Lanore and Zulu are pushed into retaliating against the Vampire Dante’s brutal slaughtering of Mixies – either they retaliate or their allies, the Rebels, will and they’re much less concerned by the casualties they may cause
Unfortunately doing so escalates into a greater and continued war with the vampire – a war that has casualties close to both of their hearts and it’s a war that could do massive damage to the Habitat
And to make things more complicated, the Habitat police have evidence of her inside one of the bombed buildings – more than enough proof to have a Mixie arrested or just killed. Their price for her silence? Her acting as detective again, her untrained skills being vastly superior to that of the inept Habbies. She needs to track down a strange arcane murderer who has killed a Mixie – not that the police care about the Mixie, but by finding her murderer they may find the murderer of a rich, influential Pureblood’s daughter.
But tensions between them and the Rebels flare along with the war against Dante fluctuating – and just when Lanore needs more careful thinking to work her way to who is truly behind the conflicts she has to deal with Zulu’s raging emotions.
I was extremely happy when I saw this book was coming out and when Kenya Wright sent us a copy, I’d been waiting eagerly for this one for some time.
This book is one of the few truly original urban fantasy stories I’ve come across. Its world setting is completely and utterly different from any I have seen before. The supernatural races and humanity fought a war for control soon after the supernatural was discovered and, after initial successes, humanity won. The surviving supernaturals were fenced into massive, enclosed cities, unable to leave and the only humans they interact with are the Habbies, the Habitat Police, who are actually human criminals given the chance to lower their sentences by working in the Habitat. Needless to say, it doesn’t create the most driven, skilled or uncorrupted police force imaginable.
Within the Habitat are all kinds of supernaturals – vampires, fae, elves, shapeshifters, demons, witches and no doubt many more. All of them living under the oppressive control of then humans, with invasive tracking devices and monitoring. There are also the Mixed blood, supernaturals with different supernaturals as parents who are reduced to a heavily oppressed, second class citizen status.
It’s a massive and rich world – and a very detailed one that is elegantly presented. Despite there being no lectures or massive info-dumps or clumsy “as you know” conversations, a lot of information is still passed on as it is relevant, as well as small details that add greater depth and realness to the world. For example, the Witches hate the vampires because they fled during the war rather than standing alongside the other supernaturals. Or the different methods the humans used to suppress each supernatural. The world is so fleshed out that it feels like a real history with all the minutiae and nuance and details available but none of them overwhelming the story.
