Reviews from Harriet

Whispers at Moonrise
C.C. Hunter
St. Martin's Griffin, $9.99
ISBN: 9781250011916

After struggling with her recent self-discovery of paranormal power, Kylie Galen realizes what she is while attending Shadow Falls Camp for the supernatural vampires, werewolves, and fairies. However, that does not ease her mind as she has to learn what powers she possesses and how to control them; as no one mentored her when she was younger.

Besides having supernatural skills issues, Kylie struggles with her feelings for two campers as Derek the half fae claims he loves her and Lucas her werewolf boyfriend constantly chooses his pack over her. The rouges want her dead, and her paternal grandfather whom she recently met trusts no one especially Shadow Falls Camp and wants his descendent to leave with him.

The latest Shadow Falls young adult urban fantasy (see Born At Midnight and Awake At Dawn) is a delightful entry as the protagonist has several difficult choices to make with the three males in her life each demanding she pick him. Action-packed and filled with twists, fans will wonder what destiny the teen heroine will choose. Harriet Klausner

Portlandtown: A Tale of the Oregon Wyldes
Rob DeBorde
St. Martin's Griffin, $15.99
ISBN: 9781250006646

In 1887 retired marshal Jim Kleberg digs up the grave of Abraham Thomas Alcott whose gravestone states he died in 1874. When the caretaker asks him what he is doing, Jim shows the man a skull and asks if that is him. Jim reluctantly arrives in Portland, Oregon to live with his daughter Katie, her blind husband Joseph, and their twin children (Samuel and Maddie).

At the same time that Jim goes to live with his daughter and her family, Henry Macke resurrects and reanimates the Hanged Man. This zombie seeks a demonic weapon while targeting mentally impaired Jim. Not long afterward a zombie horde attacks Jim and his family as Joseph with his extrasensory skills and Andre Labeau the occultist lead the battle against these undead monsters.

Portlandtown is an exhilarating action-packed western zombie thriller. Fast-paced, the key living cast (especially the Oregon Wyldes’ wild family interrelationships, Jim’s apparent senility and Andre’s quest for redemption) and the Hanged Man are fully developed. Readers anticipate an OK Corral good and evil confrontation. Harriet Klausner

The Wild Road
Jennifer Roberson
DAW, $25.95
ISBN: 978-0756404956

Alisanos the sentient woods continues to change its borders encroaching into the lands of the humans. No one trapped inside this Deepwood Forest remains unscathed. Audrun the mother of five knows this first hand as she, her mate Davyn and their offspring fled their home only to have Alisanos trap them.

Separated from her four older children, Audrun, under the protection of Rhuan the demigod guide, gave birth prematurely to Sarith; only to lose her newborn to a demon. Fearing for her baby, Audrun locates her other kids while Davyn continues his frantic search for his lost family. However, as monsters roam the predatory woods, Audrun realizes Alisanos has changed her children, but she fears what they have become.

The third Karavans family fantasy is an exciting epic as Audrun and Davyn desperately search separately; while fearing the worst as anyone trapped inside of Alisanos can never leave since those outside reject them as different. Fans will be disappointed with the abrupt climax and that the overarching theme moves glacially, if at all. Still diehard readers of the saga will want to know how the trapped not so human anymore family are doing within the dangerous Alisanos. Harriet Klausner