Thursday, April 2, 2015

Guest Post & Early Review: Dark Heir by Faith Hunter


UFI welcomes Author Faith Hunter. Thanks for Joining us!!

A Day in the Week of Faith Hunter: Wednesday
 
Today is … take a family member to the doctor day, clean the bathrooms day, and weight-training day.

If you were paying close attention to the other days in this blog list, none of the above have been capitalized, as I did for the previous ones. This is for a lot of reasons and possibilities. If the doctor’s appointment finds something odd or different, then we might have a trip to another doctor, the ER, or some other medical type place. If that happens, then everything else, including writing, might get cancelled. Which is never fun. Hence the no-caps.

But today we are lucky. The doctor appointment is only a half hour late getting started, only takes a half longer to do the testing than we had budgeted, and we are back home in a little over three hours. Not bad for a doctor appointment for one of the elders or one of elder-dogs. Between the Hubs and me, we have five—count ‘em, five—elder humans to share the responsibility of, and two (at this point) elder rescue dogs to take care of. That is a lot of meds, a lot of appointments, a lot of testing, and a lot of driving.

I am home by noon-ish, and I eat lunch, brew a pot of spice tea—because of that cold front blowing in—and do the usual business-related stuff. Yes. While I eat. No real rest for the wicked. Today, business-related stuff means a phone call with a writer friend. We have been tossing around the idea of doing a crossover novelette or novella, and he’s ready to dive in. I have a book and a novella of my own to write, so time is tight and short for me. But we figure out a way to make it work and he’s happy and I’m happy. I finish emails and make some phone calls. Good grief. The life of a writer should be chocolate bon-bons and picking out diamond rings. Not that I wear rings. But you get the idea. And no, my life is work and work and responsibility just like all the other working Joes.

I clean the kitchen and then sit down for a good five hours of steady writing, interspersed with short breaks to clean the bathrooms and a longer break to work out. I am a member of the Y, but the weather has turned off nasty and so I opt to stay in and use the machines upstairs and the eight-pound hand weights. Not having kids has meant the Hubs and I have an empty room that we have managed not to turn into a junk room. Instead we have a room lined with shelves with writing memorabilia and books, and space in the center to work out.

When I start a day’s writing, I actually work on the previous day’s work first, revising, adding content, and moving things around. It gets me back into the rhythm of Jane’s voice and Beast’s snarky inner comments. Today I only turn out five pages, but it’s enough, and it leaves me at a good place to start tomorrow.

Tonight I’ll make six pairs of earrings for PR for the Jane Yellowrock series novel, DARK HEIR. I also make a necklace for my assistant. It’s an easy piece, mostly copper and steel chain in five-inch lengths with two amethyst pieces wired to form links. She already bought the focal stone, a lovely silver and copper wrapped amethyst in a natural teardrop shape. It’s really pretty! So are the earrings that will used as prizes in a contest.

That’s All Folks! Nite!
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New York Times Bestselling author Faith Hunter writes fantasy in several subgenres: the urban fantasy Skinwalker series, featuring Jane Yellowrock, a Cherokee skinwalker; the post-apocalyptic Rogue Mage series and RPG, featuring Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage; and the upcoming SoulWood trilogy featuring Nell Nicholson Ingram, a woman who can siphon off the magic of others and is drawn into solving paranormal crimes. Faith writes mystery and thrillers under the name Gwen Hunter. When she isn’t writing, Faith likes to make jewelry, run whitewater rivers (Class II and III), and RV with her hubby and their rescued dogs.

Find Faith and her books
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Dark Heir
Jane Yellowrock #9
Amazon | B&N | IndieBound | iBooks | Kobo
Shapeshifting skinwalker Jane Yellowrock is the best in the business when it comes to slaying vampires. But her latest fanged foe may be above her pay grade…

For centuries, the extremely powerful and ruthless vampire witches of the European Council have wandered the Earth, controlling governments, fostering war, creating political conflict, and often leaving absolute destruction in their wake. One of the strongest of them is set to create some havoc in the city of New Orleans, and it’s definitely personal.

Jane is tasked with tracking him down. With the help of a tech wiz and an ex-Army ranger, her partners in Yellowrock Securities, she’ll have to put everything on the line, and hope it’s enough. Things are about to get real hard in the Big Easy.
Faith Hunter does it again. Lots of action, a dangerous dilemma, friends, family and a bit of love round out DARK HEIR.

If you have been reading the Jane Yellowrock series this long, you already know Jane is badass. You know the main secondary characters and you know that no matter what the situation, Jane is always in the thick of it. DARK HEIR is no different. The story unfolded at a great pace. The fight scenes were packed with danger and the characters as always shined.

Leo really surprised me. I'm not sure if he is just tired, but I think we got to see a different more vulnerable and human side to him in DARK HEIR. I was really disappointed with Molly in DARK HEIR. I of course can't go into the reason why, but their friendship has definitely changed since the beginning of the series and it's really a shame. Jane and George's relationship continues to grow stronger. I *think* her feelings for Rick are finally on the outs and that makes me so excited. I didn't feel like we got as much Beast time as we usually do. I will have to pay attention as the series continues to see if it will be a trend.

As always I enjoyed following Jane around New Orleans as she fought off bad guys and investigated the events of DARK HEIR. The problems are far from over and the European Council still hasn't visited so I am excited to see what will happen next.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Dark Heir excerpt #8
 
“Yesss.” Leo’s voice sounded ticked off again, that slithery dangerous tone vamps used when they wanted to remind you they were killers, at the top of the food chain. “You, my Enforcer, were supposed to keep my headquarters safe. You were supposed to keep my people safe. You were sup—”

“Stuff it, Leo. You were supposed to tell me when anything changed. Like Adrianna coming back. When did she show? Last night? Right. You didn’t call. So don’t blame me when you’re playing vampire games and it comes back and bites you in the butt.” I angled my body so he could see the gun, just in case my attitude was more than he wanted to put up with. Or maybe I should just throw up on him. That might keep him from attacking me. Toeing the female vamp, I said, “I’m taking her head this time. Gratis, since you already paid me. But you wanna tell me why she’s still alive? Or was? And why you let her back in here?”

Leo looked around the room slowly, and though his shoulders didn’t droop, it was obvious that he knew he’d screwed the pooch on this one. He frowned, a totally human frown, and said, “Rumors have persisted for many years that Adrianna had possession of objects of value to me—les objets de puissance, les objets de magie. I allowed her back, assured her of my good graces, and kept her under surveillance, with the intent to take les objets de magie from her.”

Objects of power. Magical objects. Well. That was honest. For once. “She was Joses Bar-Judas’s what? Sweetheart? Honeybunch? Snack-cake?”
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Tour stops:

3/23: Theresa M. Cole (Q&A & excerpt #1)
3/24: I Smell Sheep (excerpt #2), Literal Addiction (guest post #1 & review)
3/25: Enchanted Alley (review & excerpt #3)
3/26: Mad Hatter Reads (review & excerpt #4)
3/27: Paranormal Cravings (review & excerpt #5), Paranormal Haven (guest post #2)
3/28: The Urban Paranormal Book Blog (review & Q&A)
3/30: Team Tynga’s Reviews (guest post #3 & review), Vampire Book Club (excerpt #6)
3/31: Bad Bird Reads (review & Q&A)
4/1: Fiona Skye (review & excerpt #7)
4/2: Urban Fantasy Investigations (guest post #4, review, excerpt #8)
4/3: The Qwillery (review & excerpt #9)
4/5: In the Pages of a Good Book (guest post #5 & excerpt #10)
4/6: drey’s library (guest post #6 & review)
4/7: The Book Nympho (review & excerpt #11), Under the Covers Book Blog (guest post #7)
4/8: That’s What I’m Talking About (review & excerpt #12)
4/9: Bea’s Book Nook (review & excerpt #13)
4/10: Gizmo’s Reviews (review & excerpt #14)