The Hollows, Book 0.1

Synopsis: Kim Harrison returns to her beloved Hollows series with The Turn, the official prequel to the series that will introduce fans and readers to a whole new side of Rachel Morgan’s world as they’ve never seen it before!

Can science save us when all else fails?

Trisk and her hated rival, Kalamack, have the same goal: save their species from extinction.

Death comes in the guise of hope when a genetically modified tomato created to feed the world combines with the government’s new tactical virus, giving it an unexpected host and a mode of transport. Plague takes the world, giving the paranormal species an uncomfortable choice to stay hidden and allow humanity to die, or to show themselves in a bid to save them.

Under accusations of scientific misconduct, Trisk and Kal flee across a plague torn United States to convince leaders of the major paranormal species to save their supposedly weaker kin, but not everyone thinks humanity should be saved.

Kal surreptitiously works against her as Trisk fights the prejudices of two societies to prove that not only does humanity have something to offer, but that long-accepted beliefs against women, dark magic, and humanity itself can turn to understanding; that when people are at their worst that the best show their true strength, and that love can hold the world together as a new balance is found.

Review: I loved Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series and I was sad to see it come to an end. Yet, it was with joy that I discovered some little returns in the universe starting by this little prequel. If you do know the series, you know that the tomato story really touched the world, this epidemic that surprisingly led the world to the gates of its loss. We do not really know what happened exactly but we have clues that ultimately lead us to this story.

Do not expect a short story as is often the case with prequels because we have a full story here while following Kal and Trisk. It was really interesting to discover what ultimately forged the world we discovered in the novels.

I learned to discover their son along the stories going from this arrogant and pretentious man to someone that we like to meet again with and that we start to understand. Here, once again, we have the terrible man and I realized just how much I can hate a character again. Indeed, we discover a young woman, Trisk, full of ambition, hope for the future … until Kal destroys, as always, everything to put himself in first place. But in recent years, Trisk’s studies have once again brought her to the forefront, to the great displeasure of the latter. Hoping once more to ridicule her, our two heroes will turn around one another in a continuous dance. Everyone trying to get ahead, and believing they can manipulate the other but Trisk and Kal will quickly burn their wings.

It was very nice to discover the characters and their stories, be it Daniel the human, Quen we all know about, or this darling Pixie who brings a big touch of freshness to the story. I loved having the opportunity to come back into the universe even if I missed Rachel a bit anyway. It is a nice story and I confess that I am curious to see if we will have more novels as there is still matter to do!

The Hollows, Tome 0.1

Résumé (traduction personnelle) : La science peut-elle nous sauver quand tout échoue?

Trisk et son rival détesté, Kalamack, ont le même but: sauver leur espèce de l’extinction.

La mort vient sous forme d’espoir quand une tomate génétiquement modifiée, créée pour nourrir le monde, est combinée avec le nouveau virus tactique du gouvernement, lui donnant ainsi un hôte inattendu et un moyen de transport. La maladie s’étend, laissant un choix inconfortable aux espèces paranormales : rester cachés et laisser l’humanité mourir, ou se révéler dans une tentative de la sauver.

Trisk et Kal s’enfuient à travers une peste qui déchire les États-Unis pour convaincre les dirigeants des principales espèces paranormales de sauver leurs parents prétendument plus faibles, mais tout le monde ne pense pas que l’humanité doive être sauvée.

Kal travaille furtivement contre Trisk alors qu’elle combat les préjugés des deux sociétés pour prouver que non seulement l’humanité a quelque chose à offrir, mais que les croyances longtemps acceptées contre les femmes, la magie noire et l’humanité elle-même peuvent être remises au goût du jour; que lorsque les gens sont à leur pire stade, les meilleurs montrent leur véritable force,  en montrant que l’amour peut tenir le monde dans ce nouvel équilibre.

Avis : J’ai adoré la série Rachel Morgan de Kim Harrison et j’étais triste de la voir arriver à sa fin. Pourtant, c’est avec joie que j’ai pu découvrir quelques petits retours dans l’univers et cela commence avec ce petit préquel. Si vous connaissez la série vous savez que l’histoire de tomates a vraiment touché le monde, cette épidémie qui a étonnamment mené le monde aux portes de sa perte. Nous ne savions pas réellement ce qui s’était passé mais avions uniquement des indices qui nous mènent finalement à cette histoire.

Ne vous attendez pas à une histoire courte comme c’est souvent le cas avec les préquels car nous avons une ici une réelle histoire complète tout en suivant Kal et Trisk. C’était vraiment intéressant de repartir en amont pour découvrir ce qui a finalement forgé le monde comme on l’a découvert dans les romans.

J’avais appris à découvrir leur fil au cours des histoires, passant de l’homme arrogant et prétentieux à quelqu’un que l’on prend plaisir à retrouver et que l’on commence à comprendre. Ici, une fois de plus, on retrouve un homme terrible et on réalise à quel point on peut détester un personnage à nouveau. En effet, on découvre une jeune elfe, Trisk, pleine d’ambition, d’espoir de futur… jusqu’à ce que Kal détruise, comme toujours, tout pour se mettre lui même en première place. Mais les années passant, les études de Trisk la remettent une fois de plus sur le devant de la scène au grand déplaisir de ce dernier. Espérant une fois de plus la ridiculiser, nos deux héros vont se tourner l’un autour de l’autre dans une danse continuelle. Chacun essayant de se mettre en avant, et croyant pouvoir manipuler l’autre, Trisk et Kal vont très vite se brûler les ailes.

C’était très agréable de découvrir les personnages et leurs histoires que ce soit Daniel l’humain, Quen que nous connaissons tous, ou encore cette chère Pixie qui apporte une grosse touche de fraicheur au récit. J’ai adoré avoir l’occasion de revenir dans l’univers même si Rachel m’a un peu manqué quand même. Il se passe énormément de choses et j’avoue que je suis curieuse de voir si nous aurons plus de romans comme il reste encore matière à faire !

PS : Il existe quelques tomes traduits en Fraçais pour la série originale “Rachel Morgan”

The Hollows, Book 13

Synopsis: Rachel Morgan’s come a long way from the clutzy runner of Dead Witch Walking. She’s faced vampires and werewolves, banshees, witches, and soul-eating demons. She’s crossed worlds, channeled gods, and accepted her place as a day-walking demon. She’s lost friends and lovers and family, and an old enemy has become something much more.

But power demands responsibility, and world-changers must always pay a price. That time is now.

To save Ivy’s soul and the rest of the living vampires, to keep the demonic ever after and our own world from destruction, Rachel Morgan will risk everything.

Review: And here we are with the end of the Hollows series! How sad it is to reach the end of some wonderful novels! But isn’t it always the case? Right out of after the release of the 13th volume, some very good reviews appeared everywhere on blogs. I admit that I am always very anxious with the latest books as we expect a lot about them and closing a series such as this one is not an easy thing to do. But all the beautiful reviews made me really curious and I must say that I now understand the reason. Yes, this novel presents a perfect ending! I’m really happy to have been able to read the entire series over the years, seeing Rachel evolving, facing her fears and becoming a full demon. Who knew by starting the series that she would end up like that, as we discovered a young woman frightened by all that was evil, trying to escape everything that could tarnish her aura.

Rachel has to face many problems in this novel. Indeed, Cormel has decided that he was tired of waiting for our demon to find a spell to recover the souls of the undead vampires. It must be said that while Rachel thinks about the problem, she has not made every effort to present some concrete results. But Felix becomes more insistent, and Cormel remains determined to reclaim his soul, and fast! For this, the master vampire wants to kill Ivy, and puts all his resources in place to complete this goal. Yes, would Rachel not be much more interested in finding a cure if her beloved had lost her soul as well? And indeed, it moves our witch who is determined to save her friend, whatever the cost! But now, after realizing what it means exactly (no I will not reveal it to you), it seems that giving a soul back to a vampire drives him to commit suicide because of the madness that comes up with it. Yet this does not change the greed of each vampire to recover his soul.

But in addition to this, the elves come into play and with them, Landon… Oh Landon, this man is a born manipulator who will not hesitate to make believe to everyone that he is capable of much more than possible and to blame his failure on the back of Rachel and Trent. And it must be said that the deal will be a complicated thing too! I admit that I am quite surprised that Rachel agreed to work with him after what happened before. But there is more, the demons are released from the Ever After and are now in the middle of everyone else. A great change is not it? One which is not also to the taste of everyone. And since the deteriorating relationship between she and Al, Rachel does not know whom to turn to. It’s pretty crazy to see that their relationship that started from something that did not please her at first, became that strong and important to her. That’s really sad to see that our demon is concerned as much for him, while he has a lot of resentment about her. Yet it is well known that both particularly appreciate each other and I was curious to see what would happen afterwards. In short, Al also really touched me in his achievements.

But that’s not all, oh no, because we also have the relationship between Rachel and Trent. Oh yes, because both have a big impact on the story. Between the elves trying to recover the children and Rachel who realizes more and more that she pushes Trent instead of helping him and that it would be better if she lets go of him. Yet despite her fears, our elf is determined to stay with the young woman whatever she might think of the whole thing. Their love story also touches us especially since all they had to cross to get there.

Apart from this, we will also see Rachel’s mother, as well as her husband. But Nina and Felix will also have a big influence on the history. Do you remember the goddess and her protected ones? We will also have the opportunity to see them here too and I must say that the whole is quite impressive.

So yes, We have a lot of things in this novel, and our heroine will really have a lot to do. I was completely carried away by all the events and I actually also loved discovering this final chapter which featured all our heroes 27 years later. What a pleasure to see how everyone had evolved and see a happy ending for our characters. I think the only thing that might have a little annoyed me in my reading was the redundancy of some dialogues at few intervals sentences. This is just a detail, however, and it does not change the fun we have in reading the last volume. So yes, I heartily recommend this series that it is a true jewel and I can tell you that I had a great time with all the novels!

The Hollows, Book 12

Synopsis: Witch and day-walking demon Rachel Morgan has managed to save the demonic Ever After from shrinking, but at a high cost. Now strange magic is attacking Cincinnati and the Hollows, causing spells to backfire or go horribly wrong, and the truce between the races, between Inderlander and human, is shattering.

Rachel must stop the occurrences before the undead vampire masters who keep the rest of the undead under control are lost and it becomes all-out supernatural war. However, the only way to do so is through the ancient elven wild magic, which carries its own perils.

Review: And here’s volume 12 and the countdown begins, yes, because the end is now very soon with the next and final volume. I am so sad to see the end approaching that fast but it does not change the fact that I once again had a great time with this adventure.

Our beloved heroine is as always very good at finding trouble and this time will not change that fact. Indeed, it seems that a wave of energy is following Rachel, causing the backfire of many charms causing terrible consequences for the many people who operate them. But this new phenomenon is much more than that because it seems that all masters vampires are plunged into an endless sleep and if it does not end quickly, it could cause their death. As always, Rachel will have to try to understand what is happening and to ally with her friends to save their town from a massive carnage. So our heroine will have to manage Trent and her feelings for him, but also Nina and Ivy, and all the problems that are happening in town. But nothing will be easy and even though some stories will evolve much more than what we thought, Rachel does not emerge unscathed.

As I said, I had a great time with this story. We go through different states throughout the chapters. Oh yes, because Rachel is more and more aware of her feelings for Trent, those she was trying to forget so far. And yet she knows that even if she likes him, nothing is possible between them and she refuses to be the second woman. It must be one that he needs to lead his people, and he must be a good father to Lucy as well as a husband to his ex-fiancée. But can they ignore their feelings? To what price? I was really sad for Rachel, seeing that she was trying to resist as she understood how to act. Then, I must say that Trent does not help much either for that. I was also very surprised over the development with Al … I admit that I am still in shock and I wonder how it all will evolve or change … It really broke my heart me to see it all. We also learn more about the beliefs of the elves and about this goddess we hear so much about. Yes Rachel will have enough to do in this novel, and she will not have a second for her.

One thing is sure, many things have begun here, good and bad ones, and the consequences are beginning to fall on our characters and I’m very curious to see what the author will provide us for the last book now.

The Hollows, Book 11

Synopsis: The ever after, the demonic realm that parallels the human world, is shrinking. If it disappears completely, so does all magic. It’s up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to avert catastrophe and keep life from changing… for the worse.

While saving the world is important, it isn’t Rachel’s only motivation. There’s also the small fact that she caused the ley line to rip in the first place, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate events. That little mistake has made her life forfeit unless she can fix it. It’s also made her more than a few enemies, including the most powerful demon in the ever after—a terrifying entity who eats souls and now has an insatiable appetite for her. He’s already kidnapped her friend and goddaughter to lure her out, and if Rachel doesn’t give herself up soon, they’ll die.

But Rachel has more than a few impressive and frightening skills of her own, and she isn’t going to hand over her soul and her life without one hell of a fight. She’s also got a surprise: elven tycoon Trent Kalamack. With this unlikely ally beside her—a prospect both thrilling and unnerving—she’s going to return to the ever after, kick some demon butt, rescue her loved ones… and prevent an apocalypse before it’s too late. Or, at least that’s the plan…

Review: And here I am, approaching slowly and sadly the end of the series with this eleventh volume. But as always, I had a great time with this story, following a new Rachel’s adventure.

Rachel tries to get back to a normal life, but nothing is ready to be solved, especially when it comes to the terrible demon Ku’Sox that we had discovered earlier. Oh yes because he is determined to kill our heroine whatever happens! His idea? To pass her before the demons’ court and accusing her for the future destruction of the Ever After. But that’s not counting the fact that Rachel is a determined young woman and she wants to repair the damage she has caused and to prove her innocence. Her quest will not be easy because the demon is determined to put many obstacles in her way, to prevent her from reaching her goal and he will stop at nothing. All this also means the return of Nick, the Ceri and Lucy’s kidnapping and the death of an important character. Yes! Really! I admit that I was really surprised by this because I did not expect it at all and it’s finally really sad too. Luckily for her, Rachel will not be alone in her quest, oh no, because Quen, but also Al, Trent and some demons will be there to help her, although some more distant than others.

Through her alliances, we have the opportunity to learn about the past of the demons, what they were, what they have lost and why. It was really fascinating to discover and understand all the details of the world that Kim Harrison was able to create. We’ll learn more elsewhere at the same time more about Trent and Al. These are two very intriguing characters who always hide more than what we think. It was touching to see another side of the protagonists, to observe an emerging new alliance for something we could never have foreseen. Some other characters? Yes of course! And this time it’s the turn of the gargoyles that are very present and necessary to the story, including Bis’ father. By cons, I was surprised to discover Ivy’s absence in this volume. We are so used to see her every time that we miss her a bit even if everything is perfectly realized.

In all cases this novel is a new, very good surprise. We also see a little more in regard of the relationship between Trent and Rachel and I admit that I’m still curious to see how it will progress. Rachel has evolved in the novels, but we understand her doubts, her anger and her hopes and I look forward to know more and more! A series to read.

The Hollows, Book 10

Synopsis: Ritually murdered corpses are appearing across Cincinnati, terrifying amalgams of human and other. Pulled in to help investigate by the I.S. and FIB, former witch turned day-walking demon Rachel Morgan soon realizes a horrifying truth: a human hate group is trying to create its own demons to destroy all Inderlanders, and to do so, it needs her blood.

She’s faced vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, and more, but humanity itself might be her toughest challenge yet.

Review: Oh how I love this series! I could not wait to immerse myself in a new book by the author and it is with great pleasure that I’ve discovered this novel in the series. It is always difficult to find time to read my books but each novel Kim Harrison is a true delight! Besides, if you do not know the series yet, I highly recommend it to you.

Rachel Morgan can finally live a quiet life as a demon and yet nothing is easy. Nobody recognizes her as a person and that begins with her driving license, something that irritates her at the highest point. But this innocuous demand will propel her into a story and a new race she did not expect. Indeed, it appears that a group of humans has decided to gang up against the Others to destroy them. Yet their murders are currently hidden from the population and a threat now hangs over the head of our witch. Indeed, if she does not find those responsible, the blame will fall on her, and Rachel will become the scapegoat of the IS and the FIB. Thus, accompanied by her friends Ivy and Jenks, but also a new bodyguard Waide, our heroine will launch herself headlong into the investigation. Alas, she could be related more closely with all this than what she believed. Moreover, by refusing to leave her bracelet, limiting her powers, the dangers which threaten her could be much more present than expected. But that does not change the fact that, as always, Rachel embarks on her battles head first without really thinking about the consequences of her actions.

I have once again loved this novel! It’s pretty hard to see Rachel like that, reduced compared to her powers and ultimately according to what she is too. However, this does not change the fact that everyone is interested in her, to see what she will do and it is also why a very old vampire comes into play. I admit that I’m quite intrigued about him and I’m curious to see if we’ll see him later, just as in learning more about his intentions. Our heroine also relies on her friends in this volume, even if it is true that it is quite sad to see that they are changing their lives, far more than she is able to manage. And then we have Trent … Oh I was so happy to see him throughout the history, as he helps our demon, even if sometimes rather in clumsy way. It’s very interesting to see the connection between them, to see that they are here for each other even if Rachel does not know how to handle it all. I admit that I am very curious to read on to see how it evolves.

New problems are also looming and it starts with this hate group that is determined to destroy all supernatural creatures. They have no limits on their actions and may well have placed members in large spheres of power. But it’s not just them because another group comes in and I admit that I was intrigued by their actions and I am curious to see what happens for them too. I do not forget about the Al’s appearances even if they are very infrequent compared to what we’re used to have.

In any case it was a very good book and I am very eager to read more now, as always.