March 09, 2012

AAD Review: Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson


Royal Street
By Suzanne Johnson
Paperback, 336 pages
Expected publication: April 10th 2012
By Tor Books
eARC received via NetGalley
As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco's job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans' fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.

While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover. To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards' Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ's new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.

Prepare yourself for one heck of a ride! Royal Street has everything a fantasy book should have!

Suzanne Johnson pulled me into a world that was action packed with witty characters, and a sprinkle of romance on top. I loved it! I would love to be in the shoes of the main character, Drusilla. Her world is nothing but non-stop excitement. Some of the things that came out of Drusilla’s mouth, or ran through her head, was hilarious. I want to be best friends with this character.

Royal Street moves at a really great pace and you really get to know the characters. Everything in Royal Street was so easy to picture. It was almost like I was watching a TV episode play out in my head. One thing I loved more than anything was all the magic involved. It was like an episode of Charmed, only with one strong female character instead of three. Throw in a hot, sexy, and smart mouth partner named, Alex, and BOOM! Perfect story!

The romance part of the book isn't really the main focus and it's not HUGE, but you can definitely feel the chemistry between Alex and Drusilla. I think Royal Street was just the opening for their relationship and I really hope there is a sequel and a lot more romance between the two. I really liked Alex and would love to see Drusilla end up with him. Another thing that I really liked was that the author added her point of view on Hurricane Katrina. She is actually a survivor and it was nice reading what things were like through her eyes. I would imagine what she described in the book was from her own true life experience. That was a plus for me.

This book was just so much fun to read and I highly recommend it. Super entertaining!

 5 out of 5 Stars!





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This review is part of Authors After Dark Reading Challenge hosted by Midnyte Reader.




15 comments:

  1. This is the first I have seen of ROYAL STREET. It does look amazing.

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    1. I loved it! It's funny, action packed, and filled with lot's of magic! It's on NetGalley.

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  2. Sounds great, thanks for the review will definitely be checking this one out!

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  3. This sounds a great book! I've never heard of it before but I think I'll check it out when i get the time. Great review.

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  4. It sounds awesome!

    When it's done great, urban fantasy rocks!

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  5. I got a copy of this book & I was planning on reading it next. :) So glad to know it's a good one!

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    1. Leah, you're going to love it! I don't normally read UF, but the author had reached out to me and asked if I'd like to read it as part of my AAD reading challenge. I am so glad I said yes! I loved it!

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  6. I've never heard about this book before but it sounds so great! It seems to be the kind of book that I'd love to read. And I'm glad that the romance is not the main focus in it.

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    1. I am a huge romance junkie, but to be honest, I think I burned myself out with romance. I've been enjoying books a lot more lately where the romance is there, but not a big one and not the main plot.

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  7. I'm so glad you enjoyed this. I just recently won this one, and hadn't heard too much about it. Sounds like it could be very promising. Glad to hear it's a page turner!

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    1. Vivien, you have to link your review to us when you do read it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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  8. i'm hoping 2 hoping to get it soon
    rad review

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  9. Ooh, this book sounds really awesome! So glad you loved it, Damaris. Although it's not my usual book, I'll have to keep my eye open for it. :)

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  10. Sounds great! Thank you for the review!

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  11. The fact that it takes place in NOLA is a huge plus for me. I have this book pre-ordered. I'm glad the romance isn't the main focus.

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