Dante's Girl by Natasha Rhodes

This is the first book of the Kayla Steele series (of which there are now 3 total) and my second read for the Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge at Book Chick City.

This is a busy story! Kayla Steele is a perfume counter girl, who just wants her boyfriend Karrel Dante to propose to her. She believes he works at the humane society, with no clue to the secret life as a supernatural hunter he's been leading. She's about to be introduced to that world up close and personal, when she finds out about Karrel's death and true vocation, then becomes a target in the treacherous game being played between the different paranormal factions. Karrel is not completely gone, and by making a bargain he was able to pass along his strength to Kayla so that she can avenge his murder. Along with general mayhem, there's double crossing and back stabbing, biological research and testing, and power plays for dominance.

I'm only giving this one a 3/5, I liked it, but not really enough to pursue the rest of the series. There was too much going on for me, and not enough explanation or background for my liking. There are two big baddies that have branded their followers with their initial, but one of them is absent for almost the entirety of the book. I just felt like there was a lot of backstory on their history that I was missing. There are likable characters, Phil and Ninette from the hunters are fun, but I think I really expected Karrel Dante to be a much bigger player in the story than just the catalyst and a few small cameos.

Natasha Rhodes has done film novelizations for some horror, and sci-fi/fantasy franchises, and I feel like that is how this reads, like a sci-fi action movie, which is fine, but not my fave style. There is lots of fighting and chasing and running and more fighting and breaking things and blowing up places, and it's all quite well done. I say that because I often have a hard time keeping track of things during scenes like that, but I felt like the action was pretty well diagrammed here.

Check out Natasha on Fantastic Fiction to see her other novels.