I absolutely loved reading this book! To prove this, I point to the evidence that I started reading this book in the early hours of April 4th. I finished around 7 am on April 4th. Is this sufficient evidence for the court?

This book ties a lot of threads together, from events from a lot of the previous books! Immanuel and the skinwalker-turned "u" name that I can't find anywhere, and how that's connecting to the now. I mean, we knew that vampires and history go hand in hand, but wow, does that history come to the fore with the European Vampire's (EV) upcoming visit!

The title of this book doesn't refer to Leo's reign. I'm pretty sure, though it can be applied, somewhat! Mainly, it's for Titus. Who's a very old vampire who used to be an emperor of the Roman Empire. And now is a very big bigwig in the EV circles. Yeah.

How it all ended, well, yeah, it's going to have an impact on the future. The game is changed, and there shouldn't be any more of the long lived plots and plans, but a decisive action shortly! And I can't wait to read it!

Such an amazing book, and I can't wait for more of this series, and Nell's series, as well! Because I need more of both!

’twas a dark and stormy night…

…and the European Vamps have arrive.

As the Enforcer for Leo Pellisier, New Orleans’ master vampire, it’s left to Jane to plug every supernatural hole in the dike. She and her team find themselves called from one crisis to another as revenants rise and attack the people of the city while a supernatural storm beats down on New Orleans causing riots in the streets.

Jane is struggling to keep up as the European Vampires launch one attack after another and all the while they are circling ever closer to their end game.

This book is a runaway train. It crashes along at a frenetic pace and leaves you gasping for a breath by the end. It’s brash and in your face and one of the best books in the series to date. 5 Stars.

Current fans will read and enjoy it. Probably not for someone new to the series.

Faith Hunter continues to expand on the unique world inhabited by skinwalker and rogue vampire hunter, Jane Yellowrock, in the new addition to the series, Cold Reign. Jane, who has the soul of a puma coexisting within her, and who can shift into a variety of animals, has lived a solitary life until she took a job in New Orleans tracking a rogue vampire, who happened to be the son of the Master Vampire of New Orleans. Since then, more and more people and creatures have been added to her "family," and she's not sure how she feels about it. In this next title, the European Vampires are negotiating their visit to New Orleans, and strange storms and magics invade ahead of them.. Loyalties will be tested, betrayals will be revealed, and Jane will have to save her city, again, with the help of her posse. Most of the main characters show up in this book, and it was a pleasure to spend time with them all. I did feel she should have given Rick La Fleur more of a break, since his abandonment of her was due to a witchy spell and not because he didn't love her. But the plot has to move forward, and Jane seems to have found contentment in her life that she so desperately needed. As a reader, I was satisfied with the outcome. Enjoyable, as always.!

Impressive after so many books in a series, this book still manages to be fresh and I experienced no sense of series fatigue. The main characters continue to grow and change, but not in a ridiculously power up/Mary Sue manner of so many other urban fantasy female protagonists. Indeed this author seems to have Jane increase in power one step up and then take a step back again, while allowing her to experience emotional and relationship growths instead of a mad dash to semi-godess status so common to other series. Kudos to Ms. Hunter for keeping up the same great and engaging story telling that she showed in the first few books, something in my opinion that very few authors manage to do. I would have given it 5 stars, but I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and slightly unfulfilling.

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (stars rounded up)

Lee Child (and others, I'm sure) has said something along the lines of the key to writing a long-running series is that in each book you give the readers exactly the same thing, only different. Here in book 11 of the Jane Yellowrock series, that's exactly what Faith Hunter has delivered -- Jane Yellowrock up to her neck in revenant vampires, schemes within schemes within schemes, and dealing with the Big Cat that shares her body -- but in a new way, with different (yet the same) schemers, a different kind of revenant, and new challenges and revelations about her Beast.

The tricky part of this is coming up with something to say . . . I mean really, the fact that I'm still reading the series 11 books in pretty much demonstrates that I'm a fan and that I'm predisposed to like this -- both in its sameness and differentness. I like spending time with Jane and the rest (particularly Eli, Alex and Bruiser), seeing her navigate through this wold, and beating people up/taking out vampires. The "same" stuff is as good as always (maybe even a little better), so what about the "different" stuff?

There's a lot to cover on that front, actually -- I can't cover it all, that's Hunter's job (and she's so much better at it). But I can do a little. This book takes place sometime after Curse on the Land (yay, multi-series continuity!), and long enough after Shadow Rites that Jane's started to come to terms with her expanded household and all that it entails (please note the use of the word, "started" -- I'm not sure she's quite finished even at the end of this one). But that's just the beginning. There are a handful of revenants popping up -- but they're not the kind that Jane is used to dealing with. And their presence might be signalling something significant.

The Youngers have evolved somewhat -- Alex is maturing, and even getting out of the house a little -- but he's still the same dude. Eli -- wow, we see so many sides of him here that we hadn't before (maybe saw hints of, but not like this), I loved every bit of the Eli material here -- and man, did he make me laugh. He also made me get a little bleary eyed at one point -- something I couldn't ever imagine that I'd say.

Beast does something that I don't think we've seen before -- she has something going on that she's keeping from Jane. There's something she knows, maybe something she did, that she's blocked Jane's knowledge of . That's scary -- kinda cool -- but mostly scary. The repercussions of Beast doing things without the human part of her knowing, there's a couple of books right thee.

Naturally, the biggest differences come from growth and changes to Jane herself -- at one point, she says

My life was so weird I scarcely recognized it.

The only reason readers can recognize it is that we've followed the series -- if someone made the strange decision to read Skinwalker and then jump to Cold Reign, I bet they'd barely recognize the protagonist. The changes in her abilities, her shifting (but not totally shifted) feelings towards vampires and their practices, her love life, her friends, her understanding of her past, etc., etc. -- she's come a long way, mostly for the good, I think. There's even a sentence I identified in my notes as "possibly the sweetest, sappiest thing to come out of Jane's narration." I decided not to include it here, but fans will gush over it. I just know it.

None of that means that when it comes time for bringing the pain that Jane's not up to it -- in fact, thanks to recent events, she's better at it than ever. Her use of the Gray Between (which is bordering on being over-used), is improved here -- she's able to handle it better and uses it to her great advantage. Yeah, she might be not be that recognizable, but she's a better character for it.

The core of this book -- plotwise, anyway -- comes back to the looming summit with the European Vampires, while Leo continues preparing for it, some things start happening that make he and his Enforcers begin to think that maybe the EVs are already in New Orleans and doing what they can to undermine him before anything official happens. Hunter, like many authors, has really taken advantage of the long-lived nature of vampires and how they'll use that for long-range planning. In Cold Reign we see that used very well -- as I mentioned before, there's a new kind of revenant running around New Orleans -- and there's no good explanation for how that's happening (there's a pretty diabolical explanation, however). This brings us back to the first time Jane stuck her toe in the water of Leo Pellisier's plans, and the early defenses against insurgents that Jane mounted on his behalf. Plots and schemes that we thought we were done with (if only because the plotters and schemers were no more), are brought back up and put into a new light in a very convincing manner. If Hunter said that she'd been planning these moves since book 2 or so, I'd believe her -- I'd also believe her if she said that she needed something for this book and took advantage of some of material from her early books. Either way, she does a very clever job of it.

There's a little bit of Soulwood in Cold Reign. We get a mention or two of Nell Ingram. Rick LaFleur is around doing PsyLED stuff -- without the rest of his team, sadly. Soul is seen a few times, but doesn't do much (but what she does is pretty cool).

I've long enjoyed Jane's calorie-rich dietary needs and the abandon with which she dives into her food -- and I think I've noted with both books, how fun it is to watch Nell Ingram sample junk food. But I think in Cold Reign, Best trumps them both -- she eats her first taco. And I found it delightful, really, literally laughing out loud. I've decided that what Hunter's fans need is a Food Network-style show featuring Jane, Nell and Beast trying various foods -- I'd just love it.

The ending came a little quicker than I expected (possibly was confused thanks to the Soulwood preview at the end tweaking the percentage -- but even without that, it seemed sudden). Which isn't a bad thing, and probably says more about me than anything about the book -- maybe I just wasn't ready to say "see ya later" to Clan Yellowrock yet. Without spoiling much, there wasn't a lot of resolution here -- there was enough -- but not as much as you might expect. The threat to Leo is still out there, and Jane et al. have their work cut out for them to prevent a European Vampire takeover.

Another winning tale of Vampire Politics, New Orleans weather, Magic, Big Cats and blood -- lots and lots of blood. At this point, I'm not sure Hunter can do anything wrong with this series -- and I hope she doesn't prove me wrong anytime soon. Get your orders in now folks so you can dive on it on May 2.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for this post -- thanks to both for this.
N.B.: As this was an ARC, any quotations above may be changed in the published work -- I will endeavor to verify them as soon as possible.

I particularly appreciate that the characters continue to evolve...not just Jane, but the supporting cast, as well.

If you haven't read the previous books, now is <i>not</i> the time to start this series! Jane Yellowrock's life is self-admittedly weird, and with the EuroVamp contingent arriving, the weird just keeps happening. Her self-made family bond is strong though, and pressure just bonds them even closer.

As always, I love Faith Hunter's unique take on vampires, witches and shapechangers, and even more so her cultural references. <spoiler> Loving someone more than bacon - that really means something!</spoiler> Her dry humor keeps me snarking, and I enjoy watching her characters change and grow. Beast, especially, has such a unique perspective on Jane's life which is incredibly entertaining, and her thoughts are changing Jane's outlook too. <i>Knowing</i> you're being manipulated doesn't always help, so self-awareness that she's making it all up as she goes along is a nice touch.

This one was a little slow for me. The story line dragged and I really couldn't get into it like I had hoped. I really like the characters though and how they interacted with each other. The skin walkers were interesting and I loved Beast. She was my favorite part.

The first third of this novel was a little bit slow, but once the action started, it was non-stop. Jane is developing her own entourage that is starting to mirror the vampires' hierarchy. A lot of soul reflection and brutal combat in this story. I can't wait until Leo and the European vampire finally duel!

Full review to be published online in early May.

The European Vamps have finally arrived, sort of. They are sneaking in in small numbers and wreaking havoc on New Orleans, partly by way of the revenants who have been rising and killing both human and supernatural citizens of the city. The vain and egotistical Master of the City Leo Pellisier is, as usual, oblivious to the impending threat to his vampire clan until his Enforcer Jane carefully explains the danger.

The setup to the main story was slow. After the initial excitement of the revenant risings the story segued into the very long and unnatural storm and strange occurrences in the city; and yet another purification visit to Aggie One Feather. It was fully one-third of the book before the storyline got back on track; but when it finally did, the plotline moved along nicely. Yes, the European's are finally here, having sneaked in right under everyone's nose.

There was more of the magical woo-woo and Jane's increasing powers that have now become a staple of the series. I'm not a fan of the overdone magical sequences in the books, and the time-bending magic was way overused. I miss the kickass Jane of the early books who didn't rely on magic tricks so much. It's here to stay, though, so I guess I'll just have to learn to deal with it. It was, however, good to see the solidification of Jane's 'clan', especially Eli and Alex. Some more stuff in Jane's personal life gets tossed into the air. Oh, and Beast wasn't shoved into the background as she has been in a couple of recent books. On a side note, Leo has to be the single most ineffectual master vampires I've ever read.

Overall, it was a worthy entry to the series, if not quite as great as some of the early books. As much as I love Jane and her world, I'm wondering if it's not time for Hunter to think about wrapping this series up.

Cold Reign is a strong addition to the Yellowrock series. Hunter has avoided letting Jane go stale by allowing her to grow. Jane might face many of the same problems as in book 1 but in book 11 Jane has some fresh perspective. It doesn’t feel like Jane is treading water – Jane is actually getting somewhere and as a reader that is satisfying. Cold Reign offers humor, action, suspense and intrigue with a dash of delightful magic. This installment was fun to read and will not disappoint Yellowrock fans.