Friday, September 12, 2008

Review - Haunted



Title: Haunted
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publishing Date: June 2005
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: C+
Sensuality: Kisses

Haunted is book five in Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Underworld Series. Eve Levine is a ghost. The fates have asked for her help in bringing a dangerous chaos demon Nix, back into confinement. Others have tried to bring the Nix back and have failed. Eve is given an angel Trsiel as a partner and her former lover Kristof Nast aids her on this mission as well.

First off, I have to say that I was not expecting Eve to be the narrator of this book and because of that I was a little disappointed. Eve is a ghost and that means she can’t interact with the living, except for necromancers, whose specialty is communicating with the dead. Eve enlists the aid of Jamie, who has appeared in earlier books in this series. The story felt disconnected in a sense that Eve is on the outside looking in. She can only observe what is happening in the real world and can’t interact in it at all.

The ghost world is very unusual and this was both a curse and a blessing for the story. The descriptions of the different places Eve visits in the ghost world were definitely unique and interesting to read about. I felt like Armstrong towed to close the line of the story becoming more cartoonish than realistic.

Trsiel, Eve’s angelic partner was very frustrating. He is supposed to help Eve in her quest to capture the Nix. Every time Eve had the Nix cornered and she called Trsiel for help, he was supposed to appear immediately brandishing his sword of justice and capture the Nix. Did he ever once show up on time? Nope, not once. I was ever so annoyed with this.

I did like the interaction between Kristof and Eve. These scenes were few and far between though. Haunted is definitely not a romance in the sense that Eve’s mission is more of a focus than her relationship with Kristof. It’s not a bad book but for me, this was an average read and probably the weakest of the series so far.

Here is what others had to say:

Rosario's Reading Journal
Someone's Read it Already
Reading Adventures

6 comments:

Marg said...

I really enjoy this whole series, particularly the non-werewolf books!

My review for this one is here

Anonymous said...

I liked this one but I do agree that it is the weakest in the series.

Carolyn Crane said...

Thanks for the review! I love Kelley Armstrong but I haven't read this one yet.

nath said...

i agree with you, this one is probably the weakest in the series... it's one that didn't grip my attention... but you're going to love Jaime's book, I guarantee it :)

Jill D. said...

Hey Marg, Thanks for the link. I will add it to the others.

Nath, I can't wait for Jamie's book. I have already read Broken, review to follow soon. I skipped a story in the anthology Dates from Hell, so I am going to back track. I was wondering when Hope got a book. That is why I was confused when Eve was narrating this book. For some reason I got it in my head it was Hope's book.

nath said...

Nah, Haunted wasn't Hope's book... Hope was actually introduced in that anthology, Dates from Hell. She appears in No Humans Involved... her book is Personal Demon (which I think you need to read the anthology to understand it fully) and she's also going to appear in Living with the Dead, which comes out next month!! YAY!.