Blood Rock

Skindancer, Book 2

By: Anthony Francis

Narrated by: Traci Odom

Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Book Two in the Skindancer series.

Dakota Frost is back, and the ink is about to hit the fan-again.

Graffiti comes to life in the dark heart of Atlanta's oldest cemetery, slaying one of the city's best-loved vampires before the eyes of his friend Dakota Frost. Deadly magick is at work on the city's walls, challenging even the amazing power of Dakota's tattoos to contain it. The hungry, graffiti magick loves to kill, and the Edgeworld is no longer safe from its own kind.

Dakota begins a harrowing journey to save those she loves and to discover the truth behind the spreading graffiti - even if that truth offends the vampires, alienates the werekin and creates police suspicion of her every action.

Saving Atlanta may cost her everything, including custody of her "adopted" weretiger daughter, Cinnamon. But failure is not an option. If the graffiti isn't stopped, Cinnamon could be the next victim.

Epic Award-winner Anthony Francis writes the Skindancer series while working fulltime for "that famous search engine whose name begins with a 'G'." Visit him at http://dakotafrost.com.

©2001 Anthony Francis (P)2012 BelleBooks, Inc.

Uneven but fun 2nd volume in Skindancer series

In this 2nd book of Anthony Francis's Skindancer series, we find Dakota Frost (skin dancer/tattoo artist) combatting magical graffiti in Atlanta. We are re-introduced to the wonderful world of vampires, were kin and wizards. Wonderful premise and setting. Unfortunately, the writing is still uneven (as in the debut novel, "Frost Moon.") I never really felt engaged to any of the characters (but, I am becoming fond of Cinnamon, Dakota's adopted were kin daughter, even though her speech sometimes reminds me of a fowl-mouthed Jar Jar Binks.)

The book drags a bit and got too informative on graffiti and tattoos. The action scenes are good, though. This is a good read if you are looking for some escapism.

Again, Traci Odom, the narrator, delivers with distinct characterizations.

Excellent UF that you won't want to put down

This was a fantastic follow up to Frost Moon. So often the second book of a series can be a let down. No worries, here. This was a definite page-turner, one of those books that had me up way past my bed time because I could not put it down. I finished the entire book, alternating audio and Kindle using Whispersync, in a single day.

One of things that I really loved about this book was that Francis lets his main character evolve. The evolution was realistic, too. Did Dakota still get ahead of herself with bravado? Yes, she struggles against this instinct throughout the book. However, the author cleverly lets the reader experience her enlightenment as she struggles to improve.

I also really liked the interaction between Dakota and Cinnamon. Once again, it was not an easy transition to parent, it was a struggle and the reader is left knowing that it will continue to be a difficult adjustment for both mother and daughter. In this book we got to see more depth to Cinnamon's quirky contrasting character traits. The result was so endearing, but rather than just leave her character with the, "aw, how cute" vibe, Francis gave her character real punch within the plot of the story.

My only complaint, once again, was regarding Dakota's relationship status. As much as I've enjoyed this series, the scripting of Dakota's love life has been truly horrible. In fact, this one aspect was what held me back from a 5-star rating for this book. The story would have been equally well served if Francis has stuck with strong friendship, rather than romance.

I am looking forward to the third book.

Waiting for no 3

Would you listen to Blood Rock again? Why?

Looked for the next installment, not out yet unfortunately. Characters are believable and intriguing and evolving. Great universe.

What other book might you compare Blood Rock to and why?

Jane Yellowrock series. Also strong multidimentional heroine and great universe.

Which character – as performed by Traci Odom – was your favorite?

Can't say.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many of the scenes between Dakota Frost and her adopted daughter are interesting.

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to the next installment, hopefully with the same narrator who is doing a great job!

Pretty good follow up

I liked it. It was really long, which I typically like longer books, but it seems like a lot could have been cut out without losing anything. Some of the dialogue was forced and repetitive or maybe redundant. And some chapters seem like they could have been cut altogether, like having lunch with her father. We could have learned what we learned there from any source... Like cinnamons school. Otherwise, I think I liked it better than the first book. Cinnamon turned into my favorite character, there was real growth in everyone and big changes happened. It's setting its self up to be an interesting series.

Better than the first book !

Overall I thought this book was absolutely excellent. I really enjoyed the narrators inflection and what she brings to the book. She brings it alive and makes you able to see what is actually happening with characters. There was a little more of the background magical detail in this book, and it times, it's slow down the story somewhat. I also noted that it times, the story was a bit convoluted. However, that aside, it was a very enjoyable listen.
This is not a book that has a lot of serious political thought although it does include some political comment and inference. It's a great book to listen to while you're doing other things including driving or housework. And I do recommend it. I'm also going to be looking for other books read
by the narrator.

Magical graffiti

In this second book of the series Dakota tries to track down the person(s) doing the magical graffiti which is killing vampires, werekin and humans, plus creating fires. It dragged in quite a few places where it got too informative about magical graffiti and tattoos and I started to drift off since most of it was going right over my head anyway. She's also in the middle of trying to adopt Cinnamon (a werekin tiger) and has a lot of setbacks, i.e., getting arrested and several other situations. There's a lot of violence and deaths. Depending on what the next book is about in this series this will probably be the last one I listen to. Too many of the characters you get caught up in get killed off.

Can't wait for the next one!

Where does Blood Rock rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I listen to many books and this series drew me in and made me excited.

i love these books

If you could sum up Blood Rock in three words, what would they be?

great 2nd book in the set! great pick up from the 1st book!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blood Rock?

I love the growth of the story a

What about Traci Odom’s performance did you like?

she was good

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

its to long for that

Any additional comments?

this is a great author cant wait for more! i would love a 3rd book with frost and freinds

Hectic

3.5 In a world where tattoos can be magic; can magical graffiti be far behind? Folks in the supernatural community are disappearing or dying and magical graffiti is implicated, so Dakota Frost, the superlative tattoo artist is tasked with investigating or at the very least providing an expert opinion on the strange happenings. What follows can be a chaotic read. A lot of things are going on and the story gets bogged down by some serious info dumps. Do we really need a treatise on how math and magic intersect. The answer is yes, if you need to catch up on some sleep. On the other hand Dakota's personal life, which is also incredibly hectic, is more interesting. This includes custody issues, parenting, discrimination, a medical issue, a new love interest, former love interests, kidnapping, jealousy, and death, to name a few. I think a good editor could have helped this. The narration could have used an editor also as there are a few mispronunciations; otherwise it was fine. I'm still on the fence if it is worth it to purchase #3.

For a heroin she seems to get captured a lot.

While she is cool and powerful, she seems to get caught off guard and kidnapped a lot