Title: House of the Rising Sun
Author: Kristen Painter
Series: Crescent City - book 1
Format: Paperback (borrowed from my Library)
Length: 403 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Harlow is a Fae, but she doesn't like this fact, and does what she can to hide it. She's lucky, unlike some other Fae, that she doesn't have horns. Augustine is one of those Fae who has horns. He is also not comfortable with his Fae blood and cuts off his horns. These two come together when a war against vampires invading the great haven city of New Orleans comes to their doorstep.
What makes a great story? To me, part of this is after putting a book down, not being able to stop thinking about it. I finished this book days ago, and I can't stop thinking about it. I'm trying to figure out how to cheat in my book buying ban - I'm already failing at - to get the next book.
I really connected with Harlow. I haven't experienced her specific struggles myself, but I really feel for her and was happy with her as she learned to slowly, accept her Fae blood and abilities. Harlow, at the start of the story, has been set up and charged with a crime. A crime she unknowingly committed, thinking it was an actual job, and that she had been hired to find the holes in a company's systems. She has a huge fine, sucks it up and goes to ask her mother for help. She's basically cut her mother off, but is at a dead end, and either pays the fine, or goes to jail.
She's cut off communication with her mother because her mother refuses to say anything about her father. All her mother will tell her is that he is a dangerous man. Thank goodness for Augustine, because after her mother is killed by vampires, Harlow finds out just how dangerous of a man he is.
There is one thing about Harlow I found rather annoying. I felt like some of her problems she didn't want to face, and so the solutions were put on others to carry out. For example, when her father sends her something after she told him no, she puts it on Augustine to do something with the item. Not only, does she put it on Augustine to do something with the item, but when the item arrives Augustine is out, working. She calls him to come home and tells him it's an emergency, do not pass go, do not collect your $200 dollars, do not stop to smell the roses. The item, is not something that would cause an emergency. I felt she was a bit of a child in this scene and some others.
I'm not saying this is not in her character. But, when those moments came up in the story, I wanted to reach in the book, slap her, and tell her to grow up.
Danger isn't exactly lurking around each and every corner. What kept me turning the pages was seeing both Harlow and Augustine grow, and having things unfold almost like watching a chess match between the two great chess masters. The book also doesn't exactly end on a cliff hanger, but you do know there is more of this story to come. There are things left unresolved.
I give this book 4 of 5 stars, and do look forward to reading the next book - City of Eternal Night - sometime this year.
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