Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, Book 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Faith Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 7, 2009

First in a brand new series from the author of the Rogue Mage novels

Jane Yellowrock is a supernatural skinwalker--one sharing her body with the soul of a mountain lion. When the rogue-vampire hunter is hired to hunt down a particularly nasty vamp, Jane is drawn into the steamy New Orleans vampire society where she learns the ins-and-outs of the "sane" vampire culture, more about her own Cherokee heritage, and we are drawn into a rousing, fast-paced thriller.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A new, strongly unique voice in the dark fantasy genre."
-Kim Harrison

"Hunter's very professionally executed, tasty blend of dark fantasy, mystery, and romance should please fans of all three genres."
-Booklist

From the Back Cover

Last year, Jane nearly lost her life taking down a deadly family of vampires who preyed on the helpless populace. Now, after months of recuperation, she's back and ready to fight again. Except this time, she's been hired by those she's trained to kill - vampires.
 

Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind--a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires--and hunts the undead for a living. But now she's been hired by the Katherine Fonteneau, one of the oldest vampires in the New Orleans, and the madam of Katie's Ladies, to hunt down a powerful rogue vampire who's killing other vamps.
 

Amidst a bordellos of real "ladies of the night" and a hot Creole biker with a panther tattoo who stirs her carnal desire, Jane must stay focused and complete her mission ... or else the next skin she'll need to save may be her own.
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See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Roc; Original edition (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451462807
• ISBN-13: 978-0451462800
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (198 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,702 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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#50 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#52 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#89 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#50 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#52 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#89 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

245 of 249 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome new character! July 16, 2009

By CeeCee

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If Mercy Thompson and Kate Daniels are some of your favorite heroines, then you don't want to miss out on Faith Hunter's new character, Jane Yellowrock. Jane is a vampire-hunter and skinwalker. But she's much more interesting than Anita Blake, and she's a different kind of walker than Mercy Thompson.

Jane hunts and kills rogue vampires for a living. The only thing she knows about vampires are wrapped up in the ones that go crazy and need to be put down. She's also a skinwalker. Missing pieces of her memories as a young child, all she knows is that she shares her body with Beast, the mountain lion she shifts to when on the hunt. As a skinwalker she can take on other animal forms, but she has a very close tie with Beast. They both have their own memories, thoughts, and will - which makes her a very interesting character indeed.

Jane is called to New Orleans by Katie, an old vampire, who hires her to track and kill the rogue vampire preying on not only the humans in the city but other vampires as well. Turns out this rogue vampire is a lot more older, more powerful, and much more harder to track than Jane thought. While on the hunt, she's also introduced to the vampire world: their lifestyle, politics, and the who's who of vamp society.

Trying not to give all the great stuff away in the review, I will tell you this: there are some really great storylines here. One, the vampire rogue is more than he appears to be. Two, the missing pieces of memory from Jane's childhood return, which answers all her questions about her heritage, her clan, and just how she and Beast became one. And three, all the characters in the novel have great potential.

As an introductory novel, Faith Hunter laid down some solid foundation. Jane is a great character and Hunter makes her interesting enough for readers to want to know more about her past and where she's heading. The details into the vampire world are easy enough to understand, I didn't feel boggled down with some complex history or feel the need to have to memorize names or dates for later novels. All the secondary characters were just as intersting as Jane and Beast themselves, that I just have to know what happens to them and hope to see them in the next Jane Yellowrock story. Skinwalker is written smoothly and rich in detail and story. Kim Harrison calls Hunter, " A new, strongly unique voice in the dark fantasy genre", and that alone is enough in my book!

153 of 158 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A Non-Sex-Soaked Urban Fantasy August 31, 2009

By mayfayre TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

For those of us who read the "kickass female hunter of supernatural whatever" genre, you know that more and more authors have been jumping on this bandwagon, authors who seem to think that as long as you include pages and pages of expository sex between the heroine and the creatures-du-jour then they've created an "urban fantasy".

Thankfully, this author has concentrated on actually providing us with both a complex heroine and complex secondary characters - none of whom immediately fall into each others beds or bodies. Not to mention creating an intriguing storyline, set in one of the genre's favorite places, New Orleans. She's created an interesting universe involving a vampire society that coexists with the human world, and a heroine who is not what she seems on the surface, and whose personal history is still partially a mystery to her as well as us. People get hurt and people die in this story. Not everyone is what they seem, or fits the heroine's mental stereotypes.

This was one of those books that when I picked it up, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I bought into the world that the author created and I began to care about the characters. I liked Jane Yellowrock because although she's self-assured on the surface, she retains a vulnerability because her past history is veiled to her, and she doesn't know how old she is or where she lived or what happened to her biological family. She also has the added burden of knowing that the action that allowed her to live beyond her normal life span was the result of inadvertent black magic - something that horrifies her conscience. I appreciated the fact that while the male characters in the story were attractive to, and attracted to Jane, that's as far as it went in this book. The author apparently understands that anticipation and mental fantasies are more intriguing to a reader than immediate wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am consummation of sexual attraction.

I am really looking forward to the next book in this series.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing new series September 22, 2009

By V. Dalpe

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have to say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I will admit upon buying it I prepared myself for another in a long line of post-Anita, post-Sookie, post Sonja Blue [...] female supernatural romances. To be honest I also had reservations about the horrible cover. But this book had a lot more substance than many of others I have read recently.

I really enjoyed the pseudo-science of the magic in the books (especially revolving around borrowed mass) and her calorie intake etc. Her worlds magic has a very tangible feel and I liked that.

And the author really used the sense of smell effectively to tell the story, and a lot of the mystery surrounds Jane using her nose more than looking for more traditional clues. Using the assets of a shapeshifter to solve a mystery, especially when others don;t know it, was an intriguing take on the genre.

The book did have a slow and clunky start, Jane was a little too tough to be believable at times and alternatively a little too amateur/soft, and I found the Beast's chapters frustrating to read. Mainly because of the very caveman-like prose "me like food, night is good etc" but after awhile I did not notice it as much. I liked the characters, and the old school noir feel of everybody hiding something etc. Also the incorporation of Native American beasties into the cannon is welcome, as well as the hot and deep fried feel of NO. So overall it was a smart book, well researched, and well written. The character, as we grow to know her better, has potential to be quite memorable in a sea of imposters. So all in all worth a read.