Night Veil
By
Grade : D+

Night Veil is the second novel in Yasmine Galenorn’s Indigo Court series which follows a band of warriors battling the Indigo Court, a group of Vampiric Fae. Berkley bills the novel as a “paranormal romance,” but it has a more distinct urban fantasy feel to this reader. Told in first person, this is the story of Cicely Waters’ quest to reunite with her lover Grieve who has been abducted by the Indigo Court’s leader Myst.

The Indigo Court is a brutal band of Vampiric Fae. Victims of an experiment by the True Vampires gone wrong, they suffer from madness and an intense need to kill and wreak havoc. Myst has led her people into The Golden Wood and they have been terrorizing the town of New Forest. Cicely lives at the edge of The Golden Wood and is an uwilahsidhe, an owl-shifter. Raised by a troubled mother who was a witch, Cicely received her shapeshifting powers from her unknown father.

Cicely has a lot going on. In addition to her kidnapped lover, her beloved aunt is missing, her friend Kaylin’s night veil demon is waking, and she has basically bargained herself into slavery with the True Vampires, belonging to an especially perverse Vein Lord named Lannan. Also, because she is part Cambyra (or shapeshifting) Fae, she is a subject of Lainule, the Fae Queen of Rivers and Rushes and Queen of Summer. As such, she is duty bound to try to protect Lainule from her archenemy Myst who is encroaching on her territory and is out to destroy her. To say Cicely has a few problems to solve would be an understatement.

To be clear, while this is labeled “paranormal romance” there is little romance to be found within the pages. Cicely and Grieve spend the majority of the novel apart. While he is a prisoner of The Indigo Court, the story is more about Cicely trying to find a way to rescue him and help her friends than it is about developing any relationship between the two of them. They manage to come together at a couple of points during the story in order to have sex but that is the extent of their contact until the conclusion. The reader is told of their deep connection; however, I did not feel anything for Grieve or for their relationship. At the end of the story I felt like I didn’t know Grieve at all and would not have been bothered if Myst had kept him for her personal pet and boy toy. To me, the romance was virtually nonexistent.

This is the second book of a series and I spent about a third of my reading experience completely confused as to who was whom and their relationships to one another. Adding to my confusion were the different groups of beings: Vampiric Fae, Cambyra Fae, True Vampires who serve The Crimson Queen, magic born, weres, night-veil demons, yumannii (humans), Bat People, and on and on. It was all a bit much for me to sort through. The world-building, though complex, is not tight enough to qualify as what I would consider “good.” Maybe if I had read the preceding novel this one would have made more sense, but as a standalone I found it difficult to follow.

The story was kind of a train wreck, but I can hardly find fault with the author’s imagination. The world is inventive and memorable with rich descriptions of the environment and its inhabitants. The descriptions were vivid, from the lovely descriptions of the perpetual winter Myst has brought to The Golden Wood, to the grisly (at one point Cicely eats and regurgitates a rabbit while in owl form), to the freaky encounter Cicely has with the Vampires’ Blood Oracle. Even as the plot went in multiple directions the story held my interest.

Ultimately though, I cannot recommend Night Veil as a romance. The hero and heroine spend very little time together and the hero gets minimal “screen time” period. Skip this one if you dislike long separations, meandering plots, gratuitous sex, rabbit-o-cide, and creepy Bat People.

Reviewed by Heather Stanton
Grade : D+

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date : August 11, 2011

Publication Date: 2011/07

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Heather Stanton

I read romance of any sub-genre, but particularly love contemporaries. Well-written stories of any variety interest me though and I'm always on the hunt for my next favorite book. I love smart-mouthed heroines and tortured heroes, unusual time periods and just about anything medieval. On a personal note, I'm a political junkie, Cushing's Disease survivor, mom to 11 rescued dogs and too many cats to actually count.
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