Audiobook Review – Blood Rock (Skindancer, Book 2) by Anthony Francis (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 15 hours and 42 minutes (298 pages)
Publisher: Debra Dixon
Release Date: October 5, 2012
ASIN: B009NZ4MA2
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Skindancer series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the second book in the Dakota Frost series by Francis. It was an okay book, but there are definitely some flaws throughout the story. The third book in the series, Liquid Fire, was just released in May 2015.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator does a decent job. She does a good job with emotion and does okay with unique character voices. However there are a couple of male characters that sound very similar and are hard to distinguish between.

In this book Dakota is trying to track down the person making magical graffiti around the city. The magical graffiti is killing people (primarily vamps) and it looks like the whole city is pushing towards a larger disaster if the graffiti can’t be stopped.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first book in the Dakota Frost series. This is an urban fantasy series about a magical tattoo artist named Dakota Frost who is also a skindancer (meaning she can make her tattoos come alive and attack/defend by dancing).

I do enjoy the concept behind these novels. However I felt like the plot was just kind of all over the place. On top of that one disastrous thing after another happens to Dakota to the point where you are just like “Oh my God, enough already!” I felt like Dakota’s reactions to all these huge awful events was just so hollow.

Additionally there are a number of times in the story where Dakota makes mental leaps or deduces things that just don’t make sense with the rest of the story. As a reader you are left thinking “Huh?”

Lastly there are a few times where Dakota is in a situation where she could use her magic but doesn’t; these scenes don’t make sense and seem to mainly just be there to push the plot in the right direction. At times I was almost screaming “Just use your stupid vines and block them already!”

The world is pretty typical urban fantasy fare (werekin, vampires, magic, and a heroine who runs herself ragged). However I was disappointed in the some of the plot points. Especially the whole thing with Calaphase.

I do continue to enjoy the characters. I love the idea of skindancing and how that magic works; that part of the story is very unique and creative. I loved how much Dakota’s foster child, Cinnamon, was in the story and really enjoyed watching Cinnamon change and grow throughout the story.

Overall this was an okay book, but pretty mediocre considering all of the other urban fantasy options out there. I continue to really love the creative tattoo magic and skindancing and loved that we learned more about that in this book. However at times the story is flawed and I thought that Dakota’s reaction to all the disaster happening around her was kind of blah.

The world here is pretty typical urban fantasy fare. I guess I would recommend checking this series out if you are a huge urban fantasy fan and have read through most of the other urban fantasy out there. I have Liquid Fire for review but am debating as to whetheror not I will actually read it.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– 2015 Audiobook Challenge