Winter Reading Challenge #14-
For the New Year-Pick a book that has been in your TBR pile for a long time .
Urban Shaman
C.E. Murphy (Luna books)
Rating: 3 stars
344 pages
My Amazon Review:
A heroine not afraid to get dirty with demigods....., December 22, 2008
Joanne Walker has three days to learn to use her shamanic powers and save the world from the unleashed Wild Hunt.
No worries. No pressure. Nevermind the lack of sleep, the perplexing new talent for healing from fatal wounds, or the cryptic, talking coyote who appears in her dreams.
And if all that's not bad enough, in the three years Joanne's been a cop, she's never seen a dead body -- but she's just come across her second in three days. It's been a bitch of a week. And it isn't over yet.
My Review:
This book has been languishing on my mountainous TBR shelf for a couple of years now. So I dusted it off and gave it a try. Urban Shaman starts out well. The main character, a Seattle police woman and shade tree mechanic, Joanne Walker sees a disturbing scene from an airplanes window.
She witnesses a lone woman being chased by a pack of dogs, as well as being seemingly menaced by a knife wielding man. Thus opens Joanne's deadly, dangerous, and supernatural adventure.
As a heroine, Joanne,an Cherokee/Irish, "big boned" six foot tall grease monkey tomboy,is a refreshing change of pace from most tiny, flaxan haired, Buffy like dynamos in most urban fantasies. She likes to eat, hates fashion, and loves her car and computer equally. She's intriguing enough that I'll pick up book two in the series and give it a try.
She has a hate/admiration/ something more? relationship with her boss, Michael Morrison, whom she describes as the "aged super hero type". I look forward to more sparks between these two in future books. Readers should be told that even though Urban Shaman is in Harlequins "Luna" line, it is in no way a Romance, so take note.
As to the storyline-pretty enjoyable, could have been more so, but the author did bog down the book a bit with a slightly convoluted "mystical" storyline. Seeing as this is a debut novel, I'm willing to look over a few flaws in support of any new author aiming for new ideas in fantasy. Be forewarned though, the book does drag a little in the middle,but try to stick with it.
Overall-as cliche' as it sounds-not the best I've read but far from the worst. I'd heartily recommend to fellow Urban Fantasy fans, other readers more cautiously so.
3 stars.
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