Cold Reign is Jane Yellowrock at it's best. This was another fantastic addition to this series. 

If you want a definition of Urban Fantasy, you have it in Faith Hunter's work. After eleven books she has not lost her touch if anything I want to read more about her characters and their evolution. 

Jane Yellowrock started as a solo heroine. Now, she is part of a family which includes the two Younger brothers, Ed, Bruiser, Molly and Co, and now Brute. It seems some home renovations are in order. She might consider a bigger home too since she keeps on adding more people to her "clan". 

So what evil is Jane fighting this time? Well, it seems like the Revenant Vamps are back. They are popping up in different places in New Orleans and killing humans without a care. The European Vamps might be behind their attack. Jane as Leo Pellisier's enforcer is responsible for cleaning the area of the nasty revenant vamps. She's also Leo's security team and of course, Leo never makes things easy by hiding so much from Jane. I do agree with her, she must show him some manners. He pissed me off big time here. Or maybe, she should let Beast do the talking. He's really asking for it.

In regards to the romance, If you had read my prior reviews you know I'm a huge Bruiser lover. He's still perfect for Jane in my eyes. I'm very happy Mrs. Hunter makes it extremely clear who deserves Jane in this book.

Cold Reign is an unstoppable action-packed book. From the moment it begins, poor Jane and her friends don't get enough sleep or good food. I was devouring the pages in a desperate attempt to find out what Janie was going to encounter. I feared for everyone's lives in this one. No one seems to be safe. My heart was in my throat too many times.

I can honestly recommend this book 100% to any UF lover. 

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by the Ace via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another top notch instalment of this urban fantasy series with its unusual heroine of Cherokee skin walking Jane Yellowrock. Jane may be an enforcer for Master of the City Leo but she hasn't forgotten her human roots no matter how many Vampires she walks amongst. It's her job to put down those who cannot be controlled but that's not always easy as Leo believes he can utilise all his resources be they his Vampires or not! So when rogue Vampires start killing its up to Jane to dive in but these are no ordinary Vampires no these are revenant the most feral of all and someone is deliberately raising them to undermine Leo's authority! 
The author has been leading up to this book for quite some time now as we've been expecting a delegation of European Vampires ( Mithrans) to visit the city. Well perhaps all that preparation won't be going as planned because you just know there's something very fishy going on and yep it's all pointing to those from across the ocean. Problem is perhaps not all Leo's enemies are far away!
Vampire politics aside it was fabulous seeing how the dynamics within Janes own 'happy family' are changing. The two brothers that work with her are shown to be pretty awesome in this story with Eli being his usual bad ass although his personal life is going through changes. The Kid aka Alex is really growing up and pretty much proving invaluable plus there's quality time for Jane and Bruiser. Best of all though is Beast making her presence felt numerous times which adds so much humour to this story. Oh and there's someone back and there's no way Jane will let him walk all over her again! Yes a fabulous edition to this series with twists , magic and of course bloodthirsty action. Enjoy!
This voluntary review is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts are my own honest opinion

So I ran across Jane Yellowrock in the Earth series and now after reading Cold Reign I am hooked. Going back to #1 and buying backlist....great book

It was while reading the Soulwood series that I was introduced to world of Jane Yellowrock. I know now that I was obviously living under a boulder! I knew from reading the Soulwood installments that I wanted to know about this world but I had no idea that I was going to be blown away. This story was everything I wanted and more!

Cold Reign is the eleventh book in the Jane Yellowrock series. Being that this was the first book I read in the series I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to follow all the characters even though they had a long history. Ms. Hunter did a fabulous job of summing up relevant points in the character’s backstories while still being able to keep the plot moving.

The plot centered around the arrival of the European Vampires. They are a sneaky bunch and you will discover that they have had a long game plan that is well, centuries long. The unfurling of the master plan starts off with a few suspicious activities here and there. Revenants start popping up like daisies and Jane is forced to run all around New Orleans in order to do her best to contain them. Being the enforcer for Leo comes with some perks but in this story, I think there are more downsides. The EV’s are not the only characters who has been scheming. Oh yes, expect sneakiness and betrayals that will surprise you.

While Jane is running around dealing with situations that keep popping up, there are others that are attempting to steal magical items that she has in her care. These are items that she does not want in the wrong hands and has taken steps to keep them safe. Unfortunately, it seems that her safety plans failed to take everything into consideration. The end result was that her youngest clan member was in dangerous situations on more than one occasion. I personally enjoyed the magical elements in this story. One item in particular played a large role due to its wreaking havoc on her time shifting abilities.

This story is non-stop action that has many players. There are alliances made where there had been animosity. There is a real firming of the Yellowrock Clan as well as a few new additions. The Younger brothers were an intrical part to the plot as was Bruiser, Jane’s love interest. Their relationship went up a level in this story but it was all sweetness and little steam. Beast, I loved this side of Jane. She really added great interest to Jane’s overall character for me.

What an amazing urban fantasy! This is not a book that you will be able to put down easily! This especially applies if you have been a longtime fan of this series. In this book, there is closure for situations that occurred in previous books that are very satisfying. Cold Reign was a great read and this is a story that I highly recommend to all readers!

*Thank you to NetGalley & ACE for this eARC of Cold Reign*

I have read Faith Hunter's books for years.  Her Jane Yellowrock series was one of my first introductions to the fantasy genre.  I was a mystery gal, and rarely strayed from that genre.  I am so glad that I expanded my horizons to Faith Hunter aka Gwen Hunter.  She writes her characters with such warmth and care.  She stays true to their personalities as they grow and adapt with each book.  Cold Reign is the 11th book in the Yellowrock series that includes some novellas and companion pieces.  In this one, some of the oldest and most dangerous vampires from Europe have unexpectedly arrived in Louisiana.  Hunter has built up to this book over the last couple of years.  I knew the Europeans were coming and their arrival would mean chaos for Jane's world.  I think that their Machiavellian plan/the Long Game was perfect for their introduction to this reader.  Hunter writes in such realistic terms that a reader can easily fall into her world; and believe that if you drive to New Orleans -- you may actually run into Jane and her buddies.

SPOILER ALERT for those who wish to stop reading -- please do!

My only criticism is that I hope that the antagonism between Ricky and Jane is nearing its end.  By now, it seems drawn out and tired.  I hope that this book has put a period on it.  I know that Ricky left her, but the way it was written seems to have left Ricky little choice in the matter.  Jane has a new life with a fantastic lover/boy friend/companion; and her adopted family with the brothers/partners in Yellowrock Security, thus the continued animosity towards Ricky seems petty.  Towards the end of the book when the big showdown occurs between the "good" guys and the Europeans, Ricky, now able to change into a were-leopard (read her Soulwood series to get the full scoop) is not part of most of the action.  Allegedly, it's due to the fact that it takes some 20 minutes for the actual shift to occur, and the action takes place within most of those 20 minutes.  Ricky's courage was called into question by the others because he was not there fighting with Jane and her group.  I think that Hunter is trying to free Ricky's character from this series and move him to the Soulwood series exclusively.  That seems like a good idea, but the way she chose to do it provides one of the few false notes in the book.

SPOILER ALERT ENDS!

I greatly enjoy this series and enthusiastically await her next Jane Yellowrock book.  Faith Hunter has become a must read for me along with Karen Chance, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Seanan McGuire and Kalayna Price.  There are many more authors in this genre that deserve a read.  I strongly urge anyone who wants to read this author, or any of the others mentioned above, to start at the beginning.  These books, and the amazing characters found within, are worthy of being read in the order in which they are written.  I think that you will get so much more from the series if you follow this advice.

I absolutely loved reading this book! To prove this, I point to the evidence that I started reading this book in the early hours of April 4th. I finished around 7 am on April 4th. Is this sufficient evidence for the court?

This book ties a lot of threads together, from events from a lot of the previous books! Immanuel and the skinwalker-turned "u" name that I can't find anywhere, and how that's connecting to the now. I mean, we knew that vampires and history go hand in hand, but wow, does that history come to the fore with the European Vampire's (EV) upcoming visit!

The title of this book doesn't refer to Leo's reign. I'm pretty sure, though it can be applied, somewhat! Mainly, it's for Titus. Who's a very old vampire who used to be an emperor of the Roman Empire. And now is a very big bigwig in the EV circles. Yeah.

How it all ended, well, yeah, it's going to have an impact on the future. The game is changed, and there shouldn't be any more of the long lived plots and plans, but a decisive action shortly! And I can't wait to read it! 

Such an amazing book, and I can't wait for more of this series, and Nell's series, as well! Because I need more of both!

’twas a dark and stormy night…

…and the European Vamps have arrive.

As the Enforcer for Leo Pellisier, New Orleans’ master vampire, it’s left to Jane to plug every supernatural hole in the dike. She and her team find themselves called from one crisis to another as revenants rise and attack the people of the city while a supernatural storm beats down on New Orleans causing riots in the streets.

Jane is struggling to keep up as the European Vampires launch one attack after another and all the while they are circling ever closer to their end game.

This book is a runaway train. It crashes along at a frenetic pace and leaves you gasping for a breath by the end. It’s brash and in your face and one of the best books in the series to date. 5 Stars.

Current fans will read and enjoy it. Probably not for someone new to the series.

Faith Hunter continues to expand on the unique world inhabited by skinwalker and rogue vampire hunter, Jane Yellowrock, in the new addition to the series, Cold Reign.  Jane, who has the soul of a puma coexisting within her, and who can shift into a variety of animals, has lived a solitary life until she took a job in New Orleans tracking a rogue vampire, who happened to be the son of the Master Vampire of New Orleans.  Since then, more and more people and creatures have been added to her "family," and she's not sure how she feels about it.  In this next title, the European Vampires are negotiating their visit to New Orleans, and strange storms and magics invade ahead of them..  Loyalties will be tested, betrayals will be revealed, and Jane will have to save her city, again, with the help of her posse.  Most of the main characters show up in this book, and it was a pleasure to spend time with them all.  I did feel she should have given Rick La Fleur more of a break, since his abandonment of her was due to a witchy spell and not because he didn't love her.  But the plot has to move forward, and Jane seems to have found contentment in her life that she so desperately needed.  As a reader, I was satisfied with the outcome.  Enjoyable, as always.!

Impressive after so many books in a series, this book still manages to be fresh and I experienced no sense of series fatigue. The main characters continue to grow and change, but not in a ridiculously power up/Mary Sue manner of so many other urban fantasy female protagonists. Indeed this author seems to have Jane increase in power one step up and then take a step back again, while allowing her to experience emotional and relationship growths instead of a mad dash to semi-godess status so common to other series. Kudos to Ms. Hunter for keeping up the same great and engaging story telling that she showed in the first few books, something in my opinion that very few authors manage to do. I would have given it 5 stars, but I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and slightly unfulfilling.

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (stars rounded up)

Lee Child (and others, I'm sure) has said something along the lines of the key to writing a long-running series is that in each book you give the readers exactly the same thing, only different. Here in book 11 of the Jane Yellowrock series, that's exactly what Faith Hunter has delivered -- Jane Yellowrock up to her neck in revenant vampires, schemes within schemes within schemes, and dealing with the Big Cat that shares her body -- but in a new way, with different (yet the same) schemers, a different kind of revenant, and new challenges and revelations about her Beast.

The tricky part of this is coming up with something to say . . . I mean really, the fact that I'm still reading the series 11 books in pretty much demonstrates that I'm a fan and that I'm predisposed to like this -- both in its sameness and differentness. I like spending time with Jane and the rest (particularly Eli, Alex and Bruiser), seeing her navigate through this wold, and beating people up/taking out vampires. The "same" stuff is as good as always (maybe even a little better), so what about the "different" stuff?

There's a lot to cover on that front, actually -- I can't cover it all, that's Hunter's job (and she's so much better at it). But I can do a little. This book takes place sometime after Curse on the Land (yay, multi-series continuity!), and long enough after Shadow Rites that Jane's started to come to terms with her expanded household and all that it entails (please note the use of the word, "started" -- I'm not sure she's quite finished even at the end of this one). But that's just the beginning. There are a handful of revenants popping up -- but they're not the kind that Jane is used to dealing with. And their presence might be signalling something significant.

The Youngers have evolved somewhat -- Alex is maturing, and even getting out of the house a little -- but he's still the same dude. Eli -- wow, we see so many sides of him here that we hadn't before (maybe saw hints of, but not like this), I loved every bit of the Eli material here -- and man, did he make me laugh. He also made me get a little bleary eyed at one point -- something I couldn't ever imagine that I'd say.

Beast does something that I don't think we've seen before -- she has something going on that she's keeping from Jane. There's something she knows, maybe something she did, that she's blocked Jane's knowledge of . That's scary -- kinda cool -- but mostly scary. The repercussions of Beast doing things without the human part of her knowing, there's a couple of books right thee.

Naturally, the biggest differences come from growth and changes to Jane herself -- at one point, she says

    My life was so weird I scarcely recognized it.

The only reason readers can recognize it is that we've followed the series -- if someone made the strange decision to read Skinwalker and then jump to Cold Reign, I bet they'd barely recognize the protagonist. The changes in her abilities, her shifting (but not totally shifted) feelings towards vampires and their practices, her love life, her friends, her understanding of her past, etc., etc. -- she's come a long way, mostly for the good, I think. There's even a sentence I identified in my notes as "possibly the sweetest, sappiest thing to come out of Jane's narration." I decided not to include it here, but fans will gush over it. I just know it.

None of that means that when it comes time for bringing the pain that Jane's not up to it -- in fact, thanks to recent events, she's better at it than ever. Her use of the Gray Between (which is bordering on being over-used), is improved here -- she's able to handle it better and uses it to her great advantage. Yeah, she might be not be that recognizable, but she's a better character for it.

The core of this book -- plotwise, anyway -- comes back to the looming summit with the European Vampires, while Leo continues preparing for it, some things start happening that make he and his Enforcers begin to think that maybe the EVs are already in New Orleans and doing what they can to undermine him before anything official happens. Hunter, like many authors, has really taken advantage of the long-lived nature of vampires and how they'll use that for long-range planning. In Cold Reign we see that used very well -- as I mentioned before, there's a new kind of revenant running around New Orleans -- and there's no good explanation for how that's happening (there's a pretty diabolical explanation, however). This brings us back to the first time Jane stuck her toe in the water of Leo Pellisier's plans, and the early defenses against insurgents that Jane mounted on his behalf. Plots and schemes that we thought we were done with (if only because the plotters and schemers were no more), are brought back up and put into a new light in a very convincing manner. If Hunter said that she'd been planning these moves since book 2 or so, I'd believe her -- I'd also believe her if she said that she needed something for this book and took advantage of some of material from her early books. Either way, she does a very clever job of it.

There's a little bit of Soulwood in Cold Reign. We get a mention or two of Nell Ingram. Rick LaFleur is around doing PsyLED stuff -- without the rest of his team, sadly. Soul is seen a few times, but doesn't do much (but what she does is pretty cool).

I've long enjoyed Jane's calorie-rich dietary needs and the abandon with which she dives into her food -- and I think I've noted with both books, how fun it is to watch Nell Ingram sample junk food. But I think in Cold Reign, Best trumps them both -- she eats her first taco. And I found it delightful, really, literally laughing out loud. I've decided that what Hunter's fans need is a Food Network-style show featuring Jane, Nell and Beast trying various foods -- I'd just love it.

The ending came a little quicker than I expected (possibly was confused thanks to the Soulwood preview at the end tweaking the percentage -- but even without that, it seemed sudden). Which isn't a bad thing, and probably says more about me than anything about the book -- maybe I just wasn't ready to say "see ya later" to Clan Yellowrock yet. Without spoiling much, there wasn't a lot of resolution here -- there was enough -- but not as much as you might expect. The threat to Leo is still out there, and Jane et al. have their work cut out for them to prevent a European Vampire takeover.

Another winning tale of Vampire Politics, New Orleans weather, Magic, Big Cats and blood -- lots and lots of blood. At this point, I'm not sure Hunter can do anything wrong with this series -- and I hope she doesn't prove me wrong anytime soon. Get your orders in now folks so you can dive on it on May 2.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for this post -- thanks to both for this.
N.B.: As this was an ARC, any quotations above may be changed in the published work -- I will endeavor to verify them as soon as possible.

I particularly appreciate that the characters continue to evolve...not just Jane, but the supporting cast, as well.

If you haven't read the previous books, now is <i>not</i> the time to start this series!  Jane Yellowrock's life is self-admittedly weird, and with the EuroVamp contingent arriving, the weird just keeps happening.  Her self-made family bond is strong though, and pressure just bonds them even closer.

As always, I love Faith Hunter's unique take on vampires, witches and shapechangers, and even more so her cultural references.  <spoiler> Loving someone more than bacon - that really means something!</spoiler>  Her dry humor keeps me snarking, and I enjoy watching her characters change and grow.  Beast, especially, has such a unique perspective on Jane's life which is incredibly entertaining, and her thoughts are changing Jane's outlook too.  <i>Knowing</i> you're being manipulated doesn't always help, so self-awareness that she's making it all up as she goes along is a nice touch.

This one was a little slow for me. The story line dragged and I really couldn't get into it like I had hoped. I really like the characters though and how they interacted with each other. The skin walkers were interesting and I loved Beast. She was my favorite part.

The first third of this novel was a little bit slow, but once the action started, it was non-stop.  Jane is developing her own entourage that is starting to mirror the vampires' hierarchy.  A lot of soul reflection and brutal combat in this story.  I can't wait until Leo and the European vampire finally duel!

Full review to be published online in early May.

The European Vamps have finally arrived, sort of. They are sneaking in in small numbers and wreaking havoc on New Orleans, partly by way of the revenants who have been rising and killing both human and supernatural citizens of the city. The vain and egotistical Master of the City Leo Pellisier is, as usual, oblivious to the impending threat to his vampire clan until his Enforcer Jane carefully explains the danger. 

The setup to the main story was slow. After the initial excitement of the revenant risings the story segued into the very long and unnatural storm and strange occurrences in the city; and yet another purification visit to Aggie One Feather. It was fully one-third of the book before the storyline got back on track; but when it finally did, the plotline moved along nicely. Yes, the European's are finally here, having sneaked in right under everyone's nose.

There was more of the magical woo-woo and Jane's increasing powers that have now become a staple of the series. I'm not a fan of the overdone magical sequences in the books, and the time-bending magic was way overused. I miss the kickass Jane of the early books who didn't rely on magic tricks so much. It's here to stay, though, so I guess I'll just have to learn to deal with it. It was, however, good to see the solidification of Jane's 'clan', especially Eli and Alex. Some more stuff in Jane's personal life gets tossed into the air. Oh, and Beast wasn't shoved into the background as she has been in a couple of recent books. On a side note, Leo has to be the single most ineffectual master vampires I've ever read.

Overall, it was a worthy entry to the series, if not quite as great as some of the early books. As much as I love Jane and her world, I'm wondering if it's not time for Hunter to think about wrapping this series up.

Cold Reign is a strong addition to the Yellowrock series. Hunter has avoided letting Jane go stale by allowing her to grow. Jane might face many of the same problems as in book 1 but in book 11 Jane has some fresh perspective. It doesn’t feel like Jane is treading water – Jane is actually getting somewhere and as a reader that is satisfying. Cold Reign offers humor, action, suspense and intrigue with a dash of delightful magic. This installment was fun to read and will not disappoint Yellowrock fans.