Book Review: Hunted by the Others by Jess Haines
Author: Jess Haines
Book: Hunted By The Others
Genre: Fantasy
Julia Rating: 10
Comments: Hunted by the Others is Jess Haines’ debut novel. Jess sent me a copy of her wonderful book prior to release so that I could review it here, Yay! (She also did a little brow waggle to get me off my lazy butt and get reviewing.)
One more note about the author before I get on with my review. I have to say that it’s really wonderful to find new authors who have never been previously published that are as fully formed as Jess. Often I see new authors who are good at one part of writing – like they’re really good at creating an awesome great plot, but the characters fall flat or their narration is great, but the dialog is awful. I didn’t encounter any of those “growing pains” in Jess’s books, which really pleased me.
Okay, so Hunted By The Others is a story about a kick ass, female private detective named Shiarra Waynest who’s just trying to make ends meet in New York City – only her NYC includes vampires, werewolves and mages who have recently “come out of the closet”. They have lived amongst us forever, they just never revealed themselves to us. These are the Others.
Shiarra is hired by a coven to spy on a well-known vampire and possibly steal an item from him. This is not her ideal working environment, but she figures she can always back out if she needs to. Plus, the money is better than good. However, the more she is entangled in the world of the Others, the more she is unable to escape.
This book explores magic, real vampires (as in the non-sparkly kind), werewolves, awesome mages and even touches on social issues like racism.
Hunted By The Others seems to have it all, humor (there are some seriously funny bits), action, drama, adventure, crazy human (and not-so-human) relationships and more. I have been a little listless on the reading front lately, skipping from book to book, and I found that Jess’ book grabbed me and held me until I finished it. So, if you like vampire novels, I recommend preordering Hunted By The Others.
PS: If you go to JessHaines.com, you can see her cool cover. For some reason GoDaddy upgraded wordpress to an evil version which makes all pictures look idiotic. I’m working on fixing that, but until then, don’t deprive yourself of cool cover art.