chez_jae

I took advantage of my 3-day weekend to read Broken Soul by Faith Hunter. It's part of her urban fantasy series, featuring skinwalker Jane Yellowrock.

With a looming visit from a delegation of European vampires in the future, it's up to Jane to help Leo, the Master of the City of New Orleans, beef up security at vampire Headquarters. Everyone involved seems to think this meeting is a prelude to war, and tensions are high. Jane, however, has bigger issues. A being made of light seems bent on attacking her, she's being tailed wherever she goes, and Leo's former primo, George (whom Jane affectionately calls Bruiser), seems bent on seducing her. Worse, Jane's inner cat, Beast, likes Bruiser.

This particular book was less engrossing/gripping than others, but it featured much more in the way of vampire history, Jane's abilities, and more from Beast. While I enjoyed and appreciated that, it still took me all weekend to read. Had it been a "normal" Jane Yellowrock book, I probably would have knocked it all back on Saturday. The battle scenes weren't as intense, due to Jane's newfound ability, but they were still gory and exciting in an edge-of-your-seat manner. It was interesting to see how carefully Bruiser courted Jane, as well as to witness Leo's jealous rage over it.

Favorite lines:
♦ Call me a lover of slasher porn, but some dudes just deserved to lose their heads. Both of them.
♦ New beginnings often started with the broken bits and shattered pieces of the old.
♦ "Religion as a political entity is always horrible."

In spite of the deviation from the "norm" (for this series), I really enjoyed the book. Five stars:

*****

Finished reading Blood Trade, by Faith Hunter, last night. It's part of her "Jane Yellowrock" urban fantasy series.

Jane's secret is out, and people now know she's a skinwalker. Jane's Beast has been magically bonded to Master Vampire Leo, which makes Jane reluctant to shift. As a result, she's getting cranky and restless. When an opportunity arises to travel to Natchez and help another Master vampire deal with rogues, Jane jumps at the chance. She takes along her own, small team, leaving Leo and New Orleans behind.

Before she can begin hunting rogue vamps, however, Jane makes a side trip to meet up with a former childhood acquaintance. Misha wants to interview Jane for a book she's writing on vampires. Janes suspects there's more to Misha's story than that, and she's right.

Jane and Eli meet with the Master vampire, then go hunting. They soon discover that these rogue vamps are unlike any vampires they've encountered before. The rogues are morphing into something faster and more dangerous than normal vampires.

To make matters more difficult, Misha goes missing, leaving her sick child in Jane's care, Jane's former boyfriend comes to town, and then Leo's primo, Bruiser, shows up. Both men are in contention for Jane's attention, and they aren't planning on playing nice with one another.

As with other books in this series, the story was fast-paced and engrossing. The battle scenes are brutal and bloody. Jane has to survive on her skill, her wits, and pure moxie.

Favorite line: Never admit you're wrong when silence lies that you're right.

Fabulous! Five stars!

*****

Last night, I finished reading Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter. It's the fourth book in her "Jane Yellowrock" urban fantasy series.

So much going on this book:

♦ Jane is heading security for a meeting between two vampire factions
♦ Two rogue werewolves are slaughtering campers in the area, and Jane is tasked with investigating
♦ Jane's sorta-kinda boyfriend, Rick, is struggling to accomplish his first shift, while the shifter that Jane assigned to assist him would rather kill him, leaving Jane to mediate
♦ Jane's bff Molly, along with her witch sisters, is being spelled by their eldest sister and coven leader

And, oh yeah, Jane is still hellbent on keeping her own nature as a skinwalker a secret.

This was a long book, but I rocked through it in only a few days. It was difficult to put down. As she tries to keep tabs on everything falling to hell around her, Jane starts seeing how it's all tied together, and just when you think things are finally resolved, BAM! Something else happens. Very exciting!

I love how Jane is so competent as a warrior, but she still struggles with relationships and intimacy and her own ineptitude in social situations. She's a well-developed character, and I also enjoy the secondary characters, including those we've met in prior books and ones first introduced in this book. Can't wait to read more!

Five out of five:
♦♦♦♦♦

I stayed up too late on Wednesday night, finishing Blood Cross by Faith Hunter. It's the second book in her series featuring skinwalker heroine Jane Yellowrock.

After doing a job for the vampires in New Orleans, they contract Jane to stay on and help rid the city of a vamp who is creating young rogues and allowing them to run loose. Jane has to juggle her investigation, while playing hostess to her best friend Molly (a witch) and Molly's two children, and simultaneously staying away from Leo Pellissier, the Blood Master of the city. Complicating matters are two potential suitors for Jane, as well as the fact that witch children are being abducted in the city.

Jane begins to see a correlation between the abductions and the creation of rogue vampires. When Molly's children are taken, Jane is in a race to save them before they can be sacrificied in a bizarre ritual.

This is top-notch urban fantasy, and I really enjoy the times when Jane's "other half", a cougar she calls simply Beast, comes to the fore.

Five stars for this one!

★★★★★