Demon Hunting with a Southern Sheriff by Lexi George

Rowdy rednecks. Shifty shapeshifters. Deadly demon hunters.

THIS TOWN'S GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL.

With its cross-cultural mix of good ol' boys, big bad wolves, and otherworldly beings, Behr County is the last place you'd want to be a cop. But for Sheriff Dev Whitsun, it's Sweet Home Alabama—and he plans to keep it that way. Famous last words. When a gruesome shifter massacre rocks the community, the sexy sheriff needs more than a badge and a few silver bullets. He needs the help of an immortal demon hunter. Her name is Arta, High Huntress of the Kirvahni. Whatever that means. Dev is no position to be picky about partners right now. But when Arta turns out to be the one female he could really fall for, Dev knows he's in for one hell of a ride. God help them all . . .

 

Demon Hunting with a Southern Sheriff (Demon Hunting, book six) by Lexi George

Start date: April 10, 2022

End date: April 16, 2022

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Content warning: child abuse, pregnancy

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I requested a copy of this book from NetGalley before realizing it was part of a series, let alone the sixth (and maybe final?) book in the series. After they approved me, I realized my error. Despite never having heard of the Demon Hunting series or Lexi George, I pressed on because the book summary really had me wanting to read it.

Claimed by Rebecca Zanetti

A DARING RESCUE

Emma Paulsen is a geneticist driven by science. But she’s also a psychic, so when a dark, good-hearted vampire frees her from the clutches of the evil Kurjans, she realizes he must be the man who’s been haunting her dreams. But with a virus threatening vampires’ mates, Emma may discover a whole new meaning of “lovesick”. . .

A DEADLY DECISION

As King of the Realm, Dage Kayrs has learned to practice diplomacy. Still, it’s taken three hundred years to find his mate, so he’ll stop at nothing to protect her—even if it means turning his back on his own kind…

 

Claimed (Dark Protectors, book two) by Rebecca Zanetti

Start date: September 15, 2021

End date: September 19, 2021

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 stars

Trigger warning: intimate partner violence, child abuse

            I liked that this book had an actual plot unlike the last book in the series. Emma Paulsen and Cara Kayrs were captured by the Kurjans at the end of Fated. Cara is rescued, and then Emma is rescued offscreen. Claimed starts by showing what happened offscreen. Emma has been whisked off in a helicopter on her way to a Kurjan named Franco who wants to force her to be his mate. Dage teleports (because that’s a power that some vampires have in this series apparently) to Emma’s location and kills the Kurjans in the helicopter before teleporting again with Emma to an area not far from the helicopter crash site. From there, Emma is reunited with her sister and introduced to her new in-laws.

First Drop of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost

 

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Night Huntress series comes a breathtaking new journey to the dark side of desire.

 

The night is not safe for mortals, Denise MacGregor knows all too well what lurks in the shadows—her best friend is half-vampire Cat Crawfield—and she has already lost more than the average human could bear. But her family’s past is wrapped in secrets and shrouded in darkness—and a demon shapeshifter has marked Denise as prey. Now her survival depends on an immortal who lusts for a taste of her.

He is Spade, a powerful, mysterious vampire who has walked the earth for centuries and is now duty-bound to protect this endangered, alluring human—even if it means destroying his own kind. Denise may arouse his deepest hungers, but Spade knows he must fight his urge to have her as they face the nightmare together . . .

 

First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, book one) by Jeaniene Frost

Start date: August 10, 2021

End date: August 12, 2021

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Trigger warning: sexual slavery, rape, miscarriage

After a night out with her cousin, Paul, turns into a deadly attack from an unknown, supernatural assailant who can turn from a dog into a man, Denise MacGregor wants to call Cat Crawfield in for reinforcements but finds she doesn’t have any current numbers for her best friend who recently traveled around the world running away from a pedophilic vampire (see my review of Destined for an Early Grave for more information). As a last result, Denise dials the number for Baron Charles DeMortimer, otherwise known as Spade, Cat’s husband Bones’s best friend and a man she hasn’t seen since he brutally murdered a man who threatened to rape her outside of a honky-tonk. Her disgust and fear of him are overwhelmed by her terror of whatever killed her cousin (and possibly is also responsible for the death of another cousin and her aunt), and she blurts out her suspicions over the phone.

“Perhaps it’s best if we don’t involve Cat or Crispin just yet,” Spade said, calling Bones by his human name as he always did. “They’ve had an awful time of it recently. No need to fret them if it’s something I can handle.”

Denise bit back her scoff. She knew what that translated to. Or if she’d just imagined all this. (Frost 13-14)

A Terrible Fall of Angels by Laurell K. Hamilton

 

ANGELS WALK AMONG US, BUT SO DO OTHER UNEARTHLY BEINGS IN THIS BRAND-NEW SERIES BY #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR LAURELL K. HAMILTON

Meet Detective Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel Speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the Celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of the angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another, or is it something more? When demonic possession is a possibility, even angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind.

 

A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock, book one) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Start date: September 6, 2021

End date: September 7, 2021

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

There was so much, for lack of a better term, stuff packed into this novel. It’s an ambitious first novel of a series. I feel like Hamilton had a lot of ground she wanted to cover to establish this story and subsequent novels, and she packed it all into one nearly 400-page book. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s not a great thing either.

Detective Zaniel Havelock works for the Metaphysical Coordination Unit (colloquially known as the Heaven and Hell unit), which is a part of the police department that deals with crimes with a supernatural bent. Zaniel is called to the scene of a murder, and what bumps the crime to Zaniel’s division are the angel wings found scattered across the crime scene. It becomes clear to Zaniel that the murderer was no angel when a live angel appears and tells him that the victim was killed by something unknown, something not demonic “but it should be” (Hamilton 18).