Review: Embrace the Night by Karen Chance
If you’ve been following Cassie Palmer’s chaotic, magic-soaked journey, Embrace the Night by Karen Chance takes things to the next level. This third book throws Cassie deeper into magical politics, ancient power plays, and the complications of being psychically bound to a seductive vampire, all while trying to stay alive long enough to break free.
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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Embrace the Night by Karen Chance
Cassandra Palmer #3
April 1, 2008
Read this if you want:
- Urban fantasy with wild magical battles and time travel
- Psychic heroine navigating magical politics
- Tension-filled vampire entanglements
What is Embrace the Night by Karen Chance all about?
As the Pythia, Cassie Palmer has power she never asked for, and a binding spell that ties her to vampire master Mircea. The only way to break it? Retrieve the Codex Merlini, a legendary book of ancient spells. But everyone wants the Codex, and wielding it could destroy everything. Cassie must decide who to trust and how far she’s willing to go for freedom.
Embrace the Night by Karen Chance Book Review
Cassie is still in a bind. The geis is driving Mircea mad, and if she doesn’t find a way to get it removed soon he will die. Fortunately there is a spell that will remove the geis unfortunately it is in a ancient text that has long been lost, possibly destroyed and also contains a spell that could potentially destroy the world. But that isn’t the only catastrophe that is on Cassie’s rather long to-do list; she now is not only the enemy of the fae, the vampires and the mages, but also a demon lord desparate for a piece of her. And what exactly is it that the mysterious Pritkin hiding?These books just keep getting better, if only I could award more stars, this book definately deserves it. So if you haven’t started reading this series already, there here are three reasons to start:
- The world, it is dangerous, unpredicatable, intricate, mages and vampires, faeries and demons they all fight it out making it a fascinating setting for the Cassie’s adventures.
- Cassie herself! She is one of my favourite heroines, tough and smart yet very sympathetic. Most the time she is dashing around frantically to solve problems, save the world and keep all her allies from killing eachother, and sometimes her!
- THE HOT MEN! Now this series doesn’t have that much sex in it in typical UF fashion. However, there is plenty of potential, intially you have Tomas the angsty master vampire, then you move on to bigger and better things in the form of Mircea the beautiful and dangerous member of the vampire senate, and my personal favourite Pritkin the deranged and aggressive war mage, who is waaay more then he seems!
No I haven’t actually said that much in this review about this book itself, but what can I say that I haven’t in the other reviews? The action is, as usual, fast paced and exciting as the plot lines in the previous books climax (hehe pun intended) and evolve and grow into more complex issues. The sexual tension between Cassie and Pritkin and Cassie and Mircea ups a notch and you learn some new and unexpected revelations about each character. In conclusion I really enjoyed Embrace the Night by Karen Chance and the series in general and cannot wait to get on to the next book!
Embrace the Night by Karen Chance raises the emotional and magical stakes while giving fans more of the complex relationships, magical chaos, and character growth that define this series. If you’re into nonstop action, messy love triangles, and heroines who just keep surviving by sheer willpower (and snark), this one delivers.
About the Cassandra Palmer Series by Karen Chance
The Cassandra Palmer series is an urban fantasy rollercoaster full of magical politics, time travel, and supernatural drama. As the newly appointed Pythia, Cassie is pulled between vampire alliances, mage councils, and the fate of the world, all while trying not to die (again). Each book builds directly on the last, so this is definitely a series to read in order.
FAQ: Can You Read Embrace the Night Without Reading the First Two?
Nope—definitely start with Touch the Dark by Karen Chance. The Cassandra Palmer series moves fast and gets wilder with each book, and the events are tightly connected. Even by book three, only a short amount of time has passed in Cassie’s world, so skipping ahead will leave you confused in the time-stream.
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- Next book in the series: Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance
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I LOVE Pritkin. But I think it’s strange the way Tomas basically just disappeared from the series. His short story was even stranger… with absolutely no explanation of how he got out of Faerie.
Jen at Red Hot Books
I haven’t read Tomas’s story yet, but yeah he did kind of disappear. But still I don’t mind too much as long as Pritkin is in it!
Suzanne