Goddess with a Blade

Vampire politics and sex. If that had been the sum total of Goddess with a Blade, Lauren Dane‘s latest book from Carina Press, it would still have been a fun read. But the story turned out to be a bit deeper than I expected, and that made it even better.

The Goddess named in the title is the Celtic Goddess Brigid. Her physical vessel is Rowan Summerwaite. Rowan is also, coincidentally, the licensed vampire hunter for the Las Vegas region. To complicate matters further, Rowan was raised by the leader of the Vampire Nation. And, there’s a new Vampire Scion in Las Vegas, and he and Rowan are starting their naturally adversarial relationship off on the wrong foot. She killed his predecessor very, very righteously, for not keeping his “people” in line. That’s her job.

But there’s a serial killer in town. A vampire who doesn’t care if he exposes the vamps and all of the other kindred to curious mortal world that hasn’t yet figured out they exist. All he wants is his next victim, and his next fix, after over 600 years of immortal ennui. Meanwhile, Rowan and the new Scion, Clive, try to negotiate whether their business relationship will turn out to be frenemies, frenemies with benefits, or something more.

Escape Rating A: I had a great time with this story, and these characters. Rowan’s relationships with all the people around her just kept drawing me in. Her love/hate/love thing with her foster father, who is, after all, the head honcho vampire, is a heart breaker. She kills rogue vampires for a living, and he trained her, and he is one, and he knew this is what she would become, and wow!

I want to see more stories in this world. It was a cool place to visit. And I want to find out if the romance between Clive and Rowan works out. And if Rowan’s cop friend ever gets his act together. As I said, I really liked these people, I want to see how they go.