Ash’s review of Stranger (Blades of the Rose, Book 4) by Zoe Archer
Paranormal Romance published by Zebra 07 Dec 10
In the last book, Rebel, I got a bit tired of reading the same thing over and over. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Stranger. Zoe Archer adds enough of a change for me to get drawn back into this world she has created. Though it’s not without its own problems.
Catullus Graves is the nerdy, well-dressed, bespectacled brain of the Blades, which is not usually the type of hero I enjoy reading about. However, with Catullus, he has me the second he appears in the series. With Gemma, at first he’s unsure of himself around her, and I find him to be charming. He is not used to feeling that way around a woman and it throws him off. He gains confidence with her and he becomes a different man, and it’s damn sexy of him. I love watching him change and become a better person with Gemma. My only issue is that he is the amazing inventor, but we didn’t get to really see anything of his. I was looking forward to seeing what else he could come up with.
Gemma is also a character I enjoy. Typically I am not a fan of reporter heroines. I find too often that they come off as too stupid to live. It might be that fact that once she becomes involved with Catullus, there’s no time for her to be a reporter. Her job is really only mentioned when she is thinking of the discrimination she goes through as a female. Either way, I like her and she’s the perfect fit for Catullus. She accepts him as the eccentric he is, and she just feels like someone who it would be easy to be friends with.
As for the ongoing battle with the Heirs and the fight to protect the magical sources, I find I’m less interested in that. By this book I just want the rest to be over with, and I want more time with Catullus and Gemma. Once they split up from the rest of the Blades and start their own journey in the Otherworld is when I started to get back into it. The addition of faerie creatures, King Arthur, and Merlin help in a lot of ways, and it’s what was lacking in the previous three books.
Stranger is a bunch of adventures one right after the other, some parts I enjoyed more, and some parts I found myself skimming through. At 500 pages, I feel that by the end I’m just ready for the final showdown. I did enjoy meeting again with the couples from the previous books and I am glad they were all there.
So, in the end I did enjoy this series, especially Stranger. I just wish I wasn’t always left wanting just a little bit more.
Grade: C+
Summary:
He protects the world’s magic—with his science. But even the best scientists can fall prey to the right chemistry…
LOOKING FOR TROUBLE
Gemma Murphy has a nose for a story—even if the boys in Chicago’s newsrooms would rather focus on her chest. So when she runs into a handsome man of mystery discussing how to save the world from fancy-pants Brit conspirators, she’s sensing a scoop. Especially when he mentions there’s magic involved. Of course, getting him on the record would be easier if he hadn’t caught her eavesdropping…
LIGHTING HIS FUSE
Catullus Graves knows what it’s like to be shut out: his ancestors were slaves. And he’s a genius inventor with appropriately eccentric habits, so even people who love him find him a little odd. But after meeting a certain red-headed scribbler, he’s thinking of other types of science. Inconvenient, given that he needs to focus on preventing the end of the world as we know it. But with Gemma’s insatiable curiosity sparking Catullus’s inventive impulses, they might set off something explosive anyway….
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
