I loved this book as much as the 1st one. I can't wait for more. ( )

Writing a review for this book is going to be hard. After reading about the author, I think its because our brains just work differently. Granted, I have a doctoral degree... but once a book starts talking quantum theory, physics and advanced math, my brain starts tuning everything out. But I have to respect the author's intelligence and how he writes what he knows into the books. :)

That being said, I love the world Anthony Francis has created in Atlanta. And I adore the skindancing. It is something utterly unique and nothing like I have read before. However, can a girl get some romance??? For goodness sakes, I love books that work my brain but throwing some fluff in there help keeps me entertained! Things between Dakota and Calaphase had such great promise... but they didn't even get off the ground! I almost stopped reading at that point, so this must be rectified in future books. (Maybe with a certain firedancer?) I also thought sometimes there was a little too much action, or just too many things happening in quick succession. It was hard to digest it all. But I am interested enough to keep reading future books in the series, and I hope Mr. Anthony continues to find time to write them. ( )

Egalley thanks to Bell Bridge Books
I've been a huge fan of Anthony Francis since Frost Moon came out and even left a rare (for me) raving review on Amazon, so when I saw this book on Netgalley of course I grabbed it straight away.

Oh man, fantastic writing! Complicated to the point where I had to concentrate really hard to follow it, full of action and intricate details and teeming with fascinating characters. It's more of a sci-fi type of craze where through the whole book you feel like you're tripping out. Only without spaceships.

Poor Dakota can't catch a break in this book. She is trying her best to be a mother to werekin and troubled teen Cinnamon, but then Atlanta gets besieged by evil graffity which eats indiscriminately werekin, vamps and humans and starts magical fires.

Who else but Atlanta's famous skindancer and magical tattooist can help? Dakota tries her best to fight it and loses some of her friends and lovers on the way. Police suspects she is the arsonist, vampires order her to investigate and court threatens to take Cinnamon from her...

The magical showdown in the end is spectacular, the relationship between Dakota and Cinnamon are very touching, her loss of friends and lovers make you feel sad...

Dakota is refreshingly straightforward and blunt, which usually gets her into trouble. Interestingly enough (and I pointed this out before with Broken by David H.Burton) here is another sex scene written by a male author and again it's the man who is being seduced and the woman who is taking charge *grinning*

Overall, if you like craziness of Carole Nelson Douglas you might like Anthony Francis. ( )

This is the second book in the Dakota Frost series by Francis. It was an okay book, but there are definitely some flaws throughout the story. The third book in the series, Liquid Fire, was just released in May 2015.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator does a decent job. She does a good job with emotion and does okay with unique character voices. However there are a couple of male characters that sound very similar and are hard to distinguish between.

In this book Dakota is trying to track down the person making magical graffiti around the city. The magical graffiti is killing people (primarily vamps) and it looks like the whole city is pushing towards a larger disaster if the graffiti can't be stopped.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first book in the Dakota Frost series. This is an urban fantasy series about a magical tattoo artist named Dakota Frost who is also a skindancer (meaning she can make her tattoos come alive and attack/defend by dancing).

I do enjoy the concept behind these novels. However I felt like the plot was just kind of all over the place. On top of that one disastrous thing after another happens to Dakota to the point where you are just like "Oh my God, enough already!" I felt like Dakota's reactions to all these huge awful events was just so hollow.

Additionally there are a number of times in the story where Dakota makes mental leaps or deduces things that just don't make sense with the rest of the story. As a reader you are left thinking "Huh?"

Lastly there are a few times where Dakota is in a situation where she could use her magic but doesn't; these scenes don't make sense and seem to mainly just be there to push the plot in the right direction. At times I was almost screaming “Just use your stupid vines and block them already!”

The world is pretty typical urban fantasy fare (werekin, vampires, magic, and a heroine who runs herself ragged). However I was disappointed in the some of the plot points. Especially the whole thing with Calaphase.

I do continue to enjoy the characters. I love the idea of skindancing and how that magic works; that part of the story is very unique and creative. I loved how much Dakota’s foster child, Cinnamon, was in the story and really enjoyed watching Cinnamon change and grow throughout the story.

Overall this was an okay book, but pretty mediocre considering all of the other urban fantasy options out there. I continue to really love the creative tattoo magic and skindancing and loved that we learned more about that in this book. However at times the story is flawed and I thought that Dakota’s reaction to all the disaster happening around her was kind of blah.

The world here is pretty typical urban fantasy fare. I guess I would recommend checking this series out if you are a huge urban fantasy fan and have read through most of the other urban fantasy out there. I have Liquid Fire for review but am debating as to whether or not I will actually read it. ( )

I LOVED this novel. I haven't read the first installment, but I am definitely going to have to change that. Anthony Francis has a way to bring us closer to a very unlikely heroine- to be honest, the whole book has a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo feel to it, and make us love her. Dakota Frost is not your typical pretty girl heroine- she has a blue mohawk, she is covered in tattoos, and she dresses like a biker. As soon as I saw that, I knew I had to continue on with this book.

One of my favorite characters in this novel is Cinnamon. She has such spunk, and such a bold personality, you can't help but to like her. The drama in the relationship between her and her mom, and her and the world, is very real. It felt organic to me, and I like that in a novel.

The most unique element to this novel, and what really was the one factor that sucked me in without a chance of escape, was tattoo magic. It was a very accurate and plausible way for magic to have evolved in present day. The way Francis addresses magic in general, though, feels realistic. It's regulated, it's not out in the open. None of the supernatural elements are really standing out away from the human side of things, which I like as well. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to read it, and I know I will be acquiring more from this author in the very near future. ( )