Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Every Which Way but Dead is an apt title for this book, because Rachel will do almost anything in order to make sure she’ll be alive when all is said and done. She has some very big players to go up against now, though, and she especially has to be very cunning in her dealings with her favorite demon, Al.

My review of Every Which Way but Dead is spoiler free, but there might be spoilers from the first two books in it. Especially because the plot is moving forward pretty quickly, and I want to make sure I touch on all the things that were important to me while reading. So if you’re even later than me to The Hollows series, continue to read if you don’t mind knowing some of what has happened in the first two books.

From the beginning of Every Which Way but Dead, Nick is very distant, and he seems to become more distant with each interaction between him and Rachel. Rachel tries her best to make things better, but he seems to be reluctant to move forward, and always has excuses ready so they won’t have time to see each other. When she shows up at his house unexpectedly and sees that he is more or less ready to move away, she feels like she’s been hit in the gut – even if she wants to believe him when he says it’s so that he won’t feel it every time she touches a ley-line.

Al wants what Rachel has promised him, and when Rachel summons him, he arrives with his soon-to-be former familiar in tow. Of course, Rachel now wants to save both the other woman and herself. Negotiating with Al is not an easy task, and Ceri, the woman he promises Rachel he’ll free is so out of it she is hardly even conscious. I love that Rachel can be just as sneaky as a demon, and I was almost clapping my hands when Al realized he wasn’t going to be able to get Rachel exactly where he wanted her – at least not at first.

Apart from all her trouble with Al and work, Rachel soon realizes that her personal life will become even more of a roller coaster once she agrees to something Kist asks her. And then, somehow, she gets more entangled with Trent as well – until she ends up in an extremely uncomfortable situation for a while.

The action is on every page, as is the humor and the growing relationships among the friends and partners. I love getting to know Ivy, Jenks and Rachel better, and the way they interact is great. Of course, because Rachel has trust-issues, things don’t go as she hoped when someone finds out the hard way that Rachel hasn’t been completely honest with them. And I am left thinking that maybe some relationships cannot be mended at all. New characters arriving might also cause trouble for Rachel, especially when she realizes the depth of the relationship some of those have with the people who are close to her.

What the Turn was I doing standing in my kitchen with two hungry vamps when the sun was going down? didn’t’ they have somewhere to got? People to bite, that weren’t me?

I missed feeling desired, needed. And Kisten had a Ph.D. in wooing women, even if his motives were one-sided and false.

They were line dancing. Oh – my –God. The vampires were line dancing.