Love on the Run by Katharine KerrMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This series just gets better and better! In the 4th installment of the Nola O'Grady books, Nola is yet again fighting back against the forces of Chaos and those who would harm her family.
Here is my unapologetic disclaimer: I love Katharine Kerr's works. At least everything that I've read, anyway. I don't think I've ever been disappointed. There, I've said it. Maybe I'm biased, but I really LOVE this series. I can't get enough of Nola and Ari! It's a fun adventure with a lot of serious thought-provoking themes and ideas. The book doesn't take its vague genre seriously, and the frequent mention of psychic squids makes me giggle. I love it at the end when Nola gets so tired of seeing them that she orders calamari and eats it in front of the apparitions, making them nervous, and then blows the squid-smell at them until they go away. HI-larious!
THERE ARE SOME MINOR SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT
After someone tries to kill Nola's sister Maureen on the night of Nola's engagement party, she is thrust into further danger on the deviant world levels. Traveling between One, Three and Six, Nola and Ari investigate the collapsing of the gates, the murder of a TWIXT agent, and Maureen's ex-boyfriend who has a vendetta against her for leaving him. Trying to balance her family's outrageous problems, her relationship with Ari, and all the action on the deviant world levels could make a normal person go nuts. Nola, on the other hand, sure knows how to handle herself.
I did a beta read of this book before it was published, and there were definitely some noticeable changes and improvements. I appreciate knowing how Cam and everyone else know that their Nola is dead. It was heartbreaking to see them realize that our Nola was not the same person, and yet Cam's denial was more genuine this read. The timing problem for me, where I wasn't sure how long a time span this was all happening in, was fixed and definitely made much more sense. Now I can see it takes place over a period of a few weeks, as opposed to what I couldn't tell were days or months.
Overall, this is yet another fantastic installment of a great series I can't get enough of. I highly recommend it to all fans of fantasy, urban fantasy, even mystery. It has just enough action, romance, humor, and thoughtfulness to get you through. If you haven't read from the beginning, start with License to Ensorcell.
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I enjoyed this one more than the others I think - loved seeing a bit of Ari's mum! Kit's definitely growing into the characters. I got a bit confused about the various world levels, I think I need to keep a chart by me as I read.
ReplyDeleteI definitely get confused with all the world levels. I can never remember which one is Interchange (Three?), which one is our world (are we Four?), although I am pretty confident that the terrorists are on Six, right? Haha.
DeleteAri's mom is so "with it" - she was a great character addition. I felt like Jerry and Nola's back-up (I can't remember her name without the book in front of me - the old lady who gave Y a tongue-lashing for not giving Nola the official status) were a bit brushed over in this book, although it was nice to see them pop in and out.