Night Veil by Yasmine Galenorn
Series: Indigo Court #2
Published by Berkley
Published on: July 5th 2011
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 294
Format: Paperback
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Cicely Waters had always thought she was simply one of the magic-born — a witch who can control the wind — but when she returned home to New Forest, Washington, she discovered she's also one of the shifting Fae. Now she must perfect her gift. For Myst, Queen of the Indigo Court, has captured Grieve, the Fae prince who holds Cicely's heart. To save both her beloved Grieve and her friend Kaylin — whose demon is waking — Cicely must journey into the heart of the Indigo Court.
Night Veil makes me want to round up a group of friends and go plague a forest. One of us can pretend to shoot fire out of her hands while the other waves a fancy fan that summons whirlwinds. The spiders, although regular size, will appear to us to be the size of our bodies and that will be pretty terrifying.
So enough about what I would like to do with my next weekend, let’s get to the book’s innards. First off, I will note they are delightfully complex. A war between seasonal kings and queens has been going on for millennia. Myst, Queen of Winter, and Lainule, Queen of Summer, will make you question whether Machiavellian scheming is restricted to their kingly counterparts.
Myst, of course, with her truly chilly heart and half-vampiric blood will take the cake you just baked, freeze its molecules, and then let her swarm of half-fairy, half-vampire hunters devour it. Cicely Waters, our primary protagonist in a sea of meritable side characters, continues to play defensively, amassing allies (let me tell you there are a lot of allies and enemies to keep track of in this series) and living on the edge of the mystical forest from which Myst and Lainule originate.
Cicely’s relationship with Grieve, a fairy prince who can shapeshift into a wolf, has spanned millennia as well, as she is discovering in this book. It seems the ties that bind the two have been tightening since far before man had modern conveniences such as the cellphone and central heating. I like this incorporation of reincarnation. I hope it continues to be handled delicately. You see the wheel of time has been spinning almost as long as spiders and it is fascinating to see those who have managed to keep doing what they have wanted to do in strict contradiction to all its revolving.
So quickly here are some great side characters. We have Kaylin, a dreamwalker. Guess what comes with that moniker? You’ll never guess it. Seems he has a demon that was incorporated into his form when he was merely a mass of cells in his mother’s womb. His powers still have not been fully revealed but the fact that he has some relation to these Bat People who also live in the forest (or in an alternate land that can only be accessed by stepping through the portal that is in the forest) indicates great potential. We have Peyton, a strong-willed were-puma. Or Luna, who plays her flute to stir up magic. That should be a decent start to this interesting list. Read the book and you’ll find far more.
The publisher sent me book 4 or 5, don’t remember but it was interesting, I didn’t know the series but I liked how dark it was. But I confess I wasn’t blown away and I have a problem with the Sisters of the Moon series, so I’m not sure I’ll buy the others, only read them if they send me the books… Thanks for the review.
This is one of those series that is on my maybe list. I keep going back and forth. It seems like it is a bit uneven (some are a hit/some are a miss). Great review! Still have me pondering.
That looks like some kick ass heroine! Thanks Josh, another one for my TBR list. This another series I don’t think I ever heard of, maybe I missed your review of book 1, or maybe it’s already on my TBR in any case, you make sound really interesting. I have take a closer look.
Thank you 🙂