I’m not going to make my half Cannonball goal. I tried to power read through Ever After so that I could get through book 12 and reach my Half Cannonball goal, but life got busy and Ever After demanded I pay attention.
A lot of gargoyles came to roost and Rachel had more than the usual disaster to sort out. There is a psychotic demon who wants her dead and he wants to kill the Ever After and everyone in it and then dominate Reality with the baby demon army he is raising. The demons are willing to kill Rachel on the off chance that it will save them. Rachel’s life and the fate of two worlds are hanging by a thread. Rachel’s allies keep being pulled out of the game and she really doesn’t know how she’s going to make it.
Making matters worse, her ex-boyfriend, Nick, is back and making things worse than ever. Nick is the worst kind of ex-boyfriend, the kind that tries to kill you and does get your friends killed. He doesn’t just make you feel like an idiot for having loved and trusted him, he makes you want to violate your own morals and kill him painfully. Nick makes me feel better about my own failed romances.
One of the joys of this series has been how Kim Harrison has matured as a writer and how her characters and her world have matured in turn. The world has become more complex with fewer out-right bad guys. There is still evil, and understanding the context of how that evil came to be makes it worse. The evils in Ever After are manufactures, they don’t exist on their own. This book made me cry more than once. And it also left me feeling a fragile sense of hope, not just about Rachel Morgan’s universe, but about my own.
It may be a while before I get to The Undead Pool and The Witch With No Name, because I don’t want to let go! I’ve enjoyed Rachel Morgan’s crazy life and hair raising adventures. No matter how satisfying the end of the series will be, it won’t be the continuing joy of reading about more adventures. I also need a little time to recover.
Yeah, Nick is totally the worst. I am actually impressed at how loathsome Harrison manages to make him without it in any way becoming unrealistic.
There is an actual progression of him being the worst. Harrison keeps it all character consistent. You can see how one bad choice leads to another. His lack of concern for others was there from the beginning. I’m glad Harrison didn’t go for the shocking reveal, but the for the slow build.
One of my favourite things about the whole series are the gradual, but very consistent character developments. The way Rachel, I’ve, Trent, Al and even Jenks change and grow. It’s great.
Just finished book #1 and wasn’t entranced – it seemed like a nice enough way to pass the time but didn’t grab me like Kate Daniels does. That being said I see you guys raving about later books so I’m definitely going to stick with it!
I probably wouldn’t have read past the first book if Malin hadn’t liked the series so much. The characters start out rather cardboardy and then evolve into full fledged characters with nuance. As much as I enjoy the series, it doesn’t sparkle as much as Kate Daniels. But give it a go. It gets better and better.