Non-Spoiler Thoughts on the Jane Yellowrock Series.

The last of the Jane Yellowrock books that I read (which is called Mercy Blade, and which is the third book in the series) is the first one that I really got excited about reading and wanted to down as quickly as I could. Yes, the first two books were entertaining, but there were far too many parts that felt a bit like they were dragging. It probably helped a lot that in the third book is where the werewolves (as well as other were-creatures (such as panthers and lions) were introduced). All you have to do is know me for all of five minutes to realize just how much I love werewolves and werewolf stories (and that I much prefer them to vampires, or any other supernatural type characters).

It didn't even matter to me that there is something seriously off about the werewolves (and not any of the other were-creatures) ... it makes me love them a little bit more, the fact that there is something seriously damaged about them. I guess that may say something about me (and perhaps more than I realize), but I have always thought that werewolves should be tragically flawed.

I'm also really glad that Faith Hunter has seemed to have finally gotten her groove when it comes to these books, since it sometimes can make a series kind of daunting to try to get into when the author doesn't seem to "feel" the things that s/he is writing (that they are outside of the story, instead of making themselves a part of it through the use of one or more other characters ... I kind of feel like that will make sense to people that write, but may not make any kind of sense to people who don't). And the fact that the go to curse word for this character is "crap," and it is said at least once every two pages or so (at least that's what it seems like ... it almost makes me want to go back and do a count of how many times she does it through each book of the series), has stopped bugging me as much as it was in the first couple of books, but that has a lot to do with the fact that this last book made me all kinds of happy on the inside (and the current one is making me happy as well, but for spoilery reasons).

And the farther I get into this particular series by her, the more I wish that there was some kind of cross-over with her Rogue Mage series. The mages in that series seem like they are related to the witches in the Jane Yellowrock series (and in my personal headcanon, the Rogue Mage series is what happens to the witches in the future, after the whole world goes to Hell ... it would just make me all kinds of happy to find out that my fanon is actually author canon).

But there is one thing that bugs me about this series that really has nothing to do with Ms. Hunter: it bugs the hell out of me that the model that they use for the cover of the books (and which is supposed to be the main character of thse books) is different on every. single. book. I suppose that I could always try to handwave this fact, saying that she is a skinwalker and changing her shape is part of who she is. But being a skinwalker doesn't mean that she is a shapeshifter. What I mean is that her human form shouldn't change ... she should still have the same face every time she goes back into her human form (and the fact that no one has ever made comment about the fact that she looks different, and everyone is always able to recognize her should say something to the fact that her original form remains the same). Like I said, not a problem with the author, but a problem with the people involved with putting together the cover art of the different books.