July 1, 2013
James’s debut delivers a solid though sometimes familiar-feeling tale. Despite being descended from an illustrious line of monster killers, John Charming’s supernatural powers have led him to become a fugitive from the Knights Templar, who trained him. When a tall and unusually clean-smelling athletic blonde walks into John’s rural Virginia bar, John knows it’s time to run. But John can’t ignore his knightly training, and he delays to kill some vampires. The blonde Valkyrie named Sig saves his life, and something about her convinces John to stay and help her band of racially stereotyped monster hunters—including a pot-smoking exterminator, an Episcopalian ex-priest, an immoral Naga software mogul, and an Eastern European psychic—clean out the local vampire hive in a plot that sometimes feels boilerplate but eventually takes a darker, more personal twist.
Starred review from September 15, 2013
John Charming, formerly a member of the modern Knights Templar and sworn to protect mortals from supernatural threats until he was infected by a werewolf, now tends bar under an assumed name in a small Virginia town. When a stunning blonde and a vampire intent on creating havoc enter his bar on the same night, he embarks on a strange partnership that leads him to confront his true nature as well as his destiny. VERDICT This debut introduces a self-deprecating, wisecracking, and honorable-to-a-fault hero who can stand up to such established protagonists as Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden and Seanan McGuire's October Daye. Combining action and romance--with an emphasis on action--this is a top-notch new series opener for lovers of urban fantasy.
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 1, 2013
Although John Charming looks human, he is part werewolf and genetically compelled to help keep the Pax Arcana, the shroud of secrecy that keeps most humans unaware of the supernaturals around us. Working as a bartender, he is fascinated by Sig, a six-foot-tall blond with something of the supernatural about her. It turns out she is a Valkyrie on the hunt for vampires responsible for the disappearance of several young women. John ends up teaming up with Sig and her cohorts: a psychic who looks like an old guy on steroids; his two Eastern European nephews; a cop, Choo, who is a professional exterminator; and Molly, a former Episcopal priest. In a saturated literary realm, James' tale stands out for the gritty, believable world he builds, and provides a reason for the genre's renewed strength. This is masculine urban fantasy in the vein of Jim Butcher and Mark del Franco.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)