TITLE: River Road
SERIES: Sentinels of New Orleans #2
AUTHOR: Suzanne Johnson
PUBLISHER: Tor
PUBLICATION DATE: Nov 13, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780765327802
PURCHASE BOOK:
Amazon | B & N | Book Depository
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
Hurricane Katrina is long gone, but the preternatural storm rages on in New Orleans. New species from the Beyond moved into Louisiana after the hurricane destroyed the borders between worlds, and it falls to wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco and her partner, Alex Warin, to keep the preternaturals peaceful and the humans unaware. But a war is brewing between two clans of Cajun merpeople in Plaquemines Parish, and down in the swamp, DJ learns, there’s more stirring than angry mermen and the threat of a were-gator.
Wizards are dying, and something—or someone—from the Beyond is poisoning the waters of the mighty Mississippi, threatening the humans who live and work along the river. DJ and Alex must figure out what unearthly source is contaminating the water and who—or what—is killing the wizards. Is it a malcontented merman, the naughty nymph, or some other critter altogether? After all, DJ’s undead suitor, the pirate Jean Lafitte, knows his way around a body or two.
It’s anything but smooth sailing on the bayou as the Sentinels of New Orleans series continues.
**A review copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.**
She-Wolf Review
RIVER ROAD has to be one of the best books I read in 2012. I read it as 2012 was coming to a close and it ended the reading year with a bang for me. Picking up three years after the first book in the series, ROYAL STREET, Johnson continues to bring us a fantastic heroine charged with keeping the supernatural world in line while dealing with romantic confusion and an unwieldy magical staff.
RIVER ROAD, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
1. DRUSILLA JACO, a.k.a. “DJ”
DJ continues to be one of my favorite UF heroines mainly because she’s one of the most relatable I’ve come across. DJ is strong, smart and independent; she’s self-deprecating, a bit geeky, and full of a social awkwardness that makes me smile. She’s not without her struggles. DJ doubts her abilities, her work, her romantic life – all issues we can relate to regardless of the fact she’s a wizard. Different job, same problems. In the first book, she was very green in terms of being a Sentinel, but now, three years later, she’s starting to come into her own. She still needs to look things up in her magical tomes and bemoans not knowing enough, but she’s developing a stronger sense of self as Sentinel which makes her a wonderful character to watch develop.
2. ROMANCE
I wasn’t too big of an Alex fan in ROYAL STREET. I preferred Jake’s easygoing nature and warmth. But Johnson really flipped the switch on me in RIVER ROAD. With three years gone by, Alex and DJ have developed a comfortable but layered friendship. Preserving a working relationship keeps the chemistry to a platonic distance. And that chemistry is undeniable. Alex admirably holds his obvious feelings for DJ at bay while his cousin, Jake, recommences his romantic overtures towards her. Awkward? You bet. By the end of the book, I was team Alex all the way and was practically yelling at him to make a move. What makes this romantic triangle work is its slow development. DJ has a lot to figure out and Johnson is giving her heroine the time and space to do just that. It’s going to make the resolution of this romantic conflict all the sweeter because of it. Oh, and let’s not forget the sexy dead pirate, Jean Lafitte, who also has his eyes set on DJ. With him in the mix, anything can happen.
3. THE MYSTERY
RIVER ROAD has a very well-drawn procedural feel to it as well. Someone is polluting the waters of the Mississippi and it’s up to DJ to figure out the culprit before two clans of mermen go to war and innocent lives are lost. DJ has her investigator hat on and works through theories and possible magical stopgaps as she slowly makes her way to the final solution. Walking with her through her investigative steps was fun and suspenseful; it also provided a great backdrop in which to add more to the overall word-building of the series through the introduction of mermen and nymphs, and all the baggage they bring to the politics and history of the supernatural world.
4. WORLD-BUILDING
This is still one of the major strengths of this series. Johnson really excels at creating a layered supernatural world full of magic, power, and politics. The idea of the historical undead – the continued existence of past historical figures whose immortality is fueled off the collective memory humanity still holds for them – is still one of the most original ideas I’ve seen in a UF. Johnson adds to this world by bringing the fae to the forefront towards the end of the book. This is obviously where the next in the series is heading as DJ’s staff and bloodline have brought her to the attention of the effectively frightening fae. I’m intrigued by where RIVER ROAD leaves us in terms of this storyline. I have a feeling DJ is going to be pushed beyond her boundaries in the next book.
5. NEW ORLEANS
In some books, the city in which the story takes place can often be just a backdrop and easily replaced by any other city in the world. Not so with the Sentinels series. New Orleans is a character in and of itself. While Katrina played a major role in the first book, its aftermath plays an equally important role in this book. The city is rebuilding, dealing with neighborhoods that haven’t been able to bounce back and people who’ve decided not to rebuild. Furthermore, the magical pollution of the Mississippi was also a timely reminder of troubles in the non-fictional Gulf region. And it’s this reminder that keeps the story of mermen, wizards, dead pirates, shapeshifters, and all the magical mayhem and excitement of DJ’s world, grounded and relevant to our own in a very thoughtful way.
I finished RIVER ROAD in the wee hours of the morning and my first thought was, “Damn, this was good.” Honestly, if you’re looking for a strong UF series with a very relatable and likeable heroine, a unique world and well-developed magic system, then you would do well to pick up RIVER ROAD and it’s predecessor, ROYAL STREET. Hands down, RIVER ROAD was one of my favorite books last year. Read it. Now.
My Soulmate. May not be perfect, but it’s perfect for me.
About the Author
Suzanne Johnson is the author of a new urban fantasy series beginning with ROYAL STREET and RIVER ROAD, both coming in 2012 from Tor Books, and ELYSIAN FIELDS, coming in 2013, also from Tor. A longtime New Orleans resident now living in Auburn, Alabama, Suzanne is a veteran journalist with more than fifty national awards in writing and editing nonfiction. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama, and a native of Winfield, Alabama.
During her daytime job, Suzanne is associate editor of Auburn Magazine, the quarterly magazine of the Auburn University Alumni Association. She has also worked at Tulane University in New Orleans, the University of San Diego, Rice University in Houston, and at the University of Illinois. Awards include: the Robert S. Sibley Award for the best university magazine in the U.S. and Canada, for the Rice University Sallyport; feature writing awards in 2009 and 2010 from Writer’s Digest magazine; and more than 50 awards in writing and editing from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
Suzanne is an active member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and is a member of the Georgia, Southern Magic, and Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapters of RWA.
Please visit SUZANNE at her favorite spots:
WEBSITE | BLOG | GOODREADS | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
I’m excited to participate in today’s Bewitching Book Tour of River Road by Suzanne Johnson. This is book two in Johnson’s Sentinels of New Orleans series. I was a big fan of the first book, Royal Street, and I am a big fan of the author. Suzanne Johnson has written two of my favorite new series this year (Penton Legacy and Sentinels of New Orleans) and I cannot wait to dig into this latest release.
Enjoy the excerpt below and please don’t forget to enter the tour giveaway at the bottom of the post!
RIVER ROAD BY SUZANNE JOHNSON
TITLE: River Road
SERIES: Sentinels of New Orleans #2
AUTHOR: Suzanne Johnson
PUBLISHER: Tor
PUBLICATION DATE: March 27, 2012
ISBN: 0765327805
PURCHASE: Amazon | B & N | Book Depository
OFFICIAL BLURB:
Hurricane Katrina is long gone, but the preternatural storm rages on in New Orleans. New species from the Beyond moved into Louisiana after the hurricane destroyed the borders between worlds, and it falls to wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco and her partner, Alex Warin, to keep the preternaturals peaceful and the humans unaware. But a war is brewing between two clans of Cajun merpeople in Plaquemines Parish, and down in the swamp, DJ learns, there’s more stirring than angry mermen and the threat of a were-gator.
Wizards are dying, and something—or someone—from the Beyond is poisoning the waters of the mighty Mississippi, threatening the humans who live and work along the river. DJ and Alex must figure out what unearthly source is contaminating the water and who—or what—is killing the wizards. Is it a malcontented merman, the naughty nymph, or some other critter altogether? After all, DJ’s undead suitor, the pirate Jean Lafitte, knows his way around a body or two.
It’s anything but smooth sailing on the bayou as the Sentinels of New Orleans series continues.
Excerpt from River Road
The minute hand of the ornate grandfather clock crept like a gator stuck in swamp mud. I’d been watching it for half an hour, nursing a fizzy cocktail from my perch inside the Hotel Monteleone. The plaque on the enormous clock claimed it had been hand- carved of mahogany in 1909, about 130 years after the birth of the undead pirate waiting for me upstairs.
They were both quite handsome, but the clock was a lot safer.
The infamous Jean Lafitte had expected me at seven. He’d summoned me to his French Quarter hotel suite by courier like I was one of his early nineteenth-century wenches, and I hated to destroy his pirate-king delusions, but the historical undead don’t summon wizards. We summon them.
I’d have blown him off if my boss on the Congress of Elders hadn’t ordered me to comply and my co-sentinel, Alex, hadn’t claimed a prior engagement.
At seven thirty, I abandoned my drink, took a deep breath, and marched through the lobby toward the bank of elevators.
On the long dead-man-walking stroll down the carpeted hallway, I imagined all the horrible requests Jean might make. He’d saved my life a few years ago, after Hurricane Katrina sent the city into freefall, and I hadn’t seen him since. I’d been desperate at the time. I might have promised him unfettered access to modern New Orleans in exchange for his assistance. I might have promised him a place to live. I might have promised him things I don’t even remember. In other words, I might be totally screwed.
I reached the door of the Eudora Welty Suite and knocked, reflecting that Jean Lafitte probably had no idea who Eudora Welty was, and wouldn’t like her if he did. Ms. Welty had been a modern sort of woman who wouldn’t hop to attention when summoned by a scoundrel.
He didn’t answer immediately. I’d made him wait, after all, and Jean lived in a tit- for- tat world. I paused a few breaths and knocked harder. Finally, he flung open the door, waving me inside to a suite plush with tapestries of peach and royal blue, thick carpet that swallowed the narrow heels of my pumps, and a plasma TV he couldn’t possibly know how to operate. What a waste.
“You have many assets, Drusilla, but apparently a respect for time is not among them.” Deep, disapproving voice, French accent, broad shoulders encased in a red linen shirt, long dark hair pulled back into a tail, eyes such a cobalt blue they bordered on navy. And technically speaking, dead.
He was as sexy as ever.
“Sorry.” I slipped my hand in my skirt pocket, fingering the small pouch of magic-infused herbs I carried at all times. My mojo bag wouldn’t help with my own perverse attraction to the man, but it would keep my empathic abilities in check. If he still had a perverse attraction to me, I didn’t want to feel it.
He eased his six-foot-two frame into a sturdy blue chair and slung one long leg over the arm as he gave me a thorough eyeraking, a ghost of a smile on his face.
I perched on the edge of the adjacent sofa, easing back against a pair of plump throw pillows, and looked at him expectantly. I hoped what ever he wanted wouldn’t jeopardize my life, my job, or my meager bank account.
“You are as lovely as ever, Jolie,” Jean said, trotting out his pet name for me that sounded deceptively intimate and brought back a lot of memories, most of them bad. “I will forgive your tardiness— perhaps you were late because you were selecting clothing that I would like.” His gaze lingered on my legs. “You chose beautifully.”
I’d picked a conservative black skirt and simple white blouse with the aim of looking professional for a business meeting, part of my ongoing attempt to prove to the Elders I was a mature wizard worthy of a pay raise. But this was Jean Lafitte, so I should have worn coveralls. I’d forgotten what a letch he could be.
“I have a date after our meeting,” I lied. He didn’t need to know said date involved a round carton with the words Blue Bell Ice Cream printed on front. “Why did you want to see me?”
There, that hadn’t been so difficult—just a simple request. No drama. No threats. No double- entendre. Straight to business.
“Does a man need a reason to see a beautiful woman? Especially one who is indebted to him, and who has made him many promises?” A slow smile spread across his face, drawing my eyes to his full lips and the ragged scar that trailed his jawline.
I might be the empath in the room, but he knew very well that, in some undead kind of way, I thought he was hot.
I felt my face warming to the shade of a trailer- trash bridesmaid’s dress, one whose color had a name like raging rouge. I’d had a similar reaction when I first met Jean in 2005, two days before a mean hurricane with a sissy name turned her malevolent eye toward the Gulf Coast. I blamed my whole predicament on Katrina, the bitch.
Her winds had driven the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into the canals that crisscrossed the city, collapsing levees and filling the low, concave metro area like a gigantic soup bowl.
But NBC Nightly News and Anderson Cooper had missed the biggest story of all: how, after the storm, a mob of old gods, historical undead, and other preternatural victims of the scientific age flooded New Orleans. As a wizard, I’d had a ringside seat. Now, three years later, the wizards had finally reached accords with the major preternatural ruling bodies, and the borders were down, as of two days ago. Jean hadn’t wasted any time.
AMAZON | B&N | BOOK DEPOSITORY
About the Author
Suzanne Johnson writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance from Auburn, Alabama, after a career in educational publishing that has spanned five states and six universities. She grew up halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’ birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.
Please visit SUZANNE at her favorite spots:
WEBSITE | BLOG | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS
One of my favorite recent reads is Redemption by Susannah Sandlin. I loved the world-building, the relatable and complicated heroine, and the wonderful chemistry between the book’s central couple. Susannah also happens to be the creator of another favorite new series, The Sentinels of New Orleans, starting with Royal Street. So of course after I finished Redemption, I desperately wrote to her to invite her to be a guest on the blog. I was GEEKED when Susannah agreed to write a guest post for She-Wolf Reads about how she created the enthralling world of Penton and its vampire creators…
A Different Breed of Vampire
By Susannah Sandlin
A confession up front. I love vampires. Not the scary ones who rip people’s throats out, or the light and fluffy ones who drink V-8 posing as blood. You know the ones I mean: the sexy ones.
I’d always wanted to write a dark paranormal romance with vamps. But the vampire genre is so crowded that finding a distinctive spin posed a real challenge. I had to decide which vampire tropes I wanted to hang onto, and which ones I would reject. How would their world differ?
I found my inspirations in the unlikeliest of places: a tiny town in East Alabama called LaFayette and a bout with the H1N1 virus that was spreading around the world in the winter of 2010-11. The result was the Penton Legacy, a series that began this summer with the release of REDEMPTION and continues in October with ABSOLUTION.
I discovered LaFayette, the county seat of Chambers County, Alabama, while on a Sunday drive to explore my new neck of the woods. I’d just moved south of there, to Lee County, and was unfamiliar with the area.
I stumbled on a charming small town that was postcard-pretty but suffering mightily from the decline of the textile industry. When the textile mill jobs moved overseas, this part of the state had been hit hard. Much of the picturesque downtown main street of LaFayette consisted of empty storefronts. Just north of town, I found an unincorporated crossroads community called Penton. I picked this area to set my series.
But first, I got the flu. If you think back to that 2010-11 winter, a new “swine flu” was making the rounds. H1N1 had killed a lot of people in Mexico and, thanks to air travel, had spread rapidly around the world. There was much talk about global pandemics and superflu viruses, and the CDC was slow in getting a vaccine developed and distributed. I caught the flu before the vaccines made it to my area.
It wasn’t the worst case of flu I’d ever had, but it was bad enough, and it got me thinking about a global pandemic. What if we had a real one—more serious than the H1N1? What if the vaccine developed for it changed human blood chemistry so that it became lethal to the vampires who depended on humans for feeding? Would a starving vampire die, or just become a dried-up husk caught somewhere between life and death? What would the vampire world do, in a society where humans didn’t know of their existence, if they faced starvation and began fighting over the remaining unvaccinated humans?
Welcome to the world of the Penton Legacy. It’s a vampire-dystopian story with romance at its core. My vampires adhere to some of the classic rules: they can’t tolerate daylight; they are made vampire, not born; they are difficult to kill (beheading, heart removal); they feed on human blood; their saliva can anesthetize and heal; they are inhumanly fast and strong. And, well, yeah, some of them are kind of beautiful.
The Penton vampires are not “undead” but evolved—they don’t quit breathing and die when they go into their daysleep, but they can’t be awakened, either. They aren’t abnormally pale—they keep whatever skin tone they had when they were turn, so they’re able to mingle with humans as long as they keep their fangs hidden. They have no reaction to holy water or religious symbols because they’re not damned. They breathe, and their hearts beat—albeit more slowly.
But they’re in trouble. In the world of Redemption, the vampires’ place on the food chain has taken a nosedive. Suddenly, there’s a new, ugly way to die—by drinking from a vaccinated human—and a serious vampire food shortage. Human trafficking in unvaccinated people is becoming a real option.
In the middle of this maelstrom is an Irish-born vampire named Aidan Murphy. He’s not your typical alpha male hero. Violence is Aidan’s last resort. He’s bought up the town of Penton and populated it with his followers and their willingly bonded human familiars, hoping to keep them all safe from the increasingly dangerous vampire world. But Aidan and his people are about to be caught on the underdog side of a vampire civil war…along with one human doctor who suddenly finds herself a pawn in a world she didn’t know existed.
Was it a challenge to find a different spin on the vampire romance? Sure. But it also was a lot of fun, and in the process I met a lot of sexy vampires!
Find REDEMPTION at:
*AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY
*Kindle version on sale for $3.99
ABOUT REDEMPTION:
For vampire Aidan Murphy, life has never been so desperate. The vaccine used to treat a global pandemic has rendered human blood deadly to his kind, leaving them on the brink of starvation and civil war. In tiny Penton, Alabama, Aidan establishes a peaceful community of vampires and unvaccinated human donors. He dares to hope they can survive until his estranged brother descends upon Penton and begins killing the humans. Determined to save his town, Aidan kidnaps an unsuspecting human doctor and finds himself falling in love for the first time in nearly four centuries. Dr. Krystal Harris thought she was coming to Penton for a job interview, but Aidan Murphy has other plans. Infuriated by his high-handed scheme to imprison her in the small town, Krys can’t ignore the attraction between them. But is it love? Or does her dangerous, charismatic captor want only to bend her to his will?
Find ABSOLUTION at:
*AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY
*Kindle version on sale for $3.99
ABOUT ABSOLUTION:
With the vampire world on the brink of civil war over the scarcity of untainted human blood, battle lines are being drawn between the once peaceful vampire and human enclave of Penton, Alabama, and the powerful Vampire Tribunal. Mirren Kincaid once served the tribunal as their most creative and ruthless executioner—a time when he was known as the Slayer. But when assigned a killing he found questionable, Mirren abandoned the tribunal’s political machinations and disappeared—only to resurface two centuries later as the protector and second-in-command of Penton. Now the tribunal wants him back on their side.
To break their rogue agent, they capture Glory Cummings, the descendant of a shaman, and send her to restore Mirren’s bloodthirsty nature. But instead of a monster, Glory sees a man burdened by the weight of his past. Could her magic touch—meant by the tribunal to bring out a violent killer—actually help Mirren break his bonds and discover the love he doesn’t believe he deserves?
About the Author
Susannah Sandlin is an author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South, where there are always things that go bump in the night! A longtime journalist, Susannah grew up reading the gothic novels of Susan Howatch and the horror-fantasy of Stephen King–the combination of Howatch and King probably explains a lot. Currently a resident of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah also writes the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series under the name Suzanne Johnson. The first book of that series, Royal Street, was released in April.
Please visit Susannah at her favorite spots:
WEBSITE | GOODREADS | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
Shelf Candy is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Five Alarm Books. This meme gives us an opportunity to highlight a cover we love and the artist who created it. Please click the button above to find out how to participate and to see what other covers are being discussed this week.
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This week’s Shelf Candy is Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson
Cover Art by
Cliff Nielsen
WHY I LOVE THIS COVER:
The layers. I love the layers. You have to look close to really take it all in – the light, the street scene, the model, the water damage…and I love that touch. A subtle reminder of the tragedy that struck New Orleans when Katrina hit and which plays a large role in the story itself. I also appreciate the choice of model. Her look is intense and when reading the book, I easily pictured her as DJ.
Without further ado, the artist Cliff Nielsen!
About the Artist:
Cliff Nielsen is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in California. He has created covers for such writers as Cassandra Clare, Faith Hunter, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Isabel Allende just to name a few. Nielsen’s work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, Computer Arts Magazine, Print, and Spectrum. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
SWR: Describe the moment you realized you wanted to make art your life and profession. And what were some of the major influences that put you on this path?
SWR: Where do you find your inspiration?
TITLE: Royal Street
SERIES: Sentinels of New Orleans, Book #1
AUTHOR: Suzanne Johnson
PUBLISHER: Tom Doherty & Associates/TOR
PUBLICATION DATE: April 10, 2012
ISBN-10: 0765327791
PURCHASE: Amazon | B & N | Book Depository
ARC received from publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
SYNOPSIS VIA GOODREADS:
As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ’s boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.
Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.
While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.
To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.
SHE-WOLF REVIEW:
Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson is a wonderful introduction to a new series. With some interesting world-building and a relatable protagonist, Johnson has succeeded in creating a new world and heroine that I look forward to continuing to explore.
The plot of Royal Street is fairly straightforward. Wizard Sentinels are the police of the supernatural world, keeping preternaturals in check and protecting the mundane world from threat. Drusilla Jane Jaco, or DJ, is a junior sentinel for NOLA who is itching for more responsibility and more interesting assignments. She works closely with Gerry St. Simon, the senior Sentinel and the man who has basically raised her like his own. Katrina hits and Gerry goes missing. Meanwhile, as a result of the hurricane, the borders between The Beyond, a parallel world where preternaturals live, and the mundane world, where we live, weaken. Supernatural beings begin crossing into the mundane world at will, making it very difficult for the Sentinels to police the borders. Strange symbols also begin appearing at murder sites throughout the city. DJ and her new partner, Alex Warin, are tasked with finding the killer, protecting the borders, and figuring out what happened to Gerry. It is precisely Gerry’s disappearance that is the central storyline of the book. And for me, it was the most interesting aspect of DJ’s overall mission. DJ is faced with reevaluating everything she thought she knew about her relationship with Gerry and his past, and Johnson effectively brings the reader on DJ’s journey, causing us to question what we think we know about him as well.
There was a lot of originality in the Royal Street world. As someone who tends to prefer vampires and werewolves for my paranormal fare, it was refreshing to read a UF novel with a wizard as the main protagonist. I liked the idea of wizards being this organized body of supernatural beings – almost like a professional organization where you get licensed and are grouped into specializations, or Congresses. DJ is part of the Green Congress – she specializes in potions and rituals. She is not this kick ass wizard able to do physical magic, but rather one who has to prepare potions for battles, which adds an element of uncertainty in her confrontations with physically or magically stronger beings. I also thought the separation between the Beyond and the Mundane added a lot of potential for exploration. In Johnson’s world, vampires, weres, fae, mermen, dwarves, goblins and the like live almost exclusively in the Beyond, separated from humans. With the breaches brought on by Katrina, I look forward to seeing what havoc is created by these “pretes” crossing over into the Mundane and learning about the mythologies that surround each group.
I also liked the concept of the “historical dead.” Johnson created something really original here, where key historical figures live an immortal life in the Beyond because their power is fueled by our memory. They fade into mortality as we, in the mundane world, begin to forget them. As a result, Johnson is able to do some fun things with historical characters, the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte for one.
“Keeping up with him would require running, and there is no dignity in running after any man for any reason, injured or not.”
DJ herself is smart, funny, and witty while also being socially awkward in the romance department. She is confident but with a dose of self-doubt that makes her relatable. When partnered with Alex Warin, the chemistry between the two is obvious and provides some entertaining exchanges.
“The fight wasn’t over,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’d have won it.”
Probably.
“Right,” he said. “And something just flew past your window. It was oinking.”
One minor quibble I do have is precisely Alex’s character. He was a little too distanced for me to really connect with and I felt myself being unsure as to whether or not I wanted the two in a romantic relationship. I understand the point of Alex is that he is hard to read, and maybe Johnson did too good of a job in keeping him that way. I’m interested in seeing what she will do in Royal Street’s follow-up, River Road, to develop the relationship between the two. This is especially true since DJ has several competitors for her affections – Jake Warin and Jean Lafitte – and I found myself leaning towards team Jake.
Finally, one of the greatest aspects of Royal Street is one of its main characters: New Orleans. Johnson loves this city and it comes through in the writing. She sets the story during the post-Katrina relief efforts, introducing each chapter with a quote from the Times Picayune newspaper.
“Saturday, September 17, 2005: Today in New Orleans, a traffic light worked. Someone watered flowers. And anyone with the means to get online could have heard Dr. Joy’s voice wafting in the dry wind, a sound of grace, comfort and familiarity here in the saddest and loneliest place in the world.”
Chris Rose, The Times-Picayune
I loved these quotes. It helped in setting the context and mood. It added to the claustrophobic feel of the novel. The events in this book really only take place in a couple of locations, mainly DJ’s house. And it fits. New Orleans was recovering from a disaster of epic proportions. It makes sense that there are not many places to go and it underlines the sense of urgency and desperation DJ felt to get out and do something to find her mentor and solve the murders taking place in the city she loves.
I give Royal Street a solid four howls. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a strong UF to sink their teeth into. It is a wonderful start to a new series and I am looking forward to seeing how Suzanne Johnson continues to develop the world of Drusilla Jaco, New Orleans Sentinel.
Happy Reading!
