Christopher Ransom – The Haunting of James Hastings

James Hastings works as a double for notorious rapper Ghost (think Eminem). When his wife Stacey is killed in a car accident he quits his job, a year later he is still struggling to come to terms with her death and when he meets a new woman, Annette, strange things start happening such as Stacey’s shoes appearing in the hallway and mysterious phone calls that originate from within the house when James is the only person there.

I had read and enjoyed Christopher Ransom’s first novel, The Birthing House, so I was interested to see what this next book had to offer. I preferred The Birthing House but I still enjoyed reading this book as well. James Hastings is a flawed character, but one with whom the reader is able to sympathise with most of the time.

The story was well paced, gradually building up the mystery and suspense. In places it was decidedly creepy. There were a few good and unexpected twists at the end (although this did make it slightly confusing at times). I think the book could have done without some of the epilogue though.

Rachel Vincent – Alpha

Alpha is the sixth and final book in the Faythe Sanders werecat series. It follows on almost immediately from where Shift left off. The pride and their allies are about to go to war against Calvin Malone and his followers, they know that it’s unlikely that they will all survive and there are some tough decisions ahead, especially for Faythe.

Rachel Vincent proved in previous books in the series that she is not afraid to kill off major, popular characters and this book was no exception to that. I had previously guessed one of the characters to be killed but that didn’t lessen the impact of it when it eventually did happen.

Faythe also has to choose between the two men she loves, Marc and Jace. There are plenty of occasions in the book where it could go either way. Personally I wanted her to choose the other one, but nonetheless the decision was made in a satisfying way and I didn’t feel that the reader had been cheated out of a proper decision which could easily have happened.

I had been really looking forward to this book and I was certainly not disappointed by it. The only downside is that this is now the end of the series!