Skinwalker - Jane Yellowrock Bk 1 - Faith Hunter

Through a carefully (and skillfully) laid back story we're introduced to Jane Yellowrock. A Native American Cherokee myth comes to life, a Skinwalker. As far as she knows the only one of her kind in the world.

Part of that back story reveals that Jane almost died a year ago taking out a Blood Family. (Make sure you check out PN Elrod's anthology, Strange Brew for the full story.) She's enjoyed healing with her Witch friend Molly and her family for the past year, but it's time to get back to work, destroying rogue "Vamps."

Hired by the first civilised Vampire she's ever met, Kathrine Fontaneau, she leaves her home in North Carolina to head to New Orleans. Fontaneau and the other Vampire ruling class want this rogue taken out, by any means necessary. Not so much because he/she/it is killing humans (and other Vampires), but because it's affecting the bottom line. Since coming out of the coffin in the 1960's, the main stream Vamps get quite a bit of their money from tourism.

Ms. Hunter does an amazing and new take on a shapeshifter. Jane is not alone inside herself, she also has to deal with Beast on a daily basis. When Jane shifts Beast is Alpha and Jane is Beta. It's almost dealt with in a Multiple Personality Disorder, but with the other her only being partially submerged, able to affect the dominate who's driving. Her talents make her the perfect vampire hunter, able to track and destroy them in both her human or animal forms.

Jane can become any animal she wishes through years of practise, but Beast prefers her own, and gets rather pissed at Jane is she shifts into another. I cannot go on enough about how well Ms. Hunter does this novel. At no time are you bored while reading Jane back story. It's parted out throughout Skinwalker in bits and pieces. You won't get hit with one big chapter basically saying, "Here's what happened before..."

Faith Hunter delivers creates someone you may think you've met before at first glance, a kick ass, no nonsense Vamp hunter. She's six feet tall and beautiful, especially when she's riding her motorcycle, Bitsa. She feels the most comfortable with her Italian shotgun, stakes, crosses and holy water about her. Do Not think Jane is only a warrior women. With Beast constantly commenting on her actions and affecting them to some degree, you'll meet someone completely new in the annals of Urban Fantasy.

I cannot wait until January 5th with the second full Jane Yellowrock novel, Blood Cross: A Jane Yellowrock Novel. You will miss out this summer is Skinwalker is not one of your purchases. It is a must have.

Obviously, and amazingly since I never do this for the first novel in a series, Skinwalker receives a Classic rating of 4 out of 4 Stars.

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Moon Called - Mercy Thompson Bk 1, Patricia Briggs

Mercy (Mercedes) Thompson is a mechanic who specializes in German automobiles (because if your name is Mercedes, you’re either a trust fund baby or you fix Bavarian cars). She lives in the Tri-Cites of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick at the neck of the Snake and Columbia rivers in Washington State and just happens to be a "skinwalker" capable of changing into a coyote with a preternatural nose for magic and scenting other creatures.

In a world that is aware of the existence of lesser fae, but unaware of vampires and werewolves (or shapechangers) Mercy is very firmly in the closet. The magical beings that are known live out their lives on reservations, and the werewolves in the nation are on the verge of making themselves known if they can figure out how to "come out’" on their terms.

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) begins with a young werewolf named Mac asking Mercy for a job. Knowing she should send him on his way but feeling sorry for him, Mercy gives him one. Mac has apparently escaped from a lab where he was being experimented upon. The laboratory wants him back and sends men to retrieve him. After Mercy kills one of these men, she knows that the only person who can help Mac is her next-door neighbour, Adam, who’s the local werewolf Alpha.

Mercy must go to Montana after finding a surprise on her doorstep and barely saving a severely beaten Adam. Adam’s fifteen-year-old daughter has been kidnapped, but before searching for her, Mercy knows that the only place Adam can be healed is in the hands of the werewolf clan that raised her: the clan of the Marrok, the Alpha of all North American werewolves, and where her first love Samuel is.

Ms. Briggs's humour is what keeps this story from falling into the trap of being bogged down in the shear numbers of supernatural creatures in Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1). The story is laid out well but is complex, nevertheless. You can definitely tell that there are more books in the series from the amount of story that is introduced in the first Mercy Thompson book. Ms. Briggs deftly transports you from scene to scene, and how smoothly she accomplishes this shows you what talented storyteller she is.

Fans of Sookie Stackhouse, novels will enjoy these books. Not only for their supernatural-meeting-the-real-world roots, but also for the humour shared between the two. This opening novel in the series has something for every fan of Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance genre: Supernaturals (Skinwalkers, Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, heh…Gremlins), beginnings of a love triangle (Mercy/Adam/Samuel) and a plucky heroine (with the best tattoos in the genre).

If you’re looking for a great series to start, (and a personal favourite) Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) is for you. With the release of book four, the Mercy Thompson series shows no signs of stopping.

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) rightfully receives a Classic rating from me: 4 out of 4 Stars.

Ms. Briggs second book in her Alpha & Omega series Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega, Book 2) is due August 2009.

Please make sure to visit her website.