chez_jae

Cold Reign by Faith Hunter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't have to work today, so in the wee hours of the morning, I finished reading Cold Reign by Faith Hunter. It's number eleven in her "Jane Yellowrock" urban fantasy series, featuring skinwalker and rogue vampire hunter, Jane Yellowrock.

Jane and the established vampires in New Orleans are on high alert. A contingent of European vampires is planning a visit, and no one is naive enough to believe they aren't intent on a hostile takeover. While negotiations for the visit are ongoing, Jane is kept busy when revenants (dead and buried vamps) continue to rise from their graves and create havoc. In the meantime, an unnatural storm is making everyone edgy and leading to several riots in town. Jane can't help but think there is a connection between the two.

After receiving intel that some of the Euro vamps may have already made clandestine landing on shore, it's up to Jane to keep her people safe, track down the rogues, and restore order to NOLA. Fortunately, she has a strong support group of loyal sidekicks, as well as her own, inner Beast, to help her. Beast was very present in this book, and I always love her observations and commentary.

There was no let up in this story. The narrative careened from one action sequence to another, as Jane was pulled in different directions. The only bright spot for her is her growing relationship with George Dumas, or Bruiser, as she calls him. Even that is jeopardized, however, when her old flame, Rick LaFleur comes to town in his capacity as an operative of PsyLED. In addition, Jane's own evolving magics are a constant source of confusion and frustration for her.

Favorite line: "He's living in a Harry Potter room."

Fabulous, fantastic, frantic, and fun! Automatic five stars!

My only complaint about this book is, the cover and spine are white, whereas every other book in the series is black. It looks out of place on my bookshelf, and my OCD whimpers each time I glance in that direction. :D

jane