Review - Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab, Book 2) by Karen Chance (5/5 stars)

This is the second book in the Dorina Basarab series by Karen Chance. The third book is as yet un-named and is due out sometime in 2011.  This was an excellent installment in the series; I thoroughly enjoyed it and had trouble putting it down.

Dorina's friend and roommate, Claire, returns from fairy with her baby son.  Claire and her son are being hunted by a fairy clan that wants to kill her son so that he can't inherit the throne; Claire is trying to hunt down a family amulet that was supposed to protect her son but was stolen.  Dorina vows to help Claire.  On the side Dorina has been accepting jobs from her vampire father Mircea to hunt down rogue vampires or vampires who are breaking the law.  As Dorina gets deeper into the mess she finds that Claire's rune and Mircea's rogues may be connected.  Into the fray steps Louis-Cesare; the steamy vampire from the first book, he is still trying to protect his old Mistress Christine and gets wound up in the whole mess in an effort to get Christine back.

This book has a complex plot and non-stop action.  I really enjoyed it.  The world is creative, complex, engaging, and incredibly intriguing.  Chance effortlessly throws in mythology, faerie, and vampires together to create a wonderful world.

I love Dory as a main character; she is so tough and capable yet has a lot of emotional stuff she has to put up with throughout this book.  It was also great to have Claire added to the story; the transformations she has undergone in fairy are interesting and I can't wait to read more about her; maybe she will have her own series in the future.  Then there is Louis-Cesare; he is just everything you could ever want a male vampire to be...brooding, dark, sexy and loyal to a fault with a sardonic sense of humor to top it off.

All of the characters have complex pasts and interesting personalities.  The dialogue is witty and funny and flows really well.  There were a number of snarky comments from Dory or Louis-Cesare that had me laughing out loud.  Overall this book was a seriously fun romp, that touched on a variety of deep emotional issues for the characters, and capitulated you through a ton of action.

I loved it, loved it, loved it.  Absolutely can't wait to read more about Dory she is just so much fun.  This book wrapped up the final story nicely, but there is still room to resolve some additional issues.  There was some mention about Cassie (I read the first two Cassie books but just couldn't get into them), I kind of felt that maybe I was missing something there because I haven't read the more recent Cassie Palmer books.

I think you could read this book as a stand alone but if you did you'd be missing out on a lot of Dory's history.

Overall a wonderful addition to the series and I can't wait to read the next one.  These books are making me think that maybe I should go back and read the rest of the Cassie Palmer series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenge:
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge