Tagged: mia darien
Disposable People by Mia Darien
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Even Adelheid has a dark side…
Detective Vance Johnston has a lot going for him. He’s got good friends, a job he likes, gets to play tiger every now and then, and is getting ready to propose to his long time girlfriend, Sadie Stanton. Things are looking pretty good.
That is until a shocking turn of events sends him into a case at the last minute that threatens not just everything in his life, but his life itself. Thrust into the seedy underbelly of the preternatural organized crime world, Vance is trapped, a prisoner to the entertainment and money of a darkness threatening to undermine Adelheid.
But he’s not alone. Not just in the prison he’s kept in, but on the outside too. He just has to hang on until help comes, but that’s going to be anything but easy as his own beast within is used against him.
[Full disclosure: I obtained a free ebook through the blog tour for the series but was under no obligation to review it. As always, this review is honest.]
By this fifth book in the Adelheid series, it almost seems like we’ve come full circle. In the first book, Cameron’s Law we have Sadie’s point of view as she falls in love with Vance and solves a huge mystery related to the hatred of supernaturals. Now in Disposable People we have Vance’s point of view as he wants to take his relationship with Sadie to the next level when he suddenly is involved in a huge mystery related to the hatred of supernaturals. Even two years after Cameron’s Law was passed, not all humans are eager to accept the supernatural community as fellow humans. If you’ve stuck with the series from the beginning you’ll notice that quite a bit has changed in regards to supernatural rights but some things still remain the same.
As with all of the books in the series, Disposable People is an excellent addition to the world of Adelheid. Not only do we see some of the severe repercussions of supernatural hatred but we also see how some supernaturals are their own worst enemies. Through Vance’s eyes we see the ugly underworld that exists even in a town like Adelheid that is more accepting of supernaturals than many other towns. In the first book from Sadie’s point of view we saw some of that underworld but Vance of course gets to see the worst of it when he’s captured and is turned into a gladiator against his will. The reason behind this sick form of entertainment is interesting but I can’t really discuss it without giving too much away.
Vance is a great main character. He loves Sadie quite a bit but Sadie is still a little reluctant to commit to him after losing her human husband in the crash that nearly killed her as well as her boyfriend Cameron, the one who inspired Cameron’s Law (the one that gave supernaturals the same rights and protections as humans). Considering her score is 0-2, you can’t blame her for being a little gun shy but at the same time Vance is willing to wait for her to come around. They fight a bit and of course that’s when Vance is kidnapped and seemingly vanishes. While Vance is in the disgusting gladiatorial arena you really see a lot of character growth in him. He was, of course, a pretty good person before then but you really do see his sympathetic/empathetic side come out in full during the sheer horror of being forced to kill his fellow supernaturals against his will. All the while, he tries so hard to hold onto his humanity and it’s a testament to the strength of his character that he tries so hard to lessen the pain of everyone else around him. He’s an amazing character.
The plot is very fast-paced and although you’ll probably be able to guess some of the plot twists, some of them were also pretty shocking. In hindsight they make sense but while you’re reading the book they can definitely blindside you. Disposable People seems to start off slowly enough but things heat up pretty quickly and really don’t let up until the end. It’s a really fast-paced book and you’ll be frantically turning pages by the end, hoping against hope for a happy ending. And of course, like the other books, the conclusion is satisfying but definitely doesn’t close the door on the world of Adelheid, which still has a lot of stories left to be told.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Written All Over Her by Mia Darien
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
One word can change the story of your life forever.
Abduction. Torture. Surrender.
Eleven months from her adolescence have framed thirty-one years of Detective Nykk Marlowe’s life. Despite the trauma of her past, and the unique physical scars it left her with, she’s built a career as a detective for the Adelheid Police Department.
Her personal life might only consist of caring for her sister and a pet rabbit, but she accepts that.
She accepts that she’ll never be able to be like “normal” people, even the supernatural ones. As long as she can keep the past where it belongs, she’s okay.
But when the body of a teenage girl shows up with the same scars that Nykk sees in the mirror every day, her “okay” life gets turned upside down and she’s forced to confront the past she’s been looking away from for sixteen years.
And when it turns out there’s already more than one victim, the pressure’s on to stop the killer before any more girls are tortured, mutilated, and murdered.
[Full disclosure: I obtained a free ebook through the blog tour for the series but was under no obligation to review it. As always, this review is honest.]
While I was always intrigued by Dakota from Cameron’s Law, the first book in this series, I wasn’t really all that interested in Detective Marlowe. Why? Well, partially because she rather brushed off Sadie and partially because she didn’t really feature as prominently so I didn’t really get to see much of her personality. Still, the story behind her bizarre scars was interesting enough that I decided I’d try the fourth book in the Adelheid series.
Nykk was actually a pretty good character. Throughout the story she’s forced to confront her rather painful past as well as look after her sister Ann, who has Down’s Syndrome. Interspersed with the chapters taking place in the present, we get tantalizing glimpses into Nykk’s story as she relates it to a therapist shortly after her horrific brush with death and torture. They never really interrupt the flow of the narrative and they’re always clearly marked so they were a great addition to the story rather than a hindrance that slowed down the plot. Through them we get to see Nykk try to deal with all of the emotions right in the immediate aftermath of the event and in the present chapters we get to see Nykk deal with these resurfacing memories as a grown woman. As she hunts down the killer who nearly took her own life, she does grow quite a bit as she puts her past behind her and begins to actually live in the present.
The plot was actually pretty fast-paced compared to the relatively slower pace of Cameron’s Law. The body count is high and I was honestly left puzzling about the identity of the murderer but in hindsight it really does make sense. There are clues everywhere but you just don’t see them until after the explanation is offered. The plot slowly builds up to this explanation and the confrontation with the villain; Mia Darien is just relentless in ratcheting up the tension until it’s almost unbearable. I thought the confrontation with the villain was a little brief but it’s better to err on the side of short instead of going on and on and just generally belaboring the point. And unlike some other mystery stories, the murderer him/herself made sense and was legitimately terrifying and hard to defeat. Given how well they operated in tracking down those poor girls and how methodical they were in killing them, it certainly makes sense.
As with the other books in the series, we get to see glimpses of both Sadie and Vance but Nykk really is the main character in every sense. Her personality really carries the book along at a nice pace and through her we definitely get to see just a little more of the world of Adelheid. We get exposed to some interesting new creatures that weren’t really talked about in the previous books, we get to see more of summoners and their work and we get to see how politics have progressed (or not) since Cameron’s Law was enacted. It’s really quite fascinating and realistic, particularly on the political side of things since in Mia Darien’s world supernatural creatures are real and have been granted full citizenship rights. Let’s just say the bigotry that drove the plot of the first book is far from vanquished by this fourth book.
Even if you haven’t read the three previous books, you can pick up Written All Over Her. You don’t need to read the previous three to understand the characters, plot or world-building and that’s really the beauty of the Adelheid series. You can pick up anywhere you like! I think you’ll get a richer experience if you pick up the first book first and then read in chronological order but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. So if Written All Over Her has intrigued you at all, go pick it up. It’s well worth your time.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Voracious by Mia and Mason Darien
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sometimes, life doesn’t begin until after you’re dead.
Days stretch out in a series of predictable steps. A to B to C to A. Work. Friends. Life. But for some people, it’s not enough. It’s not enough for D. Possessed of a ravenous hunger for more, he’s at a loss for how to find it.
Until he meets Cielle. She’s everything he’s looking for: new and exciting.
And a vampire, which he’s less crazy about.
But when “new and exciting” Turns him, D is forced into an undead life he never anticipated. Trying to adjust to this new existence is hard enough, but he’s about to get more than he ever bargained for.
Will it be enough to sate his hunger?
[Full disclosure: I obtained a free ebook through the blog tour for the series but was under no obligation to review it. As always, this review is honest.]
Sometimes collaborations between authors work, sometimes not. Sometimes authors collaborate with their spouses to write a book just like Mia Darien did. Again, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But in the case of Voracious, it most definitely worked.
D is a man who we have no full name for but that’s about as mysterious as he gets. He’s just a regular guy at a nine to five job but deep down he yearns to be something more. In the beginning, the Dariens do a really good job creating this sense of “there’s gotta be more to life” for him, this inescapable energy, this mysterious urge to have something more out of life. It’s really hard to describe but in the book it is done extremely well. And it of course leads to D becoming a vampire, lured in by the mysterious Cielle who turns him somewhat against his will. Being a vampire would certainly add spice to anyone’s dull life but D takes it pretty badly because of the whole “against his will” thing. In his situation I wouldn’t really do much different but unfortunately his ignoring Cielle despite her pleas leads to her death. Then D is left to transition to a vampire without a sire and to hunt down the people that killed Cielle. It’s when he decides to do this that we finally see some of that drive of his satiated as he finds a new role both as avenger, and oddly enough, protector of a woman he saves.
A lot of books with unnamed narrators just don’t work in my opinion. The author tries so hard to create an air of mystery around characters that it becomes laughable. However, the Dariens are more than capable of pulling this off. They depict D’s drive to have something more so well that you start to feel the same as he does by about the end of the second or third chapter. He is so well written that it’s hard not to connect with him despite his sometimes ethically questionable actions. He is, in essence, a perfect character because he’s interesting and readers can easily connect to him on an emotional level. Haven’t we all wanted something more out of life at one point or another?
The plot was pretty amazing. I really had no idea where Voracious was going for the majority of the book so the ending was kind of a pleasant surprise. It’s certainly not your perfect fairytale ending but it is emotionally satisfying and you have fewer questions than you do at the beginning of the story. Of course as always we get to see Sadie (the main character of Cameron’s Law, the first book) through the eyes of another and really appreciate what a great person she is for helping out so much in the supernatural community. She certainly helped out D during his adjustment period and when he had no choice but to turn another vampire, something that is sort of forbidden for new vampires. Although the plots of the first two books were fast-paced, Voracious is probably one of the more action-oriented books of the series. It never sacrifices character development for the plot, though.
As always, the world-building in the Adelheid series is fantastic. When we meet Sadie she’s already been a vampire for several decades so it was nice to see how a new vampire would be treated, especially since Cameron’s Law was passed and they didn’t have to hide their new abilities. One of the things I actually liked the most, however, was seeing how the animators in the series work. We saw an animator bring back a dead person temporarily to get their side of the story in the second book, When Forever Died, but seeing the other uses for animators was fascinating and oddly touching. Once again, Mia Darien has expanded the world of Adelheid and she’s done it to great effect in collaboration with her husband. It’s really hard not to love Voracious.
Even if you haven’t read the previous two books, I highly recommend picking up Voracious. Since every book in the series is only slightly connected and features a different character you can pick up a book anywhere in the series and still enjoy it. And really, starting with D’s story is as good a place as you’ll get.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Book Blast: Written All Over Her by Mia Darien
Written All Over Her
By Mia Darien
Book Four in the
Welcome to Adelheid series
Published: May 27,
2013
One word can change the story of your life forever.
Abduction. Torture. Surrender.
Eleven months from her adolescence have framed thirty-one years of Detective Nykk Marlowe’s life. Despite the trauma of her past, and the unique physical scars it left her with, she’s built a career as a detective for the Adelheid Police Department.
Her personal life might only consist of caring for her sister and a pet rabbit, but she accepts that. She accepts that she’ll never be able to be like “normal” people, even the supernatural ones. As long as she can keep the past where it belongs, she’s okay.
But when the body of a teenage girl shows up with the same scars that Nykk sees in the mirror every day, her “okay” life gets turned upside down and she’s forced to confront the past she’s been looking away from for sixteen years.
And when it turns out there’s already more than one victim, the pressure’s on to stop the killer before any more girls are tortured, mutilated, and murdered.
“…This installment of the Adelheid series is dark, creepy, and extremely well written…”
“…Another winner from Mia Darien. It’s impossible for me to NOT fall in love with Darien’s carefully crafted protagonists…”