Review – Tempest Reborn (Jane True, Book 6) by Nicole Peeler (4/5 stars)
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 368 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0316128100
Stand Alone or Series: 6th book in the Jane True series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars
This is the sixth, and final, book in the Jane True series. It was decent but not as spectacular as I had hoped. It kind of felt like Peeler was just going through the motions and tying up loose ends. I enjoyed the first half of the book, but though that the second half was a bit of a drag to get through. There are spoilers for the previous books in this series ahead, so you have been warned.
This book picks up right where the fifth book left off. Anyan has been merged with the White, Blondie has been killed by the Red, and everyone is generally depressed. Jane must merge with Creature and pick up the pieces. Along with what remains of her friends she must figure out how to stop the Red and the White for good, and if there is anyway to unmerge Anyan from the White.
There were a lot of things I liked about this book. I like how Jane really steps up to the challenge and how her friends are so supportive and helpful (even Ryu!). Watching Jane’s relationship with Creature develop was awesome and incredibly interesting. Creature is a power so immense that it was fun to watch Jane learn how to wield its abilities. I love that Jane has to practice to hone her powers too.
Jane has dreams about Anyan, so he is kind of in the story off and on throughout the book. Supposedly the dreams with Jane help Anyan to keep his soul separate from the White, but really they allow for gratuitous sex scenes between the two. Which was kind of like…okay…whatever.
Ryu makes big steps in character development in this story as well. He has a bit of trouble adjusting to the new “in charge and powerful” Jane. Once he is able to adjust though he is an excellent asset to her battle.
The first half of the book I really enjoyed. I started to have some trouble with the second half. I like that these books have been more fantasy in the last few installments and less romance. But in this book I missed the fun. I like reading these books because they are funny and quirky, that was missing a lot in this book.
The second half of the book is plagued with long passages of prophecies, that one of Jane’s friends miraculously unravels. Then there are long discussions about what is the right way to interpret things and long dissertations on the history of alchemy. It all sounds kind of neat, but it came off as lengthy, drawn out and boring.
The book did tie everything up nicely though. Those who like very complete stories will be pleased. There is even an Epilogue that shows where all of our favorite characters are a few years after the end of the battle with the Red and White.
Overall this was a decent conclusion to this series. I enjoyed some of the character development with Jane and Ryu. I liked the magic involved and there were some awesome fight scenes (poor London really takes a beating). However the second half of the book digresses too much into these long prophecies and comes off as boring…the pacing is just off for this part of the story. Additionally a lot of the fun and quirky Jane is missing from this book. I think Jane True fans should be happy with this conclusion overall. I recommend this whole series to fans of light hearted urban fantasy, it really was a fun read.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Paranormal Reading Challenge
