Immortals After Dark (8) - Untouchable by Kresley Cole
The 8th part of the Immortals After Dark tells the story of the last Wroth warlord, Murdoch – and the Valkyrie-Frost Fey no one can touch… Untouchable (Eiskalte Berührung) by Kresley Cole, published 2009 with Gena Showalter's Tempt me Eternally in Deep Kiss of Winter on 426 pages . I read it in English.
When Nucking Futs Nïx calls Danii to tell her she might be fixed soon, she is almost… hopeful. No Halfling’s life is fun, but Daniela’s situation is particularly hard: As Halfling, high temperature can make her shatter like glass. As Frost Fey, only every touch of a non-Frost Fey burns her. And as the late queen’s daughter, her own people hunt her to the death. She hasn’t been touched by another since her mother died, centuries ago – and now to find someone who can do that…? But Murdoch Wroth has no inclination of accepting her as his, even though his very instincts tell him to. Looks like Danii’s shunned again… but Nïx doesn’t give up on them. And the crazy soothsayer was never wrong.
Poor Daniela. Seriously, that poor girl! Imagine not being touched by anyone basically for eternity, because the only people who could touch you want to kill you for being an heir to a throne you don’t want. And a kingdom you actually can’t find. And imagine another’s touch literally searing you, even shattering you if you’re unlucky: Because you’re not only a Frost Fey, but a Half-Valkyrie. And then imagine, in all your loneliness, fate gives you a man who recognises you as his fated Bride. And imagine that man shunning you because you’re too much work. God, I wanted to hit Murdoch. I seriously wanted to hit him. He would have deserved it!
Murdoch is the Wroth brother I like least. He’s charming and probably good at what he does – and the way he travelled to the White Death was quite impressing – but he’s an arrogant, self-absorbed idiot when it comes to Danii. He hurt her – truly unnecessarily. And then, he goes and judges her for the way she dresses. Granted, she barely covers more than the Sorceri, but it’s really not his place to tell her about that. Plus, I dislike how he acts as if she couldn’t take care of herself. Okay, there was this situation where she really almost shattered. And I guess after seeing someone like that, you’ve got issues trusting them to take care of themselves. But seriously, Daniela’s one of the oldest Valkyries. She had her own back for centuries, through wars and assassins and all other Lorean nonsense. She’s not exactly a little girl who can’t do anything by herself.
The Icere – the Frost Fey – are an interesting species, I like their home and how Danii as half-Fey is immune to glittering objects (unlike her Valkyrie sisters). The descriptions of the palace are so beautiful – as a matter of fact, the descriptions of Danii in Siberia are amazingly well done, too. But what I miss in this is a closer look at the actual Icere as a community. Okay, they are tight-knit, glad to be rid of their former oppressor and accept Danii, they are a bit stiff and formal. But I’d loved to hear more about their daily life, their habits and holidays and such.
Spoiler:
Or Daniela’s role as a queen, for that matter! She comes to the kingdom via Icere-travel, is crowned and suddenly, she Murdoch comes and she abdicates. Let me outline on how many levels this sucks: 1.: Daniela’s more than someone’s Bride, especially if that someone is an arrogant idiot. 2.: Murdoch is an arrogant idiot. 3.: The Icere are a part of what Daniela is, it would have been nice for her to have people to touch, to talk to etc. I’d have loved to know how the fact that one of Danii’s main problems for centuries (touching, being understood) disappeared has affected her, and if/in what way she feels isolated because of her past. 4.: Daniela is maybe a bit passive, but she is more practical than people give her credit for. I’d have loved to hear her plans about how she wanted to connect her life now with her Valkyrie sisters – because I just can’t imagine that Daniela would want to forsake them for eternity. She’s half-Valkyrie, after all, they need their sisters. And I doubt any other Lore species would get the Valkyrie’s need for fight and luxury. 5.: Daniela’s finally in her mother’s home country. Wouldn’t she want to find out more about her life there, before Danii’s birth? Reconnect to the woman she loved and lost so many years ago? 6.: Why don’t we find out anything about Danii’s plans for the kingdom? After the oppressor, many things have to be changed, policies revoked, things repaired, the society mended etc. As a queen, how did she plan on doing that? Whom of her people actually wanted to support her – how many were secretly hoping they could rule through her or instead of her? Power always means jealousy and power players, why don’t we find out more about that? 7.: It’s common knowledge Danii’s a vampire’s bride, and probably even common knowledge that a Wroth bit her. There have to be prejudices against her, right? As a Halfling who’s tied like this to another species, didn’t she have to have more enemies then followers, no matter who her mother was? 8.: If Daniela was unhappy at the prospect of being Icere’s queen, that should have been underlined more. It seems as if she did it solely to be with Murdoch, and that’s just wrong! 9. As someone with more than three IQ points, Daniela should have hesitated before giving all power to a man she met so recently. Oh, and 10.: Danii’s still supposed to be pissed at Murdoch, and forgives him waaay too early. Giving your entire life up for someone isn’t exactly the best idea, not if he wronged you at every freakin’ turn. The fact that Murdoch can treat her like crap and doesn’t really pay for it is… really not nice.
Apart from that, there were many interesting characters – like Icere Express (how I like to call him), and of course, Loa. It’s interesting why she treats Daniela like she does.
Aaaaaand I just realised I didn’t take the time to introduce you the FMC (female main character). Daniela’s a bit shy and careful – due to her enormous temperature-based weakness, but she’s kick-ass and definitely capable of taking care of herself. But she doesn’t like being alone, due to her mixed heritage, she doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. And that makes her pretty sad. Like all Valkyries, she likes beautiful things, and like seemingly all females in the Lore, she has no problem with showing her body. Though she has some issues with touching, since it hurts her very, very much. Danii suffers pretty much under Murdoch’s treatment, first because he shoves her away entirely, then afterwards because he only focusses on where they are different – and doesn’t try particularly hard to actually understand her and what she does. Which is why I think he’s an idiot. But Daniela knows what she wants, and how to get her guy to do it. As can be seen with Siberia, which she simply adopted. And suddenly, it was hers. He he. She’s a nice girl, hard to dislike, pretty vulnerable. But necessity has taught her to be pragmatic and ruthless, if she has to be.
The ideas of the book were nicely done, it was tense, but the whole and-he-sees-the-light-but-is-abducted-before-he-tells-her thing is too artificial, as are some other aspects of their disharmonic relationship.
In brief:
I give stars for ideas, minus one for content. The characters weren’t special, and it was tense but artificial, so no stars for characters or style.
Prequel:
(Sabine of the Sorceri, Queen of Illusions, annointed princess of Rothkalina
& Rydstorm Woede, fallen king of Rothkalina)
Sequel:
(Lucia the Huntress, Valkyrie of mysterious origin, world’s most skilled archeress
& Garreth MacRieve, King of all Lykae)