Priceless by Shannon MayerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Priceless (A Rylee Adamson Novel Book 1)by Shannon Mayer
This is yet another Para-normal with vampires and werewolves and witches and other magic things. And once again I'm thriving on my love of character development. Not being a die-hard fan of all things Para-normal I have to rely on my meager observation of the genre. It seems that the rules for the various creatures are sliding in nature depending on each author’s Point of View. So the most important feature seems to be keeping an eye on the internal consistency of both the rules and the characters within the rules. Still as I've said before; for me it's about character development and Rylee is definitely a complex character.
Rylee was an adopted child and traumatically lost her 'sister' under mysterious circumstances that left her as a suspect both because of her feelings of guilt and her own naiveté at that time. She has since been dogged by Agent O'Shea who seems mostly upset that he could find no conclusive evidence against her. She has since become a Tracker who locates missing children and sometimes returns them safely to their parents. This has only fueled O'Shea’s suspicions.
When the most recent case takes on the familiarity of her sister's disappearance there is a strong reason for her to become suspicious and she might be a bit thrown off her game. There is also a slight recurring thread in that many of her usual contacts that assist her are for some reason or another dropping the ball. Thankfully it's all woven into the character development and that helps it move more smoothly along.
As it is; because her friends are falling down on the job her worst nightmare, O'Shea, may turn out to be her best chance in wrapping this case up before another child dies.
The writing is pretty solid and the pacing is well done; plus there is the strangest werewolf and weirdest relationship with that werewolf that I've seen in a while. Keep in mind this is not my usual genre.
I'm not sure that I saw much change or growth in Rylee; but having her roll out at the beginning as a kick-ass feminine hero might have lofted her a bit high making the changes less noticeable.
This is great SFF with emphasis on fantasy and para-normal with almost 'Buffy-like' female lead and similar cast with its own twist in plot with the missing children theme. At just the right size and pace to carry the incautious reader into the night and possibly into daybreak.
J.L. Dobias
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