Wild Light by M. Liu

I had only read the first book in the Hunter Kiss series by Marjorie Liu (and it was a while ago) before picking up Wild Light, and I actually really regret skipping ahead. I was really confused in several places and I am sure it had nothing to do with Liu’s writing and just the fact that I missed out on a big chunk of this series.

So while this is a review, I don’t really feel its a review that does the author justice. I do plan to go back and read the prior books and reread this one when I get the time. It will be interesting to compare the two reviews I think.

For too long Maxine Kiss has felt an inexplicable darkness inside her-a force she channels into hunting the demons bent on destroying the human race. But when she finds herself covered in blood and crouched beside her grandfather’s dead body with no memory of what happened, Maxine begins to fear that the darkness has finally consumed her.

The story starts off with Maxine and *her boys* on their way to perform their special ritual to celebrate her birthday, which also happens to be the anniversary of the death of her mother. After the ritual they head over for a get together with her grandfather. Now this is where the story gets weird and I start to get lost (which is pretty much chapter 2ish lol) – Maxine wakes up next to her grandfathers dead body covered in blood with no memory whatsoever of what happened. To top it off she can’t remember Grant either, who just so happens to be a very important person in her life.  So the plot kicks in right away with Maxine trying to figure out why in the world her memories are missing, and who took them from her, and more specifically why her memories of Grant were taken from her when others were not  – added on to this we have Maxine finding out more about who she is in the process as well as how powerful Grant can be.

I want to take a moment to mention that I adore the idea of Maxine’s powers, or shall I say her little guardians. I love the tattoos and how they protect her from harm and how she can feel her boys on her skin sleeping. My favorite scene in Wild Light was the fire scene, it let me see just how much she is protected from when her boys are attached. This is the kind of story that I really enjoy, and I only wish I went in with more background on it.

The mood of Wild Light is rather grim and extremely emotional all the way through. I absolutely love Maxine and her *boys* and their relationship with one another, even when its not all happy happy joy joy.  The plot moves forward in quite a decent pace, though the one thing that never got explained (unless I missed it) was why her memories disappeared and who took them.

Overall I thought, of what I understood of the story anyhow, that Wild Light was pretty decent and I actually look forward to going back in time to find out more of Maxine’s world and what I missed.

Read Order:
The Iron Hunt
Darkness Calls
A Wild Light

Also reviewed by:
Smexy Books
Paranormal Haven
Falcata Times

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