JACOB
(The Nightwalkers, Book 1)
(The Nightwalkers, Book 1)
by Jacquelyn Frank
Zebra December 1, 2006
Mass Market Paperback 320 pages/ Kindle 280 KB
Disclosure: Purchased
Jacob the Enforcer belongs to one of the many Nightwalker races that thrive on the dark of night. He has a job to do for his species and it's rather straightforward. He polices his people. During the full moon their animal urge to mate overcomes them, and if they stay within their race they never need to encounter the Enforcer. But if they cross the line and turn their lust to another species...say humans...it's Jacob's duty to prevent them and then to punish them severely for it. As this 'madness' grows worse and worse for his people, there is hardly a family who hasn't felt the brutal sting of Jacob's justice. Punishment is so dire and so feared, Jacob can call very few others his friend and the life the Enforcer leads is a very solitary one.
Then one night during a hunt for one of his own, he encounters the first human woman who will tempt him in all of his 622 years of life. Isabella is a simple Bronx gal who works at her local library, lives with her sister and owns a cat.
She hardly expects a night of moongazing to change her life forever and send her falling for a man like Jacob in all kinds of outrageous ways. Heck, she certainly doesn't expect that he isn't exactly a 'man'... although he sure looks like one, smells like one and boy-oh-boy does he feel like one!
As for the Enforcer, Jacob finds himself tempted beyond reason, needing Isabella to the point that he begins to strain against every law he has always upheld.
But before long the couple finds themselves fighting for their lives against evil, Jacob's bretheren, and even their own desires for each other. How can they find the way to resist one another before Jacob faces his own punishments...or before Bella ends up dead, torn up from the animal passion inside of him that she, as a human, is too frail to ever endure?www.jacquelynfrank.com
Yet another series I haven't read. Until now. This is definitely a series I plan to continue reading. The characters are a bit standard for Paranormal Romance. Impossibly handsome, older, hero-supernatural, Jacob meets easy to identify with, spunky, smart, under-appreciated, inexperienced woman in a manner screaming "destiny!" and "soul-mate!" She is curvy in all the places a man wants a woman to be curvy... Other characters like Gideon, the demon doc, are more varied.
The species are a bit different. Demons aren't raging evil beasts but do have a raging beastly and predatory nature that can overwhelm their more human side. Frank has good consistency in her world building but it is open enough that she can fill needs as they arise. Enough of the species is recognizable with standard conventions, ex. demon summoning by true name.
There is a great balance and flow to Frank's writing, especially in regards to dialogue/exposition which is a big thing for me. The dialogue itself is a little uneven—sometimes heading into gooey territory.
The intimate, erotic scenes are intensely emotional versus graphic. There is still hot, wet, tightness but it is manageable. Jacob's character has huge internal conflicts over being with Isabella. He sees it as a danger to her, in more than just a physical, I'm-a-beast way; rather it is the internal demon politics and external forces he is worried about.
The story is good, and it moves well. The character arcs for future books are set up nicely. I admire a device Frank uses to offset a Christian bias against the paranormal by having the demons respect Christianity and use an everyday name from the Bible. This would help vaccinate the series against the rhetoric other series have faced.
All in all, it is a good story with highs and lows and enough to get me interested in the next book. I can recommend it to you if you are looking for a sexy series that offers identifiable heroines and delectable dudes.
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