Monday, January 16, 2017

#Blog Tour/Review - Steele City Blues by Karen Greco #Urban Fantasy #Romance @karenThegreco @RoxanneRhoads

Series: Hell's Belle
Format: Kindle
Release Date: January 3, 2017
Source: Bewitching Book Tours
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance


Blood Ops leader Dr. O is chained in the bowels of Steele City, the state’s maximum security prison, and the clock is ticking for Nina and Frankie to bust him out.

Now that supernatural creatures are out of the closet, Providence is descending into an apocalyptic wasteland. With the abrupt shut down Blood Ops, Nina and Frankie are forced to rely on questionable allies to battle Leila, a powerful witch/vampire hybrid hell bent on creating an indestructible supernatural army. She also happens to be Nina’s mom. 

Alliances are tested and relationships fractured as Nina and her band of supernatural crime fighting misfits are pushed to the breaking point. 

Steele City Blues, the third book in the Hell’s Belle urban fantasy series, is high-octane, action-packed, cinematic story by Karen Greco that fans of The Hollows and the Cassandra Palmer series will love. Join the adventure!






Steele City Blues is the third installment in author Karen Greco's Hell's Belle series. It is a series set in an alternative Providence, Rhode Island. It is important to read these novels in order, or you will be lost. Steele City Blues is a continuation of the Tainted Blood story. The series features half-witch, half-vampire Nina Martinez. Nina works for an organization called Blood Ops. Blood Ops is an elite team who quietly hunts down rogue supernaturals and puts them down.

But, after the stunning conclusion to Tainted Blood
and the shocking appearance of Nina's supposedly dead mother Leila, Blood Ops is in disarray. Nina, her 700 year old vampire partner Frankie Montefeltro & her best friend Darcy (Banshee), have found themselves hiding while trying to make plans to rescue Dr. O.  Dr. Lochlan O'Malley (Druid) is the Head of Blood Ops, but is currently sitting in a jail cell in a place called Steele City after Leila exposed humans to the fact that supernaturals live among them. 

Yet another member of the team, who I still have reservations about, is FBI Agent Max Deveroux. Max, Nina's ex, made a deal with a demon and became something that was once wiped out of existence; Berserker. The reason I am up in the air about Max, is that I believe with all my heart that Frankie is more suitable for a variety of reasons when it comes to romance. Yes, it was fine when Nina and Max were sex buddies for awhile, but Max has some issues to deal with. Max is also a dreary sort of sod who mopes around with little if anything to add these days. Makes me want to club him in the head with a dead fish.

One of the more important storylines of this series is Nina's dual identity and her heritage. Her witch abilities have recently manifested, and they are out of control which makes for some humorous situations. As a witch, she is far behind where she should be. That's not due to her Aunt Babette (Babe) who tried to get Nina up to speed after Hell's Belle where her witch powers came to light. Nina is just a better vampire than she is a witch. She's faster, she heals quicker, she has more agility, and a taste for blood read meat.

The sudden arrival of Nina's powerful grandfather who was stuck in Mexico for almost 30 years, makes things even more twisted to the point where you really have to ask yourself what his real reason for being in Providence is, and why now after all this time? His actions towards Nina can be thought of as both antagonistic, and helpful, but he also is brisk, dangerous, and his relationship with demon mayor Ami Bertrand is curious to the point where you know there are other secrets waiting to be uncovered. 

Whether or not this is the final installment in the series, I have to say that I am not disappointed in having read this series. Nina has made leaps and bounds as a character. I loved her relationship with Casper the Ghost, who was once a witch. Nina and Casper are quite the pairing, and the antics between the two gives a bit more depth & fun to the story. I loved that the romance is sussed out to the point where I can sit back and actually smile, and not groan for having the author make the wrong choice. The bad thing about this book, was the bureaucratic horse hockey, and the arrival of a new character who tosses a hand grenade into Nina & Frankie's plans. Personally, I would have preferred this character to suddenly find themselves at the mercy of Leila. But, alas, I can't get too blood thirsty.


Previous Installments

 



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Karen Greco is originally from Rhode Island and loves hot wieners from New York System, but can't stand coffee milk. She studied playwriting in college (and won an award or two). After not writing plays for a long time, a life-long obsession with exorcists and Dracula drew her to urban fantasy, where she decapitates characters with impunity. Steele City Blues is the third book in the Hell’s Belle series, after Hell’s Belle (the first) and Tainted Blood (number two). She writes contemporary romance for a small press under the pen-name Jillian Sterling, and has a day job in entertainment publicity.









 
Tour giveaway
10 copies of the book in Kindle or Epub format.



2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for reviewing! (And this is not the last book in the series!!)

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    Replies
    1. Awesome news! Thanks Karen! Looking forward to book 4!

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