I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Night Myst
by
Yasmine Galenorn
urban fantasy in Paperback edition that was published by Berkley on June 29, 2010 and has 317 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Hexed, Witchling, Changeling, Never After, Darkling, Demon Mistress, Dragon Wytch, Bone Magic, Night Huntress, Harvest Hunting, Blood Wyne, Courting Darkness, Shaded Vision, Shadow Rising, Haunted Moon, Night Veil, Night Seeker, Autumn Whispers, Night Vision, Night’s End, Priestess Dreaming, Panther Prowling, "Flight From Hell", Flight From Death, Souljacker, Legend of the Jade Dragon, Darkness Raging, Fury Rising, Murder Under a Mystic Moon, Ghost of a Chance, Once Upon A Curse, A Harvest of Bones, One Hex of a Wedding, Starlight Hollow, Moon Shimmers
First in the Indigo Court urban fantasy series revolving around Cicely Waters, a young woman with power.
My Take
I know that Galenorn is the same author of the Otherworld series, and this series is also one of fantasy, fae, vampires, and shifters. But it’s different. It doesn’t feel the same. It doesn’t read the same. There’s a darker cast to this series with a lot fewer warm, familial characters.
On the whole I do like the concept of this new series, but I have doubts about Cicely and how Galenorn writes this character. She’s been around vampires her whole life, and yet she makes this stupid deal with them. I know she didn’t have much time or choice, but she should have known enough to examine it very carefully. So, in many respects, I don’t have much sympathy for her.
But I also question their interpretation of the contract. We only know of two stipulations on the contract. But as soon as Cicely signs it, all of a sudden the vampires go wild with all sorts of new rules that Cicely doesn’t protest. WTF??? What is with the deals the various vampires make in this story??
Cicely is twenty-six years old with almost twenty years of surviving on the streets. So why does she act so stupidly at the Barrow? So stupidly in allowing Grieve to bite her? Why doesn’t she make herself a charm that will help her resist Lannan? Why does she behave so immaturely in so many of her actions?
These stupid out-of-character actions don’t lead me to think much of Galenorn’s writing.
The Story
It’s been nine years since Cicely last set foot in New Forest and now members of the Thirteen Moons Society are turning up dead or missing. The family she has left needs her help.
But Heather is kidnapped before she can return home. Something is different, wrong, about Grieve.
And Cicely and Rhiannon are forced to approach the Vampire Nation. And forced to perform for them.
The Characters
Cicely Waters is a witch who learns in this story that she is also Cambrya Fae. Ulean is Cicely’s Air Elemental, bound to her service. Krystal was her drug-addicted mother. Aunt Heather and cousin Rhiannon Roland were Cicely’s only sense of true family she had growing up. Rhiannon teaches at the New Forest Conservatory, a school for the specially gifted.
Grieve has been Cicely’s friend since she was very young; nine years ago, he wanted more. Her first love. He’s also a prince in the Court of Rivers and Rushes, nephew to Lainule, the Queen of the Court, and born of the Cambyra Fae, a Shifting One. Chatter is his best friend and cousin, but not noble. Cicely learns that a Fae named Wrath is her father.
Anadey runs the town diner and is a shamanic witch who can work with all four elements. Peyton Moon Runner is her daughter as well as the short order cook. Her father, Rex, was a werepuma, and Peyton’s half-breed status does her no favors. She dreams of starting a business, Magical Investigations, as a psychic investigator. Tyne, another Thirteen Moons Society member, is Marta’s grandson. Jim Fischer is Marta’s lawyer. Marta was an ancient witch who led the Thirteen Moons Society and had a successful magic practice in town.
Kaylin Chen speaks to ghosts, and he dreamwalks, possessed by a night-veil demon.
Geoffrey the Great is the Northwest Regent for the Vampire Nation, turned when he was a Mongolian lord. Leo Bryne is Geoffrey’s day runner, a witch with a talent for herbs and healing, and Rhiannon’s boyfriend. Elise is his sister and a Thirteen Moons Society member — she’s vanished as well. Crawl is the Blood Oracle, a thing twisted and corrupt, a vampire who gave it up to become seer to the Queen. He sired Regina and Lannan. Regina Altos is the Emissary to the Crimson Court; her brother, Lannan, is a professor at the Conservatory, and also a vampire. A sadistic, cruel one who delights in the humiliation of others.
Dane was a tattoo artist and one of her mothers’ many, many boyfriends, but he taught Cicely a number of useful tricks. Shy and Cherish are a young Fae couple in love, a Romeo and Juliet of a love and just as doomed, part of the Najeeling Prophecy.
The Vein Lords, a.k.a., the Crimson Court, a.k.a., the Vampire Nation, are the vampires. Myst is the Queen of the Indigo Court, a vampiric fae.
The Cover and Title
The cover is deep purples and brilliant greens with a midnight forest and an owl silhouetted against a full moon with Cicely in her low-cut jeans, cropped knit top showcasing her wolf tattoo, and her back leather jacket. It’s a confident look on Cicely’s face, daring us to disbelieve.
The title is a blend of danger and antagonist — Night Myst — danger.
