Book Review: "Final Heir" by Faith Hunter

 

The stakes couldn’t be higher in the newest novel in the New York Times bestselling, pulse-pounding Jane Yellowrock series.

Jane Yellowrock is the queen of the vampires, and that makes her a target as she fights to maintain control and keep peace in the city of New Orleans. She has enemies at every turn, because vampires live forever, and they keep their grudges alive with them. That includes the Heir, the vampire sire of the Pellissier bloodline, which gave rise to Leo Pellissier himself—Jane’s old boss and the former master of the city.

With the Heir and all the forces of darkness he can muster arrayed against her, Jane will need all the help she can get. She’ll find it in her city, her friends, her found family, and, of course, the Beast inside of her. - from NetGalley.com

I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

This is the fifteenth, and final, book in the Jane Yellowrock series. That saddens me a bit as I have found myself really enjoying the characters and stories in this series. I know there are possibilities of some cross-over stories, and will look forward to any of those coming along.

Easy for me to say I really, really liked this book. As I had an ebook copy, I couldn't swear to it, but it felt longer - like it was more pages than an average book. I just checked and that is not the case. That must mean I was slow to read it as I knew it was the final book, and just did not want it to end. Faith Hunter has doen a wonderful job creating a story world and characters, with background that at times even I could not keep track of. Being able to sort of 'wrap all the loose ends' together in this final book was interesting. I don't think it was loose ends per se, but more of finalizing what happens to the characters, and the state of the world with the effects of said changes. All in all it was wonderfully done, and I would definitely refer this series to anyone that enjoys adult urban fantasy.

Book Review: "Death Replaced" by Matthew Sleadd

 

An untimely death leads to a second chance on the other side…

Riley is at the ultimate low. After leaving pharmacy school with mountains of debt, he accepts a minimum wage job as a glorified shelf stocker in a small Virginia town. He can’t pay his student loans, rent, or afford much food. And his biggest setback: getting shot and killed during a standoff with police.

But unlike most deaths, this one comes with a job offer and an opportunity to turn his life around.

After two-thousand years working as the Angel of Death, Azrael is out of touch with humanity. He needs a replacement—and has his eye on Riley—who hesitantly agrees. The transition goes anything but smoothly; Azrael rushes through training then leaves without warning. Riley is uncertain about his new job responsibilities and mistakenly kills a demon—who retaliates on the mortals. Now lives are at stake, souls kidnapped… and fate lies within the hands of a rookie. - from Booksirens.com

Thanks to Booksirens and the author for allowing me a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

The story synopsis for this one caught my eye. It reminded me of Piers Anthony's On A Pale Horse, and so I had to check it out. The story started out well, giving us a good setting for the MC, and how he ended up to where we are in current story-time. There is brief mention at the start about Death itself, but there are a couple small sections that reveal him, leading up to the replacement. Now the whole idea of Death needing a replacement, due to being 'out of touch with humanity' leaves me scoffing a bit, but for story purposes, I was content.

From this point, the story is nothing more than one philosophical idea of how the"job" of Death should be done. Obviously, a rookie thrown into the position without much instruction is going to screw things up, and that does happen. Demon-type dogs are our anti-heroes, and there are several confrontations between our rookie of Death and the canines. Our MC is constantly remionding the readers about his viewpoints, in fact, for me it got a bit repetitive. I started to skim pages rather than read them.

Overall, it was not a bad read. The idea of a new Death in training is not a new one, though this one had a a little different version. I liked a little of the twist at the end regarding who holds Death as title (no spoiler). I was a bit not happy about the seemingly (to me) repetitive philosophy (-ies) that seemed that the MC had to share constantly.