Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler
Book 1 in Jane True series
Summary Deal :: We have Jane True. She likes to swim. In winter. In Maine. Near a whirlpool. Naked. At night. But it's a secret. Anyway, Jane's town pariah because of mom, dead boyfriend, and brief stay in the mental institution (thanks to small town gossip and the dead boyfriend). So Jane's going along with her town pariah life, taking care of her failing health dad. Then Jane discovers the body in her whirlpool. Then suddenly she finds out her mom was a selkie, she's a halfling, and dead guy was investigating her. Territory investigator Ryu shows up to find out what happened to dead guy. After finding two dead goblins, dead guy's notes about the halflings, and the newspaper clippings of all the halflings' unfortunate demises, Ryu and Jane decide to take a trip to the Compound where the Court resides. There Jane finds out supernatural life is definitely not all moonbeams and giggles, but at least they are honest in their violence and not-human morals. One big happy not-quite-epic battle later, murderer is revealed, mastermind behind murders vows revenge and almost kills Jane (but shh, that's a secret too), many people are dead, major schism in views on humans/halflings and the supernaturals' superiority thereof is revealed, and all is not well in supernatural land.
Major player break down :: Jane True, town pariah, recently discovered selkie halfling, is thrown head first into the deep end of the supernatural community by her unfortunate luck of discovering a dead man. Who happens to be a halfling researching other halflings. All who wind up very dead. Enter Nell the Gnome, Trill the Kelpie, and Anyan the Barghest (think werewolf, only no pack). They are all "Surprise! You're a halfing selkie. Sorry we left you to go crazy cause we didn't tell you sooner and you wound up town pariah and in a mental institution for a while. Oh, by the way, what do you know about dead guy? You need to tell investigator man when he comes. Kbye." Enter Ryu, vampire investigator for the territory, who takes an immediate lusting to Jane. Enter the Court run by the Alfar King and Queen (elves, but don't call them that). The Court people are all either "ooh, a halfling, humans are amusing toys, entertain me" or "halflings are weird and icky". Then there's Nyx (Ryu's cousin) who is all "I'm crazy and like to eat people, usually human but not always. Halflings taste like humans, nom nom." Oh, and Jarl, who's second-in-command to the King and Queen and is all "halflings are impure and should be exterminated". And Jarl's pet naga, Jimmu, who is very "HALFLING HUMANS DIE!" only without the shouting and with more sword.
Classification :: I'd go with Urban Fantasy. Though most of the story takes place in tiny tourist-dependent town in Middle of Nowhere Maine and Glamored to Hell and Back Compound (think giant palace) for supernaturals, so not a lot of urban-ness going on, but we'll go with it. The books swung light to dark at times, so we'll call it medium as an average.
Action/Romance :: Giant battle at end, but mostly it was intrigue and "let's intro Jane to world of supernaturals". Romance between Jane and Ryu was there, but it wasn't vital to the story itself and was more for the evolution of Jane than anything. Not that it was a bad thing, just side/sub plot of the story.
Overall Opinions :: This book tricked me into reading it. I was just going to read the first couple of pages to decide which of the couple of books on my To Be Read Pile I was going to read next and the next thing I know, it's 2am and I'm 3/4ths of the way through the book. I honestly have no idea what sucked me in. There's nothing I can pinpoint and say "That is why I stayed up til 3am reading" but I stayed up all the same. Jane is a great character and has some of my new favorite book quotes. I hope to find out more about the deal between Anyan and Ryu in the next book cause I'm all kinds of curious about that. And Anyan himself. This book is a little harder to review cause there's no one thing (other than the pool scene) that I can say "oh, this whatever made the book awesome" or "oh, this whatever made me so mad I couldn't finish the stupid thing". But overall, I liked the book.
Rereadability :: Not sure I would reread the book as a whole (though it is possible), but there are quite a few scenes that I would definitely reread. The pool scene alone had me cracking up for a long time after I read it and makes me giggle just thinking of it.
Getting Next Book :: Do believe I will be getting the next book. Tracking the Tempest comes out 6/29 and it has been added to the List of Buying.
It sounded *really* interesting and normal and like a book i might actually read! Until..."Then suddenly she finds out her mom was a selkie, she's a halfling, and dead guy was investigating her." Then it just totally went to the deep end and became un-interesting. Perhaps i can read the first part of the book, when it's normal. :) I really need some good murder-mystery type books...i miss old-school Mary Higgins Clark.
ReplyDeleteYou should try the Abby Cooper series by Victoria Laurie (heroine chick is psychic, but it's not all about that, it's more investigate work where the "hunches" the main people get are just from an odd source) or the In Death series by J.D. Robb (set about 50ish years in the future, so some futuristic stuff, but most is mentioned in passing and not a major point of the book). I has all of both and you are welcome to read. I would start with In Death first. I think you would like it more (or at least have a better chance of liking it). And there's currently 30 books and 7 short stories already published, so should keep you entertained for some time. ^_^
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