Trick of the Light & The Grimrose Path by Rob Thurman

The Grimrose Path by Rob Thurman is the 2nd and possibly last book in her Trickster series, which just about breaks my heart. (Because sales weren't great on the first series, the series was cancelled by the publisher.)

I love Rob's books. Her Cal & Niko Leandros series is the BEST series EVER. If you haven't read it...what the hell is wrong with you?!? Her book Chimera is fantastic too (and is going to be a series as well). BUUUT I'm not going to talk about either of those series. I want to talk about Trixa and Griffin and Zeke and Leo...the characters in both Trick of the Light and The Grimrose Path.

These books take place in the same world as the Cal & Niko series, where demons and Pucks and other supernatural creatures walk the earth. In fact, in the second book, a character from the Cal & Niko books makes several appearances (Ishiah).

Trixa is a bar owner in Las Vegas. Zeke and Griffin are two young men who she's taken in and sort-of raised. They have psychic abilities - one can read other people's thoughts, the other their emotions. Leo works at the bar with Trixa. I hesitate to give anything away in this series because its written in a way that you're supposed to wonder exactly who Trixa is and what is going on and I don't want to spoil it. Trixa tells the story as if she's looking back at it from a point after the outcome and she (very sneaky Rob) deliberately leaves out some crucial info as to what she's really up to (Trixa, I mean). It's super clever. I can honestly say I was flat out shocked at the end of Trick of the Light. When I finished it, I sat back, turned back to the beginning of the last chapter & read it again. And had a good laugh. Because I was totally fooled and once I knew the truth of everything, it all made sense -- including Trixa's personality.

As for the characters, Trixa is very unique. She's tough, she's irreverent, and her motives are hard to figure out. There's a reason for it. (But I can't tell you...go buy the book & read it!). She and Leo are a couple-wanna-be. They feel like boyfriend/girlfriend, but they're not. Or not yet. Griffin is a good guy who does the right thing. He has made himself responsible for Zeke, who sees two sides to everything - black & white. God forbid you do the wrong thing for the right reason - he's likely to shoot you dead. Griffin is trying to teach him those important shades of gray (with mixed results). It's funny and horrifying at the same time. The one thing that you know is these two love each other. They're committed to protecting each other against all bad things in the world. It's something that Rob does extremely well - writing about the commitment people make to each other and the extremes they'll go to for each other.

These are not books you can speed read. You won't want to. In fact with this second book, knowing exactly who Trixa is, I found myself stopping and re-reading to try to catch where she might have left out info & guessing as to what that info might be....fat lot of good that did me. She still faked me out. :)

I just want to say I love this series. I hope there's some way the publisher can be convinced to pick it back up again. There is no other character like Trixa out there. I want to know more about her. I want to read more about Griffin and Zeke (they make me smile with their little moments). Leo, Eli, Thor, Ishiah...there's just so much more that could be done with these characters. They deserve more stories.