Tag Archives: new orleans

The Quarter Storm (by Veronica Henry)

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Mystery / Magical Realism

A young woman enlists Reina, a Vodou priestess, to make a love charm for her. When the man who was the target of the charm is murdered and a fellow vodou priestess is charged with his murder, Reina begins to investigate. 

Corruption is rife in the New Orleans police department and her fellow practitioners don’t like the attention Reina is bringing to them as she investigates. But as she delves into the underbelly of New Orleans she learns that everyone involved has secrets and some of them would kill to keep them. 

This is such a great book. Deeply flawed characters who you somehow love anyway carry what is close to a hard-boiled detective story but with a strong vein of magical realism running through it, it’s everything I want. 

There are aspects of the book I didn’t much like, but the good completely blows all of that out of the water. A new name to add to my favorite authors list. 5 Stars.

Cold Reign (by Faith Hunter)

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Urban Fantasy

’twas a dark and stormy night…

…and the European Vamps have arrive.

As the Enforcer for Leo Pellisier, New Orleans’ master vampire, it’s left to Jane to plug every supernatural hole in the dike. She and her team find themselves called from one crisis to another as revenants rise and attack the people of the city while a supernatural storm beats down on New Orleans causing riots in the streets.

Jane is struggling to keep up as the European Vampires launch one attack after another and all the while they are circling ever closer to their end game.

This book is a runaway train. It crashes along at a frenetic pace and leaves you gasping for a breath by the end. It’s brash and in your face and one of the best books in the series to date. 5 Stars.

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Yellow, Orange, Red –– What it means.  YOR-Guide

 

Black Arts (by Faith Hunter)

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Urban Fantasy

Background

 Jane Yellowrock is the last Cherokee Skinwalker. Using bones and teeth as her template she is able to transform into any animal, but on top of this ability, many hundreds of years earlier she took the soul of a mountain lion into her in a life and death battle.  That mountain lion is named Beast and she lends to Jane the skills of a predator, a powerful sense of smell and super agility, not to mention some not altogether welcome advice on mating.

Jane works as a vampire hunter and the acting enforcer for Leo Pellissier, the vampire master of the city of New Orleans. 

Black Arts

Jane’s oldest and dearest friend, Molly Trueblood has disappeared, and she was on her way to see Jane when it happened.  When Evan, an air-witch and Molly’s husband shows up with their two children he brings with him a tornado and a whole truckload of worry.

Jane quickly learns that his worries are well founded, it looks like Molly has been taken by a vampire. And with the strange scent of witch and vampire showing up, she is worried that Molly is being used to power blood magic…and blood magic always demands a life.

Black Arts is book seven in the Jane Yellowrock series and in some ways I think it’s the best yet. Certainly the best since book one, Skinwalker.  Some of my favorite characters, characters who have been absent for the last couple of books have returned and things which have been bubbling away in the series are finally resolved, for both good and bad.

This book really feels like a fresh start and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for proving me with this ARC.

Villere House (by Leslie Fear and C.D. Hussey)

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Paranormal Romance 

When Lottie travels to New Orleans, she fully expects it to be a few days of drinking and partying.  But almost immediately she starts having vivid flash backs to a drama that unfolded 200 years earlier.

With help from Xavier, the sceptical owner of a shop selling voodoo trinkets to tourists, she needs to unravel the mystery, end a curse, and hopefully be alive at the end.  But the malevolant spirit that cursed her family has other plans.

Disclosure:  Leslie Fear is both a Facebook and Goodreads friend of mine.

Villere House is an old school ghost story.  It’s well paced, well written and entertaining. The romance didn’t entirely work for me, but to be honest that was probably because I kept thinking about the author’s children reading it…it’s hard to get past that. The real highlight for me was the ghost story. It’s rollicking good fun and even managed to creep me out a little.