Slayer's Prey and Blaze Reviewed

Slayer's Prey
Crystal Rain-Love
ImaJinn, $14.00
ISBN: 9781610260909

CFFs Jacob Porter and Bobby Romano take a short cut home through an alley. Jacob is nervous while Bobby is fearless. Vampires attack the two tweeners. Bobby is killed while a female voice tells Jacob to run, which he does. A cat attacks the vampires killing three of them, but one Demarcus escaped though she clawed him and he bit her. The feline becomes Jacob’s pal but conceals from the child she protects that she is a shapeshifter; while he vows to slay the species who murdered his friend.

Sixteen years later Jacob and his kitty Alley follow a vampire blood bath from Baltimore to Louisville. Alley loves Jacob, but because of the bite has no hope for a future with him. Still she decides she needs to be in human form if she is to keep Porter safe as he goes after a deadly predator. Thus Nyla Katt the huntress appears. As they team up to assassinate Demarcus, he needs one of them to purify what the shapeshifter did to him; so to trap his adversaries, he has spread bloody breadcrumbs from Maryland to Kentucky.

The second Blood revelation romantic urban fantasy is a fabulous thriller starring two appealing protagonists and a stalking vampiric psychopath. Readers anticipate the High Midnight confrontation supplemented by an intriguing refreshing romantic subplot. Harriet Klausner

Blaze
Joan Swan
Kensington Brava, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758266408

The FBI and ATF surround the Nevada cult compound. FBI agent Keira O'Shay wants to lead an assault to rescue a child Mateo who she has a mental connection with through her clairaudient skills that she conceals from the Feds in order to avoid becoming a lab rat. Her assignment however is to eliminate the sniper Rostov.

Former California fire captain turned ATF hostage negotiator Luke Ransom is her guide. They were lovers when she was on the same firefighting team until she left him three years ago for the Feds. Now they almost die trying to rescue Mateo and the other kids before a tragic Jonestown repeat. Like Keira he has enhanced skills caused by the same chemical spill that gave to her new paranormal talent. As they fall in love all over again, they learns of a government conspiracy tied to the chemical explosion that changed their lives.

The second enjoyable Phoenix Rising romantic urban fantasy (see Fever) is a fun entry as the paranormal skills especially of the heroine smoothly blends into the storyline making them seem genuine. The intriguing conspiratorial overarching theme moves forward though the maybe relationship between Luke and Keira feels distracting. Harriet Klausner