Jazz is embracing her role as the supernatural’s trouble
shooter – and the city’s homeless population being preyed upon definitely
counts as a problem for her to fix. Finding
out who is responsible and making them stop definitely adds a complication to
the holiday season.
A complicated situation that isn’t made any easier by a
berserker arriving in town determined to force one of her friends to fight –
and he’s willing to target Jazz to force AJ into the ring.
I don’t know how much time has passed between this book and
the first in the series, it doesn’t expressly say and it doesn’t need to.
The development of the characters alone has created the sense of time without
having to expressly spell it out – it’s very neatly done.
Especially with Jasmine. Jazz has transitioned excellent
from the first book to her new role as the Council’s trouble shooter. She didn’t
ask for it. She may not even like it – but she does take it seriously and I
like that. Sure it wasn’t a role she sought out but she recognises it as a role
that’s important and a role that comes with a lot of responsibility. Linked
into that is her own strength and confidence and desire to prove herself. Does this
mean she always makes great decisions? No, she’s driven to solve the problem in
the book and she’s determined to do it herself with relatively little help.
But, unlike so many reckless Urban Fantasy characters, Jazz actually sells
this. She’s driven to solve this because it’s her job, her responsibility and
through that her place in the supernatural community. More, it’s her role given
by the leaders of that community very quickly because they respected her
abilities. She can’t let someone else take it over without implying they were
wrong (even if any sensible person would and the Council won’t hold it against
her). There’s this ongoing message from Jazz that started in the last short
story – this is her job, she takes it seriously and this is what she has to do.
Not because she’s the chosen one or the only one with the special woo-woo or anything
else (in fact, there are moments where it’s expressly made clear Jazz isn’t the
strongest of them all, not even close) – but it’s her job, her role, her responsibility.
It’s not pride, or not pride in the arrogant sense or over-confidence – it’s
responsibility and duty that drive Jazz as well as a deep well of compassion.
I also like that she’s a female character, in this genre,
who is most strongly defined by her female friends. She has a close circle of
excellent, close female friends she relies on, she spends time with (and that’s
social time – not just “hey I need something, come help”) that is growing if
anything. They’re a far more dominant and powerful part of her life than her
male friends and even than her love interest (who still needs to drop the awful
Cajun accent).
Other good development comes from Mitchell, the hard-ass
werewolf leader who is always so abrasive and controlling. I initially thought
we were looking at a wannabe dictator but he has a lot more nuance than that.
Yes he’s controlling and arrogant, but he also legitimately cares about the
community – all the supernaturals – quite possibly more so than any other
leader. In fact, he may be the only leader who can or who wants to take point
and help the community as a whole – the head witch we haven’t seen much of,
head vampire Victoria is doing her level best not to be the Supreme Queen of
the area, which is hard because she’s the biggest, baddest thing in town. The
werecats are few in number and too independent. Who else but Mitchell can lead?
Like Jazz, responsibility seems to drive him. It’s really nice to see that
develop alongside her – and alongside Victoria who seems mixed between being
friendly and terrifying and in a really awesome
I love the world building and the little tweaks we have –
like how different shapeshifters have different characteristics (the big cats
are stronger, the wolves have better stamina), trying to find enough food for
the were-metabolism without breaking the student bank. Or the Council setting
up a fund that is nearly all paid by the vampires (who are by far the
wealthiest) but the others contribute to to try and escape the fear of the
vampires taking over.
I really liked the A-plot (even if it ended with one of
my pet hates, it was actually well done with actual research and development
and even involvement of the group in question rather than going for the very clichéd
and clumsy handling I’ve seen so often in the genre – and yes, I’m being cagey
for the sake of spoilers) since it really did show Jazz, the world and all
these characters off awesomely and was a pretty decent storyline
The B-plot with the random fight ring? That felt kind of
unnecessary and think it was largely a means to push AJ more into the story
than anything else. I didn’t dislike it – I just didn’t think it was necessary
or added anything special to the story.
This book – and series – does have some very solid
diversity. Jazz is half-Chinese, one of her best friends is Japanese. AJ is
Black. Many of the werecats are Latino. Logan is Creole with Black ancestry (and
some nice history behind that). We have a Native American who manages to both
have woo-woo and combat stereotype. We have ghouls and they’re actually
intelligent supernatural beings of Middle Easter origin, have Middle Eastern
members and aren’t just corpse munching zombies as so much of this genre
reduces them. 2 of Jazz’s friends are bisexual and in a relationship and one of
her more distant friends is trans.
It’s such a large amount of diversity that it risks the
Five-Token Band, but even the minor characters have more info about them as
people than them as marginalised people. It isn’t always perfect by any degree –
Angel is described as short because she’s Japanese (and, like every Japanese
person in this genre ever, she’s a Kitsune), we have AJ’s skin described as “chocolate”
and whenever Barta’s around there will be some comment on her androgyny (and
Jazz’s personal ring tone for her is “Dude looks like a lady” which should get
her a every curse witch Barta can throw). I also think Jazz going into heat was
ridiculous and unnecessary and the whole story was pretty full already without
us having Jazz crawl-the-walls horny/jealous
It wasn’t perfect, the excess story elements were
unnecessary and some of the excellent scale of inclusion definitely has issues.
But “not perfect” still leaves plenty of room for pretty damn good – and this
book was that and more. Bring on the next book and keep this series coming!
