Another fun, engaging paranormal mystery tale about that mysterious new resident to Fairhaven, Pennsylvania, a small town who seems to be supernatural center in Pike County.
Annabel Chase’s enigmatic magical newcomer, Lorelei Clay can’t seem to keep up her plans off renovations and isolation in her rundown Bluebeard’s Castle of a ruin but once again is reluctantly caught up in a local ghostly mystery.
A local legend of a real estate agent comes knocking with a deal that’s hard to ignore, get rid of a ghost so she can sell a house and she’s will get Lorelei’s moat redone for free.
But in this town, it’s never simply a quick fix.
Chase has written another great little story, full of new quirky characters, new questions about Lorelei’s identity, and further expands and explores the history of Fairhaven and the otherworldly beings that inhabit it.
Slowest burn romance evah. I’m here for it.
And I love these so much it’s tough to stop to remember to review each one.
Reluctant ghost whisperer Lorelei Clay wants a working moat, which is the only reason she agrees to help with yet another supernatural situation. The simple ghostbusting job quickly escalates when Lorelei discovers the involvement of a powerful and ancient collective not known for their social skills.
Lorelei wants nothing more than to get back to her renovations and her life of solitude, but it becomes painfully clear that if she can’t fix this small-town problem, Fairhaven is going to suffer big-time consequences.
Dead of Night is the second book in the Crossroads Queen urban fantasy series.
Another new book, another new to me author , series and universe to explore. What fun!
Several great elements here that I love. Lorelei Clay is an enigma. She’s powerful but exactly where she draws the power from or what she is, well, here, there’s only the tiniest bit of clues.
I love a good mystery.
The town itself is another. Its history is part of the narrative and twines itself perfectly with the mystery and Lorelei’s investigation into the missing girl and her own discoveries of the community around her.
Chase has created in Lorelei Clay an intriguing older woman, one of tightly controlled emotions and magic. I instantly connected with her, the ghosts of the crumbling castle she’s renovating, and the weirdness of the small town community that keeps inserting itself into her isolation.
I can see myself gobbling up these books like the best book binge evah.
Love the covers. It seems that the publisher has a similar style for its authors.
Now onto the next.
A definite winner. Check it out. Oh and no romance, so no spice. But ghosts and a mystery. Great characters.
She isn’t even like other supernaturals. Her specialties are the nightmares of the living, communication with the dead, and cooking bacon until it’s golden brown and perfectly crispy—no magic required.
Six months ago she moved to the ultimate fixer upper, a monstrosity from the Gilded Age that borders the local cemetery in the sleepy Pennsylvania town of Fairhaven. Lorelei is content to spend the next few years in solitude, renovating the house and avoiding humanity, until a missing young woman disrupts her plans. Lorelei’s search for the teenager means crossing paths with the residents she’s successfully avoided so far, including the human police chief, the coven, a cursed vampire, the assassins guild, the werewolf pack, and the mysterious and infuriatingly alluring owner of The Devil’s Playground, an elegant nightclub that caters to the local supernatural clientele.
Lorelei plans to find the girl quickly and return to the privacy of her castle walls before anyone learns her secrets, but you know what they say about the best laid plans…
Dead to the World is the first book in the Crossroads Queen urban fantasy series.
The Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth is a series that just gets better with each increasingly strange and complicated story that Hignett lays out for her characters, especially the severely damaged, deeply traumatized wolf shifter Daphne.
Living in a building in the middle of the slimiest of the slums of The Hidden City of Philadelphia, along with Chaos Goose, a female of unknown species living called Myf in the cupboard, and the deadliest sorceress of all times , Countess Ebadorathea Greenwood, her grandmother figure, living next door, Daphne’s life is full of stress , confusion, and despair. Especially as she’s a new social worker for the paranormal children of the city with little support and resources.
Then dead bodies start to appear on her doorstep, delivered in a very strange and deliberate manner.
If I wasn’t already in love with this author, The Wolf Vs The Warlock would have cinched the deal. With a female character who’s constantly struggling with her trauma, trying to desperately make her job to reach/save the lost PNR children of The Hidden city, and fighting the supernatural battles that seem to follow her, it’s a great series and story.
Daphne’s a personality so consistently inconsistent, still deeply undefined, that we have no idea where her overall storyline is headed or exactly what actions she’s going to take in any given situation. Will she talk the being/person about changing their lives, go for the throat, or something shockingly wild, sort of whack a doodle. No clue. And it will be totally fine, with whatever is happening, astonishingly so.
This narrative approach works well so as others learn from her actions and comments, things that will inevitably leave hints to her past and present status, we learn as well.
The murder mysteries are key and lead to another interaction with Romeo, Warlock of the City and his coven.
The coven members are fascinating, Romeo’s connection to Daphne deepens, and the plotting is better than ever. It’s complicated, full of beautifully crafted characters, vividly imagined scenes, and detailed locations and great dialogue.
Don’t miss out on the hilarious cast of characters that is given at the beginning of each story. Dry and funny.
Dave the ghoul is a new favorite. But the Countess is top tier.
“Who would leave a corpse on my doorstep as a gift?”
The countess shrugged, an elegant hitch of her shoulders. “Have you expressed a desire for rotting flesh to anyone lately?”
— The Wolf Vs The Warlock: The Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth by Lauretta Hignett
I adore the Countess, she just gets ever more impressive and dangerous, of course.
This story is excellent is every way. Characters, plot, dialogue and moving forward an already amazing labyrinthine series arc. I highly recommend this series and book.
Nothing ruins your day more than a bloated, stinking corpse on your doorstep.
My natural optimism has taken a serious beating lately. I’ve been working my butt off, drafting a series of outreach programs to help the poor, lost supe kids of the Hidden City before they fall through the cracks in our society and end up in our Otherworld Child Protective system. There’s one thing I desperately need, and that’s funding.
But there’s no money to be had. Nobody wants to invest in these kids; it’s enough to break your heart. The rejection letters are ruining my morning, and that’s before I slipped on the bloated corpse at my front door.
Things take a turn when I’m summoned to a meeting with Mina, the matriarch of the Jupiter coven — my ex-boyfriend’s mom. Mina’s offering me exactly what I need.
She’s got a job for me. One that I’m not sure if I want to do anymore.
The Wolf Vs The Warlock is book two in the Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth, a hot new Urban Fantasy series by bestselling author Lauretta Hignett.
Honestly, still thinking about the rating because the book and female character is so strange but I’m getting into it,as weirdly great as it is.
And she and the world is plenty different. Mostly it’s her, Daphne, she’s plenty different, with two voices in her head, enough trauma to fill several oceans, and deadly skill sets that are still being revealed. Along with her pasts that were spent in other realms, alien hellish ones as a lost child.
There’s the suspicious deadly brain Daphne, absolutely bloodthirsty. Then there’s heart Daphne, naive, obsessive, wanting to think better of others (even though she knows that they are evil). The conflict between these two is constantly ongoing and a real conversation.
Yes it takes time to get into this mess of a character and her situation but stick with it, she and the book is worth it.
Because the surprises will come nonstop as well.
Hignett does an excellent job with such a complicated character like Daphne, a wolf shifter who’s so severely traumatized by the years of abuse and sheer brutality of wandering through alien realms as a small child trying to escape and get home that her personality seems splintered. Or is it?
Each new encounter show the reader more of who she might be, whether she’s valiantly trying to make it through the day as a paranormal social worker, climbing over drugged vampires, and dealing with cranky co workers, or just barely staving off the darkness and nightmares of the past that constantly threatens her sanity. And it’s terrifying.
From her hair that used to be brown, but has become lavender upon her return to the human world. Then there are here friends who have followed her to Philadelphia.
A goose, Dwayne who’s a God of Anarchy, a sort of grandmother a renowned “Countess Ebadorathea Greenwood, world class villain sorceress maybe, for starters.
Plus she’s on a mission of revenge after she gets settled in her new job, helping the unwanted, the troubled supernatural children of The Hidden City of Philadelphia, where those who are unwanted or considered trash go.
I got more and more convinced of her and the raw tragedy of those around her. That’s there something so frightening about her that she’s become a walking daily affirmation, trying to keep herself positive, and often failing.
Daphne has become a fascinating puzzle of a great character. I can’t wait to see what she brings to the future and The Hidden City next.
Everyone thinks I’m sweet and innocent… but I’m the one who ate the big bad wolf.
I’ve been searching for a place that feels like home my whole life, and I think I’ve found it. I’m in the big city, on a mission to save vulnerable supernatural kids — just like I used to be — in my new job as an Otherworld Child Protection Caseworker.
Because after our magical apocalypse, there are a lot of kids that need saving. I just need to avoid Romeo Zarayan, the Lord of Shadows and heir to the Jupiter fortune.
He’s also the Warlock who murdered my Aunt. One day, when I’m strong enough, I’ll get my revenge.
When one of my clients — a girl with strange-smelling blood — goes missing, the hunt takes me a little too close to the Warlock for comfort. If I want to save my client, I’ll have to set aside my quest for vengeance and work with him.
But if I get the chance, I’ll kill him.
If he doesn’t kill me first…
The Wolf Vs The Vampire is book one in the Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth, a hot new Urban Fantasy series by bestselling author Lauretta Hignett.
Connected Universe and crossover characters:
The start with
🔹Imogen Gray series:
Immortal Ghost (freebie prequel novella) Immortal
Immortal Games
Immortal World
Immortal Life
Immortal Death
🔹Then follow Sandy in the
Foils and Fury series
Oops I Ate A Vengeance Demon Dancing With The Vengeance Demon
Dating With The Vengeance Demon Dying For My Vengeance Demon
🔹Then go on with Prue’s story with the
Blood and Magic Series.
Bad Bones
Bare Bones
Broke Bones
Blood & Bones
Burned Bones
Bitter Bones
🔹Head on into Chloe’s series,
The Waif in the Wilds.
The Waif in the Wilds (freebie prequel novella) Vicious Creatures
Fractured Gods
Ravenous Beasts
Savage Daemons
Duck Duck Motherf* cker (freebie epilogue novella in Dwayne’s POV)”
“🔹And then Daphne’s story in the Hidden City Supernatural Sleuth:
The Wolf Vs The Vampire #1
The Wolf Vs The Warlock #2
The Wolf Vs The Shifter #3
The Wolf Vs The Witch #4
The Wolf Vs The Monster #5
The Wolf Vs Santa: A Little Christmas Mystery
🔹And detour into a Paranormal Woman’s Fiction series.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 