Jane’s secondary home base of Asheville, North Carolina may be home but it’s not where the Dark Queen should be living if she wants to keep her people safe. A threat to her empire has come to NOLA and Jane and her crew fly in to hunker down, hold the fort, and kick some vamp butt. Jane’s past is as vampire hunter and enforcer for the ex- Master of the City in New Orleans, but now that he’s gone Jane is keeping her people safe the only way she knows how. Investigating the threat and killing offer her enemies. This time there are some surprise in store.

I love that Jane is back in New Orleans, the place where it all began. Wrassler and the police LT. Jodie are getting married at HQ and Jane needs to make sure their wedding goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately there are enemies in the city who have other ideas over what needs to happen. Constantly under attack, Jane still managers to investigate the past, put pieces into a puzzle that she has been working on for awhile, a puzzle that will explain who the big bad is that is in town.

I have loved the evolution of enforcer to Dark Queen. I’ll admit that my head was spinning after Leo died, Jane got cancer, based herself out of a winery in Asheville, and healed. I hated leaving the Tequila Boys, and everyone at HQ behind, so when I saw the synopsis of this novel that Jane and her gang was headed back to New Orleans I was so excited to get the book and start reading. It was everything I wanted it to be. Although Jane is now the big boss as the Dark Queen, to these people that she knows so well she is still “Legs” and finds relief in being treated the same by her friends. At least in private.

There are some evolutions to Jane’s relationship with Beast that are best found out as you read the novel, but they bring an interesting twist to each dangerous escapade that keeps you on the edge of your seat and your heart pumping if you see if Jane will come out of this most recent war intact. As with all the novels, she has her two chosen brothers, Eli and Alex by her side, but her true brother Ayatas Firewind plays a bigger role in this book and their familial relationship advances adding another element to who Jane is and was.

I can’t end this review without talking about Jane’s relationship with her love Bruiser. He has his own bit of discovery and evolution in True Dead. Despite both of their characters learning and evolving never fear, they are truly bonded and together.

You’ve heard me say this before (now, 14 times!) but I have to repeat it. If you haven’t read this series please start with book #1. Admittedly that book is the worst of the series because all of these characters grow so much over every book and are a little flat in the first novel. The books just get better and better after that first novel. You can’t jump in at book #14. You wouldn’t understand the nuances in the story or characters so I wouldn’t even try but if you give book #1 a chance you will be in for a really fun, riotously fanciful, dark and thrilling urban fantasy series. You won’t regret the time it takes for you to catch up, I promise!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for my honest review and it was honest.

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