Review: No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong

Title: No Humans Involved
Series: Women of the Otherworld #7
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Format: Trade Paperpack, 400 pages
Published: February 23, 2010
ISBN #: 9780307358769 / 0307358763
Genre: Urban Fantasy
My Copy: bought

Readers around the world have fallen for Kelley Armstrong’s intoxicating, sensual and wicked tales of the paranormal, in which demons and witches, werewolves and vampires collide – often hilariously, sometimes violently – with everyday life. In Armstrong’s first six novels, Elena, Paige and Eve have had their way with us. Now get ready for Jaime Vegas, the luscious, lovelorn and haunted necromancer…

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, or to what depths ordinary humans will sink in their attempts to gain supernatural powers. 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.

I can’t help but second guess myself every time I re-read a book. I somehow feel like I’m playing favourites and ignoring all of the other novels out there that I have yet to read once, let alone twice. Then I read the opening chapters of one of Kelley Armstrong’s books and think “screw the other books”. There’s a reason why she’s my favourite author and No Humans Involved reinforces that yet again. I loved watching Jeremy, the infallible alpha, stumble all over himself like a school boy trying to win Jaime over while she plays hard to get. Aside from the werewolf books, this installment is one of the more entertaining, well written novels in this series. I loved it from beginning to end and am strongly tempted to read it a third time!

This is Jaime’s book, no doubt about it. Yes, there’s still the customary supernatural investigation plot line but we get to learn so much about her character that she eclipses everything else which is a-ok with me because I’ve always been fascinated by the Women of the Otherworld‘s necromancer. At first glance she comes across as a ditsy, C-list celebrity who’s a danger magnet but that’s just a front. Every day is a struggle for her; she has to act “normal” in public while plagued by ghosts, she constantly has to walk away from spirits hounding her to pass along messages to their loved ones, and that’s just typical day-to-day stuff. Throughout all of this chaos, Jaime somehow manages to remain positive and tries to help as many people as possible, both living and dead. Her powers seem to be almost like a running joke among the supernatural world, that is, until this installment. When Vegas finally gives her powers free reign she becomes one scary ass, don’t f*#k with me, goddess of the dead. I’m so happy that Armstrong gave Jaime a chance to show readers what she’s really made of. That’s one scene that I’ll re-read again and again.

I’m always hungry for more Jeremy time and in No Humans Involved we get exactly that. Aside from the Otherworld Anthologies, the pack alpha is somewhat of a wallflower. Always present but never in the spotlight. However, in this book he finds himself out of his element, away from his pack and trying to woo Jaime. I loved seeing this side of him! As alpha he’s never allowed to have any fun because his pack mates trip over themselves for the privilege of dying for him. I enjoyed watching him assume the role of fighter, protector and grunt. It suits him! Plus, witnessing Jaime shut down Jeremy’s advances over and over again was hilarious. His wolves never say no to him so this was a whole new experience. Talk about sexual tension!

Hope Adams, Eve Levine and Karl Marsten also make notable contributions to the plot but honestly, I only had eyes for Jaime and Jeremy. Their budding romance is over-the-top adorable. There’s a kind of child like innocence to their relationship and yet not, because they’re both past their primes and have the experience that goes along with it. Their interactions have an awkward teenage-dating-type feel to them but their sexual encounters are anything but. No Humans Involved is just too amazing for words. I could go on all day about the merits of this novel but really, there’s only one way to experience this book and that’s first hand. If you haven’t read it yet you should, and if you have, you should read it again.

Books in this series:
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Recommendation:	Ideal for readers who love Urban Fantasy but are sick of only reading about 20-something’s.
Like this, like that:	The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton and the Alex Craft Series by Kalayna Price.

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