TEST
Joanna Archer has always been different. As the daughter of Zoe Archer, an agent of Light, and the Tulpa, an evil supernatural being created through the power of thought, she blends the powers of Dark and Light. Joanna first learned of her supernatural destiny on the night of her twenty-fifth birthday — the night her sister was murdered. To disguise her identity from the forces of Dark who would love to see her dead, Joanna has been re-made into the spitting image of her sister, Olivia, a blonde bombshell and Las Vegas casino heiress. Like many superheroes, Joanna lives a dual life — by day, she’s Olivia, and by night, she’s Joanna, fighting with her troop to protect Las Vegas from the Dark.
Book five in the Signs of the Zodiac series is all about rebuilding and regrouping. Cheat the Grave opens where the previous novel in the series, City of Souls, left off. Joanna is reeling after finding out that Hunter, her lover, is married to another woman. And she’s not just any woman — Solange is a soul-stealing bad girl who lives in Midheaven, a strange purgatory for agents of light and dark. Joanna thought that she and Hunter had something, and for a woman like Joanna, who finds it difficult to connect with others emotionally, losing him was devastating. To add to her grief, Joanna has been removed from her role as the Sagittarius in the Las Vegas Agents of Light, and she lost all of her supernatural powers in order to save a young girl’s life.
Joanna has to find her footing now that everything has gone horribly awry. The world around her is the same, and there are threats around every corner. The latest is Mackie, a zombie-esque refugee from Midheaven who carries his soul in a vicious enchanted blade. Without her powers, Joanna is forced to depend on the help of others to save her from the threat. This is difficult for a woman who is used to fighting her own battles (and fighting others’ battles for them as well).
Meanwhile, in her Olivia-life, Joanna is dealing with the Wedding of the Century. Suzanne, Olivia’s best friend’s stepmother, is getting married, and Joanna (as Olivia) is in the wedding party. Strange things keep happening on the way to the altar. The bachelorette party is attacked by supernatural entities, and Suzanne’s groom seems a little too good to be true. Without her powers, Joanna worries that she can no longer save Olivia’s friends, whom she has grown to love. The climactic final scene of the book takes place at Suzanne’s wedding, and it’s a stunner, complete with an “oh-no-she-didn’t”-style reveal.
It’s interesting to see a butt-kicking urban fantasy heroine show some vulnerability, even if it’s short-lived. So much of this series, thus far, has been about finding the middle ground between good and evil when you’re surrounded by people who only believe in either good or evil. The appearance of the Gray Agents, rogues who have been expelled from their troops for a variety of reasons, represents that middle ground—people who are both good and evil. Joanna finds herself getting along with the rogues better than she got along with many of the Agents of Light, because the rogues are able to see the middle ground.
I had a difficult time believing that Joanna’s former troopmates were willing to turn on her so quickly, since she had developed close connections with a few of them, and none of her actions (which were, for the most part, selfless and honorable) should have been a deal-breaker. The Midheaven subplot still seems like something tacked on to extend the Zodiac books from a trilogy into a full-fledged series. I’ve given up on a lot of series once the focus turns from character, plot, and action to developing an intricate mythology, and the Midheaven scenes are starting to get a little too mythology-focused for my tastes.
Mackie, the villain, is extra-bad, and there are several extremely creepy and unusually gory scenes involving his vicious, single-minded desire to kill Joanna, no matter the cost. Some of the ongoing plots are resolved in this novel, including the fate of the Tulpa and the identity and whereabouts of Zoe Archer, but there’s enough loose ends for the series to continue for at least one more book.
I admit that this series has been hit or miss for me. A couple of the books in the series are fantastic and a couple are so-so. I thought this was going to be the last one I’d read until I got to the last fifty pages, where it finally picks up and goes somewhere exciting. Joanna’s crisis of confidence goes on a bit too long, and waiting for her to pick up the pieces isn’t terribly engaging. There were times when I just wanted to see Joanna go back to her old ways and power through this crisis the way she powered through crises in earlier books. The ending is what saved Cheat the Grave from being a total miss for me, and I look forward to seeing where Joanna’s going to go next.
Grade: C+
Book Type: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 15/06/10
Publication Date: 2010/06
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.