Under Attack by Hannah Jayne
Series: Underworld Detection Agency #2
Published by Kensington
Published on: November 1, 2011
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 322
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
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Sophie Lawson is a human immune to magic, which comes in handy for helping paranormal beings transition into everyday life. But fallen angel Alex Grace and his search for the Vessel of Souls is one curse she never saw coming. Suddenly an unexplainable string of killings and destruction has even San Francisco's demons fearing for their immortal lives. And Sophie isn't about to trust Alex's all-too-vulnerable charm or his secret agenda. Now their hunt is revealing dangerous secrets about Sophie's past, and malevolent power hellishly close to turning one irreverent human into the ultimate supernatural weapon.
Under Attack would be better, in some ways, as a weekly strip in the funny papers alongside Garfield, gorgonzola, and briefcase-toting cavemen. The red head on the cover shares little to no athletic ability with the donut-craving klutz we are lead to believe must save the universe. This “joke”, the gun and stungun-toting red head on the cover is not who is roaming around L.A. under the cover, is one in a long line of deprecatory gags. Six hundred year old vampire trapped in a teenager’s body protests the wimpy depiction of vampires in the media? Check. Six hundred or so year old vampire obsessed with fashion? Check. Bleu-cheese smelling troll who thinks he is a pornstar? Partial check. There definitely could have been more of Steve the troll in this installment. The reckless and relentless propulsion we once saw from this red head’s world loses its push in character development.
Unfortunately, the more that we learn about our titular character the less her surrounding silly ghouls, wizards, fallen angels, and werewolves appear. If we might carry over the comic strip analogy, we receive too much of Garfield’s backstory to appreciate his indulgence for lasagna. Things get too personal for Sophie Lawson. Previously in Under Wraps, Volume #1, her presence to the crime happenings always felt tangential like she were a careless bystander. Excuse me. Careless, unless it comes to the amount of grease streaming off her burger. I may be just picking a straw because Steve the troll made such a “stunning” impression on me the first time around. But you just cannot beat the hilarious image a troll moving company conjures. The smoking English-accented firefighter somewhat makes up for the loss but not quite.
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| Recommended: | For those troll handshakers |
| Like this, like that: | The Abby Sinclair series by Allison Pang and the Black Wings series by Christina Henry |
