To Hell and Back

In To Hell and Back, Dante starts out broken yet again, but this time the damage is so severe that she is barely holding it together consumed by rage and walking a knife edge of insanity. Even as victimized as she begins in this book, this rage is so much better than the last books where Dante spent all her time whining. But even coming from this shattered place, somehow her survival instincts finally kick in and this time she's fighting back . It helped this book immensely that Dante's inner voice, toughened up and her fight to retain her sanity is ultimately what gives her the strength to resist being taken over first by Japh when he seeks to impose his will on her and later by the Devil in their final battle. It also helps that while Dante is still a piece in the game between Japh, Eve and the Devil - be it pawn or queen--Dante tries to make her own moves and that, even being heavily manipulated by all around her, she is still the one to make the winning move. There is plenty of action in To Hell and Back but, as in the last several books, it is still Dante's relationship and interactions with Japh that intrigue me. Japh is not a romantic hero, he is demon and he is ruthless even though that is easy to forget during the times that he treats Dante with such care. Though Japh's emotions are subtle and quite contained, we see more range and much more vulnerability from him here. We see the anguished guilt he carries as Kinslayer - and now we understand the full impact of what he wrought in slaying all the Hedaira's. An encounter with Sephrimel, a Fallen that has lost his Hedaira, really brings home the magnitude of Japh's love for Dante and the risk of being Fallen. This means that though it looks like his relationship with Dante may never be the partnership Dante desires, Dante still does hold some power. She has the ability to hurt Japh with her inability to trust and accept that he will always act though long reaching plots and subplots in order to keep her safe. But as much as it pains him, he will risk her hate to ensure her survival, and trust that he has the rest of eternity to win back her love and forgiveness. I am not ready for this series to end, Saintcrow has created such a detailed world and fleshed out characters so well and there are still elements of the story left to be explored and explained. I would like to have a few more of the dots connected. I would like to have been there when Japh finally explained everything to Dante. Mostly I would have liked a slightly different ending than oddly unsatisfying epilogue, which left Dante with at best an uneasy happily ever after. But the ending was still open ended, so maybe someday we'll see Dante and Japh again as I still think that there is more of the story to be told for Hedaira and Fallen. With that hope, I will continue hunting for hints and trying to find my own answers. I enjoyed the book and the series. Goodbye, Dante.

It is sad to say that this is the last Dante Valentine book, but it sure went out with a bang! Dante is back in the game and is set on trying to make the Devil pay for f***ing up her life. Japh is back at her side and Dante wants to trust him but it is still hard to do so when he goes and pulls some things behind her back. Eve is still planning a rebellion against Lucifier and wants Dante's help as well. Dante is caught in the middle and doens't know who to trust or who to help. Should she help Eve who might possibly be partly her daughter who wants to kill Lucifier and take over hell herself? Or should she help her demon lover Japh who wants to use Eve as bait and may just leave her to her own fate while trying to kill Luicifer. Dante has a hell of time trying to make decisions in the book, for she learns of more betrayals from the people she thought she could trust. But all will be resolved, I won't tell you how, but it gets resolved. The epilogue is one of those annoying little ones that gives closure and yet the hope for more, but of course there will not be anymore. I still felt a few questions nagging at my brain at the end, but I guess they were not vital enough to the story and the answer is the obvious one. I say it again this was one helluva read, the Dante series was truly a great one that had many twists and turns that the ending was a surprise! I hope all you Saintcrow fans have enjoyed it as well!

What an end to the rollercoaster ride this series has been. The evolution of the characters was amazing; After finishing the last book, I went right back to the first. It was rather like watching Return of the Jedi, and then going right back to Star Wars. I agree with another reviewer that I felt there were a lot of unanswered questions. Some were unimportant, but there were times when I wanted to shout at Dante, "Ask Japh what's up with ____! He's actually talking, maybe we'll get some answers!" lol However, Saintcrow did a great job keeping the pace rolling, and in the end, perhaps it's really only my personal failings that leaving me wanting more. :-) Often as writers progress through a series - through their world - the work they produce grows weaker. This is not the case with the Valentine series. From first to last, these books retain their strength, appeal and ability to suck you in until you realize it's 2 am, and only the cat is still awake.

I couldn't wait for this book to come out. I have really enjoyed this series from book one. The setting of Dante Valentine books are so different from a lot of others that I read. Ms. Saintcrow has given me a refreshing adventure. The people in "To Hell and Back" were very engaging, strong, vulnerable and yet witty too. In fact the dialogue is so good that that is the one thing I wished there was more of in this book. Also like Cat said in the review before, I thought some questions were not fully answered perhaps leading up to sequels in the future?? Dante and Japhrimel are a couple I am rooting for. I read this book over the weekend and could not put it down. For people looking for something a little different in their urban dark fantasy books, this is it.

The fifth book in the Valentine series starts out with Dante bleeding and half-dead, a big black hole in her memory. She doesn't know what happened to her or where she's been, but she knows it was awful, so awful that she's holding on to her sanity by the barest of threads. The only thing keeping her going is the growing desire to wreak some well-deserved vengeance, and kill whoever, or whatever, has left her body, mind, and soul broken. Once back in the arms of her Fallen, Japhrimel, Dante realizes she has a good idea of who's responsibile for her current condition, none other than Lucifer himself. And when Japhrimel promises to help her, she believes that this time, just maybe, with her Fallen's help she will be able to do what she's wanted to for so long...kill the Devil. Thrown back into the bloody, violent game between demons, Dante is determined to come out the winner this time. After meeting another Fallen demon and ridding herself of one of the Devil's little "gifts" and retrieving the only weapon rumored to be able to kill Lucifer, Dante's quest to kill the devil truly begins. But once again she's forced to question the true loyalty and intentions of her Fallen. Will Japhrimel really help her kill Lucifer as he promised, or is this just another one of his lies meant to distract her while he pursues his own agenda? Plots unravel, and so do the lies, and betrayals on betrayals. Dante comes to realize that she's just a pawn in the war between demons, even Japhrimel has manipulated her for his own gain and for his own reasons, and she gets the idea that Japhrimel's been planning this way before he ever met her. As all this is revealed, Dante begins to think the only person she can trust is herself, and if she wants to still be breathing, with the Devil lying dead at her feet, she's gonna have to make a move of her own in this twisted game. This book is filled with adventure, action, emotional angst, and everything that makes a great story. There are plots within plots and nobody is what they seem. I admire Ms. Saintcrow's ability to weave this complicated plot full of intrigue, doubt, lies, and betrayal. Japhrimel's ability to reason out complex and far-reaching plots and counterplots, blew me away. That really drove home the point of how inhuman he was, to have waited and plotted and counterplotted with inhuman patience and intelligence for decades, centuries? It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat! My only complaint is that the story does not quite feel finished to me. I still have a bunch of questions. Is Eve really Dante's daughter? That question was never truly answered. I can only assume Ms. Saintcrow's intention was that the question in the end became irrelevant because whoever her mother was (Dante or Doreen) that it didn't matter because Eve's humanity was burned away and she was fully demon, and that demons did not care much about such things. Also, in the end things still seemed uncertain between Dante and Japhrimel