Customer Reviews

Touch of Darkness

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is the last of a trilogy with 'Touch of Evil' and 'Touch of Madness'. Those two books should be read first.
After her problems with the vampire-like parasites called the Thrall, psychic Katie hopes to finally find peace and happiness with her werewolf-fiancee Tom. But his fellow werewolves don't like the fact that he's in a relationship with a dangerous outsider like Katie and there have been changes among the Thrall. What used to be a hive with lots of queens keeping each other in check, is now ruled by one vampire alone. And he wants not only to punish Katie for her past actions, but also to wipe out the werewolves, the only ones who can resist and even overpower the Thrall. Only if Katie and the werewolves work together do they stand a chance of surviving the Thrall's latest attack.

Like the rest of the trilogy, this book has a good plot, is suspenseful, and the characters are well-developed, convincing and esp. Katie and Tom are really likeable. I enjoyed the book a lot, but felt that there were a few things that the authors should have explained better - there are a few gaps or inconsistencies. But apart from this minor flaw, the book is great - as is the rest of the series. To me these books are among the best by these authors and in the urban fantasy genre. Highly recommended!

Length:: 0:59 Mins

I liked the story, but the reading experience on Kindle was not up to usual standards. One great thing about Kindle is that it's unobtrusive and non-distracting (e.g. clicking "Next Page" requires much less thought and physical action than manually turning a page). But the font choice in this book was a constant source of distraction. There were flecks of e-ink on some pages, crooked letters, and general unevenness of the font. None of these problems were isolated to one Kindle (I have 3 in my house) and none of these problems exist in our other books. It's my assumption that the problems were due to the use of the topaz format, which allows embedded fonts to supersede the Kindle's built-in fonts.

A mere handful of days until her wedding to werewolf firefighter Tom, not-prey Kate's life yet again spins out of control. An old enemy resurfaces and is determined to rob Kate of her home, friends and family and finally her life. And if that isn't enough to worry about, Tom's psycho werewolf ex-girlfriend turns up to try and force Tom and Kate apart. Hiding in the background, the parasitic vampire Thrall are again plotting and the plan's a doozey. Like the previous two books, action packed Touch of Darkness keeps Kate moving from crisis to crisis with nary a moment to think and put all the pieces of the big picture together, but an unexpected ally provides the intel which will allow Kate to even the odds when she moves to counter the Thrall's plot.

Far more romancey than the previous books in the Thrall series, Kate's relationship with her uber-sexy fiancé Tom is a highlight of the book. Even though there's rough spots for the two due to everything that's happening to them, their relationship -- which is filled with both heat and playfulness -- is a solid partnership and they complement each other's strengths. And for once, Kate is actually getting the support she needs from her friends and family and those relationships are what's going to keep Kate going and give her a shot of actually surviving the danger that's coming at her from all directions.

Touch of Darkness brings the Thrall series to a definite climatic end - so don't expect a sequel. This is satisfying in some ways but a shame in others, because Kate's discovery of a cool new power would have added an interesting new dimension to her relationship with the `weres' and her battle with the Thrall. Since Touch of Darkness pulls together many threads from the previous books and ties up the Thrall series with a pretty bow, you really need to read Touch of Evil (Thrall, Book 1) and Touch of Madness (Thrall, Book 2) to get the full enjoyment from seeing everything from those books come to resolution. Look for a standalone novel,Magic's Design, from the Cat Adams half of the Thrall author pair which will be released February 2009.

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Kate Reilly and Tom are finally getting married! Or are they? As everyone knows, life never runs smoothly for Kate, especially with the Thrall still out there and Tom's werewolf pack convinced Kate and Tom's relationship is a very bad thing. Kate is about to head off to Las Vegas to marry Tom before having the big church wedding later on at home. When her apartment building collapses in a blizzard, that's just the beginning of her problems.

Tom's pack has a new Acca (alpha) and she will do anything to prevent the marriage from taking place. As of that wasn't enough, Kate discovers the Thrall has reorganized and now instead of having various hives all over the world, they now have one leader over all of them, and that Queen has ties to Kate's past. Still worse, now society thinks of the Thrall as the good guys since they've disguised their plans behind a variety of charity programs designed to put humans at ease and make them trust the Thrall. But wait, there's more... Kate's psychic abilities are being blocked just in time for her to discover there is the mystery project the Thrall are working on. And just to add to the stress of preparing to get married and save the world from the Thrall, Kate has discovered a very deadly plan... The Thrall have rescinded Kate's Not Prey status and now she's just Prey like the rest of the world. Kate sure has her work cut out for her if she still plans to make it to the church on time!

Of course, Touch of Darkness wouldn't be a book by stellar writing duo Adams and Clamp without lots of action and adventure and plenty of frightening moments of wondering if our heroine and her team will make it out alive. Several surprises crop up throughout, which leave us breathless with shock. I knew from early on the Thrall were up to some nefarious plan involving the werewolves, all the signs were there, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was until about halfway through the book when I started to suspect the truth. I love a good mystery wrapped up in an urban fantasy story so I was on the edge of my seat, with no fingernails left from biting them in nervous anticipation, waiting for the final shoe to drop and the puzzle to be revealed.

Forget everything you thought you knew about the Thrall and the werewolves, we have a whole new set of rules here. Several dramatic changes have occurred in both societies since the conclusion of Touch of Madness, and everything is turned upside down. This just adds to the confusion Kate and her friends are feeling as they try to learn the new rules at a time when getting them wrong means death. This also serves to up the ante for we the readers as we feel the pervasive fear that comes from one Touch of Darkness.

I've been following along on the adventures of Kate Reilly and company since Touch of Evil and while I'm glad to see the story concluded, I'm a little sad too that I won't get to spend any more time in this world of CT Adams and Cathy Clamp. I'm going to miss visiting these friends of mine. There is one particular part of the conclusion to this book I adored and I was filled with excitement for how that particular issue was completed. I can't say what it is since it would be a spoiler but I think you'll know what I'm referring to when you get there as well. All of the loose ends are finally tied up and we see Kate on the brink of having everything her heart could possibly desire. After the dramatic final battle scene, we are definitely left with the feeling that all is right in Kate's world and all of her friends and family are happy.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, July 2008. All rights reserved.

If you enjoyed the other two books in this series, you'll enjoy this! There are one or two things that didn't quite get "explained away", but you aren't left thinking "But what about..." or "Wait! There HAS to be another book because... wasn't resolved!". The ending was better than most series enders I've read. In my opinion, a 4th book would ruin it all, which is why I feel it was wrapped up quite nicely.

Let me start by thanking the authors for writting/creating such a wounerfully exciting trillogy. I'd love to see these books made into movies. If only because the characters have already come to life and with the vivid pictures the authors amazing writtings put into mind; I'd like to see the story on film to compare. : ))

great book. If you are a fan of the thrall series this final book needs to be on your bookshelf.

Loved this book but, it read like this was the end of the series. Hope not.

This trilogy series was excellent. Touch of Darkness is the last in the series and was fabulous. Loved the characters and how the authors were able to wrap up the series so well.

I for one found this final book in the series to be extremly blah! I couldn't quite figure out what this book was about. An ex-girlfriend werewolf is thrown in and an ex-fiance' becomes the only queen of the Thrall. So much description was given to the mundane events of Kate's life, what whe wears, what Tom wears, and not a whole lot of definition or in depth description to the action scenes or as to what this book was acutally about. I found it confusing and not up to par as the first two books. The first two books were great. This book was okay, but it was not a great book.