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| Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer, Book 1) |
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List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Roc
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780451460936
ISBN: 0451460936
Label: Roc
Manufacturer: Roc
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2006-06-06
Publisher: Roc
Studio: Roc
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Editorial Reviews:
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Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires. But when the bloodsucking Mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with revenge in mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection.The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire- and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay.
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| Spotlight customer reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Can't wait to read the next one!
Comment: This is the first Karen Chance book I've ever read, and I have already ordered the second book in this series. This book had me entranced from the beginning. I can't wait to continue it and see what happens to Cassie next! I think anyone who likes vampires and the paranormal will love this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not worth it
Comment: The only good thing I can say about this book is that I finished it. Like many series in this genre there are all kind of magic creatures (vampires, weres, fae, witches, mages, etc.). Unlike other series, this one lumps them all in the first book instead of introducing them one at a time.
In the same manner, all of Cassie's powers are dumped on the reader at once. Not only can she talk to ghosts, but she sees the future, has a magic necklace that is haunted, she can feed the ghost her energy, he can possess her, she can possess other people AND she can travel through time. It's a bit much to absorb.
The action in the story starts right away. Vampire gangsters are out to kill her. Instead of following the events, the author constantly interrupts to explain Cassie's convoluted past, her abilities, vampire politics, etc. These explanations are sometimes pages long and make you forget what exactly is going on by the time she gets back around to the story. This also happens during the "romance" scenes.
As for the romance in this book, it's pretty much non-existant. Cassie finds every man in the book attractive (except for the bad guys because of course they're ugly), but like Cassie you don't get enough character development to care about any of them. They are all flat and pretty uninteresting. And they all have some ulterior motive for getting close to Cassie. That doesn't stop her from flirting with one and eventually having sex. Compared to everything else, the sex scenes were pretty descriptive. That time would have been better spent improving the dialog and having Cassie do something a little more in line with her character. If she has spent her whole life on the run, avoiding intimacy and trying to stay away from those who would control her life why would she throw that all away just because there's a naked vampire in the room?
Besides having a flighty and foolish main character, this series would be better off being split into more books. For example:
Book 1: Cassie's life with Tony, her talking to ghosts and having visions, her learning about her parents, her escaping Tony
Book 2: How Cassie works with the feds to bring Tony down
Book 3: Why she leaves Witness Protection, starting a new life, meeting Tomas and developing a friendship with him, buying the necklace
Book 4: This is where the plot from this book would go.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth a re-read
Comment: I thought that this book started out a little slow, but then it grabbed me and wouldn't let go. A great first read and worth AT LEAST one re-read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A bit slow at first but then picks up speed quickly
Comment: I discovered this series through Amazon's "recommended reads". I found my mind wandering in maybe the first third of the book. It then became extremely entertaining. I liked it enough to order the 2nd and 3rd books in the series before I got to the end of the book --- so I could start reading them immediately upon finishing this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The heroine is a bit self centered
Comment: I think the problem I have with this series is with Cassandra. She's tends to be a bit whimsical and self centered. As if the entire universe owes her one and she's entitled to collected from anyone she meets.
So you will have conversations like
member of group: "you almost got me killed!!!"
cassandra: "suck it up"
--two minutes later--
cassandra: "watch what you're doing! you could have gotten me killed!!"
and the person she is talking to is presumably expected to cower.
She will claim not to want the responsibility of Pythia but at the same time use the power, and then complain about her powers.
Likewise, although she won't answer any questions, all other characters are apparently supposed to "answer my question!" or "tell me something useful", "start making sense or else"
She will chase after the bad guys by herself, then when all hell breaks loose, she'll blame the people who show up to save her, and not take any responsibility.
I think the concept and the plot of this series is good, but it's just so hard to read any scenes with Cassandra in them.
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