Darkhouse (Experiment in Terror #1) by Karina Halle

 




(I downloaded this for free.)
BLURB:
With all the vampire, werewolf and faerie books out there, it's easy to become numb to all things supernatural. The antidote? Darkhouse introduces two real and unforgettable characters, Perry Palomino & Dex Foray, amateur ghost hunters who are "attractive, relatable and oddly heroic," "flawed but loveable," "slightly crazy" and just the most endearing pair to ever tackle the paranormal...just don't call them normal. Darkhouse is a thrilling and sexy new take on concepts like Supernatural and The X-Files, bringing a breath of fresh air to a genre that has been inundated with the dead.

~~~

"There's always been some­thing a bit off about Perry Palomino. Though she's been deal­ing with a quarter-life cri­sis and post-college syn­drome like any other twen­tysome­thing, she's still not what you would call "ordi­nary." For one thing, there's her past which she likes to pre­tend never hap­pened, and then there's the fact that she sees ghosts. Luck­ily for her, that all comes in handy when she stum­bles across Dex Foray, an eccen­tric pro­ducer for an upcom­ing web­cast on ghost hunters. Even though the show's bud­get is non-existent and Dex him­self is a mad­den­ing enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world that both threat­ens her life and seduces her with a sense of impor­tance. Her uncle's haunted light­house pro­vides the per­fect cat­a­lyst and back­drop for a hor­rific mys­tery that unrav­els the threads of Perry's frag­ile san­ity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dan­ger­ous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems."

REVIEW:
Released in May 2011, Darkhouse is the first book in an extensive series.  It's a New Adult/Horror hybrid, and a moody, compelling read. 
Perry is a struggling twenty-something working as a poorly-paid receptionist in an advertising agency, even though she has a college degree in advertising.  She hates her life of corporate drudgery, and keeps one foot in her rebel teen years by wearing Doc Martens and vintage t-shirts with her skirts.  She still lives at home,  drives a scooter, and is now plagued by nightmares so realistic they are affecting her days.  her tension builds until one day she sees a ghost in the lobby of her building.  Soon after she and her family travel to her uncle's for the weekend on the Oregon coast, and she is inexplicably drawn to the deserted lighthouse on her uncle's property.  Inside she finds terror, an evil presence, and an amateur ghost hunter named Dex.  Dex works for an internet web-show company, and is trying to get footage for a new series.
Dex is a heavily-drawn enigma.  He's thirty-two years old, and his behavior is a constant clash of nice Dex/weird Dex.  His constantly alternating, and manipulative behavior is bizarre and annoying.  Perry is drawn to Dex, but can't figure him out and has enough self-respect to not throw herself at him, finding him hypocritical and an enigma.  But she agrees to return to the lighthouse to film again, because she doesn't want an ordinary nine-to-five life, and this is her chance at something different.
Perry herself is very realistic.  She's insecure about her personal appearance but confident enough to have self-respect.  She has some self-awareness, but minimal introspection.  When she was younger she had many imaginary friends, but her parents were so alarmed they had her see a psychiatrist, and Perry has almost no memories of those years.
As Perry and Dex investigate the lighthouse again, the spooky events escalate to actual dangerous ones, and and mysterious links are discovered between Dex, Perry, and the spooky ghost lady.  Although Dex and Perry survive the investigation (barely), the book ends with them learning a great deal about each other, creating more questions than are answered and setting up the ghost-hunting duo for the next book.
Moody, creepy, and mysterious, Darkhouse walks the line between giving the reader enough information to compulsively keep going, while simultaneously keeping its secrets.


Click here for the Darkhouse Amazon page.

Click here for the Darkhouse Goodreads page.




      

About the Author:

The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently splits her time between her apartment in downtown Vancouver and her sailboat, where a book and a bottle of wine are always at hand.
Darkhouse is her first novel and the first one in the Experiment in Terror Series. Things only get better from here on in.

The Graveyard Speaks by Hunter Shea

(I downloaded this book during a free offer.)

Blurb:

Some secrets can’t stay buried.

Deep in a dark, snow-covered cemetery, a terrifying, moaning apparition rises from the same grave night after night. Even the most hardened caretakers won’t go near the Spooner gravestone on their midnight rounds. Only one ghost hunter has the will to face the unknown, but at what price? In the chilling blackness, only Jessica Backman is prepared to answer the spectral cry from beyond when the graveyard speaks

Review:
I downloaded this little 52 page gem for free, and am so pleased I did.  Hunter Shea is a horror writer, and according to his bio he was raised on The Night Stalker, The Twilight Zone and In Search Of.   Any fan of Kolchak is going to be cool.  I still have a fond spot in my heart for Darren McGavin.  But anyway.....The Graveyard Speaks is a great little spooky story about a college student and ghost-hunter (except she calls them EBs) named Jessica.  Jessica is following in the footsteps of her deceased father, and she also seems to have the ability to send ghosts......somewhere, simply by naming them and ordering them to leave.  She has no idea why she can do such a thing.  Jessica is asked to investigate a haunting in Woodlawn Cemetery by one of the night watchmen, and she quickly learns that something is definitely going on at the grave of one Meredith Spooner.  But is the black mass and screaming woman's voice that of Meredith?

As much as I love the novella format (kids, work, pets, yadda-yadd-yadda, you get the idea), it's really hard for an author to develop a believable, detailed world of compelling characters and a tight plot in just a few pages.  But Shea nails it in this atmospheric story.

Check it out!




Check out Hunter Shea's website.
Follow Hunter Shea on Goodreads.

                    

The Kingdom and The Prophet (The Graveyard Queen Series #2 and #3) by Amanda Stevens

    
(I bought these books.)

The Kingdom Back of the Book Blurb:

Deep in the shadowy foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies a dying town…

My name is Amelia Gray. They call me The Graveyard Queen. I've been commissioned to restore an old cemetery in Asher Falls, South Carolina, but I'm coming to think I have another purpose here.

Why is there a cemetery at the bottom of Bell Lake? Why am I drawn time and again to a hidden grave I've discovered in the woods? Something is eating away at the soul of this town—this withering kingdom—and it will only be restored if I can uncover the truth.

The Prophet Back of the Book Blurb:

My name is Amelia Gray.

I am the Graveyard Queen, a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. My father passed down four rules to keep me safe and I've broken every last one. A door has opened and evil wants me back.

In order to protect myself, I've vowed to return to those rules. But the ghost of a murdered cop needs my help to find his killer. The clues lead me to the dark side of Charleston—where witchcraft, root doctors and black magic still flourish—and back to John Devlin, a haunted police detective I should only love from afar.

Now I'm faced with a terrible choice: follow the rules or follow my heart.

Review:
If you haven't discovered the deliciously eerie Graveyard Queen series yet, you are in for a literary treat.  Amanda Stevens has created a  heroine who is complicated, lonely, driven and absolutely fascinating in cemetery restorer Amelia Gray.  It would be easy to call Amelia a haunted woman - she is haunted by her past, by the ghosts she sees, by the life she cannot live.  But after reading these books you realize that the word "haunted" has a new meaning, because in Amelia's world, ghosts are parasitic energy suckers, and to acknowledge a ghost's presence is to invite it to haunt you.  Amelia can see ghosts, but must go through her life ignoring their existence, pretending not to feel their icy cold presence, living in her beloved apartment built on hallowed ground which is supposed to keep the ghosts away.  The irony is that following her beloved father's rules in order to make a life for herself, has resulted in her living a half-life.  Amelia exists in the world of the living, yet her job is taking care of the dead.  She has minimal relationships with the living because of the danger from the dead who walk among them.
In The Kingdom Amelia takes a job in a remote town, happy to get the job as an excuse to put space between her and John Devlin.  She is emotionally drained and in desperate need of a break.  From the moment of her arrival strange things begin to happen. She finds herself drawn to a handsome local man named Thane Asher, and Amelia gets to know his powerful family, and they seem to have an unusual interest in her.  She soon realizes that this little town is hiding dark and unnatural secrets.  Secrets that are kept with blood, and provide youth, wealth, and beauty to those who make offerings.  Coincidences pile up, along with omens and dangerous incidents.  Amelia realizes that the strange feelings she has for the mountain are due to her connection to it, and as her relationship with Thane intensifies she feels something more coming through her as well, and it's not a ghost.  Amelia befriends a horribly abused dog who rapidly becomes her companion, and he acts as a touchstone to what is real and important.  The horrific and sad secrets of the past that are revealed at the end explain quite a bit about Amelia's mysterious past.

In The Prophet, Amelia's unique ability to see ghosts makes her vulnerable to the entreaties of a murdered cop, who can't remember who killed him.  He begs, bullies and kind of blackmails Amelia into helping him discover who killed him and why. While investigating his death she is also learning more about Mariama, Devlin's dead but very-much-still-around wife.  Mariama was one intense woman, so intense that death barely slowed her down, and Amelia discovers her ties with voodoo and one very scary and powerful man in Charleston.  Throw in some really freaky and horrifying drugging and kidnapping, and Amelia is once again in more danger from the living than the dead.  As if she doesn't have enough to deal with, she is also trying to figure out her unsettling relationship with Devlin.  Although in love with him, their relationship is so uncomfortable and tentative it made me feel awkward just reading it.  Devlin is a complicated man, and his dead wife Mariama is still the center around which he orbits, even if he doesn't realize it.

I absolutely love this series- it's the perfect blend of creepy, eerie, dark and mesmerizing.  Each of these books has haunted me long after I read the last page.  Just as Amelia lives in limbo between the worlds of the living and the dead, reading these books will transport the reader to a between the worlds state as well.

To see my reviews of The Restorer and The Abandoned, check out the Labels to the right of this post.

For more information, and for a preview of The Visitor (Graveyard Queen Series #4), check out the author's website at:  Amanda Stevens

Link to The Prophet:

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Link to The Kingdom:
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See my previous reviews on The Restorer (Book #1) and the prequel novella The Abandoned:

 

Voracious by Alice Henderson

(I bought this book.)

Back of the Book Blurb:
Madeline Keye’s gift—to touch someone and see flashes of the past—has set her apart from family and friends. She finds sanctuary in the wilderness, until a backcountry hike in Glacier National Park turns into a hunt—with her as the prey. Because something that’s not human is out there. And it’s hungry. 
(Published 2009.)


Review: 
This was one intense book!  Although published by Jove under their Horror imprint, this book would better be labelled as paranormal thriller with a touch of romance.
Madeline is hiking in Glacier National Park, enjoying the solitude and peace of the wilderness, when she senses she is being watched.  Right afterward she is caught in a flash flood and nearly drowns. She is pulled from the flood by a handsome man named Noah.  Shortly after Madeline sees a strange, sleek humanoid shape crawling on the rocks by the riverbank, and Noah tells her it is a deadly predator he has been hunting for a long time.  Noah is more than he appears to be, and he tries to protect Madeline by sending her down the mountain to the ranger station while fighting off the creature.  And from this point on it's a deadly game of cat and mouse, inhuman predator and human prey, and I could not put the book down.  It was intense and spooky, and the author did a great job of maintaining a consistent level of suspense and action.  Madeline is smart and resourceful and terrified, but she realizes that she is now hunted, and she agrees to use her psychic gift to help Noah hunt the creature.
I really liked Madeline - she has been isolated, a pariah, shunned by her family and community her entire life because of her ability.  She was hoping to start a new, anonymous life in a big city when she caught the attention of a millenia-old predator.  She is torn between doing the right thing and having the life she has dreamed of, and her inner turmoil is compounded by her increasing attraction and affection for Noah.
Noah and the creature are also really well developed.  Their histories are intriguing and detailed.  The glimpses into the creature's history are tantalizing as we learn he is thousands of years old, and may or may not have been human at the beginning.
The plot is tightly woven, the pacing fast, the characters interesting and believable, and the action relentless.

**SPOILER ALERT**
My only quibble is that at the very end, the final fight scene between Madeline and the creature felt wrong, like this superfast, superstrong creature was just laying there to allow her to triumph.  But the action is so intense and the pace so fast I was quickly past this point, so it didn't really take me out of the story.

I really hope to see more novels from Alice Henderson - this was a great, original read!






Check out the author's website at:  Alice Henderson


 

Secondhand Spirits (Witchcraft Mystery Series #1) by Juliet Blackwell

(I purchased this book.)

Back of the Book Blurb:  

Love the vintage- not the ghosts

Lily Ivory feels that she can finally fit in somewhere and conceal her "witchiness" in San Francisco. It's there that she opens her vintage clothing shop, outfitting customers both spiritually and stylistically.

Just when things seem normal, a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area. Lily has a good idea that some bad phantoms are behind it. Can she keep her identity secret, or will her witchy ways be forced out of the closet as she attempts to stop the phantom?

Review:

This was a charming cozy-style mystery about a witch who has recently moved to San Francisco. Lily is a powerful witch who has decided to end her world-wandering days and make a home in San Francisco.  She has been running from herself and her grandmother and her heritage for years, and feels like this city is a place where she can both fit in and blend in.  Opening a vintage clothing shop is the perfect career solution, because she has a vast collection of vintage clothes she has been gathering for years, and her witchy ability to sense the vibrations and energies given off by the clothing allows her to perfectly match customers with outfits.  As her business begins to take off, and Lily starts to create a little family by renting space in her store to an herbalist/Wiccan, and hiring a young woman with amazing contacts in the elderly community (think of the closets!!), her witch side is formally recognized in the person of Aidan, the mysterious head witch of San Francisco.  Aidan also gifts Lily with a familiar, a present she neither wants nor needs.  But the little guy is there to stay, and Lily can't be sure if he's going to be helpful or act as a spy for Aidan.  Unfamiliar with the political structure of the witch community, and unwilling to contact her grandmother for advice, Lily is stuck trying to find her way through all these new ties she is creating by settling down.
Lily is an interesting, well-developed heroine.  She has a past that not only haunts her but caused her to run around the world to avoid it.  Yet she is brave and stubborn and has a strong sense of doing what is right.  Staying in one place and opening a business is a huge step, and indicative of the fact that she is ready for a change.  But change comes in many forms, and before she knows it she is up to her eyebrows in the mystery of disappearing local children.  After spending one evening with a charming old lady who has a cellar full of classic clothing, Lily is suddenly front and center of a murder investigation when the same woman is found dead.  Add in a detective who believes Lily is more than she appears, and a sexy ghost-busting investigative journalist named Max, and the suspiciously mysterious and powerful Aidan, and Lily is overwhelmed but determined to help solve a murder and save the children.
A solid mystery, a potential love triangle, great girlfriends and comic relief in the form of a familiar, makes me very happy to have found this book, which is the first of a series!




Check out the author's website at  http://www.julietblackwell.net/.  She is the author of several mystery series.

The Cards of Life and Death by Colleen Gleason

(I purchased this book.)
Back of the Book Blurb:
From international bestselling author Colleen Gleason comes a small-town summer romance spiced up with moonlit boat rides, handsome neighbors, and a haunted deck of Tarot cards....

Diana Iverson is a sharp, up and coming malpractice attorney with a logical, scientific mind and a handsome fiance--until the rug is pulled out from under her feet and her life is upended.

When her crazy Aunt Belinda dies, leaving her a big old house in Maine along with a box of Tarot cards, Diana takes the opportunity for a summer get-away away from the rat-race of Boston and the painful memories there.

She doesn't expect to meet up with Ethan Tannock, the handsome neighbor next door who seems to be some sort of eccentric ghost-buster--along with his big, black Labrador Retriever.

But when the old house becomes the scene of vandalism and a number of break-ins, and it begins to appear as if Aunt Belinda's death was not as it seemed, Diana finds that life isn't always black and white and filled with logic.

And then there are Aunt Belinda's Tarot cards...which seem to be trying to tell her something from beyond the grave....

Review:
This is one of those books that keeps you reading late into the night while snuggled in bed.  It's intense and mysterious, with a story chock-full of romance, the paranormal and an unseen menace.
Diana is is a woman trapped by her own good fortune (be careful what you wish for!) when we meet her - she is a driven workaholic who seems to have traded her soul for the chance to defend a sleazy doctor and colleague of her fiance, in order to make a name for herself.  After working 70+hour weeks to defend this jerk, she wins the case and feels like she can escape, when she learns that he has another one and both he and her jerk of a fiance expect her to kill herself defending the doctor again.  But Diana sees a chance for a brief escape when news of her Aunt Belinda's death and her inheritance arrives.  She heads up to Maine and quickly learns that her aunt's hunky neighbor Ethan had a close relationship with Belinda.
Diana is suspicious, prickly and priggish - really, she's a hard gal to like.  But as she starts to go through her aunt's beautiful old home, Diana begins to loosen her tightly wrapped self.  Turns out she had spent a very happy summer with Belinda as a teen, before her snobbish mother cut all ties with her sister.  Diana has had no contact with Belinda since that summer, and feels guilty over not making an effort to reconnect, and starts to remember some of the strange events of that summer.  Because Belinda had some talents - she knew things and the people in town trusted her.  And Belinda has left Diana a Tarot deck, which seems to act as a doorway to Diana's latent psychic talent.
As Diana starts to find clues and realizes that Belinda's death may not have been an accident, she is suspicious of everyone, and pretty soon scary things start to happen.  Burned out by her legal practice, unsure of who to trust, not knowing what really happened to Belinda and why, and both terrified and intrigued by her burgeoning psychic talent, Diana decides to stay in Maine. 
The writing is clean, the characters are complex and realistic, and the action propels the story along with lots of action and scary stuff.  The mystery was a good one, the paranormal elements were a really nice compliment to the solid mystery, and it was the perfect book to curl up with at night.


For more information check out the author's website at http://www.colleengleason.com/

The Harvesting (Book 1 of the Harvesting Trilogy) by Melanie Karsak

Blurb from the Author's Website:
It's all fun and games until someone ends up undead.

Though Layla reluctantly returns home to rural Hamletville after a desperate call from her psychic grandmother, she could never have anticipated the horror of what Grandma Petrovich has foreseen. The residents of Hamletville will need Layla's help if they are to survive the zombie apocalypse that's upon them. But that is not the only problem. With mankind silenced, it soon becomes apparent that we were never alone. As the beings living on the fringe seek to reclaim power, Layla must find a way to protect the ones she loves or all humanity may be lost.

Review:

Sweet Mary, mother of god, this book was all kinds of awesome.  I first learned of it from Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer (http://www.caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/) who also loved it.

Layla is living in Washington D.C. and working as a medieval weapons museum curator and instructor (of the practical, medieval weapons-wielding kind), when she receives a very mysterious and brief call from her mystic and psychic Russian grandmother telling her to come home right away. 

Turns out the zombie apocalypse is about to happen, and Grandma Petrovich is a big believer in being prepared. The incredibly psychic Grandma P. has bought huge stockpiles of food, fuel, weapons and ammo, and has her property fenced in.  Next thing Layla knows, Grandma P. has given her a magic mushroom tea to open up Layla's considerable (but latent) psychic abilities.  She wakes up the next morning with a whopping hangover to discover the apocalypse is at hand, Grandma P. is nowhere to be found, and zombies are at the gate.  Pretty soon a Native American warrior spirit tells her to save the town survivors, which Layla does in a slam-bang action scene using a fierce combination of medieval and modern weaponry.

With her calm presence, her extensive academic background in studying medieval battle tactics (because life gets down to the non-electric basics mighty fast during the zombie apocalypse, folks), and her skill with weapons, Layla soon becomes the leader of the survivors.  All while dealing with her new second sight and the fact that her high-school sweetheart (who betrayed her) is still alive and human.  She excels at strategy and staying alive.

After a few months the survivors are found by a mysterious group that comes in a boat across the lake.  They promise them a safe haven at an island luxury hotel.  But something is off about the newcomers, and another frightening adventure with a new enemy is just beginning.  Layla can't convince her friends to stay where they are, and is forced to go with them to try and protect them.  By this time Layla has embraced her abilities, and the story is richly woven with creatures and tales from folklore.

I won't go into further detail because it would spoil the ending of the story, which is really a fantastic beginning to Book 2. 

Reading this literally left me breathless, as I kept going, wanting to know what happens next.  Layla is a fabulous heroine.  Reluctant, grieving, ethical, smart, and capable, she is a superior leader, a fiercely loyal friend and just all-around wonderful.  She does the job because people are depending on her and because it's the right thing to do.  And she is  damn good at it.

This story had so many fantastic elements all wrapped up in one superbly written and plotted book.  Folklore, fairies, magic, zombies, medieval weapons and battle strategy, all held together by the very human drama playing out with a small group of survivors, who may be on their way to losing status as the dominant species.  
I have a particular interest in folklore, and reading this absolutely delighted me - I haven't read this many references to classical folklore since I cracked open one of my Katharine Briggs books!

Book 2 is The Shadow Aspect, and the publication date is May 1, 2013.


For more information check out the author's website at http://melaniekarsak.blogspot.com/. 



 

The Prophet by Amanda Stevens (Graveyard Queen Series)

Publisher's Blurb:

My name is Amelia Gray.

I am the Graveyard Queen, a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. My father passed down four rules to keep me safe and I've broken every last one. A door has opened and evil wants me back.

In order to protect myself, I've vowed to return to those rules. But the ghost of a murdered cop needs my help to find his killer. The clues lead me to the dark side of Charleston—where witchcraft, root doctors and black magic still flourish—and back to John Devlin, a haunted police detective I should only love from afar.

Now I'm faced with a terrible choice: follow the rules or follow my heart.

Review:
Love this series!  It's darkly original and creepy, with twists and turns that kept me reading late into the night holding my breath.  In Amelia Gray's world, ghosts are parasitic energy-suckers, haunting the living by leeching their warmth and energy until they are shells of their former selves.  Amelia has spent her whole life following her father's rules for avoiding contact, but falling in love with a haunted police detective has exposed her to the ghosts of his sad daughter and vengeful wife, and his murdered former partner, all of whom want something from Amelia.  As she investigates his death, she uncovers the dangerous subculture of Charleston involving a zombie-making poweder called gray dust and a powerful sorceror recently returned to town who had close ties with John Devlin's wife.
This series is notable for it's unique take on ghosts, and the fabulously original Amelia Gray, a complicated woman with a special talent that has gifted her with a life of loneliness and isolation.  Each book has a well-written mystery with nail-biting suspense and jump-at-any-sound surprises.  As Amelia slowly begins to break her beloved father's rules, she exposes herself to more danger but also learns more about ghosts and the Gray, the world they inhabit.  It is is scary, lonely, fascinating and compelling.  The atmosphere in these books is almost another character - it is like a living mist, floating around the reader and slowly enveloping her until the dark and mysterious world of twilight and Amelia Gray seems more real than anything else.  Powerfully magical, like Amelia's beloved white garden in her backyard, these books will haunt you long after the last page has been turned.

For more information check out the author's website at http://www.amandastevens.com/.

Moon Child (Vampire For Hire Series#4) by J.R. Rain

Publisher's Blurb:  Moon Child — the fourth book in the Vampire for Hire Series...
Mother, wife, private investigator...vampire. Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire.
Now in MOON CHILD, sequel to AMERICAN VAMPIRE, private investigator Samantha Moon is faced with an impossible decision — a decision that no mother should ever have to make. A decision that will change her life, and those she loves, forever.
And through it all, Sam finds herself in a lethal game of vampire vs. vampire as a powerful — and desperate — enemy will stop at nothing to claim what he most desires.


Review:  In the 4th book of the Vampire For Hire series,Samantha has made the most difficult decision of her life, and now has 4 days to find a way to reverse her son's vampirism before he realizes that he is different.  She has rested all her hopes on the mysterious medallion her attacker left behind six years ago, but finding someone who can help her unlock its secrets will nearly kill her.  Kingsley gives her a clue, and her new vampire friend Detective Hanner offers the next, and soon Sam is discovering supernatural beings she could never imagine.  Meanwhile she is struggling to maintain a friendship with Fang, who has a psychic link with her and really wants to be transformed into a vampire.  Although Sam is tempted and truly cares for him, Fang's past is troubling, and his stalking of her leans toward the obsessively creepy. But at the same time he is always supportive and never judgmental, unlike Kingsley who condemns Sam for her choice, while he defends his own decisions to knowingly defend murderers in court.  As with the previous books, the parallel situations spotlight the fact that right and wrong is often a matter of perspective and context.
Her relationship with Kingsley apparently over, Sam takes dangerous chances to find someone who can help her, and she soon attracts the attention  of an ancient, evil, rotten vampire who wants the medallion and will do anything to possess it.  When he kidnaps a sick little boy, thinking he's grabbed Anthony, Sam goes after him.  In Moon Child Sam's psychic abilities continue to expand, and there is further evidence of a greater spiritual network in place, behind the scenes.  The metaphysical layers to these stories offer teasing views into a much wider, fascinating world.
I really love Sam - she is strong and always tries to do the right thing, even though that places her in danger.  She's smart, sarcastic and funny.  These books are exciting, interesting, and always fun.

Check out the author's website at http://jrrain.com/.