Jane, Bruiser, and company are back in NOLA. Wrassler and Jody are getting married. And Jody’s very clear that Jane’s not to screw things up!
Jane’s cancer is gone but she’s still having issues with shifting which means she could end up dead, for real.
As the Dark Queen, she’s trying to adjust and understand that she can’t lead the charge any longer. She and her team are trying to unravel plots that have been unfolding over centuries.
I always love the inner dialogue between Jane and Beast – both have such well-developed voices and personalities.
Despite Jane not leading the charge, mostly, there are plenty of battle scenes – lots of blood.
Lots of snarky dialogue between Jane and her team – especially the Youngers. A tender bit about Wrassler.
With the team back in NOLA, there are some delicious food descriptions. I’ve never been there but the books certainly seem to capture the flavor of NOLA.
I appreciate that, unlike some urban fantasy series, Jane’s powers don’t seem to grow and grow exponentially. I also appreciate a lack of orgies.
I enjoy that Jane suffers losses – emotionally and physically. Being powerful doesn’t mean she wins with no cost. Some urban fantasy series get predictable in that the MC increases in powers and powerful allies but never pays a price. And the fighting never takes a toll. I like that Jane for all of her badassery is vulnerable and has scars.
Not a good entry point to the series if you’re a newcomer. Start at the beginning so you can appreciate the build-up to True Dead. Long-time readers, we get some but not even close to all of our questions answered. But don’t despair, there are some great revelations that make it worthwhile.
Thank you NetGalley and Ace for the ARC.
About Faith Hunter
Faith writes full-time, tries to keep house, and is a workaholic. She gave up cooking for lent one year and the oven hasn’t been turned on since. Okay – that’s a joke. She does still make cold cereal and sandwiches. Occasionally, she remembers to turn on Roomba (that she named Duma$$ because it fell down the stairs once.)
Faith researches in great detail, and tries most everything her characters do. Research led to her life’s passions – jewelry making, orchids, bones, travel, white-water kayaking, and writing.
Jewelry-making was the occupation of two of her characters: Thorn St. Croix, the Rogue Mage, and the main character of BloodStone, written by her pen name, Gwen Hunter. She fell in love with the art form. Faith makes, wears, and sometimes gives away her jewelry as promo items to fans and as prizes in contests. See her FaceBook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/official.fait… for pics. She works with stones, pearls, crystal, and glass, wire wrapping larger, undrilled, focal stones. Labradorite, Amazonite, apatite, aquamarine, and prehnite are her favorite stones.
Faith loves orchids. Her favorite time of year is when several are blooming. Pictures can be seen at her FaceBook page. And yes, she collects bones and skulls. Many of her orchid pics are juxtaposed with bones and skulls —a fox, cat, dog, cow skull, goat, and deer skull, (that is, unfortunately, falling apart) and the jawbone of an ass. She just received a boar skull, and the skull of a mountain lion (legally purchased from a US tannery) killed in the wild.
She and her husband RV, traveling to whitewater rivers all over the Southeast.
And that leads Faith to kayaking – her very favorite sport. Faith discovered whitewater paddling when she was researching her (Gwen Hunter) mystery book, Rapid Descent. She took a lesson and—after a bout of panic attacks from fear of drowning—discovered she loved the sport.
Faith is one of the founders and a participant at the now defunct and archived www.MagicalWords.net, an online writing forum geared to helping writers. And she is a voracious reader.
Under other pen names, notably, Gwen Hunter, she writes action adventure, mysteries, and thrillers. As Gwen, she is a winner of the WH Smith Literary Award for Fresh Talent in 1995 in the UK, and won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award in 2008. As Faith, her books have been on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists, been nominated for various awards and won an Audie Award with Khristine Hvam, among other awards. Under all her pen names, she has more than 40 books, anthologies, and complications in print in 30 countries.
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True Dead by Faith Hunter 
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