Review – Black Arts (Jane Yellowrock, Book 7) by Faith Hunter (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 336 pages
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: January 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0451465245
Stand Alone or Series: 7th book in the Jane Yellowrock series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars
This is the 7th book in the Jane Yellowrock series. I got a copy of this book to review from NetGalley. This series seriously just keeps getting better and better. I loved this book and thought it did an excellent job on building on the overall story while having an excellent contained plotline as well. I read that Hunter has a contract for two more books in this series but would like to write as many as 15 books.
Big Evan shows up at Jane’s house in New Orleans in a rage looking for Molly. Supposedly Molly was coming to visit Jane but has disappeared. While Jane gets her tech-genius the Kid to try and track down Molly’s where-abouts a new problem comes to light. Some of Katie’s ladies have disappeared and Katie wants Jane to track them down, then Leo wants Jane to do some serious security work when a Gather of vampires from all over is scheduled. It’s a lot for Jane to juggle, but in the end everything might just be related.
I love this series. I love the characters and love how the plot is set up and comes together so nicely without ever seeing forced or contrived. I love how Jane is struggling with what she does for a living and trying to come to peace with it.
Eli and the Kid are both still living with Jane. They have been an excellent addition to the story. They both provide some humor and balance for Jane that was really needed. Jane continues to grow as a character, learning how to harness her Skinwalker power better and how to be at peace with herself. There is a fight scene in here between Jane and Leo that absolutely took my breath away.
Rick is, unfortunately, also back in the story. I just don’t like him and kind of wish he would disappear. Hopefully he does in future books. There is also some tension between Jane and Leo and..of course…Jane and Bruiser.
Big Evan is in the story a lot and his two kids are staying with Jane at her house. Baby Angie is an excellent character, her magic powers are really starting to show despite her young age and I think she’s going to add a lot to the series in the future. Molly has some huge character developments that are really interesting and I am eager to read more about.
Jane is involved in three separate plot lines in the beginning of the story. I really enjoyed how these were juggled and how they all came together in the end. Hunter does an excellent job with this. I also enjoyed how there is one storyline that’s resolved and it contributes to the larger overall storyline. Urban fantasies written this way are my favorite.
The book is well written and has a lot of humor, action, and general awesomeness. It’s a good balance of excellent characterization, good world-building, mystery, action, and a bit of romance.
Overall an absolutely wonderful continuation of this series. This series is quickly becoming one of my favorite urban fantasy series; each book is better than the book before and I just love it! I highly recommend this series to fans of action and mystery packed urban fantasy.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Ebook Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge