More of a strong 2.5 or 2.75. It was alright. Took awhile to get going. Literally 100 pages before plot started happening. Now I remember that Charlaine Harris is more of a character writer. But the weirdness of the few people that live in Midnight, Texas was so shrouded in mystery we got more of their regular every day than about paranormal powers or fantasy characteristics. This was a lot less about that than the Sookie Stackhouse series was. There were more hints as to what everyone was towards the end of the book. Joe and Chuy kind of took me by surprise. Anyway, even the whodunit, the plot as it were turned out to be very mundane, if a bit surprising. The towns solution got me a little teary-eyed since it really was the only one but Harris rightfully included many of them having doubts and being unable to consent. What would any of us do in that situation. Another point to highlight how human they all are. They are so regular that I overestimated almost everyone's ages in the first part of the book. I swore they were all at least 10 years older, minus Lemuel. Anyway, that was a ramble. I am not invested but curious about the next book. So I'll pick it up randomly one day.

Hmm, 3.5 stars for the Bear and the Nightingale. This was written like a more detailed folk tale. Like some parts have gone missing in time or memory. An incomplete story if you will. Looking at the blurb for the sequel I think that's on purpose. From the matter of fact way of life, to the various stories going on that only somewhat tie together but give a broad picture of life. But because if this it can drag in some parts and leave you wondering when we will get to the point. And then there's the ending. One can hope there will be more to the problems with the Bear in the sequels but who knows.

I don't know that Vasilia's being different has anything to do with anything other than being magical. The story makes it seem like she's some sort of historical tomboy or out of time suffragette. Especially when compared to every other female. But she isn't really. She doesn't fit in because she's literally not like them.

Anyway, the religious/spiritual aspects were very well done imo as a pagan. That's where the author excelled. There and in painting the picture of the setting. I felt cold the entire time while reading this. The people are all relatable somehow, even the Prince and the Metropolitan. Even Konstantine though you don't want to relate to him because his weaknesses are easily seen from the beginning. That's the type of man you don't want or shouldn't be a messenger of the Christian God and it comes across strongly.

2.5 stars. Its a beginner's book. Not bad. I honestly liked the first section best and didn't finish this. Once we get to basically pages of correspondences and then pages of recipes it became uninteresting to me. I am not brand new to that information. I skimmed a bit and there was very little new info that I don't have in other books. Some stuff was clearly not her area, for example the info about the sun and moon moving through the signs sounded like she was guestimating when that info is easily available online. Even randoms on the street know that. I really appreciated the info about connecting and finding harmony with your local area with some basic how-to's as that was new to me. But overall 2/3rds of this book was another witch's herbal.

It didn't move quite as quickly as I would have liked it to but otherwise this book was great.

I really liked this one. Naasir is fun. His origin story while original was kind of hard to believe. How he got Andromeda out of her vow was a bit too easily done for my tastes. The chemistry between him and Andromeda was great though. I also like the not quite backdrop of all the archangel politics and maneuvering. After the past few books the idea that things can get worse and the world is in for even bigger changes is mind boggling. I can't wait to find out how things turn out for Illium, how the cadre is going to function with 2 ancients now, how Raphael will evolve and how can they all get rid of Lijuan cause she needs to be well and truly killed.

1st reread, I think. Why did I reread this? Its been awhile and I've started to catch up on the currently published books that I haven't read in this series. But I realized there was some stuff I didn't remember about Elena's childhood. Turns out there a bunch of foundational stuff I didn't remember as well.

I'd give this a 4 stars now because I'm not as enamored by Raphael as when I first read this. The world is still really interesting. A new twist on some old tropes. Plus, I still haven't come across such unique ideas for angels. I still think the love story is relatively realistic though too.

Loved it. Nice to get back to Elena and Raphael focus. And really great to get more of Elena's history. Also, lots of Aodhan which we haven't really had before. I love the friendship between him and Illium and how he is healing and growing closer to Elena.