Hunted By the Others [Mass Market Paperback]

Jess Haines (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2010

Shiarra Waynest's detective work was dangerous enough when her client base was strictly mortal. But ailing finances have forced her to accept a lucrative case that could save her firm - if it doesn't kill her first. Shiarra has signed on to work for a high-level mage to recover an ancient artifact owned by one of New York's most powerful vampires. As soon as Shiarra meets sexy, mesmerizing vamp Alec Royce, she knows her assignment is even more complicated than she thought. With a clandestine anti-Other group trying to recruit her, and magi being eliminated, Shiarra needs back-up and enlists her ex-boyfriend - a werewolf whose non-furry form is disarmingly appealing - and a nerdy mage with surprising talents. But it may not be enough. In a city where the undead roam, magic rules, and even the Others aren't always what they seem, Shiarra has just become the secret weapon in a battle between good and evil - whether she likes it or not...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Haines's mediocre debut rounds up the usual urban fantasy suspects and locks them into a plodding PI story. Shiarra Waynest runs a detective agency in an alternate New York where werewolves, vampires, and magi came out in the aftermath of 9/11. She and her wealthy, clever partner–in–crime solving, Sara, usually steer clear of Others, but financial troubles have forced them to take on a case for a mage who wants an artifact currently held by sexy, ancient vampire businessman Alec Royce. With two other good-looking men—cute, geeky mage Arnold and Shiarra's werewolf ex-boyfriend, Chaz—along for the ride, things keep looking like they should heat up, but Shiarra's nonexistent detecting skills and general preference for flailing panic over careful thought keep the plot from ever catching fire or even giving off sparks. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

...Fans of Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series and Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series will love the world building in HUNTED BY THE OTHERS...
--All Things Urban Fantasy (allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com)

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place! Haines has created an intriguing cast of characters whose motivations and loyalties will be great fun to explore. Kudos! --RT Book Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Zebra Books; 1 edition (May 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1420111876
• ISBN-13: 978-1420111873
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #796,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a displaced New Yorker with a penchant for the silly, the obscure, and the fantastical. Los Angeles is home for the time being, since it consistently meets my daily quota of strange. I'm currently working on the H&W Investigations urban fantasy series. Find out more about Shiarra Waynest, drop me a line, or join my mailing list at www.jesshaines.com!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hunted by the Others by Jess Haines, May 4, 2010

By 

A. Schreiner "smexybooks" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hunted By the Others (Mass Market Paperback)

Shiarra Waynest lives in a world where vampires, werewolves and magi came out to the public after 9/11 deciding to use their supernatural strength and financial backing to help the US pull out of the devastation. Since then, through many court battles, the supernaturals have won against discrimination and have the same rights as humans. However, just because there are laws, doesn't mean people are still not afraid.

Shia and her friend Sara own and operate H&W investigations, a firm that tracks missing people or does surveillance for clients, while they let the police do the actual enforcing. One evening Shia finds herself having dinner with Veronica, a mage whom belongs to The Circle. Veronica needs help - she suspects a vampire, Alec Royce has a focus, a magical device that can allow the owner to control a vampire or werewolf and do evil bidding. The Circle wants a human to get close to Alec, having no magic or supernatural abilities to make him suspicious and find out where he is hiding the magical stone. Shia is terrified of this job, but desperate for money, and she figures she can do this one job and live comfortably the rest of the year.

Alec has other plans for her - and she soon finds herself with the tables turned. When Veronica meets an unfortunate demise and she is forced to work with another magi, Arnold, she realizes many are out to get her, even those that call themselves The White Hats - a radical human group that oppose supernaturals. After her ex-boyfriend reappears in her life, and surprise he is a werewolf, Shia feels her life is getting out of control and she will need all of her friends help if she is to make it in this supernatural world.

Hunted by the Others is the first in the H&W Investigations series by debut author Jess Haines. Shiarra is a very human person in a very supernatural world. At times I felt like she was way out of her league when dealing with these vampires and magi - which is not necessarily a bad thing. I like that this heroine is not always in control, and terrified of the things that go bump in the night. The times when an actual confrontation occurred, she seems to turn into a badass girl that could kick butt. She has the help of a special belt that gives her an edge during fighting, but I didn't always buy into her abilities. There is no mention of her training or anything to fight these evil beings, yet she prevails against some of the evilest of them all.

My other complaint is the lack of action in this book. There is a lot of talking, cute talking, but still a lot of words, and not a lot of action. We are introduced to Alec Royce at the very beginning. Mysterious, wealthy Mr. Sexy vampire, only to have him barely make an appearance. I wanted something more at times, more than just Shia and friends planning on what they were going to do.

That being said, I immensely enjoyed her friends. We have Chaz, her ex-lover who never told her he was a werewolf until he surprised her by changing in her living room. He wants back in her life badly, and with a little help from over obtrusive mom, he gets that wish. Arnold plays a big role and becomes a friend as well as Magi protector. I wasn't too sure why she was afraid of Veronica the first mage she meets, and then when Arnold offers his help, she takes it without being afraid of him. But he is a good character and brings fun into the story.

Although I have some reservations with Hunted by the Others, I am still interested to see where Jess Haines takes us with the sequel. A decent foundation has been set, and I think Shia and company have some good adventures ahead of them.

Rating: 3.5/5

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shaky Start, Could Get Better, August 5, 2010

By 

E. Nolan - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hunted By the Others (Mass Market Paperback)

_Hunted By The Others_ is kind of a cookie-cutter Urban Fantasy. Throw in a spunky, but very vulnerable heroine (a red-head, naturally, with relationship issues, naturally), vampires, werewolves, mages and and A & B plot to keep things moving and then tie them up.

I don't have a problem with any of that, per-se, but I felt here that Haines didn't tell a coherent and plausible story with the standard elements. Here are my main problems:

SPOILERS START HERE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

1) The heroine risks too much for too little. Being deathly afraid of vampires and wary of all "Others", it isn't plausible that she would get involved in a dangerous job to scam a master vampire essentially for rent money. This is especially true given that we see her rich partner has carried the agency over dry patches before. Yes, her pride is on the line, but we aren't given enough reasons to see *why* it is so vitally important to her to make a go of it. Yes, it would be embarassing to fold the agency, but it would not cost her the love of her family, put her on the street or damage her ability to find other work.

2) The whole plot point of altering her vampire contract is just nonsensical. It's legal fraud. Her partner admits as much when she says it could get her disbarred. All the vampire has to do is (easily) prove she carried his signature onto a forged document and the scheme blows up. Given she admitted as much to him, this is a stupid plot point. Even if for some reason forged documents are honored once filed in the book's universe (which does *not* seem to be true), why not forge something *useful* ("Vampire will never contact me again after payment of $10,000,000...") rather than "I get to hurt him"?

3) The heroine has a large and close family. At one point the villian tells her that he knows who she is, and where they are. This is totally un-followed-up on. Not only does she not warn her family to leave town, but the villian does not take them hostage. Furthermore, though she takes the minimal step of not staying with them, she does stay with her partner's sister (whose relationship is no secret) as though the villian will never think of *that*! And to make matters worse, as far as I can tell, the heroes decide to endanger the sister for no better reason than they can't stand spending the night at a crappy cash-only motel.

4) The love interests are pretty bland. While the vampire is *supposed* to be sexy, he spends most of the time mind-controlled, so there is no chemistry with the heroine, and her temporarily-spurned were lover comes across as a total non-entity.

5) In fact, pretty much everyone aside from the heroine is a nonentity. The only really interesting characters are quickly bumped off (one with a lingering mystery, which seems to have been forgotten).

6) Maybe being a nonentity is not so bad -- the heroine is a wimp. As I mentioned above, "spunky but vulnerable" is an UF trope, but the heroine really lets us down on the "spunky" part early on. I lost a lot of respect for her when she folded and gave up her clients in her first confrontation with the vampire. That's a convention of the PI genre: You never tell who hired you, or what for, even at gunpoint. Sometimes a breakdown by the heroine can be a starting point. For instance, in Vaughn's "Kitty" books, Kitty starts as a weak, put-upon character and gradually gains confidence and leadership skills as the series progresses, but if that's what Haines was trying for, it didn't work for me. She doesn't move on from betraying a client to becoming a badass, she just has a badass charmed artifact given to her.

Well, that's enough. As you can probably tell from my constant "the heroine" above, I've already forgotten her name despite finishing the book just a few hours ago. I tagged my review with the "Could Get Better" because it *could*. There's nothing glaringly wrong with the setting, the heroine *could* be written as less of a wimp next time. With practice, Haines *could* devise a plausible plot. I'd like for that to happen, but I'm not betting on it.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hunted by the Others, May 4, 2010

By 

Fiction Vixen "Fiction Vixen Book Reviews" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunted By the Others (Mass Market Paperback)

RATING 3.5 STARS

When Shiarra, a private investigator, is contacted by a coven of magi to steal a magical artifact from a Alec Royce, a very old and powerful vampire, she reluctantly accepts the job. Although she prefers to do business with human clients only, her PI firm is in financial trouble and the job pays well. However, the case is far more complicated than it first seemed and when Shiarra's cover is blown, she finds herself being forced into a life threatening contractual agreement with the very vampire she was hired to steal from. With the help of her business partner, and a few unexpected allies, she must figure out a way to survive the terms of her forced contract with the vampire, and recover the artifact.

I found Hunted by the Others to be an entertaining urban fantasy overall. It has most of what you'd expect for this genre: a supernatural community set in modern day times, a mystery, and some action and adventure. The one thing that was lacking though was the kick-ass heroine. Shiarra falls a bit short in that category with her extreme fear of Others (supernatural beings) and her lack of competency in her own field of work, private investigation. She always seemed to be two steps behind the mystery and her theories tended to fall flat. I expected more from her since she was supposed to be a professional PI. Her aversion to the Others either out of fear or dislike was off-putting for me, and I didn't connect with her in a way I feel I should with a heroine, especially when the story is told from her perspective. I wouldn't go as far as to say I disliked Shiarra, I just wanted more from her as a heroine. I do look forward to seeing her character grow as the series progresses.

I enjoyed the secondary characters and thought they supported the story well . The nerdy mage, Arnold saved the day more than once, although his motives may not have been entirely pure. Since Shiarra was so distrustful of Others, I wondered why she trusted Arnold without question. Perhaps it was his nerdy goodness, she couldn't resist. :) The jilted ex-lover/werewolf Chaz gets points for going out of his way to prove himself worthy and win back Shirarra's affections. Since the romance between the two was left open ended, we'll have to wait and see if Chaz wins back Shiarra's heart or if he'll have to compete for her affections. Now, this won't make sense until you've read the book but I'm calling `the belt' one of my favorite secondary characters for it's wit and slightly sinister personality. There's just something about a voice in the head that makes for an interesting supporting character. I hope we haven't see the last of the `the belt'.

The action and adventure is well paced and the alternate world is interesting. Being the first in the series, there is always the challenge of setting up a world without smothering the reader with too much information. I felt the author set a firm foundation and I never felt overwhelmed with complicated details. I had a good feel for life in New York City post 9/11 where humans and Others struggle to coexist.

All in all I enjoyed this debut urban fantasy and I look forward reading more in the series.