Synopsis : When Alexandra Sabian sinks her teeth into an investigation, she doesn’t let go.
Alex allowed a case of murdered vamps to get personal and is suspended from the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation. Now she’s facing an official inquiry but has a chance to redeem herself. The catch: She must once again work with Varik Baudelaire, her former mentor and ex-fiancé, as he spearheads a search for a missing college student. But Varik has been keeping secrets from Alex and his mysterious past is on a collision course with his present.When Alex and Varik discover a carefully handcrafted doll at a crime scene, neither of them can see how close the danger really is or that a killer known as the Dollmaker has made Alex the object of his horrific desire. Now the only way out of the Dollmaker’s lair is through the twilight realm of the Shadowlands, where all secrets—for better or worse—will be revealed.
Review : I confess that I don’t remember a lot of things about the first book so it would be difficult for me to compare the two of them. This story is a little different from some typical Urban Fantasy novels. It’s a book shared between two big stories, like in the first one, we could follow the evolution of the Alex and Varik relationship which is very intriguing since the beginning. In the second one, we follow a big investigation by the police. So I would say it’s more a mix between a detective and an Urban Fantasy stories. It doesn’t bother me at all, on the contrary I really like to follow a good investigation with a lot of elements and characters. Indeed, this one is very interesting, well done, and we keep wondering all along the story to understand the Dollmaker’s motivations.
We find all the characters from the first volume, and we discover some new ones too who will allow us to learn more stuff about the Varik’s past, a fact which was very interesting as he is a very mysterious man. We will learn too a lot of secrets he tries to hide and we wonder how alex will react when she will know the truth. I was also very surprised by some Emilie’s declaractions, I can’t wait to discover what will happen now that there are a lot of new problems.
In this second novel, Alex has become stronger, more determined to find the truth about her father’s murder but always in denial about his real nature. We learn so much about every characters, that them seem closer to us. We understand that they try to do their best although it’s not always in the good way. We find in this story a big bad guy with a lot of powers, some horrific habits and a big obsession for Alex. But more than that, Alex is always under the treat of a trial which could change her life forever and Emilie who would like to help her, but she finally initiates a story she could really regret soon enough.
Therefore it was a really great book and I’m very curious to read the sequel with everything that happens here !