Tempest Rising

Tempest Risingby Nicole PeelerOh boy! A book review! A book that I read and finished in about 2 days, too! Go, me!This is a new author, a first book, it has a great cover and a fun story on the inside. I secretly think that Nicole Peeler was stalking me for quite some time before she created Jane True, because she sounds an awful lot like me, only her physical description matches the Me before the Meds I had a few years ago that added The Weight. I drop a little of this weight and I can totally play Jane True in the movie (*cough* hint hint *cough*). I vote for David Yummypants to play Ryu, although he might be vamped-out. But still, yum.Er.. enough about me and my fantasies...back to why I thought this book was all kinds of awesome. This is an urban fantasy novel that was refreshingly original. Sure it had a vampire romantic interest, BUT the focus on Ryu was NOT that he was a vampire but that he was an investigator. And not once ounce of emo, tortured vampire was squeezed out of this character, or any of the characters for that matter. This  book has selkies, kelpies and nahauls (oh, my!). It has gnomes and naga and Alphars (elves, really, but don't call them that). There are no faerie courts or stand-offs between vamps and weres. There is no love triangle. There IS a lot of sex, but it's not graphically descriptive (thank the gods!) and although it was a little too in the forefront of the book, it was easy (for me) to skip over and get back to the mystery. Yes! There is mystery! Woohoo!Twenty-six year old Jane True ends up in the middle of a murder mystery which somehow is connected to her and she discovers that she isn't just a normal human who likes to swim in the ice-cold ocean and who doesn't need a coat in the winter. She has a past that continuously haunts her in the small town she lives in in Maine.  She finds out a lot about her present and past in this book that she never knew could even be possible. She grows as a person throughout the novel and regains confidence she had lost years ago.I am terribly anxious for the next book, which already has a cover (awesome!) revealed, sadly, I have to wait until JULY 2010. Gah! I hate when books hook me and then I have to wait an eternity for the next one. I am curious to see where Nicole Peeler will take Jane in the next novel. This one doesn't end in a cliffhanger, though there are questions that could be answered in another story. And I want to know the answers NOW!Jane True series

1. Tempest Rising
2. Tracking the Tempest
3. Tempest's Legacy
4. Eye of the Tempest
5. Tempest's Fury - 2012

You can read my interview with Nicole Peeler here!