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No plot summaries or spoilers, though be warned I do touch upon the romance aspect a bit.

This is BOOK 3.
Series:
Book 1: Night Life (Nocturne City, Book 1)
Book 2: Pure Blood (Nocturne City, Book 2)

HIGH LEVEL: This isn't my favorite series, but its gritty, edgy style is sometimes exactly what I'm looking for. The characters are strong, the magic is visceral and the conflicts are desperate. The magic is intense. You'll find werewolves, witches, demons and any manner of cruel, evil beasts. The atmosphere is dark and wretched and hope is sometimes elusive, but always ready for a fight. It isn't the smoothest series and "romance" is closer to a four letter word than anything you might be familiar with. It isn't sexy, but it is tough with equal parts wry humor and grit rooted in a procedural cop mystery with a magical twist.

That said, this book took some real patience to read. I'm one of the most stubborn, contrary women I know- but even I wanted to punch my dear Luna (the heroine) in the jaw more than once. Don't get me wrong- I like her and I still like her, but her thorns grew more than teeth in this installment. Her normally obstinate nature, became completely obnoxious. She just seemed to be picking unnecessary fights constantly and it went beyond humorous. There wasn't much character growth here.

PLOT: was pretty good- brought in some new creatures, new magic. The use of a couple of supporting characters was also good. It left me with a solid impression of the story, but there was so much more to this book emotionally that just felt wrong. The character's prickly nature made it hard to stomach. The romance took a nosedive in a seemingly pointless fashion. I can only hope that this gets fixed in later books. Seriously- you'd have to be a saint, or a serious sinner, to fall for Luna and Dmitry should be getting an award, not the cold shoulder.

HOWEVER: The final resolution was, as usual, well done and satisfying and the set up at the end felt right- as if future books will finally have something of a solid base to work from. It was unfortunate that the relationships were somewhat torpedoed in the process, but at the end I was glad I read it and I plan on continuing the series- on another day when I'm feeling somewhat self-destructive and masochistic.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Karen Chance's two highly energetic, very sexy vamp series Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer, Book 1) and the related series (start reading Cassandra's series first) Midnight's Daughter (Dorina Basarab, Dhampir, Book 1)
Jeaniene Frost's vamp mystery packed with action Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 1)
Jennifer Estep's stone-magic wielding, hard, cold, vicious assassin Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin, Book 1)
Kim Harrison's witch/vamp/pixie team of private eyes in Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1)
Lilith Saintcrow's two series, both darker and far more gritty Night Shift (Jill Kismet, Hunter, Book 1) and Working for the Devil (Dante Valentine, Book 1)
Nalini Singh's creative use of angels and vampires in Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter)

Luna retains her abrasive personality but grows up a little bit. I think that she is using "werewolves are short tempered" as an excuse. Some of the characters are getting better. But overall the plot is weak. Some surprises but not terribly intriguing. '''''' or dæmons are "good or malevolent supernatural beings between mortals and gods." Which occupied a lot of Plato's writings. Today they are a type of computer programming construct. In neither case are they similar to or equivalent to demons. EMT procedures are pretty screwed up in this story. Yes this is a fantasy but unless there is a bases for differences then realistic procedures should be followed. (For instance how would current EMT/Paramedic procedures change if you had to deal with werewolves?) Also the exploding car gas tank--just doesn't happen in real life unless a business associate makes it. Besides at this point its a real cliche. These minor annoyances detract from the overall flow of the story.

This series started off with a good premise - a hard-as-nails police officer, plenty of paranormal stuff happening. But after a while, I grew to dislike the heroine. She has a nasty temper, which she does little about and feels little remorse for, which makes her a jerk. (Her relationship with her boyfriend is borderline abusive - and like the typical abuser, she cries when he leaves her). The story also became unbelievable -- she is rewarded for her hard-headed, bad behavior by being promoted, in a laughably unlikely plot twist.

I would like to have seen this character grow and develop, but she just doesn't. It's bad when all the supporting characters are so much more interesting than the main one. I wanted to go spend time with her sister and grandmother, who are practicing withces, and leave this heroine to her destructive and self-pitying rampages.

When I first started the series I thought it would be exciting, action packed and/or full of romance unfortunately I found it lacking in both, and there was something else that was missing, something I couldn't quite explain that something that holds your attention so completely that you could hardly put the book down. I could barely stand to finish this book.

Love this author. Own the whole series

This is one of several books written by this author and it is an excellent read. I downloaded via Whispernet for my Kindle and have enjoyed it tremendously. She is an excellent writer and the story line is very addictive. Thanks!!!!!

I like the story line but was disappointed by the romance gone a rye. Really wished it would have gone a different way.

The book is a little dry in the beginning, but once it picks up, it is really hard to put down!