Alex Villavasso

A huge improvement over the previous two novels. You have lots of action, a good pace with character driven chapters intertwined with action and an increasingly interesting story between the two factions: Emil's group of rogues that want to overthrow the government and the mysterious King Arius that went from a wanted hoodlum to the King of Coven.

Can the wicked abnormal Sage be trusted? Will Emil's character finally shine or is he the true villain to the story? Could Arius's awesome character get even better?

The best chapters of this tale are the flashback of Arius and the rather fascinating sidekick Hugo that was unfortunately killed in the first few chapters of book 1. I for one am really excited to read the unfinished 4th installment to this series.… (mehr)

This is the 5th Villavasso book I have read and taking advantage of the huge success of the Sailor Ray series, Blaze has been given his own standalone series as supernatural Hunter.

After being assigned by Mr Ray to accompany his daughter Sailor to hunt a rogue band of werewolves while he attends to a secret mission on his own, things so astray when Sailor's impatience gets the best of her and she follows her father, leaving a stunned Blaze alone.

While waiting for that uplighting phonecall from his teammates that will probably never arrive, Blaze decides to investigate a string of murders and defeat the werewolves, even if it costs him his life.

I can see why this series is so popular. The stories are short, and this book can be read in less than 90 minutes, but the author balances a sufficient mixture between dialogue and description with an easygoing prose that allows you to delve into the plot and enjoy it.

I will indeed want to see more of Blaze's new solo career, because it was indeed a very entertaining read.… (mehr)

This book has been hanging in my TBR list for quite a long time, and for better or worse, I first read the prequel standalone novella and then the first novella of the Blaze Monroe prequels. Given Sailor Ray and the Darkest Night is Alex's most well-known work, I decided to finally read it and was mostly enthralled by the read.

Just like the prequels, Sailor Ray is feisty, breaks a lot of the rules among the underground Hunters (the most important: never do a mission alone), and instead of fighting vampires or demons with her dad, she has a new companion, one that she wished she could get rid of: an unnamed demon living deep inside of her she occasionally calls Alphonse.

We don't get many details abut how the pact was formed, only that Sailor preferred to forge the deal when both of them were dying and hopefully avenge her father's death that occurred some time ago on the job. As expected due to her personality, they don't exactly get along very well. Alphonse is what a person would expect of a demon: cruel, taunting, cynical, etc... Sailor finds the demeaning comments in her head to be annoying, and searches for solace in her warded bedroom where he can't see his surroundings or communicate with her. One thing is true: he is slowly but surely healing, and there are brief periods where Sailor blacks out during fights as he briefly takes over her body. Now, having a powerful demon inside does come with a few perks. He can cure her wounds very quickly and is a somewhat effective lookout when posessed humans charge in her direction. Maybe he only intervenes when he believes Sailor's life is truly in danger, but again, he is quite a procrastinator and always attributes his subpar assistance with the excuse that he is still weak. Ha, ha.

Sailor's newest suicide mission is familiar enough if you have read other novels in the series, I won't spoil much there. As an earlier work of Alex, I can see how his writing has improved in the Blaze series over this one. I also noticed he opted for present tense verbs here, a little something to keep in mind if you find that to be annoying.

All in all, it was an entertaining read, although I believe it could have been longer with a resolution of the final battle of this specific mission, leaving the apparent flashbacks of the pact to another book. Mainly due to this, I give it 4 stars.… (mehr)