Blood Cross Review

Title: Blood Cross
Author: Faith Hunter
Series: Jane Yellowrock #2
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Hunters, Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Vampires, Witches.

Review:

In the second installment of Jane Yellowrock series, entitled Blood Cross, the stories continue from when Jane Yellowrock was hired by the vampire council to hunt down a rogue vampire who turns young and innocent humans into insane rogue vampire which violates the vampire laws. Jane later gets herself involve into power-play between major the vampire clans. It is also reveal that this power-play also involves an age old rivalry between the vampires and witches which lead to the Jane's bestfriend's children being kidnapped by the perpetrators.

The plot is a tad more complicated than one initially expects, and at times it can be distracting to try and figure out where Jane is on which case or line of inquiry. Despite the complexity of the plot, it still get resolve in a favorable way concluding which is considered a very gruelling story arc.   

Jane Yellowrock is by far one of the best urban fantasy books I have read and I can't wait to read the next book of the series.

The Good, The Bad and The Undead Review

Title: The Good, The Bad and The Undead
Author: Kim Harrison
Series: Hollows / Rachel Morgan #2
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Witches, Vampires, Demons, Bounty Hunters, Faeries, Elfs

Review:

The Good the Bad and the Undead is the second installment of the "The Hollows" series (To other this is called "The Rachel Morgan series"). Rachel Morgan, the series' sexy witch and one of the proprietor of a an independing runner service along with his partner's Jenks, a pixie and Ivy Tahmwood, a living vamapire (aka vampire with a soul).

This time Rachel accepts a contract from the FIB (Federal Inderland Bureau) to investigate a wave of witch murders and she goes undercover to spy on her former professor. Morgan suspects councilman Trent Kalamack of the murders (Along the way we also learn more about Kalamack's history). I like how the story gets resolve with an intertwined new predicament to the protagonist which will basically serve as a precurser to the next book.

The characters continue to develop so it isn't just the same plot but a different adventure. The evolution and and complex relationships of the characters is part of what makes you care about them. 

As always I love the witty banters between Rachel and Jenks (who I would now considered the resident comic relief of this series). Ivy's character continues her to emphasize his character being "mysterious" and she always give Rachel the "creep" whenever she 'vamps-out'. "The Good, the Bad and the Undead" is a followup to the series as a whole and with an in-depth revelation about Trent Kalamack, I suspect that this character becomes a factor to Rachel's history as series goes into a much more interesting path.

Green-Eyed Demon Review

Title: Green-Eyed Demon
Author: Jaye Wells
Audiobook Narrator: Cynthia Holloway
Series: Sabina Kane #3
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Assassins, Vampires, Demons, Mages, Nymphs, Faeries

Review:

The third installment of the Sabina Kane series picks up the action from The Mage in Black leaves off, with the series heroin half-mage, half-vampire Sabina heading to New Orleans accompanied by her demon familiar, Giguhl, and mage Adam Lazarus. Sabina is desperate to rescue her twin sister Maisie, who has been kidnapped by Lavinia Kane their wicked grandmother and the Alpha of the Dominae vampire group. 

The new location introduces another group of interesting characters – Voodoo priestess, Zenobia, changeling drag queen, Brooks/Pussy Willow, lesbian werewolf bar owner, Mac, and a reclusive rock star Erron Zorn (who happens to be an excommunicated mage). Aside from these interesting people we get to know the newest threat, the Caste of Nod.

We also get to read Sabina's improvement as a mage as he gets to raise a zombie (her Cthonic power is somewhat a form of necromancy magic). Which was very critical during the final battle between Sabina and her grandmother. In the romance depart Adam finally expresses his feelings to Sabina which to the delight of magepire. 

Green-Eyed Demon is the conclusion to the conflict between Sabina and her grandmother which I though was great as we get to resolve all issues in a fitting finale had this series stayed as a trilogy. With the upcoming threats to Sabina Kane and her companions, this series is far from over.

Violet Tendencies Review

Title: Violet Tendencies
Author: Jaye Wells
Series: Sabina Kane #2.5
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Assassins, Vampires, Demons, Mages, Nymphs, Faeries

Review:

Violet Tendencies takes place right after the conclusion of Mage In Black and before Green-Eyed Demon. This novella is considered a "fill-in" as there would be a missing character at the beginning of Green-Eyed Demon (which makes this novella a must read if in-case you went straight into Green-Eyed Demon). 

As with the first two books, this novella is no short of action and humorous sarcasm that you will surely enjoy reading. Personally I would really consider this as the first couple of chapter for Green-Eyed Demon. We also get a look at the different "class" of demons in Irkalla and scoop a tidbit of information about the time surrounding Demon existence.

I would recommend reading this novella before going into Green Eyed Demon as this would really make sense on some aspect of the series

Skinwalker Review

Title: Skinwalker
Author: Faith Hunter
Series: Jane Yellowrock #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Hunters, Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Vampires, Witches.

Review:

Since the 7th installment of Mercedes Thompson is still far from finished, I decided to read another "walker" book in Faith Hunter's "Skinwalker". Unlike Mercedes Thompson who is a walker and shapeshifts only into a coyote, Jane Yellowrock is a full-on skinwalker who can shapeshift into any animal as long as she has the proper mass to carry the change. For this series, she prefers to shapeshift into mountain lion more than any animal.

Another difference between the two protaonists is that Mercy is more of a mechanic than a hunter who only gets into action when forced into while Jane is a mercinary vampire hunter by trade.

The story starts when Jane is called to New Orleans by an old vampire named Katie, who hires her to track and kill a rogue vampire preying on not only the humans but other vampires in the city. Turns out this rogue vampire is a lot more older, more powerful, and much more harder to track than Jane thought. While on the hunt, she is introduced to the vampire world: the politics, lifestyle, and the who's who of vamp society.

Skinwalker is a breath of fresh air for me personally as I was able to read another "skinwalker" theme book that as a good as the Mercedes Thompson series (maybe better in terms of action). The caveat on this story is that there are two point of views: When Jane is in her human form, the conversation is conventional but when Jane shifts into her "big cat" form, Beast takes over the persona and the conversation is like someone is dictating a list of word (you'll know what I mean once you read the book).  

Mage In Black Review

Title: Mage In Black
Author: Jaye Wells
Series: Sabina Kane #2
Audiobook Narrator: Cynthia Holloway
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Assassins, Vampires, Demons, Mages, Nymphs, Faeries

Review:

Mage in Black is the second installment of Jaye Wells "Sabina Kane" series. The story picks up almost immediately where Red-Headed Stepchild left off, with Sabina and company on the way to New York City to meet her long lost twin sister Maisie and further learn about her mage side of the family.

Upon arrival, Sabina gets to continue her training under the supervision of an elder mage. With here financial resource cut off by the Dominae, Sabina and her demonic minion Gighul joined demonic version of the "Fight Club" own by a former Dominae assassin name Slade. Sabina also gets to survive several assassination attempts which lead to uncovering a mysterious plot from a secret group call the "Cast of Nod" which lead the to the Dominae  attacking the Hekate council which was later reveal to be a diversion inorder to kidnap Maisie. 

Over all, Mage in Black is a great follow up to the "Red-Head Stepchild" as there was a clear progress to the story with a great balance of action, humor (mostly from Giguhl who now becomes this series' comic relief much like Jenks in Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series and Bob the Skull in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series) and romance. 

Dead Witch Walking Review

Title: Dead Witch Walking
Author: Kim Harrison
Series: Hollows / Rachel Morgan #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Witches, Vampires, Demons, Bounty Hunters, Faeries

Review:
Dead Witch Walking is the first installment of the Rachel Morgan/ Hollows series by urban fantasy writer Kim Harrison.

The story sets in an alternate universe Cincinnati on which all supernatural entities like vampires, werewolves faeries, etc. At this time these beings are now called "Interlanders" At the time there are several agencies that handle the enforcement of these Inderlanders, one of which is the Federal Inderland Bureau which the new moniker of FBI and it's rival agency the Inderland Security or I.S.

Our story protagonist is Rachel Morgan, a witch who works as an I.S. runner which is basically a contract bounty hunter who hunt illegal Inderlands with Jenks a pixie as her backup and her colleague a "living" vampire name Ivy who is I.S. best runner.

The story gets interesting when all three decided to quit the agency they are working for and create their own "bounty hunter agency" which they become a target by their former employer's assassins. They also found themselves a string of inter agency conflicts as well as a rodent fighting ring with the rodents turn out to be people that have been turned into one.

What I really love about this book is the comical banter between Rachel and Jenks as they remind me of another Harry Dresden and Bob the Skull in Urban Fantasy hit Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

All in all, I really love the direction of the story as this book is considered a great introduction of all characters involve. I'm looking forward to the next book of this series.