I LOVED this book-the author certainly hit her stride. And she is an eeeevil woman based on the last line in the book. Contrary to another review I read, there was NOTHING confusing going on in the book. The plot was intricate, the narrator (Jane) was funny, vulnerable, and tough as needed and we got more of her backstory.

I re-read the previous books prior to reading this one and I highly recommend to really fall into Jane's world, but based on this book, I'm looking forward to much, much more in this series.

And if anyone is listening, can we also get some more Rogue Mage books? ( )

I really liked this third book in the series; it seemed to be pared down and back to a straight ahead whodunit mystery. Of course, Jane Yellowrock is still a kick-butt kind of detective (well, vamp-killer to be specific), and in this installment she is trying to figure out how the werewolves got back into New Orleans and why there is hatred between vampires and werewolves. She's also started a romance with an undercover cop, Rick, who helped her move from her North Carolina cabin once and for all.

She's now sharing her home with Evangelina, a witch and older sister of Jane's best friend, Molly, who is transforming from being a short-tempered workaholic to a more dreamy, dance-y domestic type. Jane can't quite figure out why, or why Evangelina seems to have a pink glow suddenly.

The action begins at Leo Pellissier's home, a.k.a. Vamp HQ, and Leo is now the Master of Clans (MOC) for New Orleans since the events of the last book. Seems that the last book existed to winnow down which clans were going to exist in New Orleans going forward, and this book does not spend so much time on clan politics. Instead, it is about inter-species politics, including a shape shifting black leopard from Africa. With his televised transformation on the news, and his arrival at Leo's headquarters for an inter-species meeting of the red carpet variety, the event is turned into chaos with the arrival of the were-wolves.

More vampire and blood servant history is explored with compassion and insight, and the action is pretty straightforward. We don't get bogged down into Jane's multiple vamp killers or firearms with every single fight she gets into, and we also get a chance to jump into Beast's mind for some adventures. ( )

By this point the Beast talk has gotten less annoying. Still have moments that I can't quite tell if things are supposed to be super campy, or actually serious. Still having enough fun to keep going once through, still thinking not a keeper. ( )

Things are pretty interesting in Jane’s life lately. She has been dating Rick (which Beast totally likes), but Bruiser isn’t totally out of the scene either. Do I need to just totally give up on my shipper hopes of her and Leo? I always seem to pick sinking ships… oh well. One of these two will grow on me, I’m sure. They’re both decent guys.

Leo has a little werewolf problem. In this series, weres have just come out to the human population, and are not playing nice. Faith Hunter does a great job with her world-building as always. It’s a complex, well-thought out world with different species and cool histories and dynamics behind each coven and pack. Without spoiling anything, this gets SUPER COOL in the way something bad happens, and then Jane has to spend the book trying to untwist it. And then GAH the ending!!! Super cool job in creating the mythology on this one and I cannot wait to scoop up book four!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. ( )

Well, that was excessively messed up. In a well constructed sort of a way. Nifty. ( )