Brave the Tempest

Such a good read

Brave the Tempest is the 9th book in the Cassie Palmer series and should be read in timeline order with the Dorina Basarab series. Cassie and Pritkin — that’s right, he’s back! — have killed two gods but the war still rages. Jo’s spirit, the last of Agnes’ acolytes, is still out there causing problems and Jonathan, Louis-Cesare’s nemesis, is back to his old tricks. Plus a couple of ancient demons get thrown in the mix. This book has the complete cast of characters plus most of the characters from the Dory books. Which is so fantastic! Cassie and Dory finally have a conversation instead of trying to kill each other and it was everything I had ever hoped for. Caedmon apparently flirts with everyone and gets his just desserts. Cassie takes a trip to faerie and goes to a coven mall which was a major highlight for me (think Diagon Alley magical wonderment). I love that Cassie has grown so much as a character. She’s embracing her position and the power that gives her in the supernatural community. She finally expects to be respected as Pythia and is no longer allowing the other leaders to roll over her. She’s also stepping it up on the emotional side and opening up to all the new people in her life. Having a court and a family no longer just means people to protect but people to love and let inside her emotional walls. I think the best thing about this book is “the between times.” Most Cassie books are constant action and running from one crisis to the next. Which I absolutely love and there is plenty of that here. But there’s also quite a bit of downtime where they get to just talk to each other. Augustine opens up about his childhood. Cassie helps Rhea, Pritkin, and Mircea through some of their issues. And Marco helps Cassie through hers. We get to spend time getting to know Saffy and Vi from the covens, the young Pythian court members, and the latest vampire bodyguards. Cassie gets some unexpected help and training. And some Casskin hanky panky makes everything complete. Karen Chance is one of my favorite authors. Not just for her endearing characters but the amazing, intricate storylines with insane fights and crazy politics. Read this book, well this whole timeline. It’s fantastic. I can’t recommend it highly enough.