Grave Dance

Alex Craft Series, Book 2

De: Kalayna Price

Narrado por: Emily Durante

After a month spent recovering from a vicious fight with a sorcerer, grave witch Alex Craft is ready to get back to solving murders by raising the dead. With her love life in turmoil, thanks to the disappearance of Fae Investigation Bureau agent Falin Andrews and a shocking "L" word confession from Death himself, Alex is eager for the distractions of work. But her new case turns out to be a deadly challenge.

The police hire Alex to consult on a particularly strange investigation in the nature preserve south of Nekros City. The strange part: There are no corpses, only fragments of them. A serial killer is potentially on the loose, and Alex has no way to raise a shade without a body, so she’ll have to rely on the magic of others to find leads. But as she begins investigating, a creature born of the darkest magic comes after her. Someone very powerful wants to make sure the only thing she finds is a dead end - her own.

Investigate another paranormal case with Alex Craft.©2011 Kalayna Price (P)2011 Tantor

ok

I wish she knew how to pronounce patina, otherwise it's fine. On to the next book!

Little too supernatural, not enough urban...

Well. I liked the first book much better than this one. I bought the first 3 books when they were all on sale, and - after this book - I am not sure I even want to bother with book 3. It isn't bad, however, it is just way too supernatural. I expect an urban fantasy to be set in the real world (hence the urban fantasy label), not be about a myriad of different supernatural beings and activities. I can put up with a supernatural creature or two, but once it gets into the silly realm I lose interest.

The 3-way romantic angst was, well, it also was okay I guess, but not really very believable. It probably doesn't help that I don't really believe the main character has real feelings about either of them, these emotions just come into play when they are required as a plot device, but if she really were smitten with one or both of them, these feelings would exist outside of when she needed a "connection" in order for them to save her. Yes, they did a lot of saving of her... she didn't really seem competent enough to save herself most of the time, so I don't know where the strong female lead from book 1 went.

Anyway, it is a supernatural-ized version of book one, with some romantic angst added as an afterthought (no sex though). I might not read the next book in the series, even though I already own it.

The narration is good. There was no sex or gore and I don't recall any swearing.

Looking for more in the 3rd book

After a very good start in the first book Grave Witch I was expecting a lot. I have to say it did not quite measure up do that. That is not to say this is a boring book. It's not.
It was just not as fun as the first book.

Feet with missing bodies as well as ghosts, the plethora of interesting fay characters and politics should make this book more exciting and fun, however I found they muddy the story progress and made me loose focus. I also don't like the heroes(men in Alex's life) and that also distracts me. Haven't we have too much of "I am a special woman with mysterious/unique/strong powers and all the gorgeous men/fay/vampire/were love me" At least we have death as in grim leaper in the mix, which I haven't read in a while since Wizard in the Grove series

Anyway, I hope the story picks up more in the 3rd book!

Fun 2nd book in series

What did you love best about Grave Dance?

I love the character of Alex Craft and her relationships with both Falin and Death.

Did Emily Durante do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

She did a good job differentiating between the characters but I wasn't a fan of the voices she used for the two male lead characters (Falin amd Death). She did a decent job narrating overall but nothing outstanding.

Another addition of a great character

Continued focus around Alex Craft, her strange form of magic, grave magic. a strange love triangle between 3 unique humans (ish). Alex has a habit of getting herself into trouble, or trouble finding her, be it in work, love, general life, and it takes all of her and usually her friends skill and courage to get her out of it, and usually just by the skin of her teeth. Book two reveals more about Alex, the extra characters that surround her, introducing the reader / listener to more of the world the story is set in.

The only negative thing I can say about this and its something I run into with a lot of sequels, its the constant repeat of basic information from the previous book. its basically there as a refresher or to give a reader who didn't read the first one background. Since I tend to read series back to back it annoys me, but over all does not affect the book.

The Narrator is excellent voice for Alex Craft and defines the other characters and their emotions well.

Needed male voice performer.

I think although the audio performance overall was good, it would have been better with both female and male voice performers. It would have gave the overall performance that much more thrill.

The best end possible!

I love Faylin and Alex together! This book was a cliff hanger but it had a great ending. I do hope the fourth book comes out soon and we get more Faylin and Alex! This is my second time listening to this series because apparently I like to tease myself with a series that may never continue. The last book came out in 2012 and the author is still keeping quiet.

Grave Dance Review

Thoroughly enjoyable! It was over too soon! I loved it! I'm looking forward to the next novel in the series.

Great book

Awesome characters. Suspenseful. Romantic men. Interesting creatures. Storyline is truly captivating. I love this series.

Excellent continuation of this story.

This is the second book in the Alex Craft series and it was even better than the first book. The third book, Grave Memory, is already out. The fourth book, Grave Visions, is expected to release in August 2013.

I listened to this on audiobook again and it was a very well done audiobook. The narrator does an excellent job narrating the different character voices and portrays character emotion well. Definitely a series I will keep listening to.

Alex is called to a scene by the police to investigate a case of left feet. Yep, someone is finding a whole bunch of left feet and Alex senses dark magic attached to them. As Alex starts to investigate this dark magic someone starts to come after her. They are sending evil constructs to attack her and those she cares about. She must figure out this dark magic before it’s too late.

This was an excellent continuation of this series. This book shifts from just dealing with Alex's grave magic to exploring Alex's connection with Fey. As with the last book there is a contained investigation that solved in this book and also a larger story that continues developing from the first book.

I really am enjoying how complex, creative, and interesting this world is. A lot of new excellent characters are added to the story. Additionally both Falin and Death get a lot of page space and we learn more background on both of them. Alex also learns more about her past.

Alex is a fun and complex character to read about. She keeps learning new and interesting things about both her fey and grave powers; yet she is human too. She still needs to eat and sleep to keep functioning. She has a dark sense of humor, which I enjoy.

I am not a huge fan of love triangles, but I can make an exception for Death and Falin. Both of these male leads are just so darn interesting. We learn a lot more about Falin in this book and he is a complex character indeed. Death is still mostly a mystery though, while we learn a bit more about him, most of Death’s character is still shrouded in shadow.

I also enjoy that Alex has a price to pay for using her magic. This reminds me a bit of Devon Monk’s Allie Beckstrom series and I love how having to pay a cost for magic balances out a character’s power.

The main investigation tied up nicely. The book is well written and easy to read. The whole story is very engaging and well-paced; never boring but never frantic either.

Overall I enjoyed this second book even more than Grave Witch. The world is complex and interesting, as are the characters. There are so many things to learn about and read about in this world, I was just absolutely sucked into the story. Highly recommended to fans of urban fantasy; especially to those who enjoy reading about the Fey.