Cold Reign by Faith Hunter Narrator: Khristine Hvam
Length: 14 hrs 42 mins
Series: Jane Yellowrock #11
Published by Ace on May 2, 2017
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 378
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I received this book for free from Tour Group in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Jane Yellowrock is a shape-shifting skinwalker…and the woman rogue vampires fear most. Jane walks softly and carries a big stake to keep the peace in New Orleans, all part of her job as official enforcer to Leo Pellisier, Master of the City. But Leo’s reign is being threatened by a visit from a delegation of ancient European vampires seeking to expand their dominions.
But there’s another danger to the city. When she hears reports of revenant vampires, loose in NOLA and out for blood, Jane goes to put them down—and discovers there’s something unusual about these revenants. They never should have risen.
Jane must test her strength against a deadly, unnatural magic beyond human understanding, and a ruthless of cadre of near-immortals whose thirst for power knows no bounds…
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Cold Reign begins in a storm. And it storms the whole way through the book. The storms are not natural, and are one big stumbling block to all that Jane and Clan Yellowrock are trying to prevent. I think I got just as sick of the rain and storms as everyone else.
The European Vamps are making moves towards New Orleans and it is a huge puzzle as to what their plans are. The hits start coming to NOLA and the Master of the City fast and furious. Starting out with some weird revenants with dog shaped teeth. The storm and the chaos all seem to roil together and keep everyone running a mile a minute. Every time we think that we are going to get a break to catch our breath, another attack of some sort happens that has Jane and the others suiting back up.
The appearance of Rick LaFleur brings an interesting side problem for Jane. She was done with him, and has moved on. But now he’s back. I felt kind of bad for Rick, but I am jumping into this series pretty late so I don’t know all of the back story between them.
Cold Reign brings together a lot of back story. The EV’s have been plotting this for a very long time, so it’s no surprise that a lot of back story comes up. Using the bits of that back story, Jane can determine who is working with or against them. Even then we still get some surprises.
There was so much action in Cold Reign. It was non-stop which made it hard to find stopping points. This was my first Jane Yellowrock novel so it was quite difficult for me to get into the groove of the characters and the writing. Despite the downside of my lack of familiarity with Jane & Beast’s abilities, the action and pacing kept me glued to the story.
I’m a sucker for romance, and Bruiser and Jane’s relationship had me breaking out in smiles. They make a really cute couple going through all the stuff new couples go through. I’m glad that Ms. Hunter was able to squeeze in these little gems to brighten the blood and death going on around them all.
The ending was pretty shady. I don’t know Leo well enough to foretell what he is up to, but he is definitely trying to make some new moves on the chessboard. He obviously has plans for Jane, but he’s pretty sneaky about what he is up to. Bruiser must have had an idea and tried to prevent it, but I think it will be in upcoming books where we will get to see just what Leo thought he was doing and if it worked.
Even though I didn’t have any back story going into this book, I still enjoyed the action, mystery and little nuggets of romance. I need to grab the first books and get caught up in this world so I will be prepared for Dark Queen!
About Faith Hunter
Faith Hunter is the New York Times and USAToday bestselling author of the Jane Yellowrock series, the Soulwood series, and the Rogue Mage series, as well as the author of 16 thrillers under pen the names Gary Hunter and Gwen Hunter. She has 40+ books in print.
Faith collects orchids and animal skulls, loves thunder storms, and writes. She likes to cook soup, bake homemade bread, garden, and run Class III whitewater rivers. She edits the occasional anthology and drinks a lot of tea. Some days she’s a lady. Some days she ain’t.
For more, see www.faithhunter.net
To keep up with her, like her fan page at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/official.faith.hunter
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2017 Review Writing Challenge
- May 2017 Clean Sweep ARC Challenge
