Author: Faith Hunter
Book Name: Dark Heir
Series: Jane Yellowrock
Order: #9
Rating: Excellent/Favorite
Genre: Fantasy
Blurb: For centuries, the extremely powerful and ruthless vampire witches of the European Council have wandered the Earth, controlling governments, fostering war, creating political conflict, and often leaving absolute destruction in their wake. One of the strongest of them is set to create some havoc in the city of New Orleans, and it’s definitely personal.
Jane is tasked with tracking him down. With the help of a tech wiz and an ex-Army ranger, her partners in Yellowrock Securities, she’ll have to put everything on the line, and hope it’s enough. Things are about to get real hard in the Big Easy.
Review: Faith Hunter has pulled off another amazing addition to her Jane Yellowrock series. Every single one of her characters continue to bring out solidly vibrant, realistic and believable personalities.
As a series, this has everything that I really love about a great series. Individual, contained stories in each book with an overarching storyline that continues throughout the series. Excellently developed characters that could be, in general, any normal, regular person no matter what other special talents they may have (they are essentially not perfect and have flaws that most people struggle with on one level or another throughout their lives). A wonderfully crafted and believable world (which in this case is a bit surprising for me as I find any contemporary, like our normal everyday, world overlaid by a paranormal/fantasy aspect typically hard to swallow, but is not that case with these books) and an overall story that I can just get lost in.
While the books are individual stories with the main issues resolved by the end of each, the larger, continuing issues and story are more closely connected and continuous throughout the series than most that I typically enjoy, but it is so well done that I don’t feel left hanging at the end.
One of the things that I love the most about these books, and is consistent in this one as well, is the fact that all of the different situations and relationships are completely balanced throughout and not too heavily weighted on one or the other. You get to touch on the all the different relationships in between all the problem solving and intense action. It isn’t all romance or all action or all drama, but enough of each that you don’t feel as though you missed out on something. You get it all.
I think for the first time in the series, Jane is left in a pretty strong and solid place personally, even with the potentially new/different access/connection to her beast and with the still as of yet unknown potential of problems coming from the European vamps. She is more solid and assured in her relationships with Bruiser, Eli and Alex, and even her friendship with Molly seems to have had some of the rough edges smoothed over. I’m definitely liking where she is right now.
We are reminded that while she is an amazingly strong personality, that personality continues to grow through her experiences and that she is not done with that growth, whether that growth is physical, romantic, friends and family, or personal.
As usual with any book in this series, I was so not ready to be done with it and hope like crazy there isn’t too long of a wait before the next one comes out.
TJ Fox: Sharing the Experience 