Raven Cursed: A Jane Yellowrock Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Faith Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 3, 2012

The vampires of Asheville, North Carolina, want to establish their own clan, but since they owe loyalty to the Master Vampire of New Orleans they must work out the terms with him. To come up with an equitable solution, he sends an envoy with the best bodyguard blood money can buy: skinwalker Jane Yellowrock.

But when a group of local campers are attacked by something fanged, Jane goes from escort to investigator. Is it a rogue-vampire, shapechanger, werewolf, or witch? Or something else magical? Unless she wants to face a very angry master vampire, she will have to work overtime to find the killer.  It's a good thing she's worth every penny.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Jane Yellowrock is a shape-shifting skinwalker and vampire hunter for hire. But lately instead of just slaying vampires, she's been working for them.
 

The vampires of Asheville, North Carolina, want to establish their own clan, but since they owe loyalty to Leo Pellissier, the Master of the City of New Orleans--and Jane's boss--they must work out the terms with him. To come up with an equitable solution, Leo sends an envoy with the best bodyguard money can buy: Jane Yellowrock.
 

But when a group of local campers is attacked by something supernatural, Jane goes from escort to investigator. It's up to her to keep peace in the region, and unless she wants to face up to very angry vampire Master, Jane will have to work overtime to find the killer. It's a good thing she's worth every penny

About the Author

Faith Hunter, fantasy writer, was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south.
Hunter fell in love with reading in fifth grade, and best loved SiFi, fantasy, and gothic mystery. She decided to become a writer in high school, when a teacher told her she had talent. Now, she writes books, tries to keep house, and is a workaholic with a passion for travel, jewelry making, white-water kayaking, and writing. She and her husband love to RV, traveling with their dogs to whitewater rivers all over the Southeast.

The dark urban fantasy Skinwalker series, featuring Jane Yellowrock has: Skinwalker, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade, and Death's Riv al (Oct. 2012) More novels to come to come.

Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy series--Bloodring, Seraphs, and Host--feature Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in a post-apocalyptic, alternate reality, urban fantasy world. These novels are the basis for the world book / role playing game, Rogue Mage, which is being Kickstarted now!

Under her pen name Gwen Hunter, she writes action adventure, mysteries, and thrillers. As Faith and Gwen, she has 24 books in print in 26 countries.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Roc; Original edition (January 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451464338
• ISBN-13: 978-0451464330
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Faith Hunter, urban fantasy writer, was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south. Hunter fell in love with reading in fifth grade, and best loved SciFi, fantasy, and gothic mystery. She decided to become a writer in high school, when a teacher told her she had talent. Now, she writes full-time and works full-time in a hospital lab, (for the benefits) tries to keep house, and is a workaholic with a passion for travel, jewelry making, white-water kayaking, and writing. She and her husband love to RV, traveling with their dogs to whitewater rivers all over the Southeast.

The dark urban fantasy Skinwalker series, featuring Jane Yellowrock is composed of Skinwalker, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade, the compilation e-book Cat Tales, Raven Cursed, the compilation e-book Have Stakes Will Travel, death's Rival, and Blood TGrade (April 2013).

Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy series--Bloodring, Seraphs, and Host--feature Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in a post-apocalyptic, alternate reality, urban fantasy world. These novels are the basis for the world book / role playing game, Rogue Mage. Rogue Mage contains lots of fiction!

Under her pen name Gwen Hunter, she writes action adventure, mysteries, and thrillers. As Faith and Gwen, she has 28 books in print in 28 countries.

Along with other published writers, Faith participates in an online writing community geared to helping fantasy writers with tips and publishing advice called www.MagicalWords.net

Join the fans at the official Faith Hunter Facebook fan page now located at
https://www.facebook.com/official.faith.hunter or follow her on Twitter @HunterFaith
For more, including a list of her books, freebies, & upcoming events see www.FaithHunter.net and www.GwenHunter.com.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#48 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#58 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#48 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#58 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Jane and Beast Rock Hard January 4, 2012

By Tarun R. Elankath

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Faith Hunter is one of my favorite writers because her story-telling has a unique flavor different from any other fantasy author out there. You have to read her books to understand that she has a vivid imagination that is distinctly her own. All urban fantasy protagonists are kickass and Jane Yellowrock stands ahead in that class. But one truly likes her (and some may dislike) as she ascribes more responsibility and guilt for her actions than your average protagonist.

In this book, Jane is head of security for a vampire parley in Asheville to decide on the title of blood master for the local master vampire. Unfortunately, the meet is disrupted by tourist killings blamed on vampires, Jane is attacked when asleep by a mysterious blood servant, Molly's sister and coven-head Evangeline is back in the city spinning her compulsion charms on all and sundry and Rick (her maybe boyfriend) is having trouble making the change to a leopard at full moon. Local anger at vampires is at an all time high and the media is merrily stoking the fires. Jane gets a call from Leo - fix things and make them normal.

There is a truckload of action in this book and that suited me just fine. The personal relationship may move slower, but it is quite clear that Hunter is looking at slowly and surely developing this across the series. I have always enjoyed her writing and I found this book terrific.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I like Jane, but she's really not very good at her job. January 24, 2012

By E. Nolan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

_Raven Cursed_ takes Cherokee shapeshifter Jane Yellowrock out of New Orleans and back to her native North Carolina.

She's still working for the Vampire master of New Orleans though, in this case running security for a parley between his scion and an up-and-coming NC vampire who wants New Orleans blessing to be master of Ashville.

Of course a straight-forward parley would be too mundane for anything Jane is involved in, and the situation is almost immediately complicated by rogue werewolves, and renegade witches.

Jane's private life continues to be complicated as well, with her one-time boyfriend now struggling to adjust to life as a were-panther.

Can Jane keep everyone alive who matters, bring the parley to a successful conclusion *and* avoid falling out with her friends and lover?

Not to mention the "raven".

In general, finding out the answers makes for a very entertaining book, with some frustrating caveats noted below.

SPOILERS START HERE

First of all, let me tie back to the subject line for this review: Jane is kick-ass, but really she often seems not up to the security and other tasks she takes on.

In the last book, she was responsible for security at a meeting which she totally failed to keep from being trashed by werewolves. In this one, though the meetings proper never devolved into a bloodbath, Jane seems to have hired a second in command who may well try to kill her. While this is a change from *working* for people who try to kill her, it's not a change in the right direction. Neither is making self-admitted "rookie mistakes" in situations where she has plenty of time to plan.

She also seems to have a very hard time tracking down the werewolves despite being able shape change and hunt as a mountain lion, and having access to a were panther with good tracking abilities. There's a lot of pointless to-ing and fro-ing while she tries to run the pack down, and in the end they are kind of randomly taken out by a third party at a bar.

She also wastes a lot of time tracking a grindylow, which ultimately does not help her at all with the wolves, and in the process she fails to interpret a very explicit dream prophesy explicating the grindy situation, despite the fact that it is immediately obvious to the readers.

In the first two books (or maybe books 1 & 3, I forget..) she ignores people waving red flags saying "I have important information, talk to me", and she does it again here, refusing to take a call at a critical time.

The whole situation with Rick seems odd as well. I cannot understand why he is with the were-panther, apparently more or less at Jane's order. The WP is shown several times to be untrustworthy and promises to kill Rick rather than mentor him. On the whole he would be safer almost anywhere else, and get just as much help (ie: none) with the whole were-panther lifestyle almost anywhere else. Or gee, maybe he should be with someone who knows the whole shape changer game, and is well disposed towards him. Now who could that be?

The ostensible Mcguffin of this book, the unexplained success rate of the Ashville master at having his young vampires come through the crazy years quicker remains unexplained, and almost unexamined all through the book. The sociopath vampire (and his particular sociopathy) introduced in the process of securing the young vamps seems like padding, and tracking him down doesn't really tie into the rest of the book.

Anyway, that's possibly more carping than the book deserves, after all, I did give it 4 stars, but it bugged me that I like Jane so much but this book has her kind of meandering through things where she should be nailing them.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars what happened???!!! February 3, 2012

By Ellyn Beale

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow..and not in a good way. Dear Author, what were you thinking? Loved the first 3 books. This new one is a mess. Big plot holes, pages of filler, unexplained motives are a few of the problems. My biggest complaint is the unfortunate and irritating charactor flaw you have given to Jane! If I read the word 'guilt' one more time I might have pulled my hair out. Heros are supposed to grow and evolve, not get whiny and wallow in self pity. I'm turned off now on this series and will not likely pay for or read any future books. Too bad..had something good going.