlds is about to take place.
To win, or even to survive, Cassie and her allies, the powerful vampire senator Mircea Basarab and the formidable war mage John Pritkin, will have to pull off their greatest feat yet. And find a way to become more than the sum of their parts.
[Also] The exciting continuation of the Cassie Palmer series! A literal war of the worlds is about to take place between Earth and Faerie. To win, or even to survive, Pythia Cassie Palmer and her allies, the powerful vampire senator Mircea Basarab and the formidable war mage John Pritkin, will have to pull off their greatest feat yet. And find a way to become more than the sum of their parts.
This is the next book in the Cassie Palmer series. It’s got all the things we’ve come to know about Chance’s world, and it ties up some important things that the books have been building towards. There are still some bad guys kicking around by the end, but not extreme cliff hanger levels. Cassie and Pritkin’s relationship solidifies, and Cassie continues to settle into her job.

There are explosions, violence, assassination attempts, magical mayhem galore—all the things you should expect in a Cassie Palmer novel. The fun part for me was that even though Cassie continues to be overwhelmed by her job, she also is trying to be more proactive about some of her problems, and is better able to react to all the magical mayhem at occurs. Pritkin doesn’t handle this development very well; he has a few my-lover-is-in-danger related scenes, but he eventually gets with the program and recognizes that Cassie’s ability to handle herself and others has improved. Continue reading →

Team ALBTALBS TBR Challenge Review: Brave the Tempest by Karen Chance

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Brave the Tempest (Cassie Palmer book 9) by Karen Chance
Urban fantasy released by Berkley on July 30, 2019

Brave the Tempest by Karen Chance book coverCassie Palmer, chief seer of the supernatural world, faces her biggest challenge yet—her own allies! Everything’s on the line in the latest thrilling entry in the New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series.

Cassie Palmer has been chief seer of the supernatural world for a little over four months. In that time, she’s battled two gods, fallen in love with two men, and confronted the two sides of her own nature, both god and human. So it’s not surprising that she currently finds herself facing two adversaries, although they have a single purpose: to wipe out the supernatural community’s newest fighting force, leaving it vulnerable to enemies in this world and beyond.

To prevent catastrophe, the vamps, mages, and demons will have to do the one thing they’ve never managed before and come together as allies. Cassie has the difficult task of keeping the uneasy coalition intact, and of persuading her own two opposing forces, a powerful mage with a secret and a master vampire with a growing obsession, to fight at her side. She just hopes they can do it without tearing each other apart.

If paranormal romance/urban fantasy were on a spectrum, from vampires and shapeshifters being members of the mainstream society, to “the world will end if we’re exposed, but also, exploding buildings due to magical battles are a regular occurrence” then this series falls closer to the more over-the-top end of the spectrum. This series is, at the writing of this review, on its ninth full-length published novel and scheduled to have two more books released in the next year or so. And there’s a spin-off series that is up to its fourth full-length novel. So, if you’re one of those people who can’t handle reading incomplete series, I suggest that you go find something else to read for another year and then check back in on this one. If you don’t mind reading incomplete series that are over-the-top, then this is your series, and probably your book. This series is told from Cassie’s point of view, in first-person, very much in keeping with the urban fantasy tradition. What I like most about Cassie is that she’s new to her power and we’ve had to see her figure out how to wield it, and how to avoid being controlled by others who want to benefit from it. What is this power, you may be asking? Well, the cover copy doesn’t lie; Cassie is a time-traveling clairvoyant. I liked the book overall–Cassie has emotional and political conflicts–but I found myself losing track of time within the book, and I was sometimes a little overwhelmed by everything going on, much like the main character. Continue reading →