★★★★ @HunterFaith #TrueDead #NetGalley
This is the book I have been waiting for a long while. In this series, we have seen Jane grow from a lone ranger to a person responsible for a small company. At one point she becomes the de facto person in charge of all the security for the Master of the City, Leo. The last couple of books have languished a bit for me because, well, *spoiler alert*, Leo DIED! I keeled over and cried in shock with Leo passed away. How could this be? How could Ms. Hunter do this to a pivotal character? Why would she do this? Well, turns out there is method to her madness.
In this book, events further pushes Jane to grow again. Jane is best as a do-er. She is the type of person who likes to contribute. She is now in a leadership position and honestly, she sucks at it. What Jane is going through is what I see so often with hot shot/rockstar contributors at work who are suddenly promoted to a people manager. They completely fall flat on their face because they don't realize that their roles and responsibilities change over. I doubt many people reading this book will care or get how carefully Ms. Hunter highlights Jane's failings. Unless the reader is in HR and understand how and why people managers fail or the reader is a people manager who is really good at their job. I digress.
There is quite a bit of Jane not understanding that as the big "Kahuna" she needs to stop putting herself in positions where she can get severely hurt or killed. Why? Because it isn't all about her. When she was an individual contributor... meh, so she dies. There are others that can take up her spot. When she's the symbol of protection of hundreds of "minions" this is a different story. She may not like this but reality is, if she is hurt, that makes hundreds of vampires, people and shifters fair game for any bad guys to come in and wreck havoc. I understand this all to well from my own work experiences. I experienced both first hand when I was only a contributor and then later when I became a people manager. I digress again.
This story contains some good epiphany for several key characters in this book. It also brings an interesting twist that I think will appeal to most of the die hard fans who were devastated by the loss of a main character. I really enjoyed this book as it matures more into an urban fantasy with high action and interesting characters. It is a bit removed from earlier books where it felt more paranormal with the potential love triangle between Leo, Bruiser and Jane. Since Bruiser was dedicated to Leo. Leo wanted Jane and Jane wanted Bruiser. If you are looking for a return to the erotic tension, go look for an erotic book, this isn't it. This urban fantasy is highly recommended to readers who enjoy character growths, loss and reunions.
*provided by NetGalley
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