Customer Reviews
I love the Cortez family! - By: Amy T, 16 Jul 2008 
This is definitely a must read for anyone who enjoys this series. It is quite different from Kelley Armstrong's earlier books because instead of having just one female narrator we have one female, Hope Adams (chaos half-demon) & one male Lucas Cortez (sorceror & reluctant heir to the Cortez Cabal). I did wonder why we needed to see Lucas's side of things right up until a major plot development which will leave both him & Paige with a lot to worry about in future books.
Most readers probably won't know who Hope is, though she is briefly mentioned in Broken. She has her own short story in the anthology `Dates From Hell' so I would advise people to read this before reading this book. We see more of a couple of minor characters which results in us finding out a little more about Pack history & a little more on what it's like to work for a cabal. As for Hope, I didn't reallly connect with her in this book though I did feel sorry for her having to struggle with her ability to not only detect chaos but to feed off it as well. This made her feel guilty, getting a thrill out of something bad. I was more interested in Karl Marsten, werewolf thief; Troy, personal bodyguard to the head of the Cortez Cabal & the Cortez family itself.
Overalll, its a good read with death & conspiracy popping up everywhere you look. I'm looking forward to reading about what happens next for Lucas & the Cortez family.
Keep it up Kelley. - By: Gareth Wilson, 07 Jul 2008 Kelley alllows another of her "bit" characters to stroll to the front of the stage & alllows them to be the host of their own novel. Well written, often dark in certain area's with characters that not only jump off the page but generate a link to the readers by showing that they too have to struggle to live in the modern world. A great story & one that I think easily beats the last novel where Jamie Vegas took centre stage. Within this tale a young half demon journalist is trying to pay back a debt to the Cortez Cabal & as such places herself in great danger. Often emotional & at points quite harrowing for established fans, this will be a book that you will have a hard time putting down. As always with Kelley's work you can jump in without having read earlier instalments although personallly I do think that it's a huge loss to your reading pleasure as it truly is a joy to watch the world grow with each tale & to see the characters develop over the events within each new novel.
A Good Read, But A Low For The Series - By: Romantic, 09 Jun 2008 The title sums it up nicely - high quality storytelling ( if a little slow for the first half ), just not on par with the rest of the series.
The big negative is the central character Hope being significantly weaker than any of the previous Women Of The Otherworld - both in terms of being less interesting ( I found her angst fairly tedious & frankly absurd when her 'big fear' is revealed ), & also in the sense that her power is plain feeble ( she does nothing any of the necromancer, vampire or even detective characters already established could not have ).
Happily she is marginalized in her own story towards the end, which I can only hope indicates that she will not be considered to star in any subsequent novels.
The other negative is the further 'Laurell K. Hamiltoning' of this series ; No Humans involved was the first book in this series in which I would describe the sex scenes as needlessly explicit & intrusive to the plot - Personal Demon has twice as many such scenes, placed even more intrusively.
This series has been a spiritual successor to the early Anita Blake novels for me, & I would hate to see them follow the same downward spiral.
Personal bugbear ; please no more revivals of the emotionallly-stunted-older-man love interests ( especiallly werewolves ) !
We broke free for a while there, but now they are back again & again !
Just to stress it though : an excellent read once the pace quickens, lots of familiar faces appearing, must buy if a fan.
Hope theres more... - By: Read Me, 21 May 2008 
If you've read any of the series by Kelley Armstrong then you may already know that Hope Adams is no ordinary tabloid reporting, Cabal avoiding, werewolf dating girl. Shes also a half demon who thrives on chaos & can up the ante when shes near its effects. In this book Hope gets callled in by Benicio Cortez (head of the Cortez Cabal) in order to do some undercover work infiltrating a gang. Sounds simple enough until you throw in Hope's on-off jealous werewolf partner Karl. Then throw in Lucas Cortez (Benicio's son & a handy sorcerer) his wife Paige (witch & moral guidance) & also someone who wants the Cabal leaders dead. Hope has no idea who to trust or how to avoid getting more drawn to her chaos side, when a man is bleeding to death infront of you you aren't reallly meant to enjoy the vibes.
This is a reallly good book & a great addition to the series. But thats an important point - if you haven't read the series a lot of whats happening will make no real sense. Also Hope & Karl's first story was in a short story anthology (Dates From Hell) if you missed that then you may wonder where these people have come from!
Its a great book & I love the world that Armstrong has created for her characters, she launches you into the story without reallly stopping for breath. The dual narration between Hope & Lucas is also a nice way of giving us two sides to events & upping the suspicion & mistrust. As always I look forward to the next book.
An enjoyable addition - By: A. Christie, 29 Apr 2008 I reallly enjoyed the latest enstalllment of the otherworld series. It was quite different from the other in many ways, but refreshing.
I liked hope, I thought it was good to have a character who struggled more with her identity as a woman of the otherworld. Since Elena got to grips with her new identity, we've had a string of confident women who have embraced their powers. I reallly enjoyed the conflict Hope felt & was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if she would master it. I though her relationship with Karl was well done & made more poignant because of their backgrounds & their isolation without each other, the two are the 'black sheep' of the otherworld.
I struggled at first with the dual narration, I distracted me, & to be honest I didn't find it interesting enough, so I was desperate to get back to Hope. But then I was drawn in, mirroring Lucas, & found the world of the cabals darkly fascinating.
The tone of this book is quite different, there is a distinct lack of happy ending in my opinion, I was not left feeling that alll would be well. I was left worrying for Lucas & Paige, & wondering how the cabal developments would alter their lives, & their relationship. I hope we find out in future books, although I haven't heard of anymore Paige/Lucas books, the series is currently contracted to ten books, with plots for the last two already outlined, but it may be extended due to popularity.
For the first time I would reallly recommend that you read the earlier books, I guess after seven other books there is just too much back story now. If I came in cold I would have been frustrated, especiallly seen as Hope & Karl have had only very minor parts up till this point, so there was a lot of reference to past events in an attempt to tie them into the series, so that we understand that they were there alll along, albeit in the background.
Overalll highly enjoyable, with a darker undertone than usual, which is not bad, but different.
