chez_jae

Grave War by Kalayna Price

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Polished off book number four just prior to bedtime last night. Winning! The book was Grave War by Kalayna Price, which is the 7th (and final!) installment in her "Alex Craft" urban fantasy series, featuring grave witch and half-fae, Alexis "Alex" Craft.

Now that Falin has had to assume the mantle of the Winter King, he has tasked Alex with heading up the Fae Investigation Bureau (FIB). Alex is still learning how to even be a fae, let alone how to navigate the intricate politics and intrigues of Faerie. She is feeling out of her depth, and when there's an explosion at the Eternal Bloom during her first week on the job, she is left floundering. With the door to Faerie now destroyed, Alex is cut off from her fae magic, as is every other fae who was in the mortal realm when it happened. As more and more doors to Faerie are attacked, it becomes clear that someone is bent on usurping the throne of the High King, no matter what the cost. Alex is not without resources, however, including her own, innate wyrd magic, which is far different than fae magic and not something her nemesis is able to anticipate. New alliances must be forged quickly, if Faerie itself is going to survive.

I've loved every book in this series, and this one was no exception. That's why I was deeply disappointed to see that it's the last the author intends to write. I do appreciate and respect that she let her readers know, rather than just dropping the series like a hot potato. And, most loose threads were wrapped up by the end.

Also, ( Spoiler )

Favorite lines:
♦ "This is totally not why I shaved my legs."
♦ Not even off my own property yet and I was already questioning my life choices.
♦ Waltzing around in a towel searching for a missing castle seemed like a bad idea.

Excellent story, but I'm sad it ended. Five stars

I finished reading Grave Ransom this morning. It's part of author Kalayna Price's "Alex Craft" urban fantasy series, featuring grave witch Alex Craft.

As a grave witch, Alex is used to dealing with the dead, but she's never encountered a walking corpse...until now. Alarmed and intrigued, Alex follows the man into a museum, in time to witness him stealing an artifact. When Alex uses her abilities to eject the soul from the dead body, she is shocked to find that it is a young woman. After Alex witnesses another group of animated bodies committing a crime, and learning that the souls don't match, she becomes embroiled in the investigation, which spans normal police, magical law enforcement, and the fae. It's up to Alex, fae Falin Andrews (from FIB), and the enigmatic Briar Darque (from MCIB), to find out what's going on and put a stop to it before anyone else is killed.

There was certainly a lot going on in this book, most of which dovetailed neatly into a whole, making for an engrossing story. Along the way, Alex is hired by a teenage girl to find her missing boyfriend, her relationship with the soul collector she knows only as Death is becoming more untenable, her mortal home and her office are broken into, and she is still learning how to interact with and live in the magical castle that followed her from Faerie into the mortal realm. Characterizations are well done, building on familiar characters as well as those newly introduced in this book.

Favorite line: ...hey, no one ever said a guy couldn't have career aspirations after death.

Thrilling, a bit frightening, and loaded with emotion--fantastic story. Five stars:

*****

Good thing I didn't have to work today, because I stayed up until after 1am to finish reading Grave Memory. It's the third installment in Kalayna Price's "Alex Craft" urban fantasy series.

Alex convinces her friend and fellow grave witch, Rianna, to open their own agency called Tongues for the Dead. They plan to use their ability to raise shades as a means of solving crimes. Before their agency is even up and running, Alex and Rianna come across the scene of a recent suicide. Alex can see the man's ghost, and he is adamant that he would never kill himself, as his pregnant wife is due to give birth soon, and he would never abandon them.

Alex uses her connections at the Nekros City morgue to access the man's shade, and she learns that it has no memory of the past three days, but it does recall witnessing another, horrific suicide. When Alex questions the prior suicide's shade, she discovers eerie similarities: this man also had no memory of the prior three days, and he also witnessed a public suicide. Alex's investigations uncover an entity, which she begins calling 'the rider', that possesses a person, then jumps to another body at the time of the first host's death. Since she is the only one who can see this rider, Alex knows it's up to her to stop it.

The story raced along at a rapid pace. Not only was Alex dealing with her investigation into the rider, but her personal life is in shambles. Her Fae lover, Falin, has been forbidden by the Winter Queen to speak to her, and the soul collector, whom Alex knows only as Death, has been avoiding her. Alex's fae friends urge her to attend the quarterly revelry, so that she can choose a Fae court to align herself with. In addition, Alex comes under the scrutiny of an MCIB agent who is convinced that she has been raising ghouls, and Alex is alienating some of the police officers whom she previously shared a rapport with.

Favorite lines:
♦ "I want chocolate so bad, I may kill the next person I see with a Snickers bar."
♦ I had my heart in a Ziploc bag and that wasn't the worst part of my day.

Five stars!

*****

I decided to read an urban fantasy, and I chose Grave Witch by Kalayna Price, which is the first book in her "Alex Craft" series.

Alex can speak to ghosts and raise the shades of the dead. Her experience with grave magic has not prepared her for what she finds when she raises the shade of a dead Jane Doe. The woman had been killed in a ritualistic manner, and the police fear they have a serial killer on the loose. When someone tries to kill Alex, she reluctantly teams up with homicide detective Falin Andrews, a ghost named Roy, and, oh yeah, Death, whom Alex is actually on good terms with.

The story was gripping, engrossing, inventive, and just wow! I loved the different types of magic the author included, as well as the secondary characters who peopled Alex's life, including a Fae, other witches, and a gargoyle named Fred. I do have one other book in this series, and I'll certainly be looking for more. I'm hooked!

Favorite line: Now the biggest problem came down to one simple fact. The pickle was gone.

*laughs* It's all in the context!

Solid five out of five!

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