I’ve been very much awaiting the next Otherworld novel, Autumn Whispers, by Yasmine Galenorn. I knew at the ending of the last one, Haunted Moon, big things were about to happen both Earthside and in the Otherworld. However, I was pretty disappointed with Autumn Whispers and felt kind of let down.
We’re the D’Artigo sisters: savvy half-human, half-Fae ex-operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. My sister Camille is a wicked-good witch with three sexy husbands. My sister Menolly is a vampire married to a wildly hot werepuma. And me? I’m Delilah, a two-faced werecat and Death Maiden. The Supe Community is in danger and now it’s up to us to unravel a mystery to which we may not want the answers…
When two vampiric software engineers approach us about a missing colleague, we don’t expect to find much. But then Grandmother Coyote steps in and our simple missing persons case rapidly devolves into a nightmare of debauchery, slavery, and corporate greed. Now, we must infiltrate and destroy an underground organization of influential men, led by the mysterious Lowestar Radcliff, before they discover we’re on to them. But one misstep puts our whole operation and our lives in peril, and I must unleash my powers as a Death Maiden, even if it means destroying someone I love.
It is no secret that my favorite storyteller is Camille and well, she wasn’t our narrator this time around in Autumn Whispers. Delilah is our narrator and takes us through the events this time around, as is par for this series as Ms. Galenorn rotates the POVs going from Camille to Delilah to Menolly. It’s also no secret that Delilah isn’t exactly my favorite sister and in fact, is my least favorite of the three. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like her–and since she’s become a Death Maiden and lost that naive outlook on things, I like her a lot more now than I did at the start of the series. But, her being our narrator in Autumn Whispers wasn’t why I was disappointed and felt let down. Nope, those feelings came from the fact that, to me, Autumn Whispers felt like a filler book and one that didn’t do much of anything to further along the main series story arc.
What I’ve loved most about the Otherworld series is Galenorn’s dark and gritty writing. Each book always has some form of urgent issue that creates turmoil for the sisters, along with other series of events which develop as subplots but succeed in furthering the series story arc. I didn’t get that feeling with Autumn Whispers. Now, I’m hoping like hell that I’m completely wrong and once I read the next one (which should be from Menolly’s POV), I’ll be eating these words. Yes, there were issues that popped up that felt urgent and as I was reading, what seemed to be the book’s main story arc kept looking like would come to a crux and we’d have that big action-packed fight scene, filled with angst and drama and worry about who would survive and who wouldn’t. To some extent, we had 1 scene where there was a huge “storm” and the sisters are left wondering who all survived and what will happen next. But, there wasn’t much actual action and I guess that is where I feel really let down.
I do think that there are several events that occur in Autumn Whispers that will have a huge impact on the overall story arc, but what impact is anyone’s guess. I guess with how things were left at the end of Haunted Moon, I expected more along the lines of what is going on with Shadow Wing’s attempt to get the seals (and we do get some of that) and not some other big issue (left completely unresolved) that is completely separate and apart (so it seems at this point, anyway) from the main story arc revolving around Shadow Wing.
Again, I think I’m let down with Autumn Whispers because I didn’t get my big action packed battle scene and the seemingly urgent issue that the sisters have to deal with, which is mentioned in the blurb, doesn’t get any resolution at all. (Sorry for the spoiler!) The good news? I’m salivating for the next one. I know, without a doubt, the battle of all battles is drawing closer and closer and while I don’t want the series to end, I’m getting anxious for that big, bad ass battle to happen.
Read Order:
Witchling
Changeling
Darkling
Dragon Wytch
Night Huntress
Demon Mistress
Bone Magic
Harvest Hunting
Blood Wyne
Courting Darkness
Shaded Vision
Shadow Rising
Haunted Moon
Autumn Whispers
Crimson Veil (Jan 28, 2014)
