Review: ‘Garden of Dreams & Desires’ by Kristen Painter

May 12, 2015

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: ‘Garden of Dreams & Desires’ by Kristen Painter

Garden of Dreams and Desires

by Kristen Painter
Series: Crescent City #3
Published by Orbit on April 7th 2015
SubGenres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 368
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Magic and mystery collide in this thrilling conclusion to the new urban fantasy series by House of Comarre author Kristen Painter.
Tourists are disappearing at an alarming rate. While Augustine and his lieutenants attempt to find them, Harlow and the evil spirit possessing her remain Augustine's true focus. Freeing her from the spirit's grasp is all he can think about, especially with no real solution on the horizon.
Then he discovers the tourists are disappearing because the witches are stealing souls to cast a dangerous chaos spell. Before he can stop them, Harlow becomes their victim. Now he must race the clock to set her free and end the witches' machinations before the chaos spell strips every fae in New Orleans of their power and bring fae rule to an end.

My Review:

I really wish Crescent City would’ve been a series instead of a trilogy because I definitely wanted more of Augustine and Harlow.  I felt like I was just getting close to them and now they’ve been ripped from me.  =*(  I’m going to miss my sexy smoky Guardian and his adorable computer genius sidekick.

Garden of Dreams & Desires picks up where Kristen Painter left the characters off at in the previous book. Yes…I was one of those readers that didn’t handle the cliffhanger well.  Seriously, how would you react to an evil spirit taking over the female lead like that?  I couldn’t. I was shocked with the ending. Kristen threw me in a loop after the second book, so I was anxious to read the last book in the trilogy. Of course, Kristen has to throw in another loop with the evil spirit and what it’s evil plans are. Ahhhh!!!  There’s also the issue of what is happening in NOLA with the Fae and the humans.  The Guardian has his work cut out for him, especially with an important person gone missing and the Fae being held accountable for it. Augustine will do anything to find out what really happened. He gets put into situations that I’m surprised he survived in.

Let’s not forget the crazy witches.  Yup… I said it the crazy witches.  They have a BIGGER plan that is going to change everything in NOLA.  The Fae and everyone that gets in the way of the witches will be in trouble. I really didn’t like the witches.  Grrr!

I won’t go into anymore details of the story because I’m afraid I’ll give something away and I hate spoilers.

What I liked most about this book is how Harlow grew into a stronger character in this one.  Don’t get me wrong, I was mad what she did in the previous book, but she made up for it in this book.  She still made iffy decisions, but she made up for it, darn it!

Augustine finally became a changed guy and realized what he wanted.  He became a stronger Guardian too in this book.  Although, he got caught up in certain things that prevented him on doing what he was supposed to.

I also enjoyed how the evil spirit was handled. I was hoping it would end the way it did.

The only things that did bother me was how fast everything went and how much was put in such a small portion.  This book could have been easily broke into two books to tell the story, but I understand why it couldn’t be. I just wish I could know exactly what happened to the bad guys in the story fully. They deserved a lot more coming to them, after what they did.  Grrrr!!  I also would’ve loved to find out what happens to certain secondary characters.  Cy being one of them.  ****hint, hint***  =)

Thank goodness for Kristen writing another series though, after this one because her next characters should fill that gap I have of losing Augustine and Harlow so soon.  Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed reading the last book in the trilogy, but I’m going to miss these characters.  I was just getting to know them.  =*(

I give this book 3.5 stars and I do recommend it to Urban Fantasy readers out there and readers that enjoyed Kristen Painter’s other UF series, House of Comarre.

Although, this is not my favorite of the trilogy, I still enjoyed reading how it all ended.  Seriously…I’m really going to miss Auggie…my sexy smoky Guardian.

FranJessca
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