Moonshine, Madhouse & Deathwish

Moonshine, Madhouse & Deathwish by Rob Thurman

(Books #2-4 of the Cal Leandros series)

Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁

Link to Moonshine, Madhouse & Deathwish Blurbs

I'm reviewing books 2-4 of this series at the same time, since I read them all over a two-day period and they've kind of mashed all together in my head. Plus, they're all awesome.

I'll admit, after the first installment (Nightlife), I wasn't too impressed. You can go back and read my review of it to find out why, but I'd read and loved Ms. Thurman's Trickster series so was willing to give the next book a shot. Instead, I inhaled the next three.

Talk about ramping up the action! All of my critiques of the first book were eliminated. Cal grows up and becomes one of my new favourite characters. The snark factor is still pretty high, but it's a whole lot funnier and much less annoying. I enjoyed getting to know the rest of the characters too, especially with the switch to Niko's POV every other chapter in Deathwish. At first I wasn't sure about it, but seeing the imperfections inside the perfect Niko more than made up for the bland representation of Niko's voice.

Also, remember how I said the Auphe weren't a real threat? I take that back. Way back.

This isn't a series for anyone who likes their fantasy remotely happy-ish. It's dark, and potentially disturbing, but wonderful for all of that, with a grim humour that keeps it from becoming too heavy.