Review: Cold Reign by Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock #11)

Cold Reign (Jane Yellowrock #11)
Faith Hunter
Published: May 2, 2017 (Ace)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review 

Reviewed by: Margaret

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While review will be spoiler free, it does make reference to previous books. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, Skinwalker.

Vampires have long memories. So it’s entirely possible that some undead former kings of France are holding a grudge over the Louisiana Purchase. That’s what Jane Yellowrock and her team have to figure out as they finalize details for the arrival (finally) of the European vampire delegation. Jane finally realizes how the events in earlier books, as far back as Skinwalker, tie in to “the long game” the vampires are playing. But first she’ll have to deal with a series of revenant vampires rising from the grave and the return of a certain wereleopard ex-boyfriend.

Cold Reign felt longer to me than some of the other books in the series. It features a lot of intelligence gathering, time bubbling and magic using, and relatively little action. But I was happy to finally understand the motives behind so many of the vampire machinations we’ve seen throughout the series. Jane started to connect the dots in the previous book, but I was still a little confused. And notice that I said “relatively little action” because Jane and crew still get to use their guns, knives and swords more than once.

But we also get some long-awaited personal details about some of the guys, like Eli’s time in the military and bits of Edmond’s history. (Have I mentioned how much I love the men in this series?) Despite the new information, Edmond is still an enigma and I have some questions about his relationship with Leo. Especially after the bombshells Leo drops at the end of the book.

Jane and Bruiser have some ooey-gooey moments as well. She’s finally starting to feel comfortable in their relationship. So of course that’s when Ricky-Bo returns to NOLA, ostensibly to work on the revenant case, but the rest of his Psy-LED team is noticeably absent. I’m happy to see Jane get some closure, but Rick just makes me sad. He’s still just as lost as he was in Curse on the Land. I’m hoping that the in next Soulwood book he starts to move on, and that I get a better sense of the timeline.

Even though Cold Reign answers some questions about the vampire politics throughout the series, it leaves just as many threads hanging. I’m excited to see how those events play out in future books.

Sexual content: sex, brief references to rape and pedophilia