"No fairy-ass way!"

Book: The Outlaw Demon Wails

Author: Kim Harrison

Well, I wanted to know more about demons and I got what I wished for!!!!! Rachel can have freaking Demon Children!!! How totally awesome is that? =D

So this book was absolutely amazing! There was a gargoyle named Bis, who is currently living on Jenks's church. I have to say that gargoyles are just about the neatest thing ever! I have always been really interested in them, but the way they are getting integrated into this continuous story is just so much fun. They sleep during the day and are guardians at night. They can't apparently use ley line energy but through them Rachel can sense all the lines in the entire city. I'm kinda wondering if she will figure out a way to pull on a line through Bis? :) Gargoyles also saved Rachel and Trent's butts while they were in the everafter and trapped in a church/genetic repository.

We get a totally humanized view of Al which I really don't know what to do with, to be honest. He is such a terrible, terrible being but now as we learn more about demons we see a side of him that is infused with complex emotions, needs, and desires. I am however curious to see where this new side of him will take us. Also, I am dying to find out where demons originated, why they are the bad race, and what started the feud between them and elves???? And! If witches are descendants of demons, why are they not on the same side?

There is so much I am just bursting to find out in the next book, which is why I will be cutting this short. But! This book was truly as exciting and uplifting as the last book was heartwrenching. It was so much fun to watch Ivy and Rachel try and find a balance between them and to learn out the secrets of Rachel's family, although Robbie is still a mysterious entity. I just loved, loved, loved this book! So now on to the next book =D

Together with Jenks, we three could do anything.

Book: For a Few Demons More

Author: Kim Harrison

This book was wonderful and heart wrenchingly sad. It seemed all about pain and suffering. Aside from at the end when Piscary was dead, Al was gone for awhile, and the focus was pacified there didn't seem to be a bright spot in the whole book.

That doesn't mean it wasn't great (it really was), but so so sad. How do you write about something that just makes your heart a waterfall of tears? It doesn't make any difference that it is fiction. Your best friend's suffering is fiction to you since you can't feel it or understand it yourself. Whether you are experiencing the loss and despair personally, or bleeding inside at the idea of another's pain, it's still sad.

I think I'm going to go off on a little side note since an idea has just occurred to me. Why do people belittle the anguish others feel when a first hand painful event isn't present? Examples are: people feeling strongly about movies, books, plays, stories; people expressing distress over other individual's pain; etc. Just because something isn't directly happening to you, doesn't mean you can't sympathize and share the unhappiness! It just irritates me to no end, when people act like I couldn't possibly have any idea what they are going through and therefore my sympathy is useless!!! You don't have to experience something personally to recognize the horror and pain of it!!!! Geez, it just annoys me.

Also, there are the people who are constantly saying "It's not real, so what's the big deal?". They apply this to movies, books, and art. If something isn't occurring in our reality, then there is no reason to get all emotional about it. This is another of those generalities that just irritates me to death! I am the kind of person that can't watch certain funny movies because I get too embarrassed for the characters. I can't watch scary movies because I will lay in bed at night before I go to sleep and imagine the horror as if it were real. I can't watch dramas where the characters suffer too much because I feel the pain right along with them. I just feel too much of what I imagine others feel. Very vivid imagination. And I'm not sorry for it. If my biggest crime in life is feeling too much, then I will take the punishment for that. It's just frustrating when people act like that is ridiculous. As if not feeling or realizing what others feel is a plus, so that it is easier to exist day to day. As if laughing at others pain is preferable to understanding it, or as if horror is needed to feel excitement about one's life. That just sounds and seems so wrong to me. I just don't understand the people who don't understand me....

Going back to the book now; it just made me extremely sad so I am really anxious to read the next one; hoping that it is happier. I want to find out more about these demons too. We are realizing just how little we know about them as they blaspheme holy ground, walk under the sun, appear unsummoned, turn out to be female, and have souls which interact with each other in almost human ways. What are demons...truly?

Finally, I just have to say that through all of these books and my blogs, the part that I love and respond to the most is the idea of friendship. Terrible things have happened to Ivy, Rachel, and Jenks, but together they can keep going and have a chance of making it. That idea is so precious and wonderful that it outweighs all the sadness and pain. In the book and real life as well=D

Thank you for your patience as always!!!!

If your best friend was a vampire...would you let her drink your blood?

Book: A Fistful of Charms

Author: Kim Harrison

So this is the big question I came away with after reading this book. If your best friend was a vampire...would you let her drink your blood?

The book itself was awesome as to be expected but to me at least, everything in it revolved around this point between Rachel and Ivy. It was great to have Jenks back even though now there is a black cloud over him since we learned he is technically reaching old age at 18. It was also really fun to learn more about Weres and to see Rachel battle for her spot as alpha in David's pack.

The whole book was great, but I just kept coming back to the relationship between Rachel and Ivy. First we see that, by leaving, Rachel is somehow abandoning Ivy to fend for herself in the murky moral waters of a vampire's life. Skimmer comes in and takes advantage of Rachel's absence (the bitch), and tries to recreate the bond that once existed between herself and Ivy. However, Rachel's pull is still stronger on Ivy and when Rachel is in trouble, Ivy comes to the rescue. Despite the fact that in doing so she blatantly flouts Piscary's authority over her and puts her own well being in jeopardy by being out of the influence of her master. Once reunited with Rachel, Ivy seems unwilling to discuss what the consequences will be from her leaving Cincinnati. As Rachel becomes aware of how completely Nick has betrayed her to demons, she is forced to reevaluate her other relationships. The consequence is that she sees that she has been placing her trust in the wrong people and decides to attempt a deepening of her bond with Ivy by involving blood. The problem though, is that Ivy connects sex with taking blood in order to control her blood lust. When Rachel allows her to take the blood without that control mechanism, Ivy is unable to keep from hurting Rachel and loses control. Jenks comes to the rescue as he usually does with flare and profanities, but not before Ivy almost drains Rachel dry. Why didn't Rachel stop Ivy? She could have easily thrown Ivy off as had happened in the past, but she didn't. We learn that the reason Rachel didn't save herself is that she caught a glimpse of how intimate and symbiotic the act of giving and taking blood could be. While taking blood, Ivy was also bathed in Rachel's aura. We learned later in the book that this was an inherent attempt by vampires to fool their minds into thinking they still had a soul. With this one revelation, Rachel realizes what taking blood truly means to Ivy and vampires, and wants to be a part of it. She wants to protect Ivy and give her this one comfort. The illusion of a soul. But without the physical intimacy or being bound to anyone. Ivy however, was completely crushed by having lost control and almost killing Rachel. She refuses to take Rachel's blood again and attempt to find a blood balance between them.

This is how we ended this book, Rachel is determined to find a balance with Ivy, and Ivy refuses to try in order to keep from accidentally killing Rachel again.

All of this brings me back to my original question, if your best friend was a vampire, would you let her drink your blood? If it was a straightforward matter of your friend needing the blood and also the sense of emotional worth derived from siphoning some of your aura, would you give both freely? Would the feeling of providing something essential and necessary to someone you deeply cared about be worth it to you?

And if you were the vampire friend, would you be able to accept it? It would put you in a position of extreme vulnerability and also in frightening control. Could you handle both?

That is what we/I am looking forward to in the next books! Thank you for patiently following my erratic train of thoughts=D