Customer Reviews

A Wild Light (Hunter Kiss, Book 3)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's Maxine's birthday. Her and the boys are on their way to perform their special ritual, no one knows of, to celebrate her birthday and the death of her mother ~ as they are the same day. Then off to her party with her family, even her thousand million year old Grandfather is excited to celebrate a birthday with his grand daughter. Zee warns Maxine there are whispers of troubles to come. Then, Maxine wakes the next morning before dawn feeling every fiber of herself exhausted and weak. Curled up on the floor and blood around her with the dead body beside her... With loss of memory and an empty feeling in her heart, Maxine needs to solve the mystery. Along with the loss of memory of how this person died, she had one important person erased from her memory... Why? All this with the weight of the failing veil on her as well.

This is another great installment to the Maxine Hunter Kiss series. Marjorie is great at starting a new book with the new story, mystery, and dropping you right into the plot. She adds in through this story history to refresh your memory of the past happenings and relationships, but she doesn't reiterate completely to bore you or retell the previous. She brings you in quickly to a new story and dedicates the time to it.

You don't have to read the previous two books to read this one, but I would say you should. You do get brief refreshers on what you need to know had happened to keep you up with the happenings. But I found them great memory joggers to remember the happenings in more details.


I enjoy this series with the strong character Maxine is and the boys at her sides. Maxine is also joined by a few other strong characters. Maxine is a character with weaknesses, and flawes, but she makes it through a stronger person. You get to watch Maxine grow more in this book, more in her own way other than what is expected of the Kiss women. Many of the characters of past come back in this book; Grant, Jack, Byron, Crazy Mary, and a few others.

You learn more of the scar under Maxine's ear, and her ancestor she resembles. I learned much more of Maxine, the boys, and all the great magical characters. I felt like more pieces of the puzzle of Maxine, her family, and the veil started to fall into place, pieces I didn't realize I was missing before.

I am glad to hear that Marjorie will be doing more books in this world with Maxine and the boys and I will be looking forward to them.

Review courtesy of
[...]

My experience to date with the Hunter Kiss series has been hit or miss. While I greatly enjoyed Hunter Kiss and The Iron Hunt, I fought to finish Darkness Comes over a period of several weeks. Perhaps exacerbated by how often I put it down and picked it up, I found the book confusing and I had a hard time keeping track of Maxine's progress. In preparation for this review, I reread all the Hunter Kiss short stories and books. When I reread Darkness Comes over the course of a weekend, it became apparent to me that the confusion I had experienced on my previous reading was a critical part of the story. Maxine herself is being thrust into a confusing swirl of multi-dimensional events and time periods, and Marjorie Liu manages to convey those emotions without losing the reader entirely. I'm glad I revisited Darkness Comes, if only because it further heightened my enjoyment of the book that followed. A Wild Light is one of my favorite books this year, and the entire Hunter Kiss series has been bumped up to my top ten list.

As stated in the book description above, Chapter 2 of A Wild Light opens with Maxine standing over the corpse of her grandfather with no recollection of what took place. Furthermore, it is soon revealed that she has no memories of Grant, the love of her life. While amnesia gambits are among my least favorite literary devices (Why not just tell the reader you want a "do over" on your back-story?), in Liu's hands this opening unfolds to become an integral part of two of my favorite facets of the book, the first being the long overdue courtship between Maxine and Grant.

Maxine's relationship with Grant Cooperon takes place largely "off camera." I saw their beginnings in the short story Hunter Kiss, but their attraction up until this point in the series has a largely "trust me, we're made for each other" flavor. Their relationship has a heavy foundation in their respective magical natures, which makes it less easy for me to relate to as a reader. With amnesia, Maxine reacts to Grant in ways both believable and original. In the "believable" category, there is a certain echo of their first meeting, the distrust and attraction rolled into one. One of my favorite details is Maxine's reaction to Grant's eyes, two parts attraction and one part "Dude, stop staring at me." We also get to enjoy aspects of their life together as Maxine experiences them for the first time, all over again. The way her sweet boys lean against Grant's legs for greetings and comfort resonated strongly with me. Up until A Wild Light, my favorite love story in the series was between Maxine and her living-tattoo demon boys, Zee, Dek, Mal, Aaz, and Raw. A perfect mix of childlike enthusiasm and demonic mayhem, so many of my laugh or "awww" out loud moments in the series came from the boys and their relationship with "sweet Maxine." The boys are Maxine's family, her children and brothers and uncles all rolled into one. Their trust and affection is the strongest vote of confidence Grant could have hoped for. In Liu's hands amnesia is not just a device that retreads old ground and brings Maxine and Grant back to where they started, she gives them a true clean slate. First impressions, a first kiss, and all the uncertainty, poignancy and zest of falling in love.

A Wild Light allows the Zee and the boys to shine, and highlights my second favorite aspect of the book: Marjorie Liu's story building. Rather than feeling as if Maxine is being pulled forward on rails towards an inevitable destiny, Liu creates the sense that there is no one right answer. In fact, I think much of the difficulty I had in reading Darkness Comes was the result of Liu's masterful portrayal of Maxine's confusing world. With flavors of Jane Eyre meets Dr. Who, Maxine moves through both time and dimensions, and the reader is very much along for the ride. In my opinion, the majority of Urban Fantasy books can be read from a certain mental distance, even as you're getting a first person perspective of the protagonist's life. I usually feel like I'm putting together clues and following along (or ahead) of the main character's logic. By this generalization, the Hunter Kiss series doesn't read like a "typical" Urban Fantasy. Liu's writing contains a poetry and mystery that reminds me of classical fantasy, or straight up classics. While this most recent Hunter Kiss novel does shed some light on the nuts and bolts of the forces in Maxine's life, it more powerfully illuminates a realistic world with no one right answer. I can't wait to read the next book in the series, but in the meantime, A Wild Light has given me a lot to mull over and discuss.

Sexual Content: An explicit sex scene.

I wish sometimes that we could give books 6 stars. There are some books that are better, deserve an outstanding - even more than I loved it. This is one of them.

This is the third full length novel in the Hunter Kiss series. It's intense. It's Lyrical. It's poetic horror and dark fantasy. It's great.

Maxine Kiss wakes up in a room, feeling like something is wrong. Slowly, things come to her, the smell in the room, the dread feeling, then she sees her grandfather. He's dead. Her demon protector "boys" are all there and behaving erractically - stressed out. They don't remember or won't tell her what happened. She doesn't remember what happened. Then someone walks in that she doens't recognize...

That's just the beginning (not a spoiler since the back of the book tells you this happened). This is an amazing, intense wonderfully written addition to the Hunter Kiss series. If you've read the other two books, you will recognize the returning characters. Byron, Jack, Killy, Father Lawrence, Mary, Grant.....and you will meet some compelling, dark characters.

There are answers to questions raised in the first two books. But...more is going to happen. I look forward to reading more of these novels.

It's possible to read this book and enjoy it if you havent' read the first two - but it's better to read them in order. Ms Liu gives you just enough information in each book that you can read it as a single book, yet I don't feel like I'm suffering from information overload, aka info-dumps.

The veil is weakening even more, more things are escaping the veil prison. Maxine is suffering some memory loss. The ring that we are introduced to in Iron Hunt grows - traveling up her wrist and becoming a little bit elaborate. New characters are introduced and it's not apparent if they're trustworthy - but there is a bit of help from them.

Grant learns some more of his past, as does Maxine. Maxine in fact, learns a lot in this novel.

Well worth the money to buy, a definite keeper. If you haven't read the first two books, Iron Hunt and Darkness Calls, I recommend them highly.

The Cover - I really like this cover. You can see the ring-come-gauntlett on Maxine's wrist. What I miss in this and the previous novel is something that was noticeable on the first novel. Maxine's Asian heritage. She had a beautiful nose and you could just see the Asian shape of her eyes. It was beautiful to see. I only wish that the skin reflected more accurately her heritage. Listen publishers/cover artists - it's okay to have a cover accurately reflect the heritage of the character described in the book. In this case, I would love to see more of her beautiful Asian features (like the first cover, Iron Hunt). I would love to see the beautifully shaped nose and eyes that were featured in Iron Hunt - if not more. C'mon guys - let's work on this!

Reading the Hunter Kiss series is rather like having a strange but wonderful dream. You're sometimes confused about exactly what is happening and why, but the vistas are breathtaking, the emotions are intense, and when you wake up, the only words that come to mind are "What a ride!"

In the hands of a lesser author, confusion can be a dealbreaker that leads to the book hitting the wall. But Marjorie M. Liu is not a lesser author. Her poetic prose and beautifully drawn character relationships keep you reading even when you -- and Maxine -- aren't quite sure of what's going on.

_A Wild Light_ begins with the murder of Maxine's grandfather, Jack. Maxine wakes to find Jack dead, and it appears that he has been killed with a blade that only Maxine can safely wield. Maxine has no memory of the murder, or of her boyfriend Grant. We follow Maxine as she tries to solve Jack's murder and as Grant does his best to piece their relationship back together. At about the halfway point, A Wild Light goes from good to unputdownable when Liu drops a huge bombshell about the true nature of Maxine and of the "boys," her five guardian demons. We also get some tantalizing glimpses of Maxine's mysterious father.

Maxine faces some tough decisions that will determine the kind of person she will be. She is tempted by unimaginable power. Pitted against that is love: not just the romantic variety (though Maxine and Grant are one of my favorite UF couples) but also Maxine's love for the boys, her late mother, Jack, and her friends at the Coop.

The phrase "a wild light" is used twice, once to describe something terrifying, the second time to describe something sublime. I think this juxtaposition is absolutely intentional on Liu's part.

I recommend this novel, and the Hunter Kiss series in general, to readers looking for something a little different in urban fantasy. If you like sumptuous prose and lots of symbolism and metaphor, and if you don't mind the occasional moment of confusion, this is the series for you.

Maxine is one woman in a long line of women in her family, who have been chosen to protect the human race. She has been given demons to protect her during the night and to cover body as armor during the day. But everything Maxine thought she knew about herself and her boys is about to change, and she is not sure she can keep from losing all that she loves. She may not be able to protect them when she is not sure she can even protect herself from the darkness that lies inside of her.

Maxine wakes up to find jack (her grandfather) dead and herself covered in his blood. The boys do not remember what happened neither dose she. At first she can't remember anything then everything comes back to her. But not what happened to her grandfather. She is very sad for the loss of Jack even though she knows he is not dead just the vessel he was using.

Then she meets a very intriguing male whom seems to know her. He looks at her in a way that makes her feel exposed and uncomfortable. No one that she can remember has ever looked at her that way. For some reason she can remember everything except Grant. She feels an unexplained feeling of warmth and love for him. But she can't remember him, she believes him when he tells her that she loved him and he loves her. The boys let him touch them and let her feel his touch when they are on her skin; they normally do not let her feel much.

If this is all was not disturbing enough, they find the coop on fire. Quickly they find the source of the fire it is a strange woman who claims to be sent to find and retrieve Jack. She possesses the same powers as Grant but she is actually trained with them and knows how to use them. When she passed through the veil she caused a rip and that's what brought about the fire.

All the while Maxine is battling a dark power that is growing and rising to the surface. She knows if she does not fight it she will lose herself to it and in turn will lose every one she loves. Then Maxine meets a group of demons claiming to be her warriors and that she is to lead them on their hunt for human bodies to devour .Maxine tries to reason with them telling them to take animals instead but it is not just the meat the need they need they need to feed on the pain of the victim and an animal with not work. Of course she denies them, she will not lead them, but the power inside her was almost over whelming it's starting to take over and she fears if she does not get it under control she may lose herself and every one she loves. But can she deny this power in her? Can she withstand the dark power that drove her ancestor in sane? Maybe, just maybe with the help of her boys, her friends, and Grant she may just have the chance that her ancestor did not.

I thought this was pretty good, out of the three books in this series I think I liked this one the best. I liked the story line. I liked how she loved Grant even though she did not remember him. I learned a lot more about Maxine and the boys it gave me a better glimpse into how all of this came about. It showed me how Maxine's ancestors came into the power that they have and were the boys came from. I think this story was more in depth than the other ones It kept me on my toes the whole story. I enjoy Maxine and the boys. I think that the little demons she calls her boys are my favorite they are adorable and I love their Bon Jovi and other artist lyrics they sing at just the right time. You have got to love that they eat teddy bears; it cracks me up to think of little demons sitting there eating and dragging around teddy bears. The little demons are too cute with their baseball jerseys and how they have a different team every time. I think this book is a good read, it's not heavy on the romance, though it has a little romance, but it makes up for it in action. I am ready for the next one!

The book starts out with Maxine's birthday by keeping up her tradition of killing a "zombie" every year. She goes home to her family that consists of Grant (her lover), a street boy that Grant has provided refuge for, and her grandfather. The next day she wakes up in a pool of blood and discovers that her grandfather has been murdered. She can't remember a thing about how she got there, who killed her grandfather (did she do it?), and not a thing about Grant. It is as if someone has removed all traces of Grant from her mind.

As in her other books the story takes off from there in non-stop action including time travel, Gods, demons and zombies. Ms. Liu answers many questions with this book including just who Maxine really is and what her true purpose in life is, more information on what a Lightbringer (Grant) can do, and how Old Wolf (the grandfather) is involved in the creation mankind, the Veil, and the demon prison. However, there were a few places that the action became a little confusing and some characters were brought in to the story but then not used (Bloody Mama toward the end).

Ms. Liu does not label this book as the conclusion of her Maxine Kiss stories, yet with the way this book ended one could almost believe it could be. Many of the previous questions/characters are finally explained/answered. I hope not, though. The Kiss novels are truly a unique addition to the Urban Fantasy genre. I highly recommend this book.

I'd give this book 5 stars just for mentioning JEM AND THE HOLLIGRAMS!! That was one of my favorite books as a child. That totally made my day, it's the little things! Maxine Kiss has something none of the Hunter's have ever had, a family. She has her boyfriend the lightbringer Grant, he can manipulate sound to tweak a person or other powers yet to be discovered. There is Byron that Maxine rescued from the streets, she thinks of him as her kid, who is immortal. There is Mary, no one knows quite who she is, only that she came from the labyrinth, she likes knives and marijuana, and she fiercely protects Grant. Then there is Jack Meddle, Old wolf, he is Maxine's Grandfather and an immortal being. Maxine also has her boys, Dek, Mal, Aaz, Raw and Zee are demons that protect Maxine. In this story Maxine wakes up covered in her Grandfathers blood, and her memories of how and of Grant are all taken. She tries to find out where Jack went after leaving the body that died and Grant helps trying to reassure Maxine of their in love. Someone of Grants talents comes to take Jack away, furious when she sees her fellow lightbringer Grant out of slavery......

I love this book, probably the best in the series so far. We learn a lot about the demon boys who have protected Hunter Kiss throughout history. There is more about Mary and Jack that are explained. Blood mama, the demon/zombie queen, is involved. There is much explained about the veil of the prison containing all demons and more explained about the prisons inhabitants. This is a very fast paced book, a lot of information to take in. I'm very interested to see where this series is headed.

It's Maxine's birthday and the anniversary of her mother's death. Before going to her birthday party, Maxine and the boys remember her mother by killing a demon. The party goes off great despite the heavy heart Maxine has. However, when she wakes up the next morning next to her grandfather Jack's body, covered in blood and missing most of her memories, she goes into utter shock. But the biggest shock is the man named Grant who tells her he is her lover yet she has not one single memory of him. With everyone gunning for her and Grant she must figure out what happened to Jack quickly before someone finally succeeds in destroying them.


Ah, finally things are starting to become a lot clearer. If you've read my reviews on the previous books, you know just how frustrated I was. I was able to enjoy this book much more now that so many questions have been answered. I really loved how even though Maxine has a destiny, it isn't set in stone. She has the ability to shape which direction the power takes as it is her heart that controls it. It seems that "good heart" her mother worked so hard to raise Maxine with, will finally show its real importance.


Although parts of this book were heartbreaking, I think the bad moments between Maxine and Grant will only strengthen them. It will just take some time. The relationship between Maxine and her grandfather really seemed to solidify in this book. I'm glad the two of them are finally starting to trust each other and that he is learning from his mistakes, even if it has taken him thousands of years to do so. The boys were even more adorable in this book, and I love the amazingly strong bond they have with Maxine, and now Grant as well. If there was one thing I could say that would make the entire series worth reading it would be those boys.


This book is extremely fast paced and now that so much has been revealed, the stakes have stepped up a major notch. I was on the edge of my seat for most of this book, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm really happy with the "new" direction the series is taking even if the revelations have been completely shocking. Maxine and the boys are such amazing characters that have great strength despite their flaws. I am eager to see where their story goes.

Good Point 1: We get some background information on our smaller characters like Byron, Jack, other Hunter ancestors (some stuff that will knock you out!) and the little demons that hug Maxine's body (thats where the drama comes in yall, and its good).

Good Point 2: Grant is still the sexiest crippled man EVER. I always thought he was sexy but now that otherworldly creatures are afraid of him (and Maxine) that makes things even better.

Good Point 3: Im so invested in these characters that I will continue with the series despite it being really mediocre.

Gripe 1: Sex scene ... There were no sex scenes in the first two books. The first two books only implied they were getting it on while in this one ... Oh yes you read about how they got it on.

Gripe 2: Info dumps. Every book will have a lot of info dumps, especially in a series. But this one had SO MANY info dumps that it was killing me to read it. I wanted to skip so much because it was really very boring but I knew I needed to read it. SCRATCH THAT ... It wasnt the info dumps ... It was Maxine's thought process. Maybe that bugged me.

Gripe 3: I felt like things moved way too fast. This book seemed really rushed and I don't know why. It almost seems like she was trying to hurry and end the series but that's not the case judging by how things turned out with the veil and all.

Full review by Deva at[...]

Each book seems more incomprehensible than the last. You don't really know who anyone is, what their relationships and history are. There are a lot of very vague descriptions and fill in the blanks. This may be the last one I read. I had a similar problem with the Dirk and Steele books, but those were much more enjoyable. I wish she would go back to those!