Fury’s Kiss
Ok I have thoughts, many many thoughts about this fantastic book. Its my favourite of the Dory books and pretty high up on the overall list of Karen Chance novels, I am particularly fond of the theme of relationships in the book.
Dory has three types of relationships building throughout the series, but they are heavily themed here. Firstly there is her found family, Claire, Stinky and Ray as people she has bonded with and claimed as her own. Secondly there is blood family, Mircea and Radu and how she is finally beginning to develop real emotional connections to a family she felt abandoned by and the thread that connects these two, found and family and adds romantic is obviously Louis-Cesare. He is definitely the primary relationship in this book, if my quote picks are anything to go by, but his presence and Dory’s acceptance of him as someone important in her life allows her to bridge the other relationships better. You could also argue the fourth relationship is that of herself, bridging the gap between Dory and Dorina and realising that her vampire half is not a monster after all.
Some quotes to help illustrate:
Found family:
I love this quote, it sums up how Dory brings out a goodness in Ray, a loyalty to her as his master. They’re great together and Ray is willing to face her wrath to tell her off for thinking Louis-Cesare is only after a Christine replacement. There’s not a lot of Claire or Stinky in this book, but the parts which are there confirm the loyalty of others to Dory, willing to protect her, fight for her and ultimately defend others against her should she go full dhampir around others.
My favourite blood family moments are mainly with Mircea, he is so good in this book, he finally tells Dory the truth, shows her he loves her unconditionally and nearly dies for her, its a huge step in showing Dory she has a family who do want her, even if its hard to be close.
This scene made me tear up, it must have broken Mircea to know he had to remove such loving memories to keep Dory alive.
The anger and sadness of nearly losing Mircea when they are just getting to know each other properly. This is such a Dory reaction to that situation.
This is a pivotal moment to me, Dory would never had said this in Midnight’s Daughter, and possibly not in Death’s Mistress either, acknowledging her family and their importance to her is key for Dory’s development and in bringing herself together.
He’s so proud of her!! I really enjoy these moments, when they can admit they do love each other. I find it important that Mircea has a sort of redemption arc, he’s certainly an antagonist in the Cassie novels, but he’s not a bad character, he’s on the ‘right’ side of the war and wants to win, he is just a very good vampire and that doesn’t sit well with someone as moral as Cassie, but works so much better with Dory, its also evidence of how much he loves his daughter and really isn’t as attached to Cassie except with how much she can do for him. I believe he cares for Cassie, but she can never be as important to him.
I’m going to write another post for Louis-Cesare, I have a lot of notes and he’s my favourite so he’s getting his own post.
