Stars: 4 out of 5
This series continues to impress. The books are short, but the author does a great job of telling the story and managing some pretty solid character development in the space of around 180-200 pages.
As I had mentioned in my previous reviews, the biggest draw for me is the cast of characters. Too often in urban fantasy our female protagonist is a solitary figure who has no family and next to no friends, especially female. Not so with Jade. I love found family stories and this book has that in spades. Jade has a best friend (who is female, which is a rare species in urban fantasy), and she has other friends ready to help and defend her. And she is more than ready to protect them from harm.
I love the dynamic in this group of friends. They are all different and powerful in their own ways, and they respect each other enough to trust each other to do their job. Yes, Jade worries about her friends and her boyfriend, but she doesn’t try to be a noble idiot and run off to face danger on her own in order to “protect” them. She includes them in her plans instead and trust them to do their part, even if that puts them in danger. That’s how real teams work, and that’s why I love this series so much.
The story itself moves at a pretty good clip as well and we discover some new information about some old characters and are introduced to some new ones. Unicorns, anyone? And the whole Jade vs the local witch coven standoff was rather hilarious.
My only complaint here is that this “waiting on big bad Samir to come get us” story is getting a bit old. I know that the series is 10 books long, but I hope that we will not live in anticipation until book 10, because you can delay the confrontation only so long before the reader’s interest flags. I know I’m already getting irritated with the constant implied treat of violence that never comes and we are only on book 4. I will, however, trust the author, because she hasn’t disappointed me so far, so I’m sure she has a good plan for this series.
PS: This book also gets additional points for a great rendition of the “kamehameha” attack. The nerd in me was absolutely delighted.