Blood Cross [Mass Market Paperback]

Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a bad book -- I'd say about 3.5 stars, but the first book in the series was a *great* 5-star debut, so my hopes were pretty high.

This book still has Jane, so it has that going for it, and if you liked her, you'll end up liking this book, but let me (unfairly) set that aside and tell you my problems with the book:

*************************THERE WILL BE SPOILERS***************

1) Aside from Jane, all the other characters feel like shadows of theirselves from the first book. Rather than continuing to show why they are interesting, Hunter just assumes we will find them interesting based on their history.

2) This is particularly true of the vampire lord Leo, and is one of the worst failings of the book. In book one, Leo and Jane had an interesting, prickly but engaging back & forth relationship. In this book, for rather unconvincing plot reasons, *that* Leo is completely absent, and the Leo who does appear does things that will make it very hard to impossible to bring back that relationship. And he's not even *compellingly* crazy.

3) Jane's romantic life is a complete hash. We get one reasonably hot almost-sex scene that gives an interesting glimpse at what a full-on romantic encounter between two more-than-humans could be, then Jane ends up with Mr. Milk-toast, despite leading on the other guy time after time. Not to mention that even after the kids are kidnapped and the quest should be engaging Jane's full attention, we get several episodes of inappropriate flirting and innuendo.

4) A female vampire hints broadly to Jane that she has important information, and Jane smells the rouge-raiser on her, but never gets around to talking to her. Hey, didn't the exact same thing happen in book one? Didn't Jane beat herself up about it then? Unless there is some unrevealed spell or something and we're *supposed* to think this is odd, I call trainwreck.

5) The whole bad-guy plot seems overcomplicated and hard to explain. This causes lots of dead-time in the "woo-woo room" where Jane reads documents or gets info-dumps from other characters.

6) I didn't like the whole way the young-rogues were handled. Yes, they were raised by black-magic: Bad! But that's not their fault. Given that the ex-marines have nets capable of incapicating vampires, the whole business of taking their heads seems extreme. In self-defense, yes. To prevent a kill, yes. As a policy, no. In fact, the two encounters Jane has with young rogues seem to leave her sympathetic to their plight, but she doesn't make the leap that maybe putting a price on their heads is wrong.

7) In fact, the denoument seems to argue that anything allowing the ten-year feral period to be shortened is wrong. Yes, black magic, human sacrifice: wrong, we get that. But if there is a way to keep from having to chain potentially intelligent beings in basements for ten years, would that be so bad? Jane seems to buy into the whole visiting-the-sins-of-the-fathers thing the crazy priestess is pushing.

8) The whole shifting to a male saber-tooth thing is forced. Apparently it's to lay some important groundwork about beast/Jane's new abilities, but it's deployed very limply and does nothing other than establish that Jane can shift male now -- [s]he just sulks in a ward the whole time of the shift. How can you turn into a saber-tooth tiger and not do something awesome? (There are a few other forced bits/hints about Jane/Beast, like Beast walking in Jane's skin and her remark about Jane being only a killer. Interesting, but totally un-followed-up-on).

9) Lots of to-ing & fro-ing rather than plot. Jane goes places, then she goes back to places, then she goes a third time..

Anyway. Perhaps that list is too harsh. I *did* enjoy reading the book, it's just that I was looking for something as good as the first book. Next time for sure :-)

Charlaine Harris remarked about Jane Yellowrock: "You have to respect a character who requires boulders in her backyard as a pre-employment requirement."

As an American-Indian shape-shifter, Jane is a gun for hire. Picking up where Skinwalker left off, she is still under contract to the local New Orleans Vamp Council. Her assignment - to hunt down rogue vampires and bring to justice whoever is responsible for making them. Complicating her job: Leo, the head master Vamp of the city, is still grieving the loss of his son and he blames Jane for his death. Apparently, vamps under extreme depression(called "Dolore")suffer mentally and their reasoning is impaired. If that isn't enough, a vamp war is brewing in the Big Easy. Her best friend, the witch Molly, is visiting with her two small children. One of whom, 6-yr-old Angelina, has growing powers of her own. But, will they be caught in the crossfire?

Everything is "ramped up" in this installment.

Romance and sex:(Leo's human servant, George Dumas, and police officer Rick LaFleur vie for Jane's attention)

The mythology of Vampires, as well as Jane's Native American culture (and Skinwalker past), are further explored and expanded.

The Battles are fierce. Luckily, Jane has new human allies in the police force and in the community. A man named Derek, leads a group of ex-soldiers trying to take back their community and forms an alliance with Jane.

I really liked Skinwalker. But I think Blood Cross is even better, and I can't wait to see those Killer Legs in another Jane Yellowrock adventure.

I put this book down in disgust on page 174. I could see where the plot was headed literally from page one, but hoping I was wrong, and having enjoyed the first book in the series, I forged on anyway. Obviously, I was disappointed.

Without spoilers: Jane is a watered down version of herself in this book, and the other characters are weakly defined. As other reviewers have said, many of the characters from the previous book have undergone major personality shifts. The changes are understandable and pretty well explained by the events of these books, but it's still jarring. It felt like the people I had gotten to know and like had disappeared on me and I had to get to know an entirely new cast.

Jane also seems subtly against traditional Cherokee religious/spiritual teachings, favoring her Christian upbringing. I'm hoping this is an issue that will be developed in future books - she was Cherokee long before she was Christian - but it still grated on me. It casts a judgmental pall over all of the spiritual awakening she's supposedly undergoing. In all, the religious slant to this book wasn't something I found enjoyable in general (this series focuses a bit more on the crosses and holy water aspects of traditional vampire lore than many other books in the genre). That's certainly a personal taste however, so take that as you will.

I also got really tired of all the "I poured hot water over this kind of tea, which would have a lot of caffeine and be super tasty!" and the constant reminders that Jane is hungry after a shift. We get it, move on.

***Spoilers ahead***

But the killer for me was the kidnapping. I just cannot stand the use of children as a plot device. I read fiction - and whatever you call this genre, it is complete and utter fiction - as a get-away. I don't want to worry about a baby and a young girl being kidnapped by a vampire. Maybe it's the mother in me, or maybe I'm just too sensitive, but to me this was a cheap plot device. The author really couldn't have explored the ideas brought forth in this book any other way? Seriously? It's mundane and a low blow.

What was Jane doing inviting her friend and two young children to stay with her while she was in the middle of a dangerous project, anyway? She's already had vamps snooping around and even entering her dwelling before, and mentioned multiple times in the last book that the house wasn't very secure. And why did the mother think this was a great idea? I understand that they needed to get away from home, but this was not the best choice of relocation locales. What mother in her right mind would put her children in this kind of danger? Again, cheap plot device.

I also didn't quite get the Bruiser scenes. He's all hot and heavy in the car and at the party, then pretty much ignores her the next time they see each other. What happened? I liked the more aggressive Bruiser, vs the stand back and be silent version.

***End spoilers***

I really wanted to like this book, which I'm sure is part of why I was so disappointed by it. I skimmed the second half and don't think I'll be reading the next in the series. There was a lot of potential here that just wasn't fully realized. I gave the book two stars because while I was disappointed, I still found the basic storyline of the Cherokee skinwalker to be interesting. And I love Beast.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 62 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars