Review originally featured at Angel's Guilty Pleasures

 

 

Death’s Rival is book five in Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter. 

 

Jane, kicked-ass and Beast, really shined. 

 

I was pulled in from the first to the last page. So much happens that you just can’t help, but get pulled in. The story is action-packed, full of suspense, secrets, and shocking moments. The story was set at a perfect pace and gives readers no excuse not to gobble this one up. 

 

I enjoyed Jane. Loved Beast, Eli and the Kid. It was great to get some new characters. I hope Eli and the Kid become more then colleges, more then friends, maybe a family and that Jane can rely on them. She needs someone in her life. Someone to rely on. Rick is gone and that relationship is over and Molly isn’t her friend anymore, so Jane is alone and has no one to trust or be in her corner. 

 

The author treats us to a more in-depth look into Jane’s personal history. Her memories of her past are frayed and it’s more difficult then she anticipated to pieces them together. As we all know by now Jane is a unique Skinwalker who houses Beast inside her, which only adds another element. 

 

Beast, was her own character in this one. She’s smart, has a hidden depth to her, and we learn a few rare things about her. I loved learning more about Jane and Beast. It made both of them more real. 

 

I do have issues with this series and they are: 

 

– The love triangle. I still have issues with the men in Jane’s life and Jane thinking that every man she meets is sex on a stick. I’m so over this and wish she would be done and pick a man. Rick, also pops bak up near the end in Death’s Rival. He was a dick at the very end to Jane. OMG, I’m so over him and have been from book one. 

 

– Then their was The Thing that happens in Death’s Rival. I’m going to call it The Thing with Leo. This scene was so wrong on so many levels. Trust was lost all around. I hated what Leo did to Jane and to Bruiser. As for Bruiser I feel sorry for him. He couldn’t help his part in it. It was just wrong all around. 

 

– And last I don’t get why Jane is still in New Orleans and working with Leo. Their has to be rogue vampires somewhere else for her to go after? She knows being around vampires will only bring trouble. Why does she stay? 

 

Death’s Rival is a major turning point. At least for me. After five novels I finally see what everyone raves about. I had a blast reading, loved the non-stop action, and learning about Jane’s heritage. I couldn’t put this book down. 

 

Rated: 4.5 Stars

 

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Challenge(s): Pick Your Genre (UF) | Library Love | Backlist Reader (2017)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Angela

I’m a 35 outdoor sun loving reader living near San Fransisco. I’m a mother, wife, dog owner, animal, and book lover. I’m the owner, reviewer, and mind behind Angel’s Guilty Pleasures. My favorite animals are horses & dogs. As for reading I love all things paranormal & urban fantasy. My favorite shifters are dragons!

     

 

 

Desperate to find safety in England, Zenia, the descendent of the Queen of the Desert, dresses herself as a Bedouin boy. For protection, she agrees to guide Arden, the Lord of Winter, through the wilds of her dangerous desert homeland as he searches for a legendary Arabian mare. Consigned by her mother to live disguised, Zenia hasn’t the courage to admit her sex to Arden. Yet, as they cross a merciless desert, she comes to yearn for this fearless, untamable man to know the feminine heart beating beneath her Bedouin rags.
 
Lord Winter’s loneliness and adventurous spirit have always driven him to the empty, brutal places of the Earth. With Zenia at his side, his loneliness recedes. One night of terror will bind their souls together, but when the princess escapes her homeland for the comfort and safety of England, his yearning will lead him to invade her sanctuary . . .

This is a book of short stories from the Jane Yellowrock world - and it is huge. It may be a collection of all the short stories that there’s ever been in this series.

And it is excellent. It’s excellent because Faith Hunter is very very good at her short stories - the majority of them add something compelling to the main series. They add a little something to Jane’s past, to her relationships, flash out some elements of various characters’ back stories

I’m not saying they’re all perfect by any means - but the general tone of this whole book is to add a lot of richness and value to the whole series, filling in blanks, adding colour, expanding, adding realness - filling in all those things that would bog down a main book or get in the way or be unnecessary but still have value. That is a perfect use for short stories and compiling them all in one book removes the whole treasure hunt feel you can get trying to find a series’ supporting work.

We Sa and the Lumberking previously appeared in Have Stakes Will Travel developing Jane’s history before the series begins and continuing to keep her Native American ethnicity and experiences centreal

Similarly The Early Years also touches on another of Jane’s early moments, we’ve heard repeatedly that Jane was brought up in a children’s home but we’ve never really seen - Jane’s history in the children’s home and the people she met there and her first awareness of Beast and what Beast was beyond the ignorant attempts to explain that she got from the foster home. At the same time we get some excellent expositions of the flaws of the foster system and, really, how little it actually did to set up Jane for a successful life; not just because she didn’t fit - and Bobby due to his disabilities.

This is continued in Snafu her apprenticeship in security and private investigation, how she gained the skillset she had now, how she grew as a person, as a skinwalker, as a professional and as an adult. These three stories make an excellent arc for Jane’s early years and putting a great foundation of them.

This idea of using short stories to tell us how Jane got to where she is now continues with Kits which lays the foundation for one of the most important relationships in this book: Jane and her best friend and witch Molly. Their friendship, loyalty rough times and high times define so much of this series which means this, their first introduction so important. Especially as it really does explain how two people who are, by necessity, so private, managed to open up and really trust one another. Really, it sets the foundation for how Molly and Jane became not just friends, but family, which adds a realness to their relationship throughout the main series. Haints continues this with more looking at the supernatural world, more looking at how Molly fits into it (and, yes, using her witch skills to try and earn some money, even if dangerously. I like this because while Jane charges huge sums for her work, Molly doesn’t and as a mother of two, the extra cash isn’t just a throwaway resource to her). This also appeared in Have Stakes will Travel along with Signature of Death further cementing this awesome relationship and making them almost required reading for the series. But, I have to say like I did in Have Stakes Will Travel that the sheer amount Jane has reached out to Molly makes me even more disappointed when Molly turns on Jane for a couple of books in the same series. Yes there’s good reason - but these short stories show immense life-saving help Jane has given Molly in the past; I feel Jane deserved better than this. Which, of course, makes me even more happy to see them reconciled in later books

Again, this is why this arc is so important - it adds a wonderful texture to these character interactions

In theory, I suppose that it would be good to use short stories to do with Bruiser and Jane what was done with Molly and Jane. Sadly, I think this is a weaker element of this book, First Sight feels like a shallow bit of nothing, cheapening their relationship with insta-love and far far far too much sexual drooling. Which moves on to Dance Master which could be an analysis of Bruiser and Jane’s relationship or a nice snapshot of Jane’s daily life but is from Bruiser’s point of view and comes with more drool drool drool sexy drool, jealousy, sparring with Leo blah blah.

Which, I suppose, is kind of what Cat Tats does for Rick LeFleur which I’m sure would be all good and expansive for the character except I’ve always kind of hated him and that’s never really changed. It’s not so much him but as to what a complete mess Jane became around him. Still this story is essential - because so much of Rick’s story you can follow but not truly understand without this entry: explaining his mystical tattoos which would later cause him so much trouble in shapeshifting. Again we don’t just have one short story but a whole arc of Rick, from those tattoos, to then his initial problems and desperation in Blood, Fangs and Going Furry in trying to survive being turned into a wereleopard but unable to shift. Again, things we were vaguely aware of in the main series gain so much more texture following Rick’s arc and seeing the multiple places where Jane made a difference in his life

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You can bleed and die banishing a demon, but Fay Olwen discovers there are worse hurts. Betrayed by the Collegium and by her father, she must build a new life away from New York. Leopard shifter Steve Jekyll would have her build it with him. But loyalties are never simple and new love never easy. When demons are unleashed, Fay tracks the evil back to the Collegium, and now all hell will break loose because Fay fights for the innocent, and Steve will protect what is his.

I got this out of the Horror section but until late in the story I didn't know if it was going to turn out to be supernatural or human monsters. That would be telling though. Part of the fun is trying to work out that point.

The story had a lot of action once it got going. The first half is basically character development before things heat up. There was some foreshadowing that never really went anywhere and a few things didn't quite fit together, but I enjoyed the read. The only real niggle was one of the explanations near the end that was the reverse of known science. Let's just say that inbreeding tends to produce mutations and that's one of those everybody knows that facts.

There was also too little explanation of how the guardians managed to get close to the family without ever being seen. I was a little disappointed by the ending, but at least it tied everything up. The writing itself was good and made it hard to stop in the later chapters. I guess sometimes you just have to enjoy a read for what it is and not worry about realism.