ARC Review: Hunting In Bruges by E.J. Stevens

Title: Hunting In Bruges

Author: E.J. Stevens

Series: Hunters' Guild, #1

 •Source: Author (Advance Reading Copy)
 •Publisher: Sacred Oaks Press
 •Publication Date: November 11, 2014

Opening Line: I've been seeing ghosts for as long as I can remember.

   

The only thing worse than being a Hunter in the fae-ridden city of Harborsmouth, is hunting vamps in Bruges.

Being shipped off to Belgium sucks. The medieval city of Bruges is quaint, but the local Hunters' Guild is understaffed, the canals are choked with dead bodies, and there's no shortage of supernatural
predators as likely suspects.

On second thought, maybe Bruges isn't so bad after all.

With a desire to prove herself, protect the innocent, and advance within the ranks of the Hunters' Guild, Jenna Lehane hits the cobbled streets of Bruges with blades at the ready. Someone, or something, is murdering tourists and dumping their bodies in the city's scenic canals. With the help of a mysterious stranger, Jenna begins to piece together clues that are dotted throughout the city like blood spatter.

Determined to stop the killings, Jenna delves into a bloody local history that only raises more questions--but some secrets are best left buried. Jenna must put her combat training to the test as she struggles to unearth the truth about an ancient enemy.

    

Review: Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Title: Frost Burned

Author: Patricia Briggs

Series: Mercy Thompson, #7

 •Source: Purchased
 •Publisher: Ace Books
 •Publication Date: March 5, 2013

Opening Line: "You should have brought the van." said my stepdaughter.

   

Mercy's life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman—the charismatic Alpha if the local werewolf pack—has mad her a stepmother to his daughter, Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy's life. But on the edges of humanity, what passes for a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more...

After a car accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can't reach Adam—or anyone else in the pack, for that matter. They've all been abducted.

Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. But she fears Adam's disappearance may be related to the political battle the werewolves have been fighting to gain acceptance from the public—and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outmatched and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from any ally she can get, no matter how unlikely.

       

Review: Dream Eyes by Jayne Ann Krentz

Title: Dream Eyes

Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

Series: Dark Legacy, #2

 •Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer (ARC)
 •Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
 •Publication Date: January 8, 2013

Opening Line: The dead diver was wedged like a bone in the stone throat of the underwater cave they called the Monster.

  

The death of her friend and mentor, Evelyn Ballinger, brings psychic counselor Gwen Frazier back to the small town of Wilby, Oregon, and brings back memories she would rather forget. Two years earlier, a killer stalked the members of one of Ballinger’s research studies including Gwen. And though she survived while two others didn’t, Gwen knows that Ballinger’s death is related.

Sent by a friend to help Gwen, psychic investigator Judson Coppersmith arrives in Wilby barely in control of his own talent and his own life, haunted by urgent dreams. His attraction to Gwen is primal, but there are secrets he must keep to protect himself from surrendering to her completely, even as their investigation draws them into dreamscapes, into decades of deception, and into the paranormal fires of a desire too strong to resist. . . .

    

Review: Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Title: Graveminder

Author: Melissa Marr

 •Source: Purchased
 •Publisher: William Morrow
 •Publication Date: May 17, 2011

Opening Line: Maylene put one hand atop the stone for support; pulling herself up from the soil got harder every year.

   

Three sips to mind the dead . . .

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Claysville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker—in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past—can set things right once the dead begin to walk.

Although she is still grieving for Maylene, Rebekkah will soon find that she has more than a funeral to attend to in Claysville, and that what awaits her may be far worse: dark secrets, a centuries-old bargain, a romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility—to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.