Faith Hunter – Raven Cursed

The fourth book in the Jane Yellowrock series, published January 3, 2012.
Genre: urban fantasy
Cover: strong, I like it.



Jane Yellowrock is a shape-shifting skinwalker and a vampire killer for hire. But lately, instead of just slaying vampires, she’s been working for them…
The vampires of Asheville, North Carolina, want to establish their own clan, but since they owe loyalty to Leo Pellissier, vampire Master of the City of New Orleans – and Jane’s boss - they must work out the terms with him. To come up with an equitable solution, Leo sends an envoy with the best bodyguard blood money can buy: Jane.
But when a group of local campers are attacked by something supernatural, Jane goes from escort to investigator. It’s up to her to keep peace in the region, and unless she wants to face a very angry vampire Master, Jane will have to work overtime to find the killer. It's a good thing she's worth every penny…


Jane is back in her hometown Asheville, North Carolina. On a borrowed bike, she calls Fang, as her own beloved Bitsa is still undergoing extensive repair. Weaponless, as the vamps she works for will transport her weapons to the hotel they will be staying at. Her job will be keeping Grigoire, a Master Vampire working for Leo, the Master Vampire of New Orleans, safe while he is in parlay with the local Vampire Master, Lincoln Shaddock, who wants to become a Master of the City himself. Grigoire has taken his favourite two Bloodservants with him, the twins Brian and Brandon. Jane likes them, and they are good at what they do.
Becoming a Master of the City means ruling his own territory, with his own scions and hunting rights and cattle (meaning humans). For this, he needs Leo’s permission. Grigoire is to investigate Lincoln and his scions, especially as his youngest scion only took two years to come out of dovoveo, and became sane again, while the average amount of time is 10 years. This sounds very promising for Lincoln’s powers as a master vampire.

Jane is happy to be back in her beloved Appalachian Mountains, able to see her best friend Molly again. But the relationship is not as good as it once was. Molly’s husband, Big Ethan believes Jane responsible for putting Molly and their kids in danger, and as Jane agrees with him, she can’t blame him for not wanting her in his house. But she does miss the dinners at their home, the contact with little Angelina, her goddaughter.

The some werewolves start killing campers in the mountains, and the sheriff blames it on the vampires. Jane is called in to investigate, and she recognizes it as werewolf attacks. Following the scent trail, she recognizes the two werewolves who were not killed with the rest of their pack, as they were in jail at the time. Apparently, they were let loose, and now they are trying to rebuild their pack by turning other humans. Biting the women, killing the men. But Jane also smells the grindylow, but something is just wrong with the smell. And why hasn’t it killed the two werewolves yet, this was not their first attack. The grindylow’s job is to enforce shifter law, and kill any shifter trying to infect humans.

Her lover Rick is also camping in the mountains, with Kem, the leader of the African Were Cats, who is supposed to help him change into his new cat form. So far it has not happened yet. What Jane doesn’t know, is that Kem blames Rick for his wife wanting to run of with Rick, and he plans to kill Rick right after his shift. Afterall, the grindylow killed his mate, and now he will kill Rick as revenge. But shifter law prohibits him from doing that before Rick has shifted. Rick’s tattoos are preventing the shift, but he does show a lot of cat traits. And he still wants Jane, and doesn’t mind what she is, or her claiming him as her mate in front of Kem.

Lucky for Jane, she has Derek and his team working with her on security detail, as Leo wants her to find the killing werewolves and bring them to justice. The Shifter coalition has sanctified the kills.

Something strange is going on with Evangelina. She was acting strange already while living with Jane in New Orleans, but it has gone worse. She is looking younger and prettier, and has lost weight, like she has a personality overhaul. But Jane senses her weaving magic on her coven sisters and Molly, and that is against witches law. The scent of vampire and werewolf is strong on her as well. And when even a little toddler asks her help against Evangelina, Jane knows she has to act. She has to convince Molly and Evan first, that Evangelina is using bloodmagic. But why? And how do they banish the demon in her basement …

And who is the Master Vampire who has sent his blood servants out to kill Jane?


This series just keeps getting better and better. The world keeps being built upon, and I keep having the feeling that I am missing an important prequel to the series, where Jane and Molly and her coven meet and fight vampires together.

This book is completely action filled. Jane is travelling all over the place, keeping track of the negotiations, helping in the search for the werewolves, both in Jane and in Beast form, keeping in touch with Molly and her sisters, and even making friends with a lonely female vampire. Jane learned only a little bit more about her own past, and none of it good. A guardian angel is introduced, and he helps fight the demon.
I loved it all, and was completely lost in this world for hours at a time. Especially the action at the end of the book, that was awesome.

10 stars.

© 2013 Reviews by Aurian