I’m trying to space the last of these books out a little but kind of failing at that thanks to how insanely readable they are, especially while real life is a little tough, so it’s nice to wrap myself up in a world that’s so easy to get lost in (even if the characters lives are infinitely more stressful than mine).
Having made a deal with Roland following her claiming of Atlanta to step away from the Pack, Kate and Curran are trying to get used to suburban life. Suburbia isn’t quite so boring in Atlanta though, as it’s currently being menaced by a series of magical creatures – giant bugs are after the neighbour’s cats, and a giant has laid waste to the Mercenary Guild (which was already in enough of a mess following the death of its founder). But Curran isn’t one to pass up a money-making opportunity and, thanks to Kate’s history with the Guild, soon manages to wangle himself a place within the organisation through which he can take it over and make the mercs shape up.
Meanwhile, more pesky giants keep springing up across Atlanta thanks to a magical piece of jewellery and, despite having suffered a stroke during her first giant take-down, Kate is soon trying to track down the djinn that set all of this into motion. All while trying to avoid her father’s attentions, what with Roland now being quite keen on family dinner dates.
This was another fun instalment of the series, and I’m enjoying seeing Kate and Curran negotiate the world without the weight of the Pack behind them (even if most of the Pack seem to have now decided to move into houses next door to theirs) and how Kate is negotiating her new relationship with her dad. Roland isn’t your usual, hate-filled villain, even if he is all powerful, and I’m interested to see where Andrews will take us next.
Sidenote: Is it just me, or does the cover model look a lot like Aeryn Sun? In any case, that’s who I think should definitely play Kate should they ever adapt this (although they probably shouldn’t, as I can’t imagine that Curran’s half-form would look anywhere near as badass on screen as Andrews intends).
She does look like Claudia Black!
In a tweet a while back, the authors revealed that a young Gina Torres is pretty much their dream-casting of Erra, and consequently also Kate. So the cover model on this book (who does indeed look a lot like Claudia Black) doesn’t look all that much like Kate in the authors’ heads.
I would love to hear a conversation with authors about cover models. I suspect the publisher wants a white passing image on the cover. I’ve read tweets from other romance authors talking about being pressured to not put their African American hero on the cover.
A young Gina Torres also works for me. The previous cover models for my editions were all out of the Angelina Jolie mould.
The difference between the heroes the authors intend and those depicted on the cover is an interesting question, and I’m also guilty of gradually morphing the characters from their descriptions into weird amalgamations of various TV and film characters that feel similar to them.