Book Series :: Sentinels of New Orleans

This past April I visited New Orleans for the first time. As a tourist I saw all the sites: the French Quarter, walked Magazine Street, St. Louis Cemetery #1. One morning I took a walking tour hosted by a local, and he talked about the history of New Orleans and its inhabitants. We all had a good time. Then he talked about hurricane Katrina and everyone went quiet. He had lived it and survived to tell the tale.

So did Suzanne Johnson, and while ROYAL STREET (Amazon) is your typical Urban Fantasy, she handles the Katrina angle with the reverence it deserves, thereby adding with fascinating detail a compelling setting.
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It’s been a few years since Hurricane Katrina, and all the paranormal goings-on in ROYAL STREET (EBR Review). DJ has been settling into her role as the New Orleans sentinel, a wizard who keeps the preternatural denizens from running amok. At her side is Alex Warin, previously an enforcer for the Council of Elders, and now co-sentinel and best friend–even if she’s not above admiring his good looks and muscular physique.

The boundaries with the Beyond and the human world were cracked by Hurricane Katrina, but things seemed to have settled back to normal–well, the new normal, anyway. At least until the historically undead Jean Lafitte asks DJ for her help intervening in a dispute between two tribes of Cajun merfolk. Merfolk along the Mississippi River have been falling ill and each tribe blames the other for poisoning the water. It won’t be long before humans become affected.

DJ and Alex go to investigate and come across a dead body in the marsh…who turns out to be a wizard.Read the rest of this review »

DJ Jaco, the sentinel for New Orleans, has proven her mettle. In ROYAL STREET (EBR Review), Hurricane Katrina changed boundaries with the Beyond, flooding the area with preternaturals, her mentor disappearing in the chaos. In RIVER ROAD (EBR Review) she solves a wizard’s murder and settles a mer feud. Now in ELYSIAN FIELDS by Suzanne Johnson (Amazon), it appears that one of the historic undead has emerged from the Beyond to continue what he started in 1918… as a serial killer.
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DJ’s life is full of the good and the bad. For example: bad–last month she was bitten by a loup-garou; good–she was kept from changing by elf magic; bad–that meant a blood bond with the most annoying elf in existence; good–she was able to keep her friend Jake from getting in trouble. Bad–at the opening of PIRATE’S ALLEY (Amazon) she’s still injured and homeless as a result of the events in ELYSIAN FIELDS (EBR Review). Good–she’s living at her best friend Eugenie’s place, Alex is still her boyfriend, and she’s been able to avoid Rand for the most part.

But DJ knows that any of that can change in a heartbeat. Like when she discovers that Eugenie is pregnant with Rand’s child. But it turns out that’s not all she has to worry about.
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I’m not sure if DJ can handle much more of this. I’m not sure I can handle much more of this. Seriously this woman needs to get her life back in order. Too bad it’s her sense of loyalty to her friends that her boss can’t seem to appreciate. Fortunately, she’s chosen well in her friends, because they may be all she has between her and those trying to kill her.

DJ has found herself on the run after the events of PIRATE’S ALLEY, her own wizard First Elder has determined her a criminal for simply wanting to protect her best friend, Eugeine. Fortunately her friend, the undead pirate Jean Lafitte, is harboring the fugitive and Eugeine at his home in Old Barataria. The result is a lot of sneaking around if DJ wants to figure out how to solve her current problem.
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