One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: N/A
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 384 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Tor Books publisher Tor/Forge via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Maybe it used to be a dog-eat-dog world, but since humans became aware of the existence of the Powers - vampires, werewolves, and elven Álfar who have been integrated into society and hold positions of power in the country and around the globe - it's a different sort of feeding frenzy altogether. Not that Linnet Ellery feels that way. She was fostered in a vampire Household and groomed for the law.

After graduating top of her class and passing the bar on the first try, Linnet is excited about her new position with a prestigious White-Fang law firm. At least she is until the case from hell is dropped in her lap, her co-workers shun her, and the managing partners make it quite clear her position is strictly on suffrage. Then the case she's working on takes on a sinister turn.

Her boss is killed and Linnet barely escapes being mauled by a werewolf. And that's just the first in a long line of Very Bad Things that make Linnet feel less than safe and nowhere near welcome at her new job. If, on top of all that, she can't close a case that's been floundering on the firm's books for over twenty years, she may as well just start running and keep on going.

Then again, it's become clear she'd be better off doing that even if she can close the case.


Bornikova's imaginative debut hits a lot of the right notes for me. I really enjoyed the world she's created, and Linnet was an appealing main character. The mix of urban fantasy and legal thriller worked surprisingly well within the framework of the setting, the plot, and the characters. It was sort of like the bastard child of The Vampire Diaries and The Pelican Brief. With significantly less faux-teen angst.

Maybe most compelling to me is the evolution of Linnet's character throughout the story. She starts off at a severe disadvantage, disappointed in her job, worried about keeping it, and a bit timid with it all. She's fairly meek when faced with workplace harassment and ostracism, as well, as she's desperate to make as few waves as possible.

Then she survives a couple of werewolf attacks in ways that get more and more delightfully outlandish, and instead of being scared away, she starts to really dig in and stand her ground. With each turn of the page she comes further and further out of her shell and became more appealing to me as she did.

She'll never be a prototypical kick-ass heroine. She's a human female lawyer in a world dominated by old school male vampires and several very bad doggies. Her inner warrior-woman is more business casual than leather, a Harley, and a sawed-off. Linnet instead holds her own with judicious use of her sharp intellect, guided by a deep sense of right and wrong, and motivated by sheer persistence. I liked that about her.

I wish the world had been better explained and further defined. I never felt like I got more than a taste of the paranormal and supernatural elements in and of this creative almost-reality. Too many things were hinted at or alluded to or mentioned in passing, too few things given clear, in-depth definition. By the end of the book I had a ton of questions that didn't come close to even being addressed, let alone answered.

Instead, there was a plethora of superfluous information and minutiae in the narrative. The first third of the book in particular was particularly sluggish because of it, and several sections after that got bogged down as well. i.e. While I appreciated Linnet's love for and history with horses for the depth it added to her character, neither my interest nor the pacing of the story were benefited by having every horse in the book (a surprising number of them) identified in detail and equestrian riding described so thoroughly.

And that's just one example among many. A tighter grip on the editing could have smoothed out several rough and bloated spots, sped up the pace, and allowed for heightened emotional impact regarding the plot-driven external conflicts.

Linnet's huge case never really inspired me to care too much about its outcome, either. It was a little too distant, the interested parties a little too hostile, the quagmire of former actions, rumors, and suppositions all stayed just beyond my ability to invest my emotions. It was the case that caused the most plot conflict in the book, both directly and indirectly, but it wasn't a strong conflict for me.

The few pages given to the deposition between the battered wife and the stalker werewolf husband had a far more visceral emotional impact and that was just a tiny part of the overall story.

Romance fans will be happy that Linnet has a love interest that comes into play in the story. I liked him well enough, but I found the vampire David Sullivan's character to be more intriguing to me personally for some reason. I kept hoping for more about him or more scenes featuring him. And his scene in the park was awesome.

This book had its ups and downs, but I have to say, it really is an original and imaginative world that Bornikova created for her characters. Next time I hope to find out more about it. Hell, I hope there is a next time. Linnet really grew on me, to the point that I would be very disappointed if I don't get a chance to revisit her and several other characters who have wormed into my head and made themselves at home.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Sentinels of New Orleans, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 336 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Tor Books publisher Tor/Forge via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Drusilla Jaco sees dead people. Well, technically, undead people. And if you want to be real nitpicky about it, it's not that special a gift. Everyone can see them if they've crossed into our world from the Beyond. So yes, that gent wailing out the jazz on a corner of Bourbon Street, the one who looks so much like Louis Armstrong he could be his twin, well...

It's not his twin.

As wizard sentinel of New Orleans, it's DJ's job to deal with those like Louis, or like the two hundred years dead but still sexy pirate Jean Lafitte, and send them back to the Beyond where they belong. It hasn't been her job for long, though. Big jobs like that usually fell to her mentor and boss Gerald St.Simon while DJ was left with tasks as scintillating as retrieving troublesome pixies or researching arcane spells.

But that was before a hurricane named Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. Before DJ had evacuated on her boss' orders and he had remained to guard the city, his home practically in the shadows of one of Lake Pontchartrain's levees. Before the levees broke and changed...everything about life in New Orleans, including the undead.

In the wake of unthinkable disaster, Gerry disappears. Storm-made breaches in the temporal fabric between our world and the Beyond are letting all sorts of nasty through. DJ returns to New Orleans and the Elders name her sentinel, though they force on her a partner she neither wants nor thinks she needs.

DJ's life doesn't resemble anything even remotely familiar anymore. Now she's living in a city mostly underwater, devastation everywhere, and someone or something is murdering members of the National Guard who have come to help the survivors. There is little evidence left behind to help the investigation, almost nothing beyond voodoo symbols and defiled corpses. Gerry is still missing, DJ is still searching, and life is not as simple as banishing sexy pirates anymore. Especially when D.J. finds the symbol that's been painted on her house. A voodoo symbol that targets her as a serial killer's intended victim.


I had a lot of fun with this imaginative and unique series debut by Johnson. I loved the world that's been built here. The magical references and the Otherworldly influences are all set to simmer with the rich Cajun flavor only found in New Orleans, even one rocked by natural disaster. The world-building and mythos were creative and fresh, and I couldn't think of a better city to place a story that includes such terms as "historical undead." It was perfect.

When I first realized that the book is set just days prior to the impact of Katrina, and the storyline takes readers through that horror (quickly) to the days and weeks immediately following it, I thought it was an odd choice for an urban fantasy debut. When I started reading, though, and saw the snippets of real news from those days serving as chapter introductions, I was surprised by the emotional impact it had on me. The blend of real-world disaster and fictional story elements was both eerie and powerful. It added a tension and sense of desperation in the characters and story that felt genuine and organic. It really was beautifully executed.

This isn't a book that trots out all the pertinent information about the world and the characters in the beginning...or anywhere else, really. There aren't many instances where backstory, setting, and character definition is provided in clumps of detail. Readers very much have to glean as they go. I'm usually patient enough to wait for the information to come to me as I'm reading, but I know that style doesn't work for everyone. I enjoyed having it handed out in drips and drabs as it related to the characters and story at the time. Makes it easier for me to remember in the long term.

The book wouldn't have been nearly as much fun, though, if I hadn't absolutely loved DJ as much as I did. Talk about a wizard with authority issues and a penchant for sarcasm. She's not exactly a gun-toting, ass-kicking mega wizard, either. She's impulsive, prone to bend rules to suit her, headstrong, and stubborn. She's not the most powerful thing out there - by far - or the smartest, and she's sure not bent on making the Bad Guys cower. Mostly she just wants to find Gerry. Sure, she also wants everyone who can survive to survive (including herself) and the undead to stop making a bad situation worse, but her focus is on Gerry.

Alex Warin, her Elder-appointed enforcer, has the gun-toting and ass-kicking part down. He's sent to watch her back and assist her in her duties as sentinel, to help send back whomever or whatever has slipped through the breaches from the Beyond and eliminate anyone or anything who poses a threat. He's pretty much what you'd expect from someone in his role as major secondary character and potential love interest. Tall, dark, deadly, mysterious...but he's got a personality that warms nicely as the book progressed and he becomes very likable. He didn't offer much in the way of surprises as a character, but he was fun as eye candy and the banter between him and DJ was amusing. I liked him a lot.

For all that the story is full of plot potential, I did have an issue with the pace of the story. It was very slow through a lot of the book. Most of the activity, action, and danger takes place at the beginning and end of the book, while a good hunk of the middle sort of languishes under the onslaught of unanswered questions and unsolved mystery. I was able to distract myself with the setting and smooth writing, as well as the appeal of the characters, but those who favor fast plot-driven stories may be disappointed.

The characters and world around those characters drew me in and kept me very entertained. I do wish there had been more of the undead pirate, Lafitte. Now that was one devilishly bad, bad boy. He was sadly underutilized in the story. Who could resist such a charming but truly dangerous reprobate? One who shows up for a meeting with a female wizard with a six pack of flavored condoms in hand, but has enough of a dark side to be truly scary, too. Loved him.

This was an exciting read for me. One that left me thirsty for more. I would've been happier with less treading water in the middle, but I had such a good time with the book otherwise that I'll be anxiously awaiting the next installment. Great way to solidly kick off a series.

Quotables:

A lesser woman would have noticed the thick muscles moving under his tanned skin when he raised his arms, or the T-shirt that fit just snugly enough to send a girl's thoughts to the Promised Land. Good thing I don't notice stuff like that.

"I'm an empath, not a psychic or telepath. I can tell what an arrogant letch you are but I can't read your flipping mind."

"The fight wasn't over," I said through gritted teeth. "I'd have won it." Probably.
"Right," he said. "And something just flew past your window. It was oinking."

We didn't know if we were looking for a demon from hell or a rampaging politician, assuming there was a discernible difference.