Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

"Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind--a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires--and hunts the undead for a living. But now she's been hired by Katherine Fonteneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katie's Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who's killing other vamps. Amidst a bordello full of real 'ladies of the night,' and a hot Cajun biker with a panther tattoo who stirs her carnal desire, Jane must stay focused and complete her mission, or else the next skin she'll need to save may be her own."--p. [4] of cover.

I've had this book for a while and finally got around to reading it. I'm sorry I waited so long. I want to read the next asap.

Fantastic book. I felt a little iffy at the beginning, but it was just a bit of a rough start. By the middle I couldn't put it down. Extremely engaging and a fun world.

egad
glad that's over

This book has the feel of a Mercy Thompson novel, and it gets many things right. The things it get right are not exceptional, but they are entertaining nonetheless, since the PNR genre is sorely lacking in good writing.

The heroine is a typical badass vampire hunter, stronger and faster then vampires even. She is not entirely human, and even among her kind, which there seems to be none, she is special. She has the spirit of a mystical being residing inside her, which makes her extraordinarily good at her job.

The narrative has a sobering feel. The author develops each character just enough to make them feel a little more then pieces of writing in a paper. The protagonist is intelligent, for instance, the scenes where she managed to keep some of her weapons even after close inspection. Also, she immediately looked for hidden cameras when she arrived at her employer given residency.

Jane goes right into business, first scoping the local area, then trying to establish contacts who could her her in her investigation.

BUT, all of this falls flat by the incredibly overly descriptive writing. Jane's introspective narration even when she shapeshifts, takes pages and pages away from a good plot or character development. It adds nothing to the book. Empathy can be established with a few words.

This felt more like the author was in a writing challenge, trying to hone in her scene description skills. And they aren't very good either.

Add to that very quickly her love interest was introduced in the plot, and he is the typical alpha male, good looking, scoundrel, no woman has ever rejected, cowboy style bad boy.

At leats up until I read, nothing was indicating that this is just a cheap excuse for smutty romance.

read 2:06 / 14:00 15%