Customer Reviews

Curse the Dawn (Cassandra Palmer, Book 4)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me first start out by saying.. HOLY CRAP!! This book will blow you right of your seat, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and people will think you've lost your mind! Recently there has been a lot of Movies and TV Series based on Vampire books or Paranormal related subjects and I feel Karen Chance's Cassie Palmer Series is a made for TV book, it's written so perfectly that a director would have no problem adapting it for the silver screen or small screen.

Once you read this latest addition you'll agree. Mrs. Chance has a way of grabbing her readers and pulling them into a fantasy world that is so vivid and descriptive it's hard to believe it isn't real! Cassie is a feisty, in your face, but lovable and believable heroine who gets out of trouble by using her usually handsome allies and her very clever ideas. This book is non-stop action from stop to finish, it has witty humor, believable love stories (or more accurately love triangle) and the surprises don't stop (I was literally caught screaming "No Way", "Oh Crap", "No They Didn't", "You Go Cassie!" lol).

I won't give away too many details, but Cassie is hell bent on getting some much needed training so she pursues help from Agnes (which obviously can't happen in this time because she's dead).. so that's when the action begins. She also wants to sort out her relationship with Mircea who has been very busy lately and even when they are around each other not much chatting occurs.. if you know what I'm saying.. ALSO there's this ex-war mage who Cassie kind of can't stop having deep feelings for. Yup, Pritkins in this book and he's back with a vengeance (which always puts a smile on my face, when he's around there's always action and surprises). Cassie can't seem to get a break in this book, she literal runs for her life (literal RUNS) through most the book, If I ran that much I would have a heart attack. Cassie finds out some very interesting secrets and gets one of her strongest adversaries out of the way!

This book is like every other Cassie Palmer book.. always worth the money! I'm happy these books haven't gone to Hard cover yet.. I'd be force to buy them at those expensive prices! Like I mentioned before these books would look so cool on film or TV! I CAN'T WAIT FOR BOOK 5, heck I can't wait for book 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10!!!!! =0)

Another hit in the continuously dangerous life of Cassie Palmer, though by this point in the series you may be starting to feel like Cassie and her crew of trouble finding supernatural friends are like sugared up kindergartners that never stop moving and your the parent that would really like a nap to catch up with the plot. Especially if your like me and stayed up till 3 am because the story was so funny, well written, and mesmerizing! Be warned this is not a stand alone book: A. You will be very confused if you try to start with this book and B. You will be sucked into entrancement of this series.

This time Cassie, unlikely queen of the clairvoyants and time shifters- otherwise known as the Pythia, is trying to get a peace deal brokered between herself and the Silver Circle of mages who should be her closest allies...but have been tying to kill her for three books because they can't control her. But when the mages pull a fast one on her she, and her anti-hero partner, the always entertaining Pritkin, are thrown into a cataclysmic supernatural attack on MAGIC ( the headquarters for North Americas vampires, weres, mages, ect.) and must try to rescue the survivors and themselves. With a traitor still in the groups midst this could be easier said than done.

Odd magical creations abound to help or hurt the duo, as well as the aid of Mircea Tepish - yes, Dracula's much cooler & saner brother- who is also for all vampire intents and purposes,Cassie's husband. A fantastic cast of secondary characters joins the party along with a few new friends, and a hilarious but accidental switcharoo occurs leading to a few awkward but memorable situations that I won't spoil here because you'll vastly enjoy reading them.

This a book - and a series- not to be missed!! If you can I would read the first book in Ms. Chance's companion series , Midnight's Daughter, before this book as hints suggest the two series are brushing along each other about to merge closer. It's another great read that can only ad to your enjoyment of his book. Enjoy your reading and try not to stay up too late!

The series in order:
Touch the Dark
Claimed by Shadow
Embrace the Night
Midnight's Daughter ( Ok, technically this is the Dorina Basarab series but she's
Mircea's daughter! It all stems from the same literary world)
Curse the Dawn
Death's Mistress ( the next Dorina book coming in October!)

I can't remember the last book I finished completely in a single day. Actually, yes I can it was Karen Chance's last Cassie Palmer book, Embrace the Night.. Anyway, I happened to run out of books to read at my house so I checked Amazon and happened upon this book which was released in a day (I checked April 6th) I immediately purchased it and started reading it at 10 AM April 7th and I didn't put it down until 4 PM the same afternoon. And believe me, I tried.

When I got to the end of Every. Single. Chapter. I HAD to know what happened next. She ended EVERY chapter on a cliffhanger equivalent to a GOOD Season Finale of your favorite TV show. If she didn't end it with a cliffhanger she ended it in such a way that you had to know what happened next because the story is SO engaging.

And don't get me started on the characters. Cassie is a heroine you're rooting for from the start because she isn't some all-powerful being (she IS a powerhouse, but she can't fully control her power) who's basically invulnerable and therefore lacks character depth and is uninteresting. She's just a regular woman thrown into one extraordinary situation after another working with what she's given to survive. Her 'team' consists of an uber war-mage named Pritkin who has charged himself with her protection (picture a spell-slinging Rambo) and Mircea, a Senate Level Master Vampire. Both of who she has feelings for, both who hate each other with a vengeance, and both who are on the same demi-god plateau of power.

The book doesn't give you time to breathe either, it relentlessly hammers you leaving you breathless and at the same time wanting more. The few times it does give you time to breathe you'll be laughing at the dialog (it being hilarious in a GOOD way) or at the different situations Cassie gets herself and the people she cares for in.

The action is intense, the drama is fantastic and the characters you'll *GASP* actually care for! I highly recommend this series to ANYONE who likes ANY sort of fantasy because it dips into a bit of everything and still makes the world completely real. A huge accomplishment for a fantasy fiction author. Kudos Karen Chance for bringing yet another masterpiece into the world.

A large part of this novel is nonstop action. Everyone is out to kill Cassie, all of the time. The poor girl never gets a break! When she is not running from enemies, she is complaining about not having a teacher to help her with her powers. I'd really like to find out more about the black circle, Pritkin, and Mircea, and hear less from Cassie. I'm not a fan of main characters that complain about the situation they are in. Make the best of it please. Also, constant action with no purpose does not make a novel to me. One or two dangerous situations, sure, add some plot progression in between, great. Page after page of action with no break for any type of plot from page 1 to 245? No thanks. This novel was a big disappointment for me, and I loved all of the other novels in this series so far. I loved finding out more about Pritkin's past, about Cassie and her pet ghost, and about Cassie becoming Pythia. I'm not a fan of this installment, however. Hopefully we get some plot progression in the future, I can only take so much of everyone being out to get the main character all of the time.

I loved this book- probably because it has more of Pritkin and less Mircea. The story arc with Apollo comes to a nice closure here. As usual there is non-stop action, which at times can be very dizzying for the reader.

The strong points IMHO are the interactions between Cassie and Pritikin. I love Pritikin. He has a tortured past. He is clearly attracted to Cassie and yet reluctant to move on it because of what happened to his first love. He is funny with a wonderful droll sense of humor. Cassie's interactions with him just sizzle.

If you are on team Mircea, you will likely be dissappointed. He is missing for most of the book taking care of a small "family matter". Basically, taking part in the events chronicled in Midnight's Daughter (Dorina Basarab, Dhampir, Book 1), Dorina's story. I enjoyed seeing the two story lines intersect, with Cassie seeing the photo album of Dorina.

Anyway, this is a great series! I can't wait for the next Dory book to come out Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, Book 2)

I never cease to marvel at the creativity of these fantasy writers -- they don't just dream up believable and interesting new characters, but they have to create entire worlds for them to populate, with their own social hierarchies, traditions, politics, alliances and cultures. It's amazing how compelling and believable this series is -- and how real it somehow feels. This particular book begins with a bang and plops you right in the middle of the action. I love the character of Cassie, the somewhat reluctant "pythia" or clairvoyant leader of the underworld, her romance with Mircea, the vampire leader, and her dealings with the Circle. I love the way she can smite her enemies, travel through time and space, switch bodies with others and still worry about things like whether she has time to shave her legs, and what brand of shoes she's wearing. These characters are a nice change from those books where the vampires are always sexy and snarky and more like high school students. The whole history which Karen Chance has created, including the ways in which these fantasy characters interact with the Roman gods, makes this series unique and refreshing.

If you are a fan of Kim Harrison's Hollows series, or Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, then you will love this series. In the Cassie Palmer series, as well as, Karen Chance's Dorina Basarab series, you will find an ensemble of supernatural species(not so much on the weres), as well as non-stop action, and just the right amount of humor and sex, which is really well written too. I don't want to state what the story is about so as not to spoil anything for anyone. I am always searching for a new series that I can really get into and this one has all the elements I like, which are a flawed main character, compelling surrounding characters, mystery, a progression of plot, and growth of characters or at least learning more and more about them, and the occasional shocker. This book is the fourth in the Cassie series but you defintely need to read them in order and they get better with each one. The Dorina series is a great companion series to this one because it takes place in the same world with some cross over characters. I would recommend reading them after reading the third or fourth Cassie novels, simply to have more familiarity with the character relationships.

I am now looking forward to Chance's next books for both series as much as I am for Butcher's next Dresden novel. I have started Harrison's new book but I'm having trouble getting into it because I just finished reading Curse the Dawn and Death's Mistress and they are that good. Karen Chance has become my new favorite. Check them out!

I've loved this series from the beginning, and this book didn't disappoint. Like another reviewer said, I'd love to see them turned into a television series. All of the winning elements are there...come on, HBO and Showtime!

Cassie is still evolving, which I always like to see. The oh-so-interesting state of her love life has me whining for the next book already. I think that her choice is even harder than Sookie's...I mean, how can a girl choose between a devoted, powerful, rich, super hot Romanian vampire and, well...an equally hot, rugged, BRITISH (yay for the accent!), equally powerful half sex demon wizard?

Hmmm...when put that way, I know what I'd choose. Sigh.

Oh, and the tie-in with her Midnight's Daughter series is a nice touch. It had me wanting to shake Cassie and tell her to stop being so suspicious.

This is by far the best book in the series to date, and that's saying something. I loved the previous three books in this series. I found myself laughing through parts of this book and crying through other parts of it. What a fantastic roller coaster ride!

In the fourth book of the Cassie Palmer series, our favorite famous clairvoyant is trying to sort out her feelings for (and the motivations of) the men in her life, while trying to manage her growing responsibilities and political struggles.

This is an excellent balance of action and romantic elements which should please most anyone looking for an excellent read. If you have not read the previous three Cassandra Palmer books or the first book in her Dorina Basarab series, be sure and pick those up first.

I must say that this is my favorite of all 4 books. It is fast paced, and kept me on the edge of my seat. I am so excited to see what happens next with this story. This book had everything that I wanted in a book: A traitor, a God, lots of action, and the most awesome car chase I have ever read about. I have been eagerly awaiting this book from the moment that I closed the cover on book 3 and I was not disappointed. This was well worth the wait. Karen Chance is definitely an author to watch and on my must buy list.