Review – Fatal Circle (Persephone Alcmedie, Book 3) by Linda Robertson (4/5 stars)

This is the third book in the Persephone Alcmedi series by Robertson.  There are nine books planned in this series, with the fifth book Wicked Circle, scheduled for a December 2011 release.  I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as Hallowed Circle, but it was still an engaging and entertaining read.

This book starts off with Seph (Persephone) dealing with the fall-out from Hallowed Circle where she killed a faerie at the end of the book.  Now the fae are out for both Menosses and Seph’s blood.  Seph desperately needs a way to keep her mother and foster-daughter safe from these fae.  Menessos offers an elegant solution; Seph should move in with him as his witch for a while.  Of course this causes a lot of tension between Seph and Johnny…not to mention what happens when the coven finds out that Menessos and Seph are linked…oh yeah and in midst of all of this Seph, Menessos, and Johnny are protecting the world from the vengeance of the fae.

This was an engaging and entertaining read.  I still really enjoy the characters and love how Robertson has a very detailed and well-explained magic system set up.  Seph and Johnny deal with there relationship in a mature and adult way which is always nice to see; although they do dance around each other a lot in this book which was frustrating at times.  It is almost like they are too careful around each other and can’t quite accept what they have become.  Hopefully this will resolve more in the next book.  Menessos is a intriguing and complicated character and it was fun to have him in the story more.

Again this book is more urban fantasy than paranormal romance, which is my preference.  I love how all of the races (vampire, werewolf, fae and witch) are being drawn together towards Seph in her position as Lestrata.  I am eager to see where this all goes.

I guess the only thing I didn’t like with this book was that I am having a bit of trouble seeing where all of this is going.  Hopefully the story will get more direction in the next book.  I was also a bit worried about the Seph-Johnny-Menessos thing which kind of echoes the Anita-Richard-Jean-Claude relationship from the Anita Blake books.  I think I like the direction the triangle is taking in this book better than the one it took in the Anita Blake series; but the similarities make me cautious about what will happen next.

The story ended well, even though I am not sure where this is all going.  There is some Arthurian mythology mentioned throughout and it would be cool if this was echoed and entwined with the story a bit more…so far it’s mostly just been mentioned.  I imagine things are going to be even rougher for Seph in the next book with all that went down in this one.

Overall a solid addition to this series.  I continue to enjoy the likable characters, the well thought out magic system, and the engaging plot.  Robertson’s writing style is fun and easy to read.  I don’t have a good feeling for where this story is going though, so I am eager to see what Robertson comes up with in Arcane Circle.  If you like The Hollows series or Jane Yellowrock or even the Anita Blake series (early books) then you will probably enjoy this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
– 100+ Reading Challenge