156) Death's Sweet Embrace by Tracey O'Hara

The Blurb -

After centuries of secret conflict, humans and parahumans have reached an uneasy truce. But unspeakable evil now threatens the tenuous peace.

Teenaged shapeshifters are being slaughtered by a sadistic serial killer who rips their still-beating hearts from their paralyzed bodies. A task force forms to halt the madness, including the vampiric Aeternus Antoinette Petrescu, as well as Kitt Jordan and Raven Matokwe, members of enemy Animalian tribes . . . and forbidden lovers.

A centuries-old blood feud has divided their shapeshifting peoples, and if their passion is discovered it will doom them both. But past hostilities must be put aside, for the killer they seek is but the first sign of the all-consuming nightmare of The Dark Brethren.

My Review -

I wasn't sure I really wanted to read this one. For some reason the cover was putting me off while the blurb was egging me on. In the end I decided to take a chance on this book and see if it was as good as it sounded and better than it looked. To sum things up - It was worth it.

Due for release in January this is the second Dark Brethren novel and comes after Night's Cold Kiss. This is something I didn't realise when I started reading Death's Sweet Embrace. It was only when I was feeling a little confused about the technical workings of the paranormal elements involved within the story that it suddenly became clear to me that this wasn't the first in the series as I had presumed. In the end this didn't really bother me that much because I also found out that the first book was from another characters perspective. It seems the first book was all about Antoinette and this one centered on Kitt.

Which was fine with me because Kitt is, wait for it, a Snow Leopard! Or at least a were snow-leopard which made this book an instant hit for me. I love were-cats but a snow leopard is just amazing. I have no doubt that this fact alone will have me praising this book. However on the other hand there isn't much to moan about when it comes to this book because on a whole this was a good read. A little too fast and furious sometimes but I managed to keep up and I enjoyed what I read. This had a Jeannie Frost feel to it but also had a taste of J.R. Ward.

Death's Sweet Embrace is certainly how a good Urban Paranormal Fantasy should read and I am glad I took the time to check it out. Tracey O'Hara has devised an interesting new look on things and has made it extremely colourful and exciting. I will definitely be checking out the first book in the series to add the the missing pieces to the puzzle and look forward to any more parts in the series.