Customer Reviews

Cold Kiss of Death (Spellcrackers.Com 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Genevieve Taylor is a fae, a sidhe fae. And while there are plenty of fae to be found in the city, Genny is the only sidhe fae in London. Which is why when a dead body turns up with sidhe magic all over it, Genny is the polices' number one suspect. Never mind she didn't do it.

Genny is on the run, and it's not only the police after her. Every vampire is dying to sink their teeth into her, ghosts are haunting her, and many others are after her body in more ways then one. Unfortunately the witches are causing trouble, and she has a fear of ghosts.

It seems everyone in London is after her and time is running out. Genny has to find the sidhe killer before its too late. But when her own kind turns against her is her only salvation in a vampire, and her own death.

The Cold Kiss Of Death will chill you to the bone and steal your breath away. Beautifully involving characters are wrapped in an absorbing and inventive mystery. Mesmerising and suspenseful, its heart racing action will keep you on your toes. A great read.

(3.5 stars) Sidhe fae Genevieve Taylor is in trouble again. Hannah Ashby, whom Genny met in the last book, has shown up again -- this time wielding powerful magic and demanding the priceless Fabergé egg Genny received from the Earl. Genny's also being haunted by the ghost of a young girl. Worst of all, she finds a friend murdered and is framed for the crime. Now she needs the help of the manipulative vampire Malik al-Khan, which never comes for free.

Much like the first Spellcrackers book, The Sweet Scent of Blood, the plot of _The Cold Kiss of Death_ is intensely convoluted. Plot points that seem at first to be central turn out to be peripheral and vice versa, as Genny discovers a complex web of schemes underlying what she thought was going on. Events that seem unconnected -- aren't. People turn out to be double-crossing each other. People turn out to be secretly related.

Suzanne McLeod does a better job this time of pulling it all together, though. While _The Cold Kiss of Death_ is sometimes confusing while you're in the middle of it, it's all pulled together really well in the end and makes sense when it does come together. There's one thread that looms huge at first and then is given a disappointingly simple resolution, but I wonder if that's a situation whose real import will become clear in a later book.

In addition, we get answers to many of the questions raised in the first book. We learn more about Genny's past, about Malik, about Rosa, about the other fae in London. Genny learns a new, powerful use for her spellcracking ability.

The writing itself is particularly good for this subgenre, and then the epilogue packs a terrible punch. We're led to believe McLeod has forgotten a particular loose end -- and there are plenty of writers who really have forgotten something like this -- but then we learn in poignant fashion that no, she didn't forget it at all.

_The Sweet Scent of Blood_ was somewhat frustrating to me, but _The Cold Kiss of Death_ has sold me on Spellcrackers; I'll eagerly read the next book and see what new revelations McLeod has in store for Genny.

Every once in a while you read a debut novel, get all excited about it, want to read the sequel, but the sequel doesn't compare with the original. I'm happy to say that this sequel to The Sweet Scent of Blood was just as fun to read as the first book in the [...] series. Suzanne McLeod's characters are an interesting mix of good and evil. Not one of her characters are completely good, though a few of her characters are simply evil. It makes for a great read. You are not sticking your finger down your throat thinking, "Ugh!, how corny" The mix of vampire lore and fae is good one

The main character, Genny (Genevieve Taylor) is suspected of murder, only the murder is not as simple as you would think. No, there are many twists and turns in this book, and once again I was surprised at the actions of a few of the characters. Malik, her vampire ....not yet boyfriend, interest... remains mysterious, though we learn { no, not the royal we, we as in readers } a little bit more about the relationship between Malik and Genny, even something that Genny wasn't aware of herself. I am usually able to read vampire books without feeling all gooey about the vampires { come on...they're dead! and usually cold, and the diet-kind of icky! } but I kind of like Malik, and Darius { the slut *grin* }, as well as the fae- Finn, and Tavish....and few others. Besides being in hiding while trying to find out the true killer, Genny has the added complications of the vampires all trying to own her, and the fae of the city deciding that they must all claim her also. Ghosts make appearances, and are interesting minor characters that play an important part in this story.

Wonderfully done. I'm hoping Ms McLeod feels like writing more about Genny and her crew. I'm hoping Ms Mcleod feels like writing anything in the urban fantasy genre. She writes well, and most important of all- THE DIALOGUE IS NEVER LAME, NEVER DUMB. There is no stupid dialogue between characters, and the main character only asks herself a few questions. She doesn't go on and on and on with the questions ad nauseum. (Former fans of a certain author will appreciate this!)

This book just flows, from beginning to end. I look forward to more books by Suzanne McLeod, who has now joined my mental list of auto-buy writers. By the way, if you go to her website, she has chapters up of BOTH her published books. I appreciate when writers put up excerpts. That way you can tell if the book is going to be something that you enjoy, if you'll like the style of writing. I wish more writers would do that. That's why I became interested in this series. Stumbled onto her website, saw the book covers, clicked on the excerpt, and WOW! Instant fan. Good excerpt - first chapter. You can't go by just the first page anymore for some books; the first page can be great, but then it might go downhill from then.

Ms McLeod's books are interesting from the first page to the last.

I enjoyed book one of the Spellcrackers.com series - Cold Kiss of Death, book two is even more enjoyable.
It races along at a spellcracking speed with so many twists and turns that there is no chance to out-guess the ending before you get to it.

I love the characters, especially the Kelpie and the vampire Malik (it really is not good to fall for a vampire, but he is rather gorgeous....)

I have one protest. Waiting for book three is going to be hard to do!

This is an adult or older teenager's book, though, as it has adult content in places.

I hope that Suzanne McLeod picks up an audience here in the US because she is a deserving talent. The writing is lyrical and well done. I love all the mystical characters from Fae to Brownies to Vampires. I highly recommend that you read the first book in the series prior to this. There were some twists that remain somewhat unresolved so perhaps there will be a third in the series.

Warning: This is a spoiler free review but I make references to things from the first book which can be considered a bit spoilery.

The Cold Kiss of Death is the 2nd book in the Spellcrackers.com series. This series is so great it gave me back my UF reading mojo. Read too much of a genre and you start getting 'bored', it's what happened to me with the UF genre. I kept wanting to go back to read Historicals (my safe genre). Well, The Spellcrackers series cured me (at least for now). When I finished The Cold Kiss of Death I was CRAVING to read more. It's such a good UF book, so original and complex...*happy sigh*


Genny is the only sidhe fae in London, something she can't hide since her eyes are slitted like those of a cat. She's been working at Spellcracker.com where she cracks magic. In this book, we get to see again all the characters we loved in the previous book. I would advise you read book #1 to understand all the back-story of this book.

Genny's father was a vampire and she was betrothed to a vampire when she was 14. She escaped and has been in London ever since. I love the world Suzanne McLeod created. In her London, Vampire, faes, Witches etc.. are part of the normal everyday life. Genny has been infected by 3V, a vampire virus which is incurable. She craves the venom vampires produce when biting a victim. In the first book, we learned that she found a way to deal with it by using a spell transforming her in a vampire for 1 night. Genny uses her vampire body to satisfy her needs from time to time. Sadly what she thought a 'glamour' spell turns out to be much more complicated. The vampire she turns into, Rosa, was a real vampire with very real enemies.

Genny has a lot of interesting men in her life, there is Finn, the Satyr, who's also her very hot boss (I LOVE Finn). Tavish the wylde fae who's a real mystery to me. And there is Malik, the sexy vampire. Malik is linked to Genny in some way. He also knew Rosa the vampire. You know it's weird because usually, there's 1 guy I like 2 at the most. But in this series I don't know who to root for, they all have their appeal. lol If she didn't have so many problems I would envy Genny for all the cute men she has in her life. *wink*

Vampire politics force Genny to use Rosa again but it turns out to be a very dangerous thing. I can't say much more about the story without walking on a spoiler. Let's just say that we got a lot of Malik time (not enough Finn *sob*). This is a very sensual book, Suzanne has been teasing us since book 1. (Yes Suzanne you are evil). The story is very complicated and original, lots of twists I wouldn't have imagined. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was a bit slow to start but once the story really started there wasn't a dull moment, I really loved the whole story.

I did feel a bit queasy a few times. Yes I feel faint in the presence of blood, and some scenes were so bloody I could nearly feel it on my skin lol. Gory and bloody but oh so gooood! Genny's past is still a mystery but we get to learn quite a few things about her.

I was close to tears when I finished the book. I just couldn't wait to start the 3rd book. This is one of my favorite UF series, one of the most original too. I just finished reading the next book, The Bitter Seed of Magic and it's a fantastic read! (my favorite in the series). I will post my review later today. I recommend the Spellcrackers to every UF lover. If like me you thought you couldn't be surprised anymore, here's your chance to see how wrong you were ;)


I give The Cold Kiss of Death 4 and 1/2 Bookies

I really wanted to love this book. I LOVED the first one. For some reason, I was confused a lot throughout this book. I didn't think the time spent between the first and second book was that long, but there were a lot of references that didn't make sense or I couldn't recall. Not enough interplay between my favorite characters. Strange way of tying it all up at the end, like it was rushed. I might start over and read both books back to back and give it another chance.

I wasn't sure if i'd like this book or not because it's written by an English author and sometimes the way they word things can be distracting, but i was pleasantly surprised that it didn't seem to bother me very much with this book. The story was fast paced and kept my interest.

Wonderful book, sequel to The Sweet Scent of Blood. Lots of suspense and twists in the plot. Well written with good dialogue between characters. The book keeps you interested from beginning to end. An intriguing mix of fae, vampires, witches and humans.

Every once in a while you read a debut novel, get all excited about it, want to read the sequel, but the sequel doesn't compare with the original. I'm happy to say that this sequel to The Sweet Scent of Blood was just as fun to read as the first book in the Spellcrackers.com series. Suzanne McLeod's characters are an interesting mix of good and evil. Not one of her characters are completely good, though a few of her characters are simply evil. It makes for a great read. You are not sticking your finger down your throat thinking, "Ugh!, how corny" { I think when women hit the beginning of menopause, we must lose our patience for reading super-sweet, uber-good heroines, among other things...husbands, people who take way too long to get to the point... } The mix of vampire lore and fae is good one.

The main character, Genny (Genevieve Taylor) is suspected of murder, only the murder is not as simple as you would think. No, there are many twists and turns in this book, and once again I was surprised at the actions of a few of the characters. Malik, her vampire ....not yet boyfriend, interest... remains mysterious, though we learn a little bit more about the relationship between Malik and Genny, even something that Genny wasn't aware of herself. I am usually able to read vampire books without feeling all gooey about the vampires {come on...they're dead! and usually cold, and the diet-kind of icky! } but I kind of like Malik, and Darius { the slut }, as well as the fae- Finn, and Tavish....and few others. Besides being in hiding while trying to find out the true killer, Genny has the added complications of the vampires all trying to own her, and the fae of the city deciding that they must all claim her also. Ghosts make appearances, and are interesting minor characters that play an important part in this story.

Wonderfully done. I'm hoping Ms McLeod feels like writing more about Genny and her crew. I'm hoping Ms Mcleod feels like writing anything in the urban fantasy genre. She writes well, and most important of all- THE DIALOGUE IS NEVER LAME, NEVER DUMB. I give props for anyone able to come up with plots and all the details that flesh out a book, but the dialogue is almost as important as the plot. If there are going to be intelligent, clever, tough as nails people in the book, their speech shouldn't be lame; or they shouldn't do too much in lecture-mode to give information to the reader- or the main character asks so many questions to herself, you suddenly feel pressured, and you're like "hey you should know this! I can guess what's going to happen without coming up with all the questions, and I'm not even in your book!" The questions-a few here and there, okay, but not paragraph after paragraph. Thank god, Ms McLeod doesn't do things like that. Thank you, Ms McLeod for not doing things like that. There is no stupid dialogue between characters, and the main character only asks herself a few questions. She doesn't go on and on and on with the questions ad nauseum.

This book just flows, from beginning to end. I look forward to more books by Suzanne McLeod, who has now joined my mental list of auto-buy writers. By the way, if you go to her website, she has chapters up of BOTH her published books, as well as a contest. I appreciate when writers put up excerpts. That way you can tell if the book is going to be something that you enjoy, if you'll like the style of writing. I wish more writers would do that. That's why I became interested in this series. Stumbled onto her website, saw the book covers, clicked on the excerpt, and WOW! Instant fan. Good excerpt -first chapter. You can't go by the first page anymore for some books; the first page can be great, but then it might go downhill from then.

Ms McLeod's books are interesting from the first page to the last page, each novel is an enjoyable experience

The Cold Kiss of Death has lots going on. I mean, lots. Genny is the only sidhe fae in the London area, and that makes her a very attractive proposition for any supernatural being that has it in his mind that it might be time to, er, start a family. Her job with Spellcrackers.com has gotten tough with the tension between her and her satyr boss, Finn. Then there's the sexy vampire, Malik al-Kahn, who holds the key to her past, possibly her future, and definitely her heart. She also happens to own a spell that lets her take over the body of a very ancient, beautiful vampire that Malik has a rather messy history with. Ms McLeod fills her books with intricate detailing and manages to weave many storylines together without them becoming overly entangled. There were a few moments where I lost my place, but everything came together in the end. Nothing is black and white in Genny's world, and she's constantly getting pushed and pulled from all sides. The Cold Kiss of Death was rather bloody in parts, but there's a reason for this, and these scenes never seem gratuitous. If you like your London filled with fae, vamps, trolls, ghosts, and enough magic to make your toes curl, you're in for quite a ride! I'm certainly looking forward to the next book in this series.