The Outlaw Demon Wails audiobook

This one was a treat to read. I have little going on about how to describe the reading experience, except for the fact that there was little romance in this book. That helped. There was also little action too.So what did this book comprise? There are continuations about relationships. The mourning of lost ones. The fear of the unknown, here called the ever after, which is a dimension where demons live.I thought hard about whether this book is worth 4 stars. But then I realized that though I will never reread this book, it's a pretty damn well put together one. The last third is the good stuff. The author, Kim Harrison, is a master storyteller. You can't go wrong with her.

It's a fact that this book was not as good as the previous novel in the series but in no way is it no good, hence the 5 stars. The plot thickens more and we still have no clue as to who killed (view spoiler)[Kisten (hide spoiler)] and I will admit I may be a little bit bothered by that. But this book took a complete different turn.Rachel is still struggling with her feelings and she is extra reckless, I'd say. She's grown so much as a person since book 1 and I'm proud of where she is but I'd lie if I'd say that thing don't get fucked up in this book for her and I thought it impossible for her situation to get any worse. If you've loved all the previous books, then there's no doubt that you'll like this one too for the simple reason that the author still manages to keep everything interesting. I haven't lost interest yet.If you wait for some Rachel-Ivy action then you may get disappointed.. I did, too. I'm not a hardcore shipper but there's an undeniable love between them and a bond too, that could easily evolve into something else if Rachel gave them a chance. At the end of the day, I just want them to be happy.I'll dive into the next book soon and hope we get some answers because I'm dying to see the person responsible for (view spoiler)[Kisten's (hide spoiler)] death suffer the same fate.

This was so friggin DELICIOUS!Halloween has come to The Hollows.Ceri is (view spoiler)[pregnant (hide spoiler)] and just this once, Trent is innocent. *snickers*Demons are suddenly jumping out of the woodwork, basically summoning themselves into Rachel’s presence somehow and some are even „asking“ Rachel for help. Yep, Al is escaping prison and they can’t get a lid on it.So there definitely is a player hiding or not yet having been introduced.As you can imagine from Ceri’s situation, a lot of trouble is following the elves (no, not just Ceri), ending with Rachel going into the ever-after to finally settle some scores. And all that despite her still grieving for Kisten, trying to figure out her relationship with her roomie, Ivy, and involuntarily finding out more about her parentage.Oh, and a gargoyle seems to have moved in without asking anyone. *lol*After the annoyance and depression I felt in the former volume, this was a breath of fresh air what with all the hilarity Rachel’s mom brought to every situation she was in (that woman is KICK-ASS and in a very stylish way) or Trents fear of Ceri. :DA very interesting (and true) musing the author had Ceri voice: power doesn’t corrupt you - it just brings to the forefront of what is already there. Kind of like the superhuman serum Captain America got (the example is all the more apt because of last night’s ep of Falcon & Winter Soldier).The trip through the ever-after was very interesting. Naturally, a few things went wrong, but that only increased the stakes and made it all more thrilling. Most of all, I loved Jenks figuring out what circles are (made of) and how hitching a ride on one of the ley lines works. Brilliant little bugger. But it was also very interesting to learn more about the world elves and witches emigrated from (and potentially why) and seeing more black magic. That plus a certain necessary deal with a certain demon towards the end bodes very well for interesting future encounters.The narrator, sadly, was really bad. From pronouncing names completely wrong to giving Jenks the kind of voice that drove me nuts about the mice in Cinderella, it was terrible and I’m glad she only got to do this one book and we’ll have the other narrator back again.And yet, the characters, world building and general writing-style made it work anyway - Kim Harrison is that good. Many consider stories in this genre as fluff or forgettable or whatever, but this author proves that important messages can be conveyed in any form of story.

As I said here Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series has replaced Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series in my mind as top form in the genre of paranormal private investigators.In this latest outing, she's upped the ante even more by not doing what Hamilton does as her series continues--to wit, regress her plots to the point where they are mere frames on which she hangs her torpidly overwritten soft-core pornography--but instead takes her character the other way. This 6th book of the series takes us along with Rachel as she discovers that there are consequences to living her life as she has been. That her actions have (and can) cause people to lose their lives.It's a breath of fresh air for a writer in this genre to show her readers that she can risk dealing more seriously with her audience. Ms. Harrison has decided that she can risk treating us to Rachel's maturing and in doing so treat us maturely.Thank you, Kim Harrison.

This review can also be found at https://carolesrandomlife.com/I enjoyed this book! I have been slowly working my way through this series and I am finding that it gets better and better with each book. I hesitated to pick up this audiobook once I noticed that there was a narrator change. I thought that my best move might just be to sit down and read the book and switch back to audiobooks on the next installment. I decided to give it a try and found that the narrator change wasn’t as big of a deal as I had thought it would be. I definitely enjoyed myself with this book.This story was amazing. We learn so many important things in this book and I found that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Rachel can hardly get a break. Demons seem to keep wanting to drag her into their drama and everybody thinks that she is dealing with black magic. Rachel’s mom plays a bigger role in this installment and I really liked what she added to the story. The story was rather exciting and I loved how it kept me guessing.Gigi Bermingham did a decent job with the narration. The problem is that Marguerite Gavin narrated every other book in the series and her voice is who I think of when I think of Rachel, Ivy, and the rest of the gang. There were a few words and names that were pronounced differently than they have been in the rest of the series and I thought that the voice used for Jenx was annoying. It wasn’t a deal-breaker though. I would listen to her narration work again in the future if she were narrating a different series of books.I would recommend this series to others. This is a series that does need to be read in order since each book builds on the events in previous installments. I feel like the series gets better and better with each book and I cannot wait to see what happens in the next book.Initial ThoughtsI enjoyed this book! I was really worried about listening to the audiobook since the narrator is different with this one than the rest of the series but I decided to just go for it. She said a few things weird and I didn't like all of her character voices but she wasn't the worst narrator. The story itself was amazing! We learn so many things in this installment. And can I just say that I love Rachel's mom? I am quite eager to move on to the next book.Book source: I own a physical copy and I borrowed a copy of the audiobook.

With everything that happened in book five, all the drama, tragedy and heartache, it was hard not being a little nervous about what Harrison would throw our way this time. But with a brave smile on my face, I dived right in. There was no way that I couldn't. I had to know what happened next. I am so very glad that I waited to start this series until all the books were out because binge reading this series is so the way to go. They are so addicting and hard to put down and with so much on the line for Rachel, I couldn't see having to wait months for the next book, I think it would have killed me. Harrison has no qualms at all about putting her readers through the ringer. This woman does not pull her punches and with this novel focusing more on the gang and Rachel's personal life, things get real, and they get real, real fast. As much as this is Rachel's story, it is also Al's and Ceri's as well. We finally get background info on them both and even Trent as well and so much is starting to make sense and come together. It truly was mind blowing how many twists and unexpected turns showed up and threw me for a loop once more. This series is definitely keeping me on my toes and I'm having a hard time not wanting to read them all in one go. I can't wait to see what Harrison has up her sleeve next.

One book at a time, always getting more and more invested. Of course, by this point, I feel like I'm falling down a mountain of smut *see the definition in these novels* and the lives of Rachel, Jenks, and Ivy are submerging themselves in my aura. Am I cursed with a good story?Yes. Yes, I think I am.Of course, being hounded by an outlaw demon is wildly entertaining. So is Rachel's mom. Why not have a fling, girl? lolAnd then there are a bunch of whammy reveals, deals with devils, and a little trip in the Ever After to make this particular novel a truly great ride.In all, this is one of the best UFs out there. Certainly one of the most fun, and on this re-read, I simply can't change my mind about it. :)

Luckily Rachel wasn't quite as annoying in this edition as she has been becoming. She was actually starting to grow up and take responsibilty for her actions and wasn't whining when things didn't go her way.In this story Rachel is being stalked by the demon "Al" and she has to find a way to stop him attempting to hurt her and her family whilst saving a elf race all at the same time.If you have been disheartened by previous books this one should hopefully pull you back into the series.

I still haven't recovered from what happened to Kisten... and even though three months have passed for Rachel since the events of the last book, she hasn't either. But she is trying. Of course, even when she is trying to piece her life together, more circumstances beyond her control arise to make it all fall apart again. In this case, it's Al. He's back and he is royally ticked off. The demon blames Rachel for the fact that he is in trouble in the ever-after and he plans on punishing her every time someone summons him out. And that has been happening with increasing frequency. In the meantime, Trent is back in her orbit. He wants her help to get a genetic sample from the elves in the ever-after. He believes if he gets an old enough sample, he can use it to genetically alter and save the future of his race... and Ceri's unborn child. This book is a lot more action oriented than most Hollows books. Usually, the character development puts the happenings of the story firmly in the backseat. That's not so here. Sure, we have some residual heartache over Kisten, some angst about Rachel's family history, and the ever-present will-they-or-won't-they with Ivy. But I was actually more wrapped up with the momentum of the action this time --and frankly, I was glad for it. After the emotional wringer Kim Harrison put me through last time, it was nice not to read the book through tears. We take a fantastic trip to the much-anticipated ever-after. We meet more demons and get an unexpected look inside their world. Plus a pretty big reveal as to why Rachel is so special and what that means for demon-kind. A great book that really moved the overall story forward and opens the doors for many new possibilities in the next installment. 5 stars

If you've read the first 5 books in the series, you know what to expect. If you haven't, don't start here.This volume picks up right after book 5, For a Few Demons More, which includes some shockers that I really don't want to mention here for anyone who hasn't read that one and it makes talking about ODW difficult without spoiling FFDM.ODW is similarly dense in twists, turns, and revelations. The official Hollows mailing list banned all discussion of it until six weeks after publication, an unprecedented move for the list. They opened the list for readers of advanced copies to everyone and moved any discussion of plot--or even reactions to the book as a whole--to there.So, with that caveat, I'll do my best to do this spoiler-free. I will mention things from the first chapter, which has been available in the paperback of FFDM and on Harrison's web site for several months, and anything from books 1-4 is fair game. I'll try to avoid major spoilers for book 5.ODW picks up where FFDM left off. Our protagonists are Rachel Morgan, witch and "runner" (PI-cum-"fixer") and her partners/roommates, Ivy (a vampire in love with Rachel and dealing with shakeups in the criminal underworld she's connected to and could choose to run if she pressed it) and Jenks (a roguish pixy who plays mediator and brings common sense to the team) and their assorted allies, friends, and regulars: the werewolf who has Rachel serve as on-paper Alpha Female of his pack, the elves-in-hiding Trent Kalamack (ally and enemy by turns), Ceri, and Quen, the mysterious witch across the street, and a by-the-book FIB (not a typo--FIB is not FBI) agent. Plus the three demons who have been harassing Rachel for books on end, now seemingly no longer restricted by the contracts that bound them and fighting desperately for their own lives, using Rachel as a bargaining chip.Oh, and her mom. Her mom's a major character in this one.And right there we see the major point of ODW. The series has always had a huge focus on family, both chosen and born. Rachel forms a family with her business partner and with a small werewolf pack, and recovers her ties to her blood family while driving herself to live up to her father's legacy. Ivy deals with the psychological damage the criminal and corrupt vampire community (run, like the agency that polices vampires, by her extended family) has done. Jenks fights from day one to protect his family against the day he dies, which is coming far too soon. And the elves are trying to rescue their whole species, which is so much in danger of dying that they've faked their own genocide to maintain their culture.So Rachel winds up having to work with her mother and reveal some of the dangers she faces in her daily life. In exchange, her mother reveals... well... quite a few things. Her mother is mostly doing well in this book; she has few of the lapses into confusion and dementia that have plagued her since her husband died and Rachel works to understand what her mother needs in her life, as well as leaning what her mother can do to help them both.Harrison is at her best when she focuses on the relationships between the characters(*) and how Rachel and Ivy are learning to connect with other people; this book has a lot of navel-gazing, but it's interesting navel-gazing and never gets in the way of the story. This is a book of revelations: secrets about Rachel's mother (and father) that go as deep as the ones revealed in books 1 and 2, secrets about the elves (although revelations about them are a staple of 5 of the 6 books), and even secrets about the demons. Harrison is revealing some of the history, convolutions, and even magical theory behind the Hollows. She's at her best when writing complex, interconnected storylines and pulling back the covers inch-by-teasing-inch(*).As the title suggests, the major action revolves around the demons. The "outlaw demon" is Big Al (her not-so-affectionate nickname for the demon who vexes her life the most), who was imprisoned in the last book for breaking laws and endangering all the demons' livelihood. Someone is summoning him out of the demons' custody and setting him free to do what he wants, which is to kill or kidnap Rachel. Rachel has to navigate demon politics (and legal system!), keep Al off her back, find the person summoning him and find out why s/he's doing it, and try to keep the deadly and enigmatic demon Newt from getting involved. And if she can learn something about why she is one of two witches in the world who can perform demonic magic along the way, all the better.On top of this, of course, Trent has "urgent" (and risky) business he'll cajole, threaten, or trick Rachel into doing for him. As usual.And, of course, deal with her family as her mom gets more involved than Rachel ever wanted.The book has the usual good action scenes--Harrison is at her best with the action(*)--with the chases, skulking, bluffing, magical attacks, and shoot-outs we've come to expect Rachel to get herself into. Every one makes sense and none get too long or convoluted. Harrison's writing on this has improved steadily across the series.We have the expected evolution of Rachel and Ivy's ongoing and messy relationship. It isn't as mesmerizing or intense as in the last two books and doesn't have the pyrotechnic writing of books one and five, but it works great and leads to a truly beautiful and heart-wrenching moment. As we saw in FFDM, Ivy is maturing emotionally at an amazing rate and we get a touching insight into her life, especially after the events in FFDM that turned her emotional life upside-down.So, net net. Is it a good book? Yes. Is it the best book in the series? Hard to say. It has the most information and advances the world story the furthest, but it's not the most "detectivey," "noir," or funny (although I wanted to read funny lines to my girlfriend all throughout, as usual; she forbade me to since they all had spoilers). If you're doing to read book 7, you have to read this one, of course, and you will enjoy doing so. It just may well have some of your favorite moments.* And I should clear one thing up. Kim Harrison is at her best when she's writing. At least, she is as a writer; I don't know about her personal life. The writing in this series started good, with moments of pyrotechnic genius, and it's just getting better as the characters and world settle in.

Happily into the ever-after.Oh my dear, sweet Rachel. Finally recognising her dangerous, risk taking ways and you end up right back where you started. But this time, instead of cursing at you loudly from my bed at midnight, I was right behind you.The fallout from the previous book was massive, with white witch Rachel and her vampire roommate and business partner, Ivy, having to come to terms with their overwhelming grief. While always in the back of their minds, this part of the story didn't seem to dominate, and I'm assuming that there is more to come.I won't even try to summarise the plot or anything, because there are so many threads, but also I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not read the previous books (which is a must!). But I will say that this addition to the series is more focused around demons and the ever-after than the vampires which dominated the last book. There are so many beings trying to kill Rachel, we just have to take them one at a time.It seemed like there were so many revelations in Where Demons Dare, and I imagine that Rachel was felt quite emotionally overwhelmed. The truth about her father, where witches came from, her being able to spindle demon magic, Ceri's pregnancy, and the threat she poses to the whole of the world. Rachel keeps on taking hit after hit, which I guess is why I was with her all the way at the end. Usually I would be screaming at her to make a proper plan, think about what she's going to do for one friggin' second, CALM THE HELL DOWN! But not this time. I wanted her to show everyone that she had this under control; that she was smart, strong, and not what everyone else thought of her. It was a powerful moment, and one that redeemed a lot about Rachel for me.So I dealt in demons. So the hell what. It didn't make me a bad person. Or stupid. Or rash. It made me dangerous to everyone around me is all.What I love about this series is the characters, which is becoming quite a cast of different people. There is Jenks, the pixy and Rachel's other business partner, Trent, Ceri and Quinn, the elves, Glen, the FIB officer, David, Rachel's pack-mate and resident alpha werewolf, Marshall, another witch and potential love interest, Kelsey, Rachel's neighbour who she just found out the true identity of, Rachel's mom (who is hilarious), Takata, the famous rock star with a secret link to Rachel, and then there are demons galore with Al, Minias, and Newt. But it is never confusing, never tedious. All of these people are important to Rachel (except the demons....she spends most of the book trying to get them away from her), and despite all these people, in a way she is still alone. She is one of a kind, in body and spirit, always with a mountain to climb, with a hell of a journey in front of her.Making deals with demons is never going to be easy, and just when Rachel thinks she may have the upper hand, she is pulled right back into the middle. But I think now that she is beginning to come to terms with what she is and what she can do, she will be all the stronger for it. I really enjoyed this addition to the series, and it is definitely one of the best so far."You can't forget anything," I said, watching the words vanish into nothing. "And even if you do, it always comes back to bitch-slap you in the morning."