Review – Flesh and Blood (House of Comarre, Book 2) by Kristen Painter (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 432 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: November 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0316084765
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in House of Comarre series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the second book in the House of Comarre series by Painter. This book tells the story from multiple viewpoints, while this broadens the story some it also takes away from time with the main characters. I enjoyed this book, it was about on par with the first one in my opinion.

Chrysabelle still owes Malkolm for his help in the first book, but is having trouble fulfilling that debt since she is not at all welcome in her home city. Meanwhile the villainous, Titania is trying to hunt down the Ring of Sorrows, and will stop at nothing to get this back. Thrown into the mix is Doc trying to help out his ghostly girlfriend and the appearance of a mysterious man named Creek who belongs to some strange secret society.

I enjoyed this book. I enjoy Chrysabelle and Malkolm as leads but was a bit disappointed that their characters didn’t make more progress as a couple. Also in this book Painter throws in the mysterious Creek to create a sort of love triangle between Chrys, Mal, and Creek. I thought the love triangle was unnecessary and can only hope there was some greater reason behind this that will be revealed in later books.

The story in this book is a lot more fractured than the previous book. We hear from many different viewpoints: mainly from Chrysabelle’s, Malkolm’s, Doc’s, and Titania’s points of view. While I enjoyed that way that this broadened the story and allowed us to see into these characters’ heads; it resulted in a storyline that was more fractured and moved forward much more slowly than the previous book. I constantly found myself skimming the parts from Titania or Doc’s POV so that I could get back to reading more about Chrys and Mal.

Overall I liked the writing style and found it very readable. This was a book that’s easy to read and engaging.

I enjoyed the action scenes, although again there weren’t as many as in the first book. I also enjoyed the expansion of the world. The plot moved slower than I would have liked and I was surprised that there wasn’t much resolution around the whole Ring of Sorrows plot. The book ends on a pretty big cliffhanger and doesn’t have much resolution, so just a look out for people who hate that.

Overall this was an enjoyable read. I like Chrys and Mal as characters and there are some interesting side characters as well. The world is broadened in this book and some interesting twists happen in the story. Chrys and Mal don’t make as much progress as a couple as I had hoped for though, and I thought that throwing in the mysterious Creed to create a love triangle between Chrys, Mal, and Creed was unnecessary and obnoxious. I also thought the constant switching of viewpoints caused the plot to move slower than it should have and fractured the story some; although it was interesting to hear from other characters in the story. I really enjoyed the writing style and the action scenes; but did not enjoy the cliffhanger ending. I will definitely be reading the third book because I need to know how everything ends! I recommend this book for fans of urban fantasy or paranormal romance types book; it falls somewhere between the two genres.

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