Review--Outcast Season: Unknown

FOR A MILLENNIA, CASSIEL WAS A POWERFUL DJINN. BUT THEN SHE DEFIED HER RULER, WHO CAST HER OUT AND RESHAPED HER IN HUMAN FLESH AS PUNISHMENT. SHE FOUND REFUGE AMONG THE WARDENS--AND DISCOVERED THAT HER PERCEIVED HUMAN WEAKNESSES MAY BE HER GREATEST STRENGTHS.

Living among mortals, Cassiel has begun to develop a reluctant affection for them--especially the intriguing Warden Luis Rocha. As the mystery deepens around the kidnapping of innocent Warden children, Cassiel and Luis are the only ones who can investigate within both the human and the Djinn realms.

But the more Luis and Cassiel search, the more dangerous the trail becomes, reaching not only into a fanatical splinter group, but into the highest ranks of Cassiel's immortal kin. As outcast from her own kind, Cassiel must now rely on her own limited earthbound powers to save young Wardens...if it's not already too late.

Just finished Rachel Caine's latest, Outcast Season: Unknown, and it was terrific! I love this cover by the way, the oranges were nice in the first one, but something about a nightly blue cover always sends a delighted shiver down my back.

The action picks up right where we left off in Undone, Cassiel and Luis are doing everything they can to try to find Isabel, Luis' niece, and they are hitting roadblock after roadblock. Pearl isn't against using these children as her weapons, to her, some of them are expendable and she uses them down to their core. Some are left scarred and others far worse. Many of the children are nameless orphans with no one to claim them or miss them, but still a handful are Warden children who are being forced to grow up too soon. There's more to it than that, but I don't want any spoilers going on, if you've read Undone, you might recall what Pearl is doing, so there you have it.

I really enjoyed this one a lot, the relationship between Cassiel and Luis grows more and it can be entertaining at times, it's not all lovey-dovey romance. There are a few chuckle moments.

This time during their search Luis enlists the help of a Warden friend who is in the FBI as well, acting as a spy of sorts. Wardens have gone public if you remember from the events in the Weather Warden series. A few of those characters get mentioned, but none of them show up this time. But Cape Storm has already happened, so Caine is doing really well at keeping the two series balanced. And it was mentioned several times that David is "busy" and cannot be reached at all. Again, knowing what was happening with Cape Storm, this keeps the two series connected, but not completely so. Especially since the Weather Wardens is coming to an end this year, sob!

Anyway, back to Unknown. Which it was getting hard from me to remember the titles of the books because they are so close, Undone, Unknown, I wonder if this will be a theme? Moving on, the plot was simple, yet there were so many deterrents that tied back into the main plot that it all flowed together smoothly.

Another Djinn, even pops up and he was quite entertaining as well, but since he is Djinn I don't know how trustworthy he can be, even Cassiel knows this and cannot trust him. Although she does enlist him for help.

One character actually does pop back into the scene from Weather Wardens and that is a particular Oracle, need I say more? Cassiel sees this Oracle to get help concerning finding the missing children. There is also another enemy of some sorts arising that will cause more problems for Cassiel and Luis.

Overall the book was very entertaining and exciting. The cliffhanger at the end was good too, wasn't as big as the last one, which is why it is good, but it still left some things unsettled. I wonder how long Caine is going to make this particular series, how long can this battle go on?

We'll have to wait for next year likely, as was the case for this last book, for Outcast Season: Unseen. Another Un-word!

And because it's the weekend and I didn't find Jeaniene's First Drop of Crimson yesterday, I'm going to start Mark Henry's Happy Hour of the Damned. Can't wait for Tuesday since I'm working all weekend and thus need something to read because I am at work! Ha.