Blurb
No Humans Involved
Jaime, who knows a thing or two about showbiz, is on a television shoot in Los Angeles when weird things start to happen. As a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she’s used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life–as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye–she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.She is determined to get to the bottom of these manifestations, but as she sets out to solve the mystery she has no idea how scary her investigation will get. As she digs into the dark underside of Los Angeles, she’ll need as much Otherworld help as she can get in order to survive, calling on her personal angel, Eve, and Hope, the well-meaning chaos demon. Jeremy, the alpha werewolf, is also by her side offering protection. And, Jaime hopes, maybe a little more than that.
Originally published Spring 2008
My review
This is one of my favourites of the series and the first book in the series with Jaime (a necromancer) as narrator. It's also the first book where Jeremy isn't forced to stay on the sidelines out of the main action because of his status as Alpha. I also love this book cause it's the one that Jaime and Jeremy get together as a couple in as well as the fact that through Jaime we get glimpses of Jeremy that we don't get with Clay and Elena, mostly because he can let his guard down a little with Jaime rather then having to present a strong decisive front like he does with the pack, cause with Jaime he's just Jeremy not the Alpha.
It was nice to get to see Jaime leading an investigation as well, mostly because it involved ghosts which is her speaciality and human magic which is unheard of and considered a myth in supernatural circles. That's where the dark side of the story comes in, the magic being cast is accomplished by killing children to use the ashes of their organs in order to cast spells that are really not worth the murder of innocent children to accomplish.
The book is also a turning point for Jaime in another sense, aside from the investigation and her new relationship with Jeremy. She comes to terms with a lot of personal issues regarding her power and her career, like figuring out she wants to be able to do more then she currently does to help ghosts and she doesn't want to move into television. Her attempt to break into television was a throwback to when her mother was dominating her career and influencing what she did. The change of heart on ghosts was her realising that prehaps her nan was completely right when she told Jaime to ignore ghosts and the requests they made. She's decided that while she can't help them all, she can listen more and talk, maybe pass on a message when it's viable.
These two are one of my favourite couples and I love how Jaime knows Jeremy well enough to realise he has to make the decision for them to be a couple and she's patient waiting on him though she does tease him now and then and makes sure he knows she's ready when he is. I love how she makes him lose control near the end as well. It's great seeing the other side to Jeremy.
I know a lot of people assumed him to either be gay or celebate but I just assumed he was too much of a gentleman to kiss and tell, plus he wouldn't have girlfriends before because of his responsibility to the pack, not to mention that previous narrators have included Elena, Paige and Eve. Elena see's Jeremy as a father figure so she's hardly gonna be discussing his sex life and Paige and Eve don't know Jeremy well enough to comment on his love life.
I do think he's lucky with Jaime as she's really does understand his duties to the pack and is willing to put up with a long distance sporadic relationship just to be with him and she's lucky as with his responsibilites he'll be able to accept and understand her work committments and constant touring. Added to the fact they can both relate to having a bad parent who made their childhoods hell and they really are a good match despite all their differences. Definetly a favourite read right after Bitten and Industrial Magic!
