D

No one got forever. And it was a fucking crime to waste what you were given.

Lover Reborn

The pacing was a bit fast for me, the book could have benefited from being a little longer. On the other hand, it skilfully did exactly what it set out to do, so maybe it's great as it is.

My favourite book in the series. Yessss, found family. Yessss, healthy kink and messy feelings, infuriating villains and brilliant magic. Smart houses. Mothers.

Yes to all of this a thousand times over.


“I want to kiss you until your mouth forgets it exists for any reason but to let me taste it. I want to kiss you so well, and so long, that every narrator in your books will crawl off their pages and die from sheer jealousy.” His lips almost, almost made contact. But didn't. He sounded like rough gravel and black tea full of sugar. “Will you let me?”

I'm shipping Pei Ming with his sword. Seriously. And with the Rain Master as well. It would do him good.

I really want to know Hua Cheng's password.

Xie Lian keeping his method of receiving spiritual energy from Hua Cheng in the middle of battle.

The big Xie Lian statue being dwarved by the fire giant

Kate, kind of forgettable. But it was a heist book, it had no angst, and it didn't suck. It's a win. Plus, I'm interested in the other characters' stories.

Dark Heir was very narratively satisfying. But also soul destroying. I don't know how I'll wait for the final installment.

I can't promise coherence but I do have some thoughts:

Dom/sub undertones from book one become loud OVERtones in book 2.

For all of its lack of explicit sex, it felt hot. Obscene. Illicit. Very addictive!

James flirted so hard. Wow.

Will's thirst was epic. Unending. Survived thousands of years and it showed.

There was only one bed! And the challenge. Damn, James, you really want him in the same bed as you.

my jealous master

And then Will was so jealous someone looked at James like a possession he broke character... and that teacup.

I can't believe James fucked Will with his magic. More explicit than actual fucking. No cocks were involved but this happened:

“I can feel it,” said James, “I can feel—” Not enough. “Push harder,” said Will. He was pushed painfully into the edge of the table, and he felt the clutch of James's fist in his hair, James unconsciously pushing at him as his power pushed inside. It flooded every crack, raced along every slit, looking for a gap, a weakness, a way in. “There—” He could feel it, an almost imperceptible point, smaller than a hairline fissure, where James's power was questing, sinking, drilling. “There—” As if his core was responding, as if every closed part of him would let James in, no matter the danger. Except it wouldn't; some last defense held tightly closed, even if whatever lay beyond was stirring.

And yet, even with James behind him and with James's magic inside him, Will was - always - the one giving the order. It felt obscenely intimate. Kudos to the author for a job well done.

Enter interrupted conversations, running around like headless chicken and all the reunions in the world. It felt like Xie Lian and Hua Cheng spent most of their time eavesdropping on others' current conversations or watching memories.
For adventure time in the mountain of doom, I was quite bored.

Several excellent silver linings, though:

Xie Lian got a hug!

Forehead kiss (accidentally on the forehead, he wanted to give Hua Cheng air

Yes, good.

Stream of consciousness ahead, as I read on:


I can't believe we got, what'sitcalled, plant yao siren things. Weren't yao supposed to be animal spirits? Admittedly, Chinese fantasy lore isn't my strongest side so I'll need to look it up eventually.

Anyway, I can't believe we got a close call of fuck or die. Or no, we did get fuck or die, and Xie Lian literally stabbed himself in the gut. Amazing. Demisexual king. Also now the readers, as well as Hua Cheng, know that Xie Lian has very sensitive nipples.

I love this book so much!

It's consistent. Fantastically so! Every character, every arc, every action.

Its mystical elements, like the heavens, fate, ghosts, the platonic soul mates connection between the two foils the protagonists are... they are all brilliant. I want to eat them. Maybe not quite literally, but I want to gobble them up and keep them with me.

The tragic brothers were so well done.
They remind me so much of Loki and Thor, of Richard and Francis Crawford. The perfect son, paragon of masculinity, for whom everything in life goes right (right until it really, really doesn't) and the smart, bookish, different, waspish brother who just most of all wants to be embraced for who he is. And how that doesn't happen.

Excellent work with plot, momentum, pacing, emotions.

Points for the random fisting scene when I didn't expect explicit sex at all.

And now we're gearing for a Game of Thrones-esque race for the throne.

I am SO happy I waited until after book 2 came out to start this. Now I can start it immediately after finishing this one, and swim in all its glory and pain.

Fantastic! It's only been a few hours, and if anything happens to Murderbot... well, you know the rest.

Loved the translation, too.

Kinda bummed about Murderbot's final choice, but I'm extatic it [he? It seems kind of disrespectful] had the freedom to make it.

I need to read more of this, and soon.

Not the “Earth is space Australia” I picked it up for.

I enjoyed:
-the unreliable narrator even though Violet was occasionally a little too blind.
-speaking, smart, dragons, different shapes and forms.
-telepathy or whatsitcalled when people speak to each other only in their heads. It might be popular in ya/na but I don't read bulks of that so I don't encounter it every day.
-kind of sort of soul mates?
-the magic system.
-the dick measuring contest was sort of fun.
-last twist. Yesss! It crossed my mind that could be the case but I didn't think a reveal would be in this book.
-no real love triangle.
-friendships.




What annoyed me:
-stop letting him touch your face, for the love of dragons, woman!!!! I swear I screamed every time.
-what we're those ilu-s all over the place.
-the dynamics now is kind of... not sure. On one hand, delicious angst, on the other... ughhh.
-Xaden's pov. As much as I enjoyed some mysteries unravelled and some theories confirmed... it was kind of too mushy? shrug
-Jack got off too easily.


Fingers crossed that it's a duology or a trilogy - and not a never-ending mess. expected five. Well, damn.

Three stars? Four stars? I don't know. It might even be five upon reread.

The book has an interesting structure, and even as I cared little for Sophos personally, I eventually started to. As I was meant to.

I don't understand everything that happened. But I want to see what happens next.

And, to be honest, I want more Gen.

Fantastic. It's so satisfying! And that last sentence... looking forward to the rest of the series.

It sucks to be chosen by the gods.

This was a wild ride. With a lot of build up from the first two books, and however much foreshadowing I caught, I missed twice this much. I won't pretend coherence and this is a review only in the sense that it's typed up in the space for one. It's just a few jumbled thoughts and quotes.


“Wanna make a monster? Take the parts of yourself that make you uncomfortable — your weaknesses, bad thoughts, vanities, and hungers — and pretend they're across the room. It's too ugly to be human. It's too ugly to be you. Children are afraid of the dark because they have nothing real to work with. Adults are afraid of themselves.”
― Richard Siken


“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” indeed.


I admit that the reason the author picked the name Ophelia escapes me. I kept looking for a Polonius and didn't find one. Unless Li Shanfeng counts but by my estimation he doesn't.

That wasn't what Ophelia was doing. She was just wearing the skin of it on the outside, like camouflage. It was really good camouflage, too. Aadhya and Chloe and even Liesel were smiling, charmed and made welcome, until they saw my face. Aadhya immediately put her hand in her pocket, I'm guessing because she had some kind of protective artifice in there, and Liesel shifted a step back, putting herself in a position to fire off an offensive spell from behind a shield. Poor Chloe's face went almost comically horrified.

The “stayed up all night” shelf is kind of ironic in this case. There were two hours where I could have closed my eyes and instead I spent them reading

I knew it!!!! Except, no, I didn't. I knew something was up but not exactly what. And that ending! When is book 2 coming out, anyway?

3.5

I liked the last part best, where they were cleaning up and having necessary conversations.

Looking forward to the Devlin & co and Raziel & co shorts.

There should be one where Amr and Ken, and Rafael and Blaze come visit Avalon.

3.5

Megan Derr has always been my guilty pleasure read. Not that I'veever felt particularly guilty reading her books but it somehow feels like I should.

It's not that I don't recognise the flaws, it's that they really really don't hinder the stories for me. The stories read like fairy tales and even the questionable behaviour (especially in this series - issues like (not bothering with) consent and stalkerish behaviour in the first books) while not seeming as cute on a reread... well, they didn't throw me off the stories. I see the new stories rewriting worldbuilding from the previous ones, I raise my eyebrows and move on. I realise they might be a little bit not good on a number of levels, but I still enjoy them, all right? They're tasty. Like junk food, probably.

So that said, Dance with the Devil is one of my favourite Megan Derr series. I enjoy catching up with - and going back to - Chris and Sable, Grim and Johnnie, Jesse and Rostya & co. I'm hoping Caedda (and that Alucard, what was his name)'s story will be told eventually. I'm looking forward to the other Cross brothers' stories. Basically, I'm pretty fond of this world. :D

This story was a nice addition. I enjoyed Kipling's journey and I happily revisited the whole series.

This is not even one of my favorite Megan Derr stories and yet I keep coming back to it every year.

It's short and sweet.

I wouldn't say no to a few more extras. Xd

4.5

The romance is superb, I could have done with less political intrigues.

Definitely will read again.

Coming here from the series: all this happened in book one?!

On another note, let's not and say we did.