Review – Black Lament (Madeline Black, Book 4) by Christina Henry (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 288 pages
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: October 30, 2012
ISBN: 978-0425256572
Stand Alone or Series: 4th book in the Madeline Black series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the fourth book in the Madeline Black series. It was a solid installment in this series, if not the best one in the series. The fifth book in the series, Black City, is scheduled for a Feb 2013 release.

Madeline Black finds out from Lucifer that she is pregnant with Gabriel’s baby. Now she not only has to evade numerous assassination attempts from the Faerie court, she also has to hunt down her father to revenge Gabriel, and keep her unborn child out of Lucifer’s hands. All of this while she continues to grieve for Gabriel.

This story was fast-paced and has a lot going on. Definitely more of an urban fantasy than PNR. These are always interesting books because, while they don’t always have a clear story or objective, there is always a lot happening and it’s engaging.

Maddie has embraced her power and isn’t afraid to destroy everything in her path to get to a goal. This book is interesting because she is forced to temper her behavior slightly to allow for her pregnancy. I do enjoy how powerful she has become and how she is always kicking someone’s butt.

My favorite character in this series continues to be Beezle the gargoyle; he just adds so much witty banter and humor to the story. Simon and JB are also running support for Maddie and it was great to have them be part of the story as well.

The other character that features in the story that I was surprised to enjoy is Nathaniel. He is in the story a lot because he is assigned by Lucifer to guard Maddie. He is becoming a more complex character and you couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for him at times.

We delve a lot deeper into the faerie realms in this book and I really enjoyed all the crazy faerie creatures that try to hunt Maddie down. There are some seriously creepy faerie creatures in this book and I loved reading about them.

I do like that they were some big revelations with Maddie’s character; I think this book paved the way for her to really grow and change in future books. She is finally embracing her godlike heritage.

My only complaint is that Maddie is a bit too lucky and powerful and is continually getting out of situations she shouldn’t be able to get out of. She tends to blast her way through situations that she could probably talk her way out of. While I enjoy the action scenes; I do feel like Maddie’s overzealousness and crazy luck is a bit over the top.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. Fans of the this series should be happy with this installment. We meet some new and interesting fairy creatures. We also get to see Maddie go through some big changes. Maddie’s continual ability to escape impossible situations unscathed does get a bit old, but I do enjoy the fast pace of the story and all of the interesting characters. I recommend this series to fans of urban fantasy. There are better urban fantasy series out there, but this is still a solid one that I enjoy reading.

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