Friday, July 6, 2012

Early Review - Dragon Justice by Laura Anne Gilman

"Dragon Justice. It was cold, took in equal measure, and once the terms were set, there were no further strings."

Dragon Justice is the fourth novel and supposedly final book in the Paranormal Scene Investigators. If this is in fact the last book of the series, and from what I've heard it's true, it's such a shame.

Our main protagonist is 24-year old Bonita "Bonnie" Torres who is known affectionately as a PUPI. (Private, Unaffiliated Paranormal Investigators). PUPI's use magic to fight magic and to find evidence that cops can't. They are supposed to be a neutral force that is incorruptible. Call this series the magical equivalent of CSI. Over the course of four books, Bonnie has been shot at, verbally abused, nailed with a PSI bomb, and physically threatened. None of that has stopped Bonnie from being a perfectionist in everything she does, including her dwindling love life which includes both men and women.

The other characters (PUPI's) are Nick, Nifty, Pietr, and Sharon. Ian Stosser and Benjamin Venec are the bosses, or big dogs as they are affectionately called. Venec and Bonnie have been doing a 2 step dance ever since the so called "Merge" tied them together emotionally, and physically.

Dragon Justice begins with a surprise visit from the Fey asking the PUPI's and Bonnie especially for help in locating a missing 7 year old girl. It leads to a surprise revelation that someone is collecting non talented girls aka Nulls, for their very own cult. The reason behind this really isn't all that clear except for perhaps the Talent want's to use them to enhance her powers?

Ben and Bonnie end up in Philadelphia where Wren Valere shows up as well. It is a showdown between Ben and Wren to see who is the best. It also appears that a serial killer has arrived in the city and is targeting Talents (Magical users). The Talent killer has been on a rampage for 30 years and it's up to Bonnie and crew to find him and put a stop to him before the bodies continue to pile up.

The third part of this story is an untested Storm-Seer named Ellen who "sees" the deaths of two major characters; one just happens to be Wren Valere. I actually liked the fact that we saw more of Wren in this book as LAG seems to be tying up loose ends from both series. We also see Sergei, PB and Danny as well.

The last part of this story is Ian Stosser's sister Aden on the war path against her brother and her actions once again cause a character to die. I've never liked Aden and wished that someone would have stopped her in her tracks. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen now.

The one continuation from the previous book is the Merge between Ben and Bonnie and how they continue to dance around each other when everyone else knows they are eventually going to hook up and sparks are going to fly. Well, if sparks flew when they got together, nobody told me! *Er, what I mean was that the story wasn't exactly graphic in the detail of their sexual escapades. It was left to the readers imagination to determine if what Bonnie and Ben have is viable and long lasting.

My main complaint, and I am truly hoping this is fixed before this book releases in 3 short weeks, is that you really had to pay attention to see who was speaking and when. There are several different POV's including Bonnie, Ian, and Ben. There are no breaks between Chapters, or page breaks between who is speaking. It's often times confusing and that's why this story won't be getting my 5 star seal of awesomeness.

*ARC recvd 05/27/2012 via Netgalley.com from Harlequin. Expected publication: July 24th 2012 by Luna


Author - Laura Anne Gilman
Title - Dragon Justice
Publisher - Harlequin/Luna
Releases - July 24, 2012


1 comment:

  1. I love mixed POV's bec you can see the story unfold from different perspective but I do hate gettin lost and not knowing who's talking. It spoils he momentum

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