A Wild Light (Hunter Kiss, Book 3)

I just think her writing is so complex. This book is a wonderful addition to the Hunter Kiss series. I just can't get enough of her writing!

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!

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.

Every year, demon hunter Maxine Kiss kills a zombie on her birthday; the anniversary day of her mom's murder. In Seattle, this year Maxine wakes up in bed next to Grandfather Jack Meddle's bloody corpse. She recalls nothing about the previous evening, not even Jack wishing her happy birthday. Maxine soon finds other gaps in her memory as she has no idea who her soul mate, the Lightbringer Grant is. Adding to her trepidations, her five demons residing as tattoos on her epidermis are mute. Her worst fear is that she gone dark and killed her beloved grandpa. Still Maxine needs to fill the holes in her head and get the "boys" communicating. She begins making inquiries and uncovers a potential calamity if not resolved yesterday; as the inner ring containing the demon horde inside is crumbling with Reaper Kings prepared to glean the harvest of souls. The third Hunter Kiss urban fantasy (see The Iron Hunt and Darkness Calls) is a terrific entry that contains a powerful story line while also moving forward on the overarching theme. Readers will learn much about the heroine's heritage as she investigates what happened to her and Jack. With a late great twist, fans will enjoy Marjorie M. Liu's dark A Wild Light. Harriet Klausner

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.