Fury’s KissAuthor: Karen Chance
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2012
Publisher: Signet
Dorina Basarab Series #3
ISBN: #978-0451413239
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format(s): Paperback (544 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher
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About the book:
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Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. Subject to uncontrollable rages, most dhampirs live very short, very violent lives. But so far, Dory has managed to maintain her sanity by unleashing her anger on those demons and vampires who deserve killing…
Dory is used to fighting hard and nasty. So when she wakes up in a strange scientific lab with a strange man standing over her, her first instinct is to take his head off. Luckily, the man is actually the master vampire Louis-Cesare, so he’s not an easy kill.
It turns out that Dory had been working with a Vampire Senate task force on the smuggling of magical items and weaponry out of Faerie when she was captured and brought to the lab. But when Louis-Cesare rescues her, she has no memory of what happened to her.
To find out what was done to her—and who is behind it—Dory will have to face off with fallen angels, the maddest of mad scientists, and a new breed of vampires that are far worse than undead…
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What B is talking about:
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Outcast, feared, and despised, Dory Basarab has been fighting her battles alone for as long as she’s had a memory. As a dhampire, the daughter of a vampire and a human, she is as tough as she is misunderstood, existing on the fringes of the society that has always rejected her. Now a “gun-for-hire” of the Senate of the North American vampires, she finds herself in the middle of an interspecies conflict that could reawaken a god and destroy the world.
Fury’s Kiss was a completely unexpected delight to read. This story simply never stops. Dory is constantly in motion, either mentally or physically, and usually the latter. She is an absolute badass, without the entire cast of characters constantly telling her (and by default, the reader) so. In fact, there are precious few others who have any faith in her at all, leaving her to prove herself over and over. Even better, the only person she’s really interested in proving anything to is herself. Dory is at war with her inner vampire as much as any outside force, but it is a battle she occasionally loses.
The supporting characters in Fury’s Kiss are just as colorful, to say the least. Louis-Cesare is the former poster boy for Vampire Senate elite, but makes it painfully obvious that he doesn’t care about status anymore, and would do anything for Dory, even when it gets him into trouble. Dory’s best friend, Claire, is devoted and funny, and provides a lot of both humor and emotion, as well as balancing out the politics and war that govern much of the story. Ray is an absolute hoot, and though he’s one of the most entertaining characters I’ve read in a long time, he surprised me with both his bravery and his loyalty to Dory.
Not just a story filled with battles and machinations, Fury’s Kiss is part romance, too. Dory and Louis-Cesare are fantastic together, her resistance and his understanding blending beautifully into a sweet and sexy dance that wove its way throughout the book. I really loved these two together, and very much enjoyed watching Dory alternatively war with herself, and give in to her own desires.
While the plot of Fury’s Kiss is gratifyingly complex, it took me roughly a quarter of the story to recognize all the key players and become accustomed to their voices and mannerisms, as well as the mechanics of the relationships between them all. Rather than feeling discouraged, though, I found the story as a whole to be so much fun that getting to know the characters was very much a treat. There are also a good many flashbacks in Fury’s Kiss, which did get a little confusing once or twice, but a brief reread of those sections was enough to sort things out pretty quickly.
Fury’s Kiss was a very nice surprise. As this is the third book in the Dorina Basarab series, there was a lot I had to catch up on in order to feel familiar with the characters and the world within the book. Although it took me a while for a comfortable level of familiarity to set in, the story as a whole moved so well that I was whisked right along to wherever Ms. Chance wanted me to go. While I do believe it would be better to read the entire series from the beginning, this story was very satisfying on its own. Shifting so quickly from humor to suspense to deadly battles and back again could have easily been disorienting, but it wasn’t. It was engaging and sometimes sweet, but mostly just a lot of fun to read.
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B’s Rating:
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Loved it – enthusiastically recommend (A)
Purchase Info:
Thanks for the great review! I totally agree… I loved this book a bit more I think b/c it allowed some closure/forward movement with her father, Mircea. Dory was finally able to dispel some misconceptions she had about him and realize that he’s always had her best interests at heart. Plus, I loved the progression of her relationship with LC as well! The next book should be a doozy!