Publisher: Roc (2010)
Format: Mass Market Paperback | 321 pages
Genre(s): Urban Fantasy
Description (GR): "Jane Yellowrock is back on the prowl against the children of the night...The vampire council has hired skinwalker Jane Yellowrock to hunt and kill one of their own who has broken sacred ancient rules — but Jane quickly realizes that in a community that is thousands of years old, loyalties run deep...With the help of her witch best friend and local vigilantes, Jane finds herself caught between bitter rivalries — and closer than ever to the secret origin of the entire vampire race. But in a city of old grudges and dark magic, Jane will have to fight to protect both sides, even if no one will protect her."
I just can't seem to warm up to Faith Hunter's writing style. I keep coming back to her books because they are great, concept-wise, but a good concept does not a good book make.
I had a bit of trouble following the story of this second installment in the Jane Yellowrock series because I read the first book a few years ago and although I remember strongly that I didn't like it very much, the story is all but forgotten. Still, after a few pages, I was pulled into Jane's world and the characters. I noted a marked improvement in Jane, she seemed less disdainful of females in general and less convinced she was super duper cool and good. I was also pleasantly surprised because, although there was description and the prose itself was still mostly too descriptive for my taste, it wasn't as bad as the first book (that I remember).
However, it didn't take long for me to realize that this book, like the first, lacked focus (narrative-wise). Jane runs around a lot, makes a lot of research but it's like the bits and pieces she uncovers make no sense whatsoever to the case she is investigating. It all seems so... random. Her investigative decisions make no sense. If she's investigating a rogue vampire, it does make sense to investigate crime scenes... but it doesn't make a lot of sense to delve into cold case files that seem to have nothing to do with the case at hand or going to vampire parties.
All of the things Jane discovered seemed like pieces of different puzzles that really didn't fit together very well in the end (because some of the information was superfluous). She loses too much time on other things, unrelated things.
It seemed to me the mystery was a bit too simplistic. When Jane uncovered a piece of it, it was quite easy for me, the reader, to understand what was happening... not Jane though; she may be "though as nails" but the sharpest tool in the shed she is not. This was... frustrating. Basically this mystery was not complex enough for a full length novel, in my opinion, and that is why Jane was so slow on the uptake and why she ends up doing so many unrelated things that add little to... anything, either character development or plot.
Overall, I still like the concept. The story telling? Not so much.
Other reviews in this series: Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, #1)
Other works by this author: Bloodring
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