The Touch of Twilight (Signs of the Zodiac, #3) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Feb 28, 2010 Nairabell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, 4-star

Joanna Archer has finally accepted her dual identity as a beautiful socialite by day and a warrior for the light by night. But the third sign of the zodiac is about to rise, and it is prophesied that Joanna will turn her back on the light when her dormant shadow side rises and she joins forces with her father, the Tulpa aka leader of the shadows. Joanna is also being hunted by a doppelganger who wants nothing more than to take over Joanna's life, and the shadow agent Regan who is corrupting Joan Joanna Archer has finally accepted her dual identity as a beautiful socialite by day and a warrior for the light by night. But the third sign of the zodiac is about to rise, and it is prophesied that Joanna will turn her back on the light when her dormant shadow side rises and she joins forces with her father, the Tulpa aka leader of the shadows. Joanna is also being hunted by a doppelganger who wants nothing more than to take over Joanna's life, and the shadow agent Regan who is corrupting Joanna's first love Ben.

I was looking forward to this book, and while it wasn't quite what I expected I wasn't disappointed. The introduction of doppelgangers and a whole other world called Midheaven was unexpected, but helped the book to continue developing. This book also picked up some features from the earlier books - like the changelings, where non-lineaged star signs come from and the Tulpa's desperation for revenge on Zoe, Joanna's mother.

Joanna annoyed me a bit in this book, continually whining about Ben. She completely ignores Hunter (the other potential love interest) for most of the book, and then ends up really hurting him in a show of immaturity and selfishness. Thankfully the Ben storyline is concluded in this book, so hopefully Joanna will pull herself together and start acting like a grown-up.

While the other star sign characters don't get much attention, Chandra (the initiate who was usurped by Joanna) does get a fair bit of page time and finds her role within the light team. Before now Chandra has been pretty one-dimensional, and this book sees her become a more developed character. We also find out a lot more about Zane, the record keeper who draws the comics - like how exactly he became the record keeper, and what that entails.

Disappointingly, quite a lot of story threads were left unfinished at the end of the book which given how well liked the books appear to be was unnecessary. However, it could be that it will take a lot to tie them up so that could be why they were left hanging. One major one was that the fourth sign of the zodiac was not revealed, whereas each book so far has revealed the following sign.

All in all, I enjoyed the book (although slightly less than books one The Scent of Shadows and two The Taste of Night)and am looking forward to book four: City of Souls.

Plot: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Cover: 7/10

Overall: 44/50 ...more

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Jun 17, 2008 Christal rated it liked it

Shelves: superheroes, mind-bullets, female-lead, urban-fantasy

I plan to do a re-read of this series now that it is complete. I always just felt kind of meh about the story and am hoping that reading them back to back is more effective.

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