Liviania’s review of Hellforged (Deadtown, Book 2) by Nancy Holzner
Urban Fantasy published by Ace 28 Dec 10
Hellforged does not start immediately after Deadtown, there’s little downtime between the two books. Vicky may have just banished a demon, but that doesn’t mean her work is over. She’s just created new problems for herself to solve as the only demon hunter around. And demon hunters are needed when something is eating the zombies.
She also has a romantic dilemma. She’s interested in nice guy police detective Daniel. But her long-distance boyfriend Kane, a werewolf and a lawyer, is more on her mind since he became long-distance. The love triangle, however, worked better in Deadtown. Kane gets much more page space in Hellforged, making Vicky’s future decisions seem obvious.
I do like that both guys are good prospects. Vicky isn’t attracted to the bad boys. (Not that a bad boy doesn’t show up and try to tempt her.) Kane crusades for undead rights and Daniel tries to uphold the law. I’ve been reading a lot of YA lately, and it seems like way too many of the potential boyfriends are assholes. Reading about two sexy good guys? Now that’s a good time.
But Hellforged is an urban fantasy, not a paranormal romance. So Vicky spends a lot of time away from both guys, doing small stuff like learning how to save the world. She travels to Ireland, in fact, to train under her aunt. Nancy Holzner wisely raises the stakes before the training sequences. While reading Deadtown is not necessary, it makes the opening section of Hellforged sadder. Likeable reoccurring characters are not safe. It may hurt when it happens, but I do love an author willing to kill characters. Without that willingness, the climax of Hellforged wouldn’t be as tense.
Vicky is a fine character on her own, as well. The villain might not be impressed, but she thinks on her feet. She improvises solutions, using what she knows about the undead and whatever weapons are on hand to keep herself and others alive. Her trying to learn to be true to herself is a little hokey. Aunt Mab mostly makes it sounds practical, but it’s a bit more sensibility than sense.
Holzner hasn’t managed to crack my favorites, but I’m definitely going to keep up with the series. I like Vicky and enjoy reading about her adventures. The Deadtown series is more straightforward than other stuff I read, but I do like a good action book now and then.
Grade: B
Summary:
After Vicky banished her demon nemesis to the fiery depths of Hell, she thought life would return to normal. But considering she has a werewolf lawyer boyfriend, a zombie apprentice who’s angling to become a pop star, and an eccentric vampire roommate, what is normal, anyway?Then the supposedly banished Hellion starts to trespass in Vicky’s dreams—just as several of Deadtown’s zombies are viciously attacked and become really dead. When Vicky realizes she’s the only connection between the victims, she suspects that the demon is somehow working through her dreams to become Deadtown’s living nightmare.
What she doesn’t know is that her old enemy brings with it a force more terrifying—and deadly—than anything she’s battled before.
Read an excerpt here.
Other books in this series:
