Publication Date: 05/01/2018
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Imprint: Ace
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 432
ISBN-13: 978-1101991428
(Received for an honest review from Ace via Netgalley)
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, itunes
Faith Hunter on the WEB: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads
Books in the series:
Jane Yellowrock
0.2. The Early Years
0.4. Cat Tats
0.6. Haints
0.7. Signatures of the Dead
1. Skinwalker
2. Blood Cross
3. Mercy Blade
3.1. Easy Pickings (with CE Murphy)
3.2. Blood, Fangs, and Going Furry
3.5. Cat Tales
4. Raven Cursed
4.1. Cajun With Fangs
4.2. Golden Delicious
4.5. Have Stakes Will Travel
5. Death's Rival
6. Blood Trade
6.2. Beneath a Bloody Moon
7. Black Arts
7.5. Off the Grid
8. Broken Soul
9. Dark Heir
9.1. Cat Fight
9.2. Bound No More
10. Shadow Rites
11. Cold Reign
12. Dark Queen
Cat O'Nine Tales
Blood in Her Veins
Coverart: Click the image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.
Excerpt from Dark Queen, courtesy of Amazon's Look Inside feature
Synopsis:
Jane Yellowrock used to hunt vampires, but now she must fight--and win--beside them.
As Enforcer to the vampire Master of the City of New Orleans, Jane Yellowrock stakes her reputation and her life on keeping her territory safe. But Leo has been issued a blood challenge by the emperor of the European vampires, who seeks to usurp all of his power and possessions. If Leo loses the match to the death, the city will be forfeit, and the people of New Orleans will suffer the consequences. Jane can't let that happen.
Preparing for the duel requires all of Jane's focus, but with so much supernatural power in play, nothing goes according to plan. She has to rely on herself and the very few people she knows she can trust to stand and fight. Only two things are guaranteed: nothing is sacred, and no one is safe.
Thoughts:
I've been reading Jane Yellowrock since the beginning and let me tell you, this book is something else. Author Faith Hunter returns for a twelfth book in the Jane Yellowrock series, Dark Queen. If you thought you knew what was going to happen in this series, this book probably tossed your ideas out the door. Long time readers will experience a myriad of emotions as the novel twists and turns to the final page. Love. Hate. Revenge. Sadness. I think you'll feel them all. I'm still in a bit of shock after finishing this one. Can't recommend it enough for Urban Fantasy readers.
What I liked:
First I want to say that this series is close to the top of my Urban Fantasy picks. It is so well written. The world building is among the best in the business and the characters grow on you so much you hate to leave them when each book ends. Jane Yellowrock is as badass as they come in this genre. I was under the impression that this would be the final book in the series and I was dreading that, but the author was given a contract for two more. That's why the book reads with so much finality to it and then flips a switch and goes in a new direction. A lot of it was already in play before the two new ones were ordered. That's good and bad in some ways. As for myself... I want more.
Jane is an enforcer. She's not someone that anyone in the supernatural world or the human world for that matter would want to mess with. In this one Jane does a lot of soul searching. She also does a lot of fighting. She is attempting a relationship with Bruiser but a lot of stuff is going on here, that could effect everything including where that is going. I thought Hunter set a very rapid and gut wrenching pace for Jane in this one. So many things happen to her. We learn more about her past but we also get more questions. Beast is very insistent in this one which I liked. Soooo good!
There was so much action and thrills in this one. There wasn't really much a break for the characters and I was one the edge of my seat for most of it. It seemed like one action scene just flowed into another. That's really the difference between Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. In Urban Fantasy the romance takes a back seat to the action of the story. If this type of book is something you've never tried before... Jane Yellowrock is such a good place to start.
What I didn't like:
Because there is so much action, there is a lot of gore and violence. As I said before Jane knows what she's doing and how to get it done, but that isn't for every reader. Some readers will not like how heavy handed this one is with killing. It's just not something everyone will be into to. I don't care for it all the time but it was necessary in this one. So take with a grain of salt and don't get too hung up on it.
Bottom Line:
I really can't recommend this one enough. Jane Yellowrock is one of my favorite heroines of the genre. Faith Hunter does an amazing job of pulling it all together and making the reader crave more. I'm glad this wasn't the last one. It should be interesting where we go from here. Bit of a cliffhanger with this one folks. Don't you hate those... Go buy this one and the whole series. You won't be disappointed.
Dark Queen is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.
I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag
About the Author:
The dark urban fantasy Skinwalker series, featuring Jane Yellowrock, is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling series with multiple books and compilations. Jane Yellowrock is a Cherokee skinwalker who tracks, hunts, and kills rogue-vampires for a living -- that is, until she takes a gig working for Leo Pellissier, the Master of the City of New Orleans. The series is set in an alternate reality, modern-day world, one inhabited by humans, vamps, and other things that go bump in the night.
Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy series, feature Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in a post-apocalyptic, alternate reality, urban fantasy world. These novels are the basis for the Rogue Mage World Book and Role Playing Game, which contains lots of fiction for the readers!
The Soulwood series features Nell Nicholson Ingram, and is a spinoff from the Skinwalker series. Nell is an escapee from a cult, a solitary woman with deadly magic of her own. In book one, Blood of The Earth, she is hired to help PsyLED (a division of Homeland Security) find a missing child.
Under her pen name Gwen Hunter, she writes action adventure, mysteries, and thrillers.
As Faith and Gwen, she has 40 (or so) books in print in 29 countries.
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