Publisher: Samhain
Publish Date: Out now
How I got this book: ARC from the author
Never fear the pain. Fear what lies behind it…
Grimm’s Circle, Book 6
In his mortal life, the only thing Jacob liked better than money was a good brawl—until he stuck his fist into the wrong fight, and a demon sent him spinning into a new life as a Grimm.
Now, a hundred years later, he’s been called to protect someone too much like himself. A woman who could let the chains of her past drag her down unless she learns to let go. A woman who fights like there’s no tomorrow, because she clearly doesn’t want a tomorrow.
Celine thought her second chance at life would be an opportunity to fix some of her worst mistakes, to set things straight. She couldn’t have been more wrong. She’s trapped by the past and her regrets, and nothing—not even her darkly sexy new trainer, Jacob—has a blade sharp enough to cut her loose.
Chains are Jacob’s specialty, but his help comes with a price. To her, the cost is her heart. To Jacob…something much more.
Product Warnings
Contains a heroine with enough fight in her to put the 300 to shame. And a hero who knows how to take a punch
This blurb came from Goodreads here.
I have been reading and enjoying Ms Walker’s Grimm’s Circle series since they started in 2009 so I was really excited when we were asked if anyone wanted to do this review. Grimm Tidings is the 6th novel in this series. I have found this world and its various characters fascinating. The basic world premise is that there are varying levels of demons whose goal is to possess humans and use those possessed humans to feed and enjoy according to their specific nature for example murder, torture and mayhem. The human must give permission for the possession so the demons have perfected their art of subtle influence until they are firmly rooted and can take control. Once that happens only death can end the possession.
All hope isn’t completely lost because Guardian Angels of a sort do exist. They are known as the Grimm and they fight to both kill demons, prevent their possession and unfortunately kill possess humans. Each of them has a particular skill they can use but they also have to learn how to fight to the death. They have incredible healing powers and will live for a very long time but becoming a Grimm isn’t easy. You have to die a really horrible death then at that moment be offered the choice and accept it. Even after all of that, the Grimm have human feelings and have to deal with their own traumatic pasts while fighting to save humanity. One of the things that Ms Walker has done with this series that I really enjoy is come up with a story for the Grimm. A story that keeps anyone from thinking they are real and instead they appear to be just a character in an old wives tale. Discovering which Grimm is credited with which story is an added benefit of reading these.
This particular Grimm story, while continuing to deal with the huge influx of demons working together, focuses mainly on how to solve the problem of a person being offered and accepting the choice to become a Grimm who maybe wasn’t the right person, or wasn’t ready, or didn’t understand. In other words what happens if the individual who offered the choice has potentially made a mistake. Jacob has been assigned as the last attempt to rescue Celine from the chains of her past so she can live as a Grimm and not seek out the death that she chose to avoid.
Watching Jacob try all sorts of different ways to reach through Celine’s wall of guilt and regret was fascinating. Celine was a combination of passive-aggressive behavior and active resistance to anything anyone told her. She thought that if she managed to get all of the older Grimm who trained new Grimm to give up on her then she could go back, back before her choice, back before trying to intervene and help someone out, back before she stormed out of the restaurant. But what she doesn’t realize is that Jacob has more reasons not to give up on her. He also doesn’t want to use his gift to undo her chains because he knows first hand what devastation it can cause. At first I thought that Jacob was just trying to avoid inflicting more pain on Celine then she currently had but then I realized that Jacob needed healing too.
I did enjoy how Jacob handled things when he finally decided that he had to use his gift on Celine. He was both gentle and implacable refusing to let her continue to believe that everything would have been alright if she had done something differently. Then how he kept an eye on her as she healed. He let her grieve and didn’t cheapen how she felt while continuing to work with her training. As Celine healed, their shared dreams became more than conversation as did their feelings for each other. The work out room scene when Celine finally realizes some of what Jacob feels for her is one of my favorite parts. They move from physical exertion to lust to bewilderment in one highly charged conversation. I think that moment seemed to crystallize their entire relationship as they struggled to come to terms with their feelings.
Grimm Tidings was a good installment that also gave warning of some potentially serious events to come. Things appear to be building with the amount of demon activity and the leader of the Grimm is experiencing some difficulties controlling his power. Jacob and Celine make a good addition and I think their mutual stability together will be needed.
I give Grimm Tidings a B
Links to purchase
Thanks for the review, and especially the parts about the world. Had not read about that before.
You are very welcome. Glad you liked the parts about the world. I personally like to know more detail about the world if it isn’t the first book in a series so I am glad it helped. Happy reading!