Flight from Death by Yasmine Galenorn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Title: Flight from Death
Author: Yasmine Galenorn
Series: Fly by Night, #1
Pages: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Date: July 7, 2015
Summary:
I’m Shimmer, a blue dragon shifter. Thanks to a mistake, I was exiled from the Dragon Reaches and sentenced to work for Alex Radcliffe, a vampire who owns the Fly by Night Magical Investigations Agency. Now, not only do I have to adapt to Earthside culture, but every time I turn around, somebody’s trying to kill us. And worse, Alex is as gorgeous as he is exasperating. But you know what they say: All’s fair in love and bounty hunting…
When an old friend of Alex contacts him about a haunting at the High Tide Bed & Breakfast in Port Townsend, Washington, we think we’re on a simple ghost hunt. But our investigation quickly transforms into a deadly fight as we uncover an eighty-year-old murder, a cursed house, and a dark force trapping the spirits within. To stop impending disaster we must break the curse and lay the angry spirits to rest.
Review:
First off, be sure and read the prequel to this book – Flight from Hell. It is a crossover book bridging the Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon series to the Fly by Night series. The primary characters are the sisters, but the cast for the new book are introduced and their relationships are explained. You don’t “have” to have read the Sisters series first, but it would help in understanding the prequel. It is not necessary at all to have read the Sisters to enjoy the Fly by Night series.
Okay, Flight from Death. This is a great first book in the series. There is not a tremendous amount of worldbuilding to bog down the story and the cast of characters is relatively small. There is Shimmer, a disgraced blue dragon, Alex, a private eye who happens to be a vampire, Ralph, a computer geek werewolf who faints at the sight of blood, and Bette, a snakeshifter with the appeal of a succubus.
Interested yet?
Alex is contacted by a former friend of his. Patrick is also a vampire, but no, Alex did not change him. That’s why he is a former friend. Patrick wanted to be changed and Alex refused. Patrick had to find another vampire to bring him over.
Anyway, Patrick is opening a B&B (of course, don’t all vampires run Bed & Breakfast inns?) which turns out to be haunted. And that is where things get creepy. Not scary, but creepy. I don’t know why the “big bad” in this book creeped me out, but it did. And that’s a clue, it’s an it, not a he.
Alex and gang, with the help of some of the locals, have to figure out what is haunting the inn and “kill” it. All the while, a relationship is developing between Alex and Shimmer. To be clear, this is not a romance novel. The relationship is a minor plotline, but I can see where it might become more.
The ending is solid with nothing left hanging. I am so tired of cliffhanger endings. I don’t expect books in a series to stand alone, but I do expect them to have a satisfying ending. This one does. Having said that, I cannot wait for the next in the series. It has not been announced yet, but I hope it is out soon.
This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Elaine Reads . . . constantly! 