Customer Reviews

Hunted By The Others

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

_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.

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.

Where should I start? When I first heard of this series--months, and months, and months ago--I shrugged it off, thinking to myself "oh no... not another cop/investigator story!" I do not particularly enjoy these sorts of stories. In fact, if I discover that the heroine in the book is on the police force, I shy away from that text. (Don't ask me why, investigation stories of that nature simply bore me.) Then a month or two later, before the book was released, I read a snippet. Then I started hearing the reviews. Despite myself, I was intrigued, especially after reading some of the guest posts Jess has written.

Imagine my delight when Jess approached me with an offer to review Hunted by the Others. Having the actual book in my clutches somehow managed to erase my initial trepidation. Now, imagine my pleasant surprise while reading through the text that I realize how un-police and investigator-like Shia (the main character) actually is. Here is a modern young woman who has fears, who is overworked, and who simply wants to earn enough money so as not to lose her business. She has no interest in meddling with immortal affairs. In fact, she makes it perfectly clear that if her company was not so pressed for money, she probably would have passed on the job offered during the initial stages of the novel.

Alas, money is an actual problem, so Shia finds herself thrown none-too-nicely into the jaws of an extremely sexy and intimidating vampire: Royce. I guarantee you that most readers will probably fall for Royce. He is suave, dark, mysterious, and takes an initial interest in Shia... which means you will be reading more of him in this book and in later novels! But that is not it. Jess also introduces a geeky yet cute Magi, and an equally sexy alpha werewolf--who happens to be Shia's ex boyfriend--into the mix. What on earth is a girl supposed to do surrounded by all this testosterone?

An interesting new concept Haines has introduced into her world are contracts. When an Other manages to convince the humans in their lives to sign off on one of these contracts, said human pretty much sells their entire life to the immortal in question. Now, one would imagine this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if one had a sexy werewolf of vampire for a boyfriend. Think of it this way: if you were dating said vamp or were, and if they became overly excited and ended up biting half your face and neck off while you two were doing the deed, you could sue them. However, if you signed off on the contract, stating that you were their property (which is how I pretty much imagined it as), you cannot sue. You are theirs. If they decide to turn you, and the transformation leaves you horribly deformed, tough buttons. Doesn't sound so great after all, huh?

For me, this sort of contract, and the legalities behind it, really opened my eyes once again to the animalistic, predator-like qualities most immortals should have in paranormal books. Vampires aren't cuddly blocks of marble; they will suck you dry if they can. Werewolves aren't cute, cuddly puppies (though I would not mind cuddling up with Chaz). Magi will probably not be interested in making you appear eternally beautiful. The immortals--or rather, Others--in this book live up to my expectations of how they should act in books: cutthroat, self-interested, dark, mysterious, territorial, sneaky, conniving, etc. Basically, they don't play nice unless there's something to gain by doing so. Don't get me wrong, they also have redeeming qualities and are not entirely shallow either, but I'm growing fairly tired of books where authors make the immortals cute little play things for the humans in their tales.

One suggestion I would make is to explore Shia's intense fear of vampires a bit more. This was something that I could not seem to fully grasp, despite the obvious predator-ish qualities vamps like Royce had in this book. I felt as if her fear was more fear of the unknown as opposed to fearing the actual creature. This lack of grasping on my part was, in no way, the fault of Jess. I blame this more on the new "humanized" version of vampires, which has lessened their "badass" persona in my eyes. Nevertheless, exploration can never really hurt.

My only "complaint" is something extremely minor that most people probably won't even notice. Towards the beginning of Hunted by the Others, Shia thinks a lot. Now, thinking is not necessarily a bad thing, I simply felt that at some points, it tended to slow the pace of the story down a tad bit because of her worrying so much. So, if you read HbtO, and find the pace slowing in the beginning, do not let it deter you. Simply keep in mind that it does not last. In fact, if you're anything like me, you'll be glued to the pages once the story picks up speed shortly after.

Hunted by the Others is definitely one of those pleasantly surprising discoveries. Jess took vampires, werewolves, and magi, then transformed a typical investigation story into something so creatively unique and original, you can't help but beg for more.

3.75 Stars

What exactly does it take to be a heroine in today's paranormal genre?

Guns? Check. Knives and Swords? Check. Superpowers? Check. But what if our heroine in question doesn't really have all of these...yet?

The draw to Jess Haines' new series Hunted by the Others is its very ordinary, mousy heroine. For those with jaded tastes and who adore souped-up urban fantasy and paranormals, Shiarra Waynest could prove to be a bit too vanilla...but I found her and her exploits to be quite refreshing. And that should not deter anyone from diving feet first into Jess Haines' world. Hunted by the Others was an engrossing feast that I gorged on. And I want more!

If you have read a lot of pnr/uf, you will notice the similarities that have become part and parcel of the genre: the great reveal....the natural conflict between weres and vampires....pesky magick users, and a heroine that has a destiny to be realized. This has become the template for the pnr genre and Haine's debut series is no different. But there is a subtle twist to Haines' writing....an earthiness that appeals more than the typical pretentiousness that can be found between the pages of a similar novel. That earthiness, and genuine normalcy is what the reader identifies with, and I was immediately drawn in.

When Shiarra finds herself accepting an offer from The Circle to acquire the Dominiari Focus from sexy alpha vamp Alec Royce, she doesn't know that her quiet PI career is going to plumb new depths. The focus which was lost long ago, has the ability to control Others and their actions. And everyone wants it. For those who are big Kim Harrison fans, you will recognize the similarities in the Hollow's series with regard to Rachel Morgan's quest to wrest the focus from competing factions.

Shiarra, in many ways reminds one of Sookie in the early days....wet behind the ears, bumbling, innocent and ignorant. And that shows when in one particular scene, Alec Royce manages to manipulate her into signing a blood contract. Her natural fear and spinelessness could have worked against her but it doesn't. Readers have to remember that this is a character evolving. It's the journey that this character has to go through and Haines has dropped many hints throughout the book that Shiarra has a destiny to fulfill: the prophetic statements that Arnold makes when he throws the dice, the reason why The Circle chose Shiarra for the job, the affinity the belt has for her, and the obsession of the White Hats to join their cause. All of these clues point to Haines and the fact that she's got plans for Shiarra. And hopefully scrumptious Alec Royce.

What are the ultimate goals of a pnr novel? To entertain, to seduce, to thrill, to transport, and to create a desire for more. Hunted by The Others has won on all fronts. Jess Haine's easy-peasy Rachel Ray-writing style made it easy to breeze through Hunted, and readers will revel in this infectious romp as a fiery haired Shiarra plays hardball with the baddies. It's genuinely enjoyable and addictive! I enjoyed every minute of it.

I cannot wait to jump into more of this fun series. Haines's sequel Taken by the Others is out today (which I am dying to dive into) and the third book in the series Deceived by the Others is out in July. Sweet.
A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat)

NO SPOILERS or plot summaries... recommendations included.

HIGH LEVEL: This is Book 1 in an Urban Fantasy series that features a human PI in a politically tense world of shifters, vamps and mages. Magic is palpable, but kept controlled and understated through the story. Little to no romance and violence was fast and furious but only minimally bloody. This was ALMOST a very solid, albeit standard, UF with a strong heroine. There were a few MAJOR issues I had with this book, so I will attempt to explain without giving away any spoilers and I'll list the things that helped to at least partially redeem the book...

THE GOOD:

Despite much of this being similar to other books there were some strokes of genius: her outfit was FANTASTIC. The body armor was sexy and practical. The magical belt that talked to her. Those scenes were truly fun to read.

The writing that wasn't bogged down with exposition was fun with the right amount of richness. The magical world was diverse and intricate- very well set up for future stories. The way the character worked to position herself between all the various supernatural factions should make for some very fun follow up books.

The action, when you got to it, was BRILLIANT. There were definitely some tense moments! Magic and physical weaponry were well balanced.

The climax was very satisfying- everything came together in the end and the pacing picked up to break neck speed.

MY ISSUES:

1) PLOT: The plot was very weak and the pacing was terrible- plodding & choppy. The over-arching ideas were solid, but there was little to no reason to actually believe why the main character got caught in the middle of a power struggle of supernatural beings. It was, frankly, completely and totally illogical. The approach to the power struggle itself was nearly identical to one of the books in Kim Harrison's The Hollows, Book 4. Also, the most important events were the direct result of errors made by the main character- boneheaded errors at that.

2) CHARACTERS: Shia, the main character, is a mess. She is bigoted one minute, but then suddenly understanding and tolerant. She's a PI, but constantly makes stupid decisions that indicate she must be terrible at her job. She is supposed to be strong and independent, but allows her family to walk all over her and her cowardice is the catalyst for the ENTIRE PLOT. Chaz, the ex-boyfriend, is basically a meat-head: strong, sexy, sweet, but has a wicked temper... and dumb as a bag of hammers. He's even a personal trainer for goodness sakes!! No attempt was made to make the guy interesting. Arnold, Royce and Sara all had HUGE potential as the most interesting characters, but were surprisingly undeveloped and shallow.

3) WRITING STYLE: Too much BLAH-BLAH-BLAH, not enough action or dialogue. Have you ever read a book and wished you could tell it that it talked too much? Well, this was that book for me. I've read books with tons of exposition that still manage to keep the pacing up, but this one just didn't. There was just a veritable landslide of verbal diarrhea from the main character- since this is told in the first person. I understand having to set up the world, but there was just an insane amount of commentary that distracted you from the action. I had a hard time staying engaged at all. How many times did I have to be reminded about the fanaticism of the "White Hats?" Why did she have to wonder more than once why her neighbors didn't call the cops when she screamed at her boyfriend during their break up several months earlier? WHO CARES AND WHAT DID THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE ISSUE AT HAND??? Did I really need to know every time something occurred to Shia when she was in the middle of a conversation? Things were said over the course of three paragraphs, when one sentence would have sufficed. Unfortunately, much of these digressions were useless; they added nothing to the plot or character development. WAAAAAY too much time was spent reminding us of the conniving ways of "The Circle," the "White Hats" and other supernatural factions and also of Shia's intolerant family. I can appreciate a certain amount of set up, but this was like taking a supernatural political science class. I started skipping whole sections halfway into the book just to get through it.

Some of these issues might go away as the books progress- less exposition because the world is already set up. Shia might hopefully grow a stronger character and the others will develop.

I will point out some similarities to other books- the political layout was similar to the Morgan Kingsley books by Jenna Black. I already mentioned the similarity to The Hollows by Kim Harrison. This also bore some similarity to the Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton before they digressed to soft porn.

BOTTOM LINE: If you are a die-hard UF fan, then you might give this a try for fun. Be prepared to get annoyed with it, though. I plan on reading the next one to see if these issues get ironed out because it does have a ton of potential.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Katherine Bayless' fun, if somewhat overwritten Deadly Remains: A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life (Volume 1) where society openly deals with the psychically gifted. There was also too much exposition here, but it didn't break up the pacing.
2. Jenna Black's The Devil Inside (Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist, Book 1) - exorcist heroine gets stuck with an unwanted possession. Be prepared for a lot more overt sexuality (BSDM, M/M) in this series and the heroine can be frustratingly childish at times.
3. Jim Butcher's wizard private eye Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)
4. Jennifer Estep's stone-magic wielding, hard, cold, vicious assassin Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin, Book 1)
5. Diana Pharaoh Francis' Bitter Night - kick ass story with a creative spin on vampires with witches and fae
6. Laurell K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - kick-ass necromancer heroine, but I stopped reading around book 7 or so as it digressed into paranormal erotica and away from the urban fantasy core that made it great.
7. Kim Harrison's witch/vamp/pixie team of private eyes in Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1)
8. Nancy Holzner's fabulous take on zombies in Boston in Deadtown (A Deadtown Novel)
9. Faith Hunter's bounty-hunter shifter series Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, Book 1)
10. Seanan McGuire's fae-private eye series Rosemary and Rue (October Daye, Book 1)

This book would best be described as average. The plot is the same plot you see in tons of other urban fantasy novels, the characters have no depth, and the paranormals are the same old tired vampires, witches, and werewolves. The only unique thing I found in Hunted by the Others was the use of contracts when entering into a relationship. It was not enough to make this book worth reading though. The plot is so simple it could be described in a few sentences, but I don't even want to do that for fear of spoilers. There was nothing exciting, intriguing, or special here, and I found it to be a tad unbelievable as well. An average investigator does one case and now everyone thinks she has special skills and is an expert on dealing with other races. Out of all of the people in the world, they choose her to find and secure a powerful magical artifact. Somehow I managed to finish this book, so it wasn't awful, but it's just so stereotypical that I couldn't enjoy it.

Shia has a detective agency that she runs with her longtime friend Sara. The supernatural exists and the world knows about it like the Sookie Stackhouse series, but unlike that series the Shia is an annoying and perplexing character. They deal with normal and supernatural cases, but for some reason Shia is terrified of anything supernatural especially vampires. I didn't find it very plausible that she could function as a detective with constant fear.

The world the author creates is interesting and she goes into the political upheaval that would occur if the supernatural existed and came out to the world. I would recommend this book if you read more for the story than the characters. But as someone who has to love a character to love a story, I couldn't finish the book.

A little like Kim Harrison and a bit like The Others series. Solid first book in a paranormal series that has humor as well as budding romance between the protagonists. A little formulaic but still a fun light read.

While this debut book in the "Others" series didn't blow me away, I did enjoy it. It was an easy read that I finished in one day. I liked the secondary characters more than Shiarra, however. She just didn't strike me much as the typical kick-ass heroine type that you expect in an urban fantasy, nor did she seem very smart when it came to PI observations. She didn't click with me near as much as Arnold and Sara did. And we need the backstory on why Shiarra was so afraid of the vamps. There has to be more than they are bloodsuckers, surely. I did enjoy the world that Haines created though and the interaction of the different types of paranormals- vampires, and werewolves and mage, oh, my!
I expect Alec Royce and Chaz (what a name for a werewolf) to play an even bigger role in the next book and will definitely read "Taken by the Others" due out in 2011.