Tangled Webs - Anne Bishop

Tangled Webs
Anne Bishop
ROC
Copyright: 2008
9780451461605

One of the titles I've read to fulfill the TBR Challenge. It's definitely been on my reading list for more than six months. Closer to a year, I think, given when the book came out.

From the back of the book:

The invitation was signed Jaenelle Angelline, she who had been both Witch and Queen.

It summons her family to an entertainment she has specially prepared. Surreal SaDiablo, former courtesan and assassin, is the first to arrive. But as she and her escort enter the house, the door disappears. Surreal finds herself trapped in a nightmare created by the tangled webs of Black Widow witches - a nightmare where the monsters are all too real. And if she uses Craft to defend herself, she risks being sealed in the house forever.

But Jaenelle did not send the invitation.

Now Jaenelle and her family must rescue Surreale and the others inside without becoming trapped themselves, and they must also discover who created such an evil place and why. Because there is one thing they all know about this house: No matter who planned it as a way to kill members of the SaDiablo family, only one of the Blood could have created the trap...

This is the sixth book in the Black Jewels series, set about a year after the events in the trilogy and Dreams Made Flesh. Overall, perhaps the writing isn't the greatest, but the story mostly makes up for it. The book certainly kept me up far past bedtime, anyway, and had me laughing at the character interaction between the members of the coven and the SaDiablo family.

Where the first three books were world-spanning, being set in many of the realms of Anne Bishop's world, this book was set in a much smaller area, but was just as gripping. This was my second attempt to read Tangled Webs, and it was definitely worth the second try, as the story got going soon after I'd put it down the first time months ago.

The author seems to be taking jabs at the standard mystery story plot throughout Tangled Webs, and, I think also at the growing popularity of the Urban Fantasy story type.

Surreal makes a very good main character, interesting and funny, and her background makes her even more unique. I'm glad to read more about her after the first three books.

I still don't really understand the villain. His motivations, yes, but how he managed to get other people to go along with him, no. He's certainly different, to say the least.

Tangled Webs is good, but not my favourite book set in this world, although I really liked the short story included at the end of the book: By The Time The Witchblood Blooms.

Just a reminder, Tangled Webs is due out in paperback in the next couple of days, and there's a new Black Jewels novel coming out at the same time: The Shadow Queen.

The other books set in this world are:
The Invisible Ring
Daughter Of The Blood
Heir To The Shadows
Queen Of The Darkness
Dreams Made Flesh
The Shadow Queen