SM Reine

Elise Kavanagh has exorcised demons, slain gods, and come back from the dead. And she’s done it all with the help of James Faulkner: a powerful witch, and the only person Elise has ever loved or trusted. But now the worst has happened. The Treaty protecting humanity from war between angels and demons has fallen. Elise has been taken by her greatest enemy and imprisoned in madness. And James may be responsible for it…

An Urban Fantasy Novel

Defying Fate

Sarah Escorsa

Previous rating: 4 stars. And a quarter.
New rating: 4.5 stars. And three quarters and a half. Because reasons and stuff.

➽ And the moral of this rereread is: it is a truth universally acknowledged that all angels are bloody shrimping assholes.



👋 To be continued and stuff.



❣ Honeymoonish Buddy Read (HBR™) with my Dearest of Wives (DoW™), aka Choko ❣

Previous rating: 4 stars. 

  New rating
: 4.35 stars. It's pathetically low, I know. I'll try and do better next time.

➽ 
  And the moralsssssss of this reread are
:

① This is Descent, The Testosterone Edition. Whereby this instalment is mostly focused on the infuriating most glorious assholes inhabiting this most scrumptious series: James the deliciously exasperating ass I love to hate, Malcolm the airheaded ass whose natural state is to be utterly wasted, Nathaniel the witchy teenage ass in the making, Zettel the bloody-shrimping-hell-why-aren't-you-dead-yet ass whom I badly want to chop into tiny little pieces and feed to the crustaceans, and Metaraon the Absolute Ass King of Assholes Extraordinaire (AAKoAE™) who just made it to the SoB Guinness Book of World Records.



② My Most Exquisitely Bloodthirsty Girlfriend (MEBG™) Elise Kavanagh being otherwise engaged at the moment, we are stuck with graced by the presence of two most wonderful female characters: first we have Ariane, Elise's dear loving mother, aka the selfish, immature, irresponsible, fickle bitch. She is utterly lovely. Then we have Hannah, aka the pain-in-the-ass, aggravating, judgemental, self-righteous bitch. She is positively charming.

③ All angels are assholes. QED and stuff.

④ You don't need exercise stress tests to find out what condition your heart is in. Read this series, and you'll know. If you're still alive when you turn the last page of each instalment, there's a pretty good chance your ticker is in moderately good shape, and that it can withstand a generous amount of Slightly Stressful Stuff (SSS™).

And now I think it's time for me to dance again.



P.S. My dearest wife Choko is indeed the dearest of wives ever. She's just given me permission to have James' witch crustacean babies. Off to make sweet love breed I am. Be right back.

· Book 1: Death's Hand ★★★★
· Book 2: The Darkest Gate ★★★★ 
· Book 3: Dark Union ★★★★ 
· Book 4: Damnation Marked ★★★★
· Book 5: Dire Blood ★★★★★
· Book 7: Paradise Damned ★★★★★



[Pre-review nonsense]

James, you are an ass and an idiot. And you aggravate the fish out of me. Therefore, I love you anyway. Because I'm beautifully stupid like that.



►► Non Full Reread Crappy Moralization Fest (NFRCMF™) coming right up.



[March 11, 2017]

Choko Dear, this instalment is told from your favorite character's POV! What fun! I bet you just cannot wait to be in James the Douche and the Dolt's little head!



Now now, my dear, don't be like that. James really is quite scrumptious, you know. It's just that he hides it very well.



[Original review - August 2014]

Oh how I love it when authors write instalments from another POV than the main character's! It gives a whole new perspective on the story and a lot more depth. Still, it's a tricky thing to do and not that many authors manage to pull it off. Until I read Defying Fate I had only come across two authors who wrote alternate POV stories successfully: Lindsay Buroker (with her Emperor's Edge series) and Gordon Andrews (with the Curran POV short stories, from the Kate Daniels series). Now I can also add SM Reine to that list. I can't say that I like James a lot so the fact that I enjoyed Defying Fate so much is no small feat. Especially since Elise doesn't actually appear in the book (only in James' thoughts and memories)!

So many questions are answered here. We get a lot of background information on James which helps understand his motivations and behaviour a little better. Well, I still find him exceedingly annoying and can't believe he keeps making such questionable decisions despite his supposed undying love for Elise... I just love the way Nathaniel gives him hell about it too, he is such a great kid and a fantastic character!

In Defying Fate there isn't much development in terms of story arc (beyond James trying to find a way to rescue Elise and the Union being up to no good) but this instalment really is essential to get a better understanding of the series as a whole.

The world that Reine as created in this series amazes me more with each new instalment. Her take on the heaven/hell dichotomy is very original and pretty fascinating. I guess it can be disturbing for some people who enjoy a more traditional view but I just love it. Good and evil are two very relative notions in Descent so you just have to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride.

All in all, this is a pretty amazing series. Everything keeps building up and I can't wait to read the final instalment. I'm expecting to be blown away, please don't let me down SM Reine!

Defying Fate An Urban Fantasy Novel

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