Shadow Rites by Faith Hunter

In synopsis form:
Jane's home and person are scanned by witches unknown, leaving behind a curse, of sorts.
Jane is attacked by Gee di Mercy, nearly getting killed, which ties back to the scan and an earlier spell cast by Gee.
Bruiser traces a brooch left behind to a location where a missing master vampire has been held captive for a couple of years.
The witches conclave is beginning soon, and Evan and Molly and the kids (Angie and Evan Jr) are coming to stay with Jane.
Jane is having troubles shifting.

Everything else logically follows from those issues, and there's nothing truly surprising in this installment of the Yellowrock saga. In fact, it's mostly more of the same old, same old.

Jane gathers more friends and allies about herself.

Jane has the obligatory sweat lodge session, complete with hallucinogens.

Jane and Bruiser grow closer.

Jane needs to protect the people around her, and they show her they don't always need to be protected.

Jane plays dominance games with the Master of the City of New Orleans.

Hope this series turns around soon.

Dark Heir by Faith Hunter

 Drat! I was really hoping that my review of the previous novel in Jane's story would have contained enough information that I didn't feel like this one was gonna be full of spoilers, but it was not meant to be. 

There is a major emergency at vamp HQ when an ancient vampire (probably the one of the first created, if vamp legends are correct) whom Leo has been holding captive, is helped to escape by traitors within Leo's clan. When Jane attempts to stop him, he blasts her with a massively powerful spell which puts her out of business for a while, and also leaves her with a semipermanent connection to him through her link to the evil artifact, the blood diamond.

The vamp leaves a trail of bodies across the city of New Orleans, including a massacre in a night club which riles up the local populace and police. To some extent, this plays into Jane's hands, as she feels responsible for a) not having killed him upon discovery, and failing to stop his escape, and b) failing to kill the traitorous vampiress who freed the monster when she had the chance a few books back.

The European vampires are still scheduled for a visit, and killing the ancient one, who has been merely presumed missing for a couple of centuries, would cause serious international consequences, if word got out. The witches are still scheduled for a conclave with the leaders of the Mithrans, as well, and these events could affect that rapprochement, too.

Jane must use all of her allies to defeat this ancient monster, including the leader of the witches in New Orleans, Lachish, and her friend Molly, the werewolf Brute, a whole host of Leo's scions, and her lover, Bruiser. The main things that happen here, from a plot arc standpoint, are that she finally embraces her nature as Warrior Woman, who must fight evil for a cause, while allowing the monsters a chance at redemption when possible, and finally accepting the fact that she's accumulated a bit of "family" in Eli and Alex Younger. She also manages to collect a couple of new magical artifacts along the way.

Broken Soul by Faith Hunter

Second effort...I had written a couple of paragraphs about this book, when it all disappeared in a horrible keyboarding accident. Laptops and my big clumsy fingers, despite our constant contact, do not get along well.

Jane is finding her way with her new status, having been replaced as Leo's Enforcer, while still acting more or less in a consulting role. The breakup with Rick is still affecting her emotionally, but she seems poised, at the beginning of the novel, to explore a new relationship with Bruiser, Leo's former Onorio.

The European vampires are coming soon for a visit, and things are tense around vamp HQ, as preparations are made for their visit, which will probably be bloody. Jane gets plenty of opportunities to use some of her newfound skills in combat, real and practice. The bond with Beast has sped up her reflexes and increased her strength, which surprises people who think they can beat her. There's also her new gift of slowing down or stepping outside of time in a crisis situation to play around with.

In the middle of the usual crises, a deadly trio of two vampires and the leader's blood servant come to town, trying to acquire the magical artifacts that Jane has in safe keeping, and also to exploit a deep dark secret which Leo has been keeping to himself.

Lots of action, odd plot twists, and some interesting new "monster" lore.

Black Arts by Faith Hunter

Once again, I have to mention that the theme of the year, or perhaps the decade, in urban fantasy is to have the "lone wolf" female protagonist come to the realization that she has friends and family whom she can count on to help out when the going gets rough. So, is this just a "thing" that women authors can't help writing? Do all women UF authors go to a clinic where they teach this stuff? Was there a meeting of the club where everyone agreed that this was the acceptable leitmotif? Don't we have any new ideas, people?

Reminds me of the early days when every fantasy seemed to be a Tolkien ripoff. Someone even wrote a satirical treatment of it - can't recall the title now, but there were things about how the proper number of a group of adventurers must be exactly nine, and the quest had to involve either finding a powerful magic artifact or trying to destroy one, etc.

Jane's best friend (though somewhat estranged since Jane killed her older sister for practicing blood magic rituals), Molly, has disappeared, supposedly on her way to see Jane, and her husband, Evan, has shown up in New Orleans searching for her, with both kids, Angie and Evan, Jr., in tow. The household of the Master of the City, Leo Pelletier, is experiencing a little bit of a shakeup after his Primo, Bruiser, has undergone his transformation to Honorio, and the various clans Leo has claimed are all finding their places in the hierarchy. Two of the girls from Mme Katie's establishment have also disappeared, though it's not immediately evident that their abduction has anything to do with Molly vanishing.

On top of all this, Jane is expected to make sure Leo's household security is up to the task of receiving a delegation from the European vampire council, a mission from the African weres, and the immigration of a powerful old vampire from Mexico, who was originally turned in New Orleans, and who hung around with famed pirate, Jean Lafitte, and who apparently wishes to swear fealty to the New Orleans MOC. She has a full house on her hands, with the two brothers, Eli and Alex, whom she has adopted as part of her security team, Evan and the kids, and eventually Bruiser moves in for a bit after Leo kicks him out.

As mentioned before, the real point of this plot is to make Jane realize who she can really trust, count on, and bring into the protection of her extended family. That, and to raise the stakes in sexual tension of the love triangle between Rick, Bruiser and herself.

Blood Trade by Faith Hunter

Once again, Jane gets smack dab in the middle of vampire power struggles when the master of Natchez, Hieronymous (referred to mentally throughout as Big H by Jane) pays her to take care of an...infestation of Naturaleza vampires. Perhaps a bit of Jane's universe history would be good here. For centuries, there have been two types of vampires in the world, the Naturaleza, or free, vampires, who simply prey upon humans and slaughter their victims at will, with no thought for the consequences, and regarding humans only as prey, and the Mithrans who, at least for a vampire, seem to care for the humans who are their blood servants, and seldom drain them to death. Leo and Big H are Mithrans - not horribly bad guys as far as vampires go. The old master vampire villain from Death's Rival, de Allyon, was a Naturaleza, and had been responsible for the slaughter of thousands over his centuries of life.

The Naturaleza who have invaded Natchez turn out to be even harder to kill than others Jane has seen in the past, and are somehow being changed by a combination of the vampire plague and some black magic, losing their vulnerability to silver, healing faster, and in some cases turning insectlike, with chitinous armor. Ups the "ick" factor a little bit, eh? Jane takes up residence in a mansion she nearly destroyed in her last trip to Natchez, and she and her two new sidekicks, Eli and The Kid, proceed to make war upon the Naturaleza vampires and their allies.

Jane's relationship to Rick LaFleur is, of course, still strained, since she accused him of trying to kill her the last time she saw him. He is now working for the federal government's supernatural investigation team, PsyLED, and shows up on scene fairly early with a woman (actually some sort of supernatural being as yet unrevealed) named Soul, the gryndilow, and a werewolf locked in wolf form named Brute, ostensibly to help investigate this new vampire threat. So things are tense on the romantic front, especially when Jane suspects Rick of being involved with every female he talks to under the age of sixty.

To further complicate matters, Bruise shows up to keep an eye on things for Leo. Bruise has become an Onorio, a type of human servant who is not bound to serve any particular vampire, though they may do so by choice, and who are very tough to kill, and long lived (and probably possess some spiffy powers we'll get to see in later books). 

And to really make things fun, an old acquaintance, Misha, from the state school where Jane grew up with other orphans, occasionally sent out to the foster care system. Misha is a reporter now, recently turned author, in Natchez to do research for her magnum opus on vampires. Misha's daughter, Charly, has advanced leukemia, and it is rumored that some medicines mixed with vampire blood can cure the disease, so Misha has an extra motive to get close to the vampires. Another ward of the state, Bobby, has come with Misha. Jane used to defend Misha and Bobby from the bullies, and when Misha is kidnapped by the bloodsuckers, Jane has no alternative but to go rescue her.

Lots of violence, viciousness, and vampire politics in this one, plus the usual voyage of self-discovery for Jane.

Death's Rival by Faith Hunter

I think this book has more beheadings, dismemberments or mutilations per page than any book I've read in the last decade. The latest episode in the Jane Yellowrock series is violent from one end to the other. Appropriate for the story, yes. For young folks, not so much.

Jane is facing the consequences of killing the enforcer of another vampire family in a previous book in this series, when the ruler of that family, who is several hundred years old and quite powerful (and probably quite insane) declares war on Leo Pelletier's territory. He's also gradually taking over other territories around the country, by infecting the vampires in those areas with some sort of plague which both addicts them and slowly kills them, while not affecting humans, who transmit the disease in their blood.

Leo sends Jane to investigate the plague, and to get samples of the blood from infected vampires, but her trip is cut short when she is ambushed a couple of times along the way. It's obvious that there's an informer in Leo's family, but it takes Jane and company most of the book to figure out who it is, and they don't figure it out in time to save everyone from  lots and lots of bloodshed.

There's some good sweat lodge sequences in this book wherein Jane learns more about her forgotten history, and comes to understand her motivations a bit better. Her complicated relationship with Rick LaFleur seems like it's going to get better, then her trust issues screw things up once more. Ditto for Bruiser.

We get a couple of new characters added to the series when Jane recruits a security specialist for her team, and gets his computer genius/hacker little brother as part of the package. Not sure whether there will be some romantic angle with the older half of that team, one certainly hopes she's not tempted to rob the cradle.

In the end, Jane appears to be striking out in a new direction, trying to disassociate herself from Leo a bit, which is tough, as he has placed a mystical binding on her Beast (by accident, while trying to place it on Jane).

Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter

The only downside to this Jane Yellowrock novel is that it's the last currently written for this series, so there's going to be a wait for the next one. I think I'll have to check out Hunter's other series.

After the mess at the summit between the witches and vampires in New Orleans, Jane decides to get out of town, so she heads for Asheville, North Carolina to get away from it all...but not really. Her boyfriend, Rick LaFleur, was bitten by a were panther, and is anticipating turning furry at the next full moon, so he's also hiding out near Asheville, in the woods, with the head of the African were cat delegation, Kemnebi, who has agreed to help him through the transition, but who secretly hates Rick, and intends to kill him when he's helpless.

Jane's witch friend, Molly, and the rest of her family are also living near Asheville, and when Master of New Orleans and most of the southern U.S.A., Leo Pellisier needs to have a high level audience between his delegate and a powerful vampire from Asheville, he requests and requires Jane's participation as head of security. Jane recruits the ex-military group headed by Derek to help out, so, aside from a change of scenery, the gang's all here for a wild and , crazy brawl.

Oh, I forgot to mention that two of the werewolves whose pack Jane and her friends wiped out in Mercy Blade, while Jane thought they were safely tucked away in jail, have gotten out and headed for the wilderness nearby, where they are attacking campers, hoping to infect some females, to rebuild the pack. Did I fail to note that the grindylow, whose race is responsible for catching and killing rogue weres, is also marking territory in the woods of NC?

Jane must use all of her powers to help local law enforcement track down and kill or capture the renegade werewolves, rescue Molly and her younger sisters and the rest of the family from a spell cast by their coven leader and elder sister, Evangelina, banish a demon, execute a rogue vamp, help Rick through his transition, and somehow or other - survive.

There's a couple of brief appearances from another vampire faction, either attempting to take control of some of Leo's territory, or disrupt the negotiations for some other reason, we never know just why - probably fodder for a sequel.

Molly's daughter, Angie, who has come into her witch powers far earlier than the usual puberty-based awakening, turns out to have some surprisingly strong powers and allies, which makes it fun.

Jane learns more, perhaps, than she bargained for about her own and her people's past from the demon, and only her connection to Beast keeps her from being overwhelmed by this evil monster. In the end, to defeat it, she sacrifices almost more than she can bear.

Lots of action, plenty of fun!

Mercy Blade by Faith Hunter

Getting close to being caught up with this series, finally. I have to go grab the fourth book, Raven Cursed, at the library tomorrow.

Jane is still working under contract with the master of New Orleans, Leo Pellisier, when the recently "outed" werewolves and werepanthers bring a delegation to the city. The panthers appear to be friendly, while the wolves are openly hostile, having been banned from the city a century ago for violating their own laws against infecting humans with the lycanthropy disease.

Leo asks Jane to meet with "a persona non grata" with his authority to warn him away at a remote location. Jane assumes that it's a were, and heads to the meet, but encounters an entire pack of werewolves who are ready to rumble. When they attack her, the person she was really supposed to meet comes to her aid, and rescues her from the pack. His name is Girrard DiMercy, and he once was the "mercy blade" for the vampire clans in the city, the one responsible for killing the vampires who did not escape the madness that lasts for a time after a new vampire has risen from the grave. Jane is not sure what Girrard is, as he's not one of the well-known supernatural types, and he remains mysterious throughout most of the book.

Jane's relationship with Rick LaFleur has gotten very serious, and she begins to worry about him when he disappears into an undercover assignment, and doesn't contact her at all for several days, but she's got her hands full with preparations for a diplomatic meeting between the werecats and the vampires, while the negotiations with the witches are still ongoing. Unsurprisingly, the meeting at vampire central rapidly dissolves into a bloodbath, with the uninvited werewolves crashing the party and starting a brawl, and the female werepanther, Safia, ending up murdered, apparently by one or more of Leo's minions. The prime suspects include Bruiser, Leo's prime blood servant and head of security, with whom Jane has had a seriously flirtatious relationship, which gets even more "touchy" when he moves in with her, seeking sanctuary from the police and supernatural politics.

So, Jane has to unravel the whodunnit, clear Bruiser's name, get rid of the werewolf thugs, find and rescue Rick, all without revealing her skinwalking nature to anyone. Plenty of action, good plot twists, and some self-discovery on her part. The ending has really got me wondering if the series will be seeking a new venue, maybe heading to the countryside instead of the urban landscape.

Blood Cross by Faith Hunter

Skinwalker Jane Yellowrock is still hanging out in New Orleans, with a contract from the vampire council to track down and deliver the final death to rogue vampires and the old rogue who is creating them. Her witch friend, Molly, is staying at the house with her while her sorcerous husband is away in South America, along with Molly's two children, Evan Jr. and Angie, who has some serious witchy talents of her own, even though she's nowhere near puberty, the traditional age for the manifestation of such things.

Vampire politics are always tense, but they seem even more intense than usual when Jane attends a party in the Warehouse District with Master Vamp Leonard Pellissier's human servant, George "Bruiser" Dumas. Long-held clan alliances are fraying, and some clan leaders are hoping to change the balance of power, to rule in Leo's stead soon.

Jane's Beast hasn't mated in quite some time, and neither has Jane, so the sexual tension ratchets up in an odd potential love triangle between Bruiser, Jane and Rick LaFleur, NOPD detective. Killing two bats with one stone, perhaps, Jane convinces Rick to allow her to use the police files to investigate the city's vampire history, and discovers that a number of witch children have disappeared in New Orleans over a long period of time, with no serious investigation by the authorities. There's a certain segment of the population that believes that witches aren't fully human, and so, often their cases aren't really followed up thoroughly. But Rick, and a few others on the force, are not prejudiced, and hope Jane can help them bring closure to these cases.

There's a fairly significant side plot where Jane seeks counsel from a Cherokee shaman woman, grandmotherly type, and goes through a sweat lodge ritual to purge herself of weakness. This leaves her well-prepared for the coming battle with those who are kidnapping and sacrificing the witch children, who, coincidentally, turn out to be the same group of vampires who are plotting the overthrow of clan Pellissier.

Jane seems to grow less secretive with her friends in this book, and perhaps begins to trust some of her allies, discovering that she can't always go it alone.

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

Skinwalker is the first book in the Jane Yellowrock series by Hunter. It takes place in New Orleans, though a slightly darker New Orleans than the one we all know from Mardi Gras. There's a rogue vampire in town, and it is killing indiscriminately. The vampire council don't want the mundane authorities to start digging too deeply into vampiric affairs, and so they have hired Jane Yellowrock, a vampire hunter, to come take care of the problem for them.

One immediately thinks of Anita Blake, the Vampire Executioner, but Jane Yellowrock starts out just a little harder, a little tougher, and far less innocent than Anita. I got the nagging feeling a couple of times in the early going that there might have been some short stories or novellas written about Jane that I'd missed, as she seems to spring into being with a long and shady past. Some of that emptiness gets filled with flashbacks later on in the novel, but some of it is still left hanging. Perhaps in a sequel?

Jane Yellowrock is a skinwalker, someone who can change shape from human into whatever creature, more or less, she desires. She seems to desire, more often than not, the shape of a hunting cat, like a cougar or jaguar, but she carries with her an assortment of teeth and claws from various animals, and when she shifts she uses the "snake" of their DNA to determine her new form.

We're all probably familiar with the idea of lycanthropes having a "beast" that rises to the surface when they change into were-form, almost a second entity that lives within them. In the case of Jane Yellowrock's beast, it might quite literally be true. It appears that sometime in her past, she forcibly possessed the body of a hunting cat, and the spirit of that cat, with its simple motives of kill, eat and mate, continues to live within her even in her human form.

Jane seems to be very much of a bad-ass loner, though she has a couple of off-camera friends who are like her family. That's one of the back story things that I was left wishing I had more information on when the book concluded.

One thing that a lot of writers leave out of their lycanthrope stories is an explanation of what happens to the body mass of a shifter when it takes on a shape smaller or larger than its own. Hunter takes care of this by having Jane use boulders and rocks as a "mass sink". Just a little detail that I thought was cool.

This was definitely a good yarn, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, as soon as I loosen the purse strings enough to buy it.