Sacrifice by Dakota Banks

The young mother from Dark Time returns. Her quest to bring the demons down continues, complicated by her ambivalent love triangle. Her new mortality is impacting her morality. She faces both internal and external conflict in her ongoing quest.

As I noted in my review of Dark Time, the revoking of her ageless infallibility and her now more credible skill set helps in creating a more believable and likeable Maliha. I find her struggle with the changes she has undergone to make her a more believable character. The skill set she lost needs to be affirmed by the satisfaction of balancing her scale. The conflict between delayed gratification and immediate gratification is one faced by most people on a daily basis. It gives Maliha depth.

In Bank’s cynical, harsh world tragedy and violence abound. This is an action filled dark urban fantasy.

I recommend the book.

Body of work of of Dakota Banks

Web Site http://www.dakota-banks.com/

Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff

A brutal murder becomes a paranormal nightmare for a pair of Boston homicide detectives. Adam Garrett finds himself unwilling to believe and yet unwilling to turn away from “wicked” help is solving some horrific murders.
Adam is a solid skeptic who struggles with inexplicable behavior. Garrett’s internal strife between his burning ambition and his overwhelming need to serve justice provides a lot of the tension in this book. A high profile murder with an easy solution seems like an ideal situation to feed his ambition and sate his “perfect” girlfriends need for a status successful mate.

Landauer’s gruff concern for Garrett’s well being and his stalwart loyalty were laudable emotions aptly illustrated by the author. She did a great job at creating believable characters and seemingly rational explanations for irrational behaviors.

I’ve never been a fan of satanic evil fare but this book combines a solid mystery and main stream acceptable protagonists with the, oh too popular, paranormal strife in a highly readable format. I liked it.

I recommend the book.

Body of work of Alexandra Sokoloff

Web Site: http://www.alexandrasokoloff.com/index2.html

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Chronicles of Nick)

A young man’s coming of age is complicated by werewolves, vampires, gods, demons and eccentric rednecks. When your Mom is a stripper and your Dad is on death row, life can be complicated. This story is a glorious escape down a New Orleans rabbit hole of fantastical characters.

Nick is a somewhat nerdy hard case. His doting Mom makes him crazy and his impoverished inclusion in a prestigious private school does not provide him with a sedate lifestyle. Sherrilyn Kenyon has a vivid, perhaps demented, but absolutely vivid imagination. The characters in the book are extraordinarily colorful and equally unbelievable. I guess I am going to have to track down more of her work. My only criticism is there could have been a little more back story on Ash and Kyrian and others who it seemed like should be familiar. Bubba was a hoot.

I truly enjoyed Nick’s smart mouth. I no doubt identified with the personality type that leads to the mouth running amuck, sadly I have no off setting powers.

I recommend the book.

Body of work of Sherrilyn Kenyon

Web Site: http://www.sherrilynkenyon.com/