Curse the Dawn [Paperback]

He really does. Curse the Dawn focuses on Cassie Palmer, now the world's chief seer the 'Pythia'. This book sees her endeavouring to gain control of her new powers, handle the thorny politics of her world and stay alive all at once. Compounded by the former are Cassie's attempts to also manage her increasingly complicated love life -- there's Mircea the Master vampire who Cassie is extremely attracted to and smitten with. And then there's John Pritkin, her tortured war mage partner, who Cassie can't help but feel drawn to. With their help hopefully she can stay alive long enough to defeat her enemies. If you're new to these books, seriously, start with the first one: Touch the Dark and read them in linear order. There are a lot of convoluted story elements and complex character dynamics that have built up over the course of the other three books that won't make sense otherwise.

I have no idea how many more books are on the way but this one certainly had a different ambiance; things seemed heightened somewhat plot-wise. Curse the Dawn is much plot focused and broke away somewhat from the contents of the last three books, sort of signifying a new arc in the story. Having said this, there's still one or two scenes that are quieter and exist to explore the characters -- but perhaps, not enough of these.

The book focuses more on Cassie trying to get to grips with her powers and her attempts to get the Silver Circle on her side once and for all. This was about time in my opinion, and I was keen to learn a little more about the Circle. There's some intriguing mythological titbits all round actually -- we learn something of value about that enigmatic Agnes too!

There's a lot of Pritkin in this book which made me happy, Mircea isn't really involved in this book the way he was in the others. I believe he's off sorting out the stuff that occurred in Midnight's Daughter with his family -- which balances out his reduced page time (sounds like he'll be more focal to the plot in the next book). The burgeoning love triangle of the prior book is still evident in Curse the Dawn, as if simmering under the surface of things (I guess it'll come to a boil at some point) -- yet in general there wasn't as much as usual going on in the romance department. There was, however, some really nice character banter and bonding between Cassie and Pritkin. For instance, there's a moment where Cassie is told something that she categorically cannot believe... until she merely glances at Pritkin and it immediately shatters her disbelief. It speaks to the trust and the bond that they've built up between them, and there's another moment when Cassie's feeling sad and Pritkin makes her laugh to comfort her. It was sweet. It's exactly those little moments that make me love them together.

The book was extremely action packed, and there's some serious hilarity towards the end portion of the book that was suitably mortifying for all involved -- I won't spoil it... but reading it had me stifling giggles! As usual there's the funny stuff which makes Chance novels better than most. There's also a heck of a lot of secondary characters now and I enjoyed the return of most of them. It was a shame Casanova and his particular brand of shrillness wasn't around as much as before. There were quite a few new characters introduced too, I especially adored Marsdon who seemed particularly barmy. Tremaine and Caleb were fun too!

I was quite impressed with Cassie here. She didn't grow a great deal but she was exhibiting the more admirable traits she had learned in the other books -- like mature self awareness in examination of her love life. She was also self sufficient, brave and actively sought out the solution to problems.

Keeping with altered tone there's some definate 'ground laying' at work in terms of future story; as mentioned above. Pritkin's apparent death wish has been brought up in every book; said issue was brought up again here in Curse the Dawn. Another character even questioned him directly about whether he would die for Cassie. This is obviously some heavy handed foreshadowing of a choice that Pritkin will be faced with one day; likely at the end of the series. When it comes to it, I hope chooses life. This would indicate a diminishment of the self-loathing he has appropriated for himself and what he is -- it would indicate growth for his character. In esscence it would be about realising he has something to live for, but beyond that it would allow him to realise that he wants to live and deserves to do so instead of being so gun-ho and ready to die in every fight we see him get into. I think there's the very early signs of this occurring here. And anything other than realisation would be, quite frankly, completely unacceptable to me!

Anyways, all in all an excellent addition to the series. Curse the Dawn closes one or two threads whilst building on others -- all with a healthy does of humour and wit. Happy reading.

i really am enjoying these books and cant wait for the next one to come out. i would say this one is my favourite one so far. i really routing for cassie & john pritkin to get together and they do get pretty close in this one. loads of action in it too, really is FAB saga.

the scene with cassie, the sofa and marco made me chuckle as i read. cassie manages to do a freaky friday with pritkin, which is hysterical. when magic is destroyed in an alleged accident she also finds evidence mircea has a secret love.(readers of karen chances basarab series will realise who that secret person is) cassie evolves a few steps further on her path to pythia, during which she also discovers some uncomfortable facts about her parents. i thoroughly enjoyed this and am looking forward to the next book 'hunt the moon'. i highly recommend this to fans of the paranormal and supernatural genre, and everyone else of course.