Frenchman Street
Sentinels of New Orleans
Book Six
Suzanne Johnson

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Suzanne Johnson

Date of Publication: July 24, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-9968220-4-6
ASIN: B07F8WP829

Number of pages: 352
Word Count: approx. 99,250

Cover Artist: Robin Ludwig Design Inc.

Book Description:

The uneasy truce between the preternatural species of New Orleans has shattered, with wizards and elves, shifters and vampires—not to mention the historical undead—struggling for ultimate control of the city, including the humans who still think they’re atop the food chain.

They aren’t, however—and the Summer Prince of Faerie wants them to know it.

Stuck in the middle? One unemployed wizard sentinel. For DJ Jaco, war makes for strange bedfellows as she finally embraces her wizard-elven heritage and strikes a deal with the devil so she and her ragtag band of allies can return to defend her hometown. After all, when the undead French pirate Jean Lafitte is the mayor’s newest consultant, things could go horribly wrong.

War is coming to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras, with the elves and wizards lined up on opposite sides, the shifters with a new leader, the vampires promising loyalty to the highest bidder, and the soul of the Crescent City resting on the outcome of the civil war going on in Faerie between the rival princes of summer and winter.

Mardi Gras Day is approaching fast, and the line between friends and enemies grows thin as DJ tries to stave off open warfare on the St. Charles Avenue parade route.

Laissez les bons temps rouler…but be careful, or the good times might roll too close for comfort.

I turned to glare at the unicorn. It was hanging around for some reason.
“Can you talk? If not, what are you waiting for?” I made a shooing motion. “Go home to your whack-job master.”

Because we needed to find out how it got to our remote beach in the Beyond.
“I’ll find a rope—maybe we can make a halter,” Rene said, walking toward the house.

Jean also seemed to have had his fill of unicorn wrangling. “Bah. I shall depart for Old Orleans, Drusilla. There are people with whom I must discuss matters of import, and perhaps I might discover the truth about Christof.”

Fine. Leave me with the merman and the unicorn.

He turned and walked into the transport, disappearing in seconds. He hadn’t removed his boots, but he had held his pistol out of the water. The pirate had his priorities straight.

“Here is my message.”

I whirled to look at the unicorn, who was now doing his best Mr. Ed impression.
“I knew it.” That freaking unicorn could talk; he’d been waiting to get me alone.
I held up the elven staff, and the unicorn had the good sense to back up a couple of steps. I slipped my left hand into my jeans pocket, fingering a couple of potions I’d cooked up in this rustic paradise using a generator-powered hot plate and my own blood. My physical magic wouldn’t work outside the human world, but my potions and charms were fine. The staff worked everywhere.

“Okay, start talking, horse.”

The unicorn managed to look offended. “Here is my message,” he repeated. “His Royal Majesty Florian will be crowned King of Faerie and of All Species of Earth and Beyond in two weeks. You are—”

“Wait.” I shook the staff at him, and sparks flew out its tip. “What do you mean, ‘King of Faerie and of All Species of Earth and Beyond’?”
What in the name of Merlin was that madman up to?

The unicorn tossed his head and looked even grumpier. “Here is my message,” he repeated for the third time. “His Royal Majesty Florian will be crowned King of Faerie and of All Species of Earth and Beyond in two weeks. You are invited to attend and pledge fealty at his coronation in New Orleans at the apex of the celebration the humans call Mardi Gras. Should you die before the appointed time, this invitation may be considered null and void.”

And with that, the unicorn turned, took a big, steaming dump on the sand near my feet, and made to trot back down the beach from whence he came. I flipped the lid off one of the charms in my pocket, chased him down the beach, and tossed it on him. I only hit his tail, which, considering it was a freezing charm, only made said tail freeze at a ninety-degree angle.

“Stop, unicorn, or I’ll toast your rump like a potroast!” I yelled, aiming the staff. I sent a warning zap of fire onto his rump. My aim had improved a lot in months since I’d blown up my own SUV and burned down half of Six Flags New Orleans. I’d had lots of time to practice.

Unfortunately, the shot only made the unicorn fly into a gallop. I had no choice but to run after him and hope I could keep him in sight by moonlight.

With the shattering of the uneasy truce between the preternatural species of New Orleans everyone is struggling for control of the city which puts our favorite, at the moment unemployed wizard sentinel right in the middle of some life altering and extremely intense and exciting events in the thrilling conclusion to The Sentinels of New Orleans series.

The thrills and chills keep coming throughout this fast paced and smooth flowing plot keeps readers on the edge of their seats, glued to the pages and biting their nails with anticipation from beginning to end. The intrigue and plotting never stops as DJ accepts her wizard –elven heritage and strikes a deal with the so that she and her ragtag band of allies can return to defend her hometown. There is lots of surprising twists to keep readers guessing throughout the story and lots of exciting events taking place while the war is brewing that intensifies the anticipation and puts so much pressure on DJ, that readers have to wonder if she will collapse or win the day. And that’s not to mention the emotional turmoil that DJ finds herself facing, turmoil that changes her relationships, her life and events that are taking place throughout the city.

There is never a dull moment to be found but it’s not all fighting because there are moments to celebrate, moments that add a few chuckles, excellent scenery and of course the good time feel of New Orleans during Mardi Gras which adds to the whole atmosphere of the story. Suzanne Johnson brings her world and her fascinating, unique and fun characters to vivid life that it makes it easy for readers to imagine and to become enthralled with them. And while, I really don’t want this series to end because I could never get enough of DJ or my favorite historical undead, Jean Lafitte, Suzanne Johnson gave it an explosive, thrilling and satisfying conclusion. I can’t wait to find out what she has in store for us readers next…

Frenchman Street

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32807366-frenchman-street

Is the 6th and final book in The Sentinel of New Orleans series

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/series/65253-sentinels-of-new-orleans

Which includes
1 Royal Street
2 River Road
3 Elysian Fields
4 Pirate’s Alley
4.5 Pirateship Down
4.6 The Consort
5 Belle Chase

& #6 Frenchman Street which is now available in ebook at

Amazon-ebook - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F8WP829/

**The print version will be available sometime around the July 24th release date of the ebook**

On Aug. 28, 2005, Suzanne Johnson loaded two dogs, a cat, a friend, and her mom into a car and fled New Orleans in the hours before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Four years later, she began weaving her experiences and love for her city into the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, beginning with Royal Street (2012), of which Frenchman Street is the sixth and final book in the story arc. She also has written Pirateship Down and The Consort, both set in the Sentinels world, and the standalone Christmas in Dogtown.

She grew up in rural Alabama, halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’ birthplace, and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, which means she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.

She can be found online at her website or her blog.

As Susannah Sandlin, she writes multiple award-winning paranormal romance and romantic suspense, including The Penton Vampire Legacy paranormal romance, suspense duology The Collectors, romantic suspense series, the Wilds of the Bayou romantic suspense series, and the standalones Storm Force and Chenoire.

Suzanne currently lives in Auburn, Alabama, where she works as a full-time author and copyeditor.

Website https://www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com/

Blog https://www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com/blog

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Johnson

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/AuthorSuzanneJohnson

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5046525.Suzanne_Johnson

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/suzanne-johnson-99e7156e-7ad7-46b6-b4b0-82df164d5204

Tour Giveaway

1 Grand Prize: $50 Amazon gift card

5 $10 Amazon gift cards

Open internationally. For international winners, equivalent order from Book Depository will be substituted if desired.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ba112ffc1783/

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July 23 Fang-tastic Books
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http://stormyvixen.booklikes.com/

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I was just thinking about my favourite reads this year, and as I've only had this blog for a few months, I didn't get to do this last year, so here are my favourite reads in 2014, while I spend the remaining few days of 2015 reading and working out my best reads this year :-)

Below are links to my Goodreads reviews, as I haven't got all my reviews on Booklikes yet:

The Great Christmas Knit Off

Dying for Christmas

Underneath

Carrie

Fractured

How to Fall in Love

The Time of My Life

A Monster Calls

Frenchman's Creek

Animosity

Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier
This is not the typical novel that is written today. Looking at the style of the original cover, I would have turned away from it, and more’s the pity because I would have missed a book that demands an audience and perhaps a conversation about what we seek and how we live our lives. Written with a prose that is at once well-structured and coherent, it is also lyrical and sensitive. In Du Maurier’s novel about a place of refuge called Frenchman’s Creek, she achieves what most novels today, do not. Without crude language or vivid and graphic sex scenes, she elicits romance and adventure on almost every page. The lightness of the plot does not betray the beauty of its presentation.
Du Maurier introduces us to an enchanted area of Cornwall, England. This otherworldly locale from a time past, takes shape out of the shadows, near a hidden inlet. Lady Dona St Columb flees there to Navron House, in search of a different life than the one she was living in London as the wife of an aristocrat who was crude and fat, and no longer very appealing to her. She is ashamed of her previous behavior of cavorting with the men. She discovers Frenchman’s Creek on her property and it feels magical and mysterious. It is actually right there that a pirate, cut from a different mold, a pirate who is the antithesis of the swashbuckling crude pirate of fairy tales like Captain Hook, that Jean Benoit Aubéry, a Frenchman of ill repute, has made his place of respite for his crew and his ship called La Mouette, meaning the seagull; it is named for a bird that is gifted with flight and freedom, a bird that swoops down and steals from the water and the earth whatever it chooses in much the same way as this pirate does, this pirate who is painted as rather smooth talking and virile, which is a rather optimistic and romantic combination. Aubéry is no ordinary “yohoho” kind of pirate. Rather, he is a bit more sophisticated than that. I picture leading men like Errol Flynn and Clark Gable, heartthrobs from the past, playing his part. He is a pipe-smoking, poetry-reading pirate who is the stuff that dreams of young women are made of…the rake who carries them off to a land where they can fulfill their fantasies; he is the “prince” of their dreams and they immediately fall head over heels in love with this masculine soul with a heart and a mind, not just a handsome, strong body. Aubéry is not a cruel or coarse pirate. He is simply a man who wants to be free to move about at will, to live as he pleases without regard for anything else. He simply wants his adventure and he trusts to sheer good fortune for his survival. He is a bit arrogant, yet refined and courteous. It is his love of danger and excitement that propels him, and in his travels he discovered a secret cove that leads to Frenchman’s Creek, this hidden haven of safety where he and his mates could rest awhile. It is in that same sanctuary that the Dona and the pirate discover each other and their natural affinity for the same lifestyle unites them with a common bond as a romantic spark is ignited between them. Together they embark on a path that will change both of their lives forever.
Lady Dona St Columb in her attempt to run, actually enters another world that is similar to the world she runs from, and thus begins again a life of debauchery, but oh, a life that is so very much more exciting and romantic. Although her husband Harry adores her, and although she loves him, he holds no interest for her any longer; he is boring and pompous, weak and lacking in intellect. On the contrary, Jean is masculine and intriguing. She wants more from her life; her thirtieth birthday is nearing and she fears that her time is running out. She seeks to eat when she wishes, wear what she wishes and simply do as she wishes. She seeks more control of her own life. Her children are cared for by Prue, the able nanny, so that she is really no longer indispensable. Everyone, it would seem, is taken care of, but she herself is not. Her role is that of the caretaker and she no longer chooses it, rather she wants to be cared for in more than the mundane ways of the day. She wants to have fun and to finally and ultimately find love and to be loved and appreciated as more than just a female body. Isn’t it finally her turn to live? Thirty, after all, was fairly old in the time of Charles II.
In this novel, written in 1941, I found myself rooting for the “bad” guy and not for those that pretended to be on the side of right when it suited them. The villain was the more likable. The uptight, so-called upstanding citizens of the novel were a bit stodgy and obnoxious, demanding and self-righteous in a far different way than the pirate himself. He seemed to be good-natured in all of his attempts at piracy, albeit he was stealing from others. He was merely assuming the same rights as those pompous townspeople who were doing as they wished, ignoring the rights of those whose class was “beneath them”, basically stealing their lives from the labors of others. They were not portrayed as the brightest bulbs and so were easily duped by the pirate. He had simply turned the tables on them all. He ignored the rights of those he thought were behaving as if they were “above” him. And therein lies the rub, for both, behaving in similar ways, for different reasons which each justified, were capable of ignoring the rules and laws of society; and both believed in their right to do so as they ignored the rights of the other. How true it still is today as we justify our own behavior, which is often at the expense of others but which gratifies our own needs.
The characters banter with each other in a charming way. The humor is very subtle as they toy with each other, even in conversation, as they intuit their feelings and desires. The book is a wonderful examination of emotions and behavior, but it raises questions about the very nature of those sentiments and conduct. Was the Dona noble in her actions or self-serving, in the end? How many women could do as she did and never look back? Will she live to regret her choices, will the pirate? Was the ending satisfying?
DuMaurier takes the reader on a wonderful journey into the land of fantasy and romance, adventure and danger, and she does it with a certain flair and flourish. The subtle humor and sarcasm will bring a smile to the lips and invite a chuckle to escape. The author captivates the reader so that they, too, will be soaked by the rain, tossed by the waves, duck from the bullets and will run through the streets to escape capture with their fellow marauders as Dona and the pirates do the same. The fear and tension will build and half way through the book, even with the hokey kind of plot, a plot from the world of the fairy tales of yesterday and not today, I was captured by the prose and could not put it down, reading it late into the night until I reached the last page and smiled. It is rollicking good fun as Dona, the “cabin boy”, and Jean have their secret trysts and escapades, defying custom and decorum.
Frenchman’s Creek is the secret place of Dona and the pirate; it is hidden among the trees from the rest of the world; it offers privacy and a place to live out one’s desires, unimpeded by the requirements of the outside world. Real life does not intrude there, but living life to the fullest does! Of course, another conclusion can be drawn. Dona is also arrogant and rude. She behaves in a raucous manner without regard for others as does the pirate, often humiliating those weaker than they. The pirate, while polite, might also be considered cruel as he relieves his victims of their belongings and shames and frightens them. But somehow, that is not the message that comes through. Instead, we witness the joy that the people who choose to live with excitement, in a positive space that is open to adventure, have in living their life, while their opposites are victims of a world in which they seem only to plod through in negative space, but they are unfulfilled and unhappy.

Been a year since I read Jamaica Inn and devoured it like I did Rebecca.  Frenchman's Creek has been sitting in my "to read" pile in my living room for about 4 years, patiently waiting for me to pick it up. It is time, once again, to disappear into another du Maurier  story...