ROYAL STREET by Suzanne Johnson

A fantastic new urban fantasy series set in post-Katrina New Orleans staring the city's junior wizard sentinel, Drusilla Jaco.

 

As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco spends more of her time mixing potions and retrieving pixies than she does sniffing out supernatural bad guys that slip over from the preternatural beyond. It is DJ's eccentric boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, who is tasked with protecting the city.

 

But when Hurricane Katrina hammers the city's fragile levees, it unleashes more than just flood waters. As the winds howl and Lake Pontchartrain surges, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld start to crumble away...

 

Now the dead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering soldiers sent to help the city recover. To make it worse, Gerald St. Simon has gone missing, the wizards' Elders have assigned a grenade-toting asshat as DJ's new partner, and the pirate Jean Lafitte - who has an impressive libido for a 200-year-old - wants her to walk his plank.

 

If she is going to survive, DJ will have to learn that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies can be found in unlikely places ... and that duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.

I've been looking forward to checking out this series for a while now, so I was really excited when I started this book and was instantly hooked.

 

When Drusilla Jaco (DJ) is sent to get rid of a pesky, undead pirate who has crossed over into our world from the Beyond, she didn't count on making an enemy that would return to haunt her in violent, surprising and lustful ways. But the junior wizard sentinel hasn't got time to worry about him at the moment because Hurricane Katrina is about to hit New Orleans and she has to leave the city, which she does for a few weeks. But when her mentor Gerald St. Simon disappears, she returns to the devastated area determined to find him.

 

At least her house has survived, and she's able to carry on with her life in the almost empty city.

 

The Elders send her a partner--an enforcer--who is easy on the eye, but very frustrating and trigger happy. Not to mention that he's got his own secrets and a cousin that ends up being just as alluring as he is. DJ has her work cut out for her now that she's knee-deep in the mud and trying to find out what happened to Gerry, while uncovering some secrets from her own past, learning a bit more about her power and wielding it like she hasn't before.

 

Royal Street is an awesome book. A fantastic start to an interesting and unique urban fantasy series featuring a great heroine. As well as a supporting cast that I can't wait to catch up with again. I also loved how vivid the New Orleans imagery was, as well as how the devastation caused to such a beautiful city was portrayed with respect and made even more sinister by adding the supernatural.

 

I'm already a fan and can't wait to read more!

Royal Street, December 2012, ISBN 9780755397655, Headline