#Review/Excerpt/Giveaway - Faith Hunter's Shadow Rites (Urban Fantasy) *Blog Tour Stop*

Series: Jane Yellowrock # 10
Format: Paperback, 368 pages 
Release Date: April 5, 2016
Publisher: Roc
Source: Publisher/ Let's Talk Promotions
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Jane Yellowrock has her hands full in the latest novel in theNew York Times bestselling series that captures “the essence of urban fantasy” (SF Site).
 
Slaying vampires is child’s play for skinwalker Jane Yellowrock. But handling the complicated politics of New Orleans’ supernatural players is another story...
  
Jane is keeping the peace between visiting groups of witches and vamps in the city, but then trouble comes knocking on her doorstep. When her house is magically attacked, the wild chase to find her assailants unearths a mystery that has literally been buried deep. 
 
A missing master vampire, presumed long deceased, is found chained in a pit...undead, raving mad, and in the company of two human bodies. Now it’s up to Jane to find out who kept the vampire hidden for so long and why, because the incident could tip already high supernatural tensions to an all-out arcane war.

Shadow Rites is the TENTH installment in the Jane Yellowrock Urban Fantasy series by author Faith Hunter. Set in Louisiana, Jane is a full blooded Cherokee Skinwalker who is also a badass rogue vampire hunter. She is connected with a mountain lion named Beast who she has come to understand a whole lot more, especially recently. Jane is head of Yellowrock Security with Alex, and Eli Younger who she calls brothers, as well as Fanghead Leo Pellissier's Enforcer when he needs something difficult taken care of. 

After being subjected to a magical attack and then attacked by Gee DiMercy (Leo's Mercy Blade), Jane finds herself having to deal with two very powerful witches with major axes to grind. On the heels of the Witches Conclave and talks about possible reparations to the witches from Leo and the fangheads, things are on edge for everyone. Having two witches going after everyone that Jane loves, plus Leo's crew, puts everyone in bad moods. On top of that, Jane now has a household full of people from Molly's family to Alex & Eli, to wait for it....Edmund Hartley, Brute, and a grindylow! 

Jane has faced more than her fair share of enemies since arriving in New Orleans and meeting and working for Leo, and this story really pushes the envelope at how much Jane can deal with. I have read every single book in this series, and I don't remember Jane being so out of her league for most of the book. That Hunter hasn't even begun to deal with the European Fangheads who are planning a visit, and possibly starting a war with Leo and his allies, goes to show how intense this series really can be.

This is a series that features so many different plots within subplots, and schemes and conspiracies that manage to collect a variety of Jane's friends and extended family. It is, once again, a self contained story with an ending and a conclusion, but there are key points in this story that go back all the way to the beginning of the series. Kind of interesting that only Six months have passed when you think of all the horror and other niceties she's had to take care of.

I really do like the fact that Jane and Bruiser are apparently a couple now. It is funny watching Jane squirm and realize that yes, she may actually have someone that she can be with that is just as strong as she is. What's more, he is absolutely supportive of her now that the past has been forgiven, and the two of them no longer have to deal with Ricky LaFleur. On the other hand, watching Jane struggle with her growing "Family" made my heart melt. I love that Molly says it all, when she tells Jane that we are your friends, your family, and we can take care of ourselves if you let us.

I am really curious about Hunter is going to deal with Angie Baby now that she's showed some really powerful abilities. This is a kid who is able to put her own parents to sleep, and break their binding without even thinking about what it means. This is a kid who is so powerful, Jane is scared to death for her since she's been kept a secret by Molly and Evan up to this point. I also want to see what happens with Jane and her ability to slow down time. There has to be some sort of consequences coming soon. Hopefully, not too severe.

Next up in this series: Cold Reign, Jane # 11. No release date listed yet, but I definitely won't be missing out on any Jane novels in the future. I want to thank Let's Talk! Promotions for once again reaching out to me and asking me if I would like to participate in the Shadow Rites blog tour. How can I refuse? 

Excerpt #7

The elevator opened and I stepped out, leading the way to the gym. Eli stopped at the men’s locker room and came back out with a sword belted at his waist. “Seriously?” I said. Instead of a reply he drew the sword and shoved open the door to the gym, preceding me inside. “Men . . .” He was taking this whole “being my second” a little too seriously, though it was a position he had been forced to undertake on more than one occasion.

The gym at HQ was big enough for a full-sized basketball court, but it was usually set up for fighting rings. I had damaged one recently, and the antique wood on all three rings had been replaced with a modern practice mat, the kind used in the Olympics for martial arts. They were easily replaceable, in case my claws came out again, forgiving to body slams, and less abrasive than most older-style mats. They had the classic tatami texture and smooth surface, giving better traction, but also had an antiskid, rubberized, waffle backing. The mats also eliminated odors, decreasing the reek of stale vamp and human sweat, looked better than the scarred wood, and were versatile enough for standing arts and grappling arts—meaning sword practice and hand-to-hand. Also, a final plus, blood washed out of them easily.

It was close to dawn, so there should be no vamps in the room, only humans, but I smelled Leo, the chief fanghead, and the city’s Mercy Blade, Gee DiMercy. He pronounced the name something like Zjeee, which sounded Frenchy. It was the misericord’s job to kill young vamp scions when they didn’t cure after the devoveo, the ten years or so of insanity that every human went through when turned. Not all of them made it. 

About Faith Hunter

Faith Hunter, fantasy writer, was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south. She writes three Urban Fantasy series:  the Skinwalker series, featuring Jane Yellowrock, a Cherokee skinwalker who hunts rogue vampires. The Soulwood series, featuring earth magic user Nell Ingram. And the Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban, post-apocalyptic, fantasy series featuring Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage. (There is a role playing game based on the series, ROGUE MAGE.)

Under the pen name Gwen Hunter, she writes action-adventure, mysteries, and thrillers. As Faith and Gwen, she has 30+ books in print in 29 countries.

Hunter writes full-time, tries to keep house, and is a workaholic with a passion for travel, jewelry making, white-water kayaking, and writing. She and her husband love to RV, traveling with their rescued Pomeranians to whitewater rivers all over the Southeast.

Find Faith online at www.faithhunter.net, her blog, on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads; also www.yellowrocksecurities.com, and www.gwenhunter.com.

Purchase links 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Rites-Jane-Yellowrock-Novel/dp/0451465970

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shadow-rites-faith-hunter/1123353046

IndieBound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780451465979

The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Shadow-Rites-Faith-Hunter/9780451465979

BAM: http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Shadow-Rites/Faith-Hunter/9780451465979

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/shadow-rites/id1018856144?mt=11

Tour-wide

There is a tour-wide giveaway for 1 complete set of the Jane Yellowrock series (all 10 novels!), plus one $100 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. This giveaway details will be listed on our tour page (http://www.ltpromos.com/2016/03/13/faith-hunters-shadow-rites-blog-tour/) once finalized (it’ll be up by the beginning of the tour).