Rating: 
Summary: Fighting a War on Two Fronts
Review: What a treat! No sooner did I finish "Book of the Fours" when yet another Buffy thriller by Nancy Holder appears. "Unseen: The Burning" is co-written with Jeff Mariotte, who has crafted several Angel novels. They have teamed up to write the exciting first volume of a trilogy where Buffy and Angel must work in tandem for the first time since Angel left for Los Angeles. The novels will be set in relatively recent Buffy history (just pre-Dawn).In Sunnydale: Salma de la Navidad's younger brother Nicky has disappeared, Leaving behind several books that the reader will recognized as seriously bad magic. Terrified that something horrible has happened she turns to Buffy and Willow for help. At the same time, Giles, pursuing his new hobby of listening to the police radio band, realizes that a fresh horror has moved into town, something that lurks in the shadows and can totally Cuisinart its victims. Buffy suspects the cases are related, but the solution eludes her. Following Nicky's trail leads her eventually to Los Angeles as the source of the mystery. Angel's territory. In Los Angeles: Cordelia discovers a group of runaway girls living under the library that are anxiously looking forward to becoming vampires and feels compelled to help. Meanwhile Angel is drawn into helping Isabel Flores and her son Carlos. The boy's father has been arrested for a crime he did not commit and suddenly a poltergeist is haunting the Flores family. The more Angel and Buffy press, the more all these strange cases seem to be interrelated. As the threads become entangled they find themselves and their friends headed on a collision course with a hungry evil that reaches out invisibly from the darkness. "The Burning" introduces enough complication to last for even more than a trilogy. Expect quite a bit of fun before the mysteries are resolved. The relationships between Willow and Tara, and between Buffy and Riley are dealt with in these novels for the first time. The writers don't yet seem totally comfortable with either of the new characters, but Tara is portrayed a bit more sympathetically than Riley. Holder and Mariotte overplay Riley and Tara's weaker character traits, though, which makes the relationships seem artificial. Hopefully this will take care of itself in later volumes. This detracts a bit from the book's overall rating, but not enough to cost it a star - yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I was expecting
Review: When I first read the back of this book, I was so excited. It sounded like an excellent read. I waited until all three books came out and then I bought them. And then I read them, and was extremely disappointed. Nancy Holder is my 2nd favorite Buffy/Angel book writer behind Christopher Golden. I hadnt read a book of hers that I hadnt liked, until this one. I was just so surprised at how poorly they were written. It seemed as if the author had only seen one or two episodes of the show and based their writing on that which confused me because Holder had written so wonderfully in the past. The characters just didnt seem right. Buffy would say stuff that I just didnt see Buffy saying. All of the characters personalities were just so off. And Faith wasn't really in the series at all until the 3rd book. I love Nancy Holder and I would recommend that you buy any of her other books, just not this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I was expecting
Review: When I first read the back of this book, I was so excited. It sounded like an excellent read. I waited until all three books came out and then I bought them. And then I read them, and was extremely disappointed. Nancy Holder is my 2nd favorite Buffy/Angel book writer behind Christopher Golden. I hadnt read a book of hers that I hadnt liked, until this one. I was just so surprised at how poorly they were written. It seemed as if the author had only seen one or two episodes of the show and based their writing on that which confused me because Holder had written so wonderfully in the past. The characters just didnt seem right. Buffy would say stuff that I just didnt see Buffy saying. All of the characters personalities were just so off. And Faith wasn't really in the series at all until the 3rd book. I love Nancy Holder and I would recommend that you buy any of her other books, just not this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Idea
Review: When I first read this, I thought that perhaps this would be a story based upon the episode "Invisible Girl". Much to my delight, I was wrong. This is a good story that could be taken seriously if set away from the Buffyverse. I'm glad they've finally brought Tara and Anya into the books, I could do without Riley, though. I am anxiously awaiting the next book in this trilogy, and hope it doesn't turn out like "Gatemasters" did.
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