Angela @ Touch the Night

This was who she was: not prey, but power.

(source:  XKCD)

TRUTH. This needs to go viral on the internet.

37%

"My body may be small, but my soul is large. It's why I wear platforms. So I can reach the top of my soul."

I LOVE Zuzana.

40%

...the moment went beyond street theater to touch something true.

 

Karou felt tears prick her eyes, watching. Within her, the emptiness pounded.

Art that touches me in this way - hitting on something real and true and honest inside of me - LOVE.

83%

"What do you think would happen if you forced the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack, one of the most prominent packs in the US to defend his wife against government agents? The man who gave you your orders doesn't understand what he's messing with. A man like Hauptman, a werewolf, will die defending his mate. He would never have let you leave with her. He tried to tell you that. Did you miss the part where Mr. Hauptman said he wouldn't let anyone hurt his wife?"

I'm SO interested in this aspect! The politics going on between the fae, werewolves, and humans. And I just can't help but think that there are so many stupid humans - or rather that they've all joined Cantrip.

87%

"Before Christy came, I never thought about how much you manipulate the people around you--it doesn't feel like manipulation when you do it." 

"The difference is," I told him, "that I love you and want everyone to be happy. And"--I lifted a finger--"I know what's best for you."

 

"And," said Adam, "Mercy's not subtle. When she manipulates you, she wants you to know you've been manipulated."

*snickers*

92%

"Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman, if I have not said it, you should know that you brought joy into my life when I thought there was no joy left in the world."

*wipes tears*

95%

Okay, Darryl, you've won me over - don't fuck up again.

99%

"Don't do that. It makes it difficult to hold you here. I break things, a lot of things, but I don't want one of them to be you. So just rest here."

*sniffles*

100%

I still hate Christy. I wish they'd given her up. LOL

"I could lick your neck forever, lovely," he moaned. "Forever."

Eager to be helpful, Razgut supplied, "She tastes like nectar and salt. Nectar and salt and apples. Pollen and stars and hinges. She tastes like fairy tales. Swan maiden in moonlight. Cream on the tip of a fox's tongue. She tastes like hope. 

 

Akiva was stone-faced, unreasonably disturbed by the thought of this abomination tasting the girl.

No doubt!

"Who are you?" he asked, and she almost didn't recognize the language he spoke as Chimaera, it sounded so soft on his tongue.

 

Who was she?

Oh, man! I'd totally forgotten about this!

And she was staring back.

 

Into kohl-rimmed eyes in a sun-bronzed face. Fire-colored eyes with a charge like sparks that seared a path through the air and kindled it. It gave Karou a jolt--no mere startle but a chain reaction that lashed through her body with a rush of adrenaline. Her limbs came into the lightness and power of sudden awakening, fight or flight, chemical and wild.

No insta-love here. *sighs happily* I love this 'meeting'. 

"Brimstone," she said, looking back, "I want you to know I would never just ... leave you."

 

When he raised his reptilian eyes, they were bleary with exhaustion. "You can't know what you will do," he said, and his hand went again to his wishbone. "I won't hold you to that."

Gah! My eyes are welling with tears!

75%

I ran full tilt into something solid planted right in front of me. I lost my balance, and my feet skidded sideways....Everyone fell, tumbling and rolling on a gravel driveway because [I] had been running really fast. And the solid thing hadn't been a tree, like I thought, it had been Adam.

"Hi," I said, panting, sprawled out on top of my husband, who'd done the chivalrous thing and taken the brunt of the fall. "A funny thing happened when I went to get a glass of water."

LOOOOL!

77%

65%

"What I really wihs, though, is that there had been a camera at your house when Adam tore a strip off Christy when she wasted time playing stupid games...when you were calling for help. I'd pay a lot of money to have gotten to see that."

You and me both, Honey!!

67%

"When you blamed Adam, whose only fault that I can see is that he has poor taste in wives, you made it my business," I told her.

 

Honey cleared her throat. "You do know you are one of his wives, right?"

 

I raised an eyebrow. "Happily, he doesn't know how bad off he is with me--and I intend he never will."

I <3 Mercy.

69%

"Speaking of things to remember...I like it when you defend me. I haven't gotten a lot of that."

Aww, Adam! *hugs*

70%

"I still think we should give him Christy."

Hah. Me too.

36%

This was not a battlefield, or even the remains of a battlefield. It was the remains of a slaughter.

O_O

41%

If her stalker didn't kill Christy soon, she might just drive me to it.

NO DOUBT!!

Also, I hate Auriele and most of the rest of the pack. Grrr

41%

"I don't know where you get your information, but I didn't win any battles with Our Lord and Master Bran Cornick who is the Marrok. No one does. That's why he's the Marrok."

 

"That's not what he says."

Hahahahaha!

46%

"Christy, if you don't give Adam the phone right the hell now, so help me, I will put you out with the rest of the trash in the morning."

HELL YESSSSSSSSS!!

55%

"No, really," I said. "Maybe we should just consider giving Christy to him?"

 

He laughed.

 

"I'm serious," I said. And I was. Really. If only a little bit.

 

"Right," he said affectionately. "I know exactly how serious you are."

*snickers* I love these two together. 

56%

"Keep going," I told him. "We'll consult Wikipedia and the library later."

^_^ It's funny to me that this book is making me so ridiculously happy considering how much I hate Christy (and most of the pack).

"Oh, Karou. You poor little romantic."

 

"Hardly. I was going to say the beginning is the good part, when it's all sparks and sparkles, before they are inevitably unmasked as assholes."

LOOOOL!

This was her life: magic and shame and teeth and a deep, nagging hollow at the center of herself where something was most certainly missing.

This book is so damn beautifully written. I love it. Every word.

I'm incredibly conflicted about this book, and this series as a whole so far. I liked Perry in the first book. I understood her. She's insecure and unsure of herself, but at the same time she's not going to let anything - including herself - hold her back. I could relate. In Darkhouse Perry was straight-forward, honest, no-nonsense, and pretty sarcastic. What she wasn't, overly, was too-stupid-to-live.

I can't say the same for Red Fox. Perry made one stupid decision after another in this book to the point where I was beginning to wonder how she survived to her current age, much less how she was going to survive to the end of the book. From taking a drink from a shady, suspected-of-nefarious-deeds stranger, to wandering in the deserted hills alone when you know there's freaking animals (and possibly people) out there with the intent to harm...and that's not even the worst of it.

I went from respecting Perry to wanting to smack the hell out of her. What the hell right does she have to judge people and assume they're all women beaters? She makes these snap decisions about people she knows nothing about, all because of chance encounters. She, and Dex, apparently have a serious aversion to calling the cops. Broken down car, empty, in the middle of the road? Eh. Just drive on by. People disappear, get attacked and nearly killed? Meh. No big. We'll just get out of dodge. Seriously get attacked, bleeding and drugged? Oh, it's okay. Epic trigger rant coming up:

On top of all of that bullshit from Perry, there's a ton of inconsistent crap going on in this book. I, obviously, wasn't enjoying myself enough because my brain kept nit-picking at the little things. Pupils don't retract, for example. They constrict. If you're in and out of consciousness, it's unlikely you're going to remember a bit of nearly every step back to the house. Likely you wouldn't be able to piece them together in the right order or even understand what's really going on - I know, I've been there. Especially after a traumatic event. Then there's Perry, who is drugged, unable to stand on her own two feet or talk without slurring her words and suddenly, five minutes later, she can flat out run. Give me a fucking break.

My disbelief could not be suspended.

Dex is still Dex. I'm not sure what to make of him, or if I want to like him or hate him. I waffle back and forth between both. But I kind of like that about his character. What I don't like? Cheating. If you're interested in Perry, and it's more than obvious you are, fucking break up with your girlfriend. I swear to whatever gods there are that if you haven't broken up with her by the next book and this shit carries on, I'm going to flip the hell out. What I also don't like? Perry thinking Dex is the love of her life. Give me an effing break. Seriously? You've spent a grand total of maybe a week with him. And he's the LOVE OF YOUR LIFE? You have no credibility with me anymore.

I've ranted so much I'm not even sure I can talk about what's good in this book - and the mystery/horror/paranormal part (if I forgive the great big authorial hand I see pushing the characters into certain situations) is interesting and fun and I wanted more of the creep factor. But there wasn't enough.

And yet, I don't want to stop reading the series yet. I'll continue on to book 3. See where it leads. One of my friends said that Dead Sky Morning was the book that hooked her, another said ended up rage-quitting it. I wonder where I fall.