Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
I give this book 3.5 stars out of five. I had a lot of mixed views about this book because it had a very strong start, but then it started dragging on towards the end. Dru, is the daughter of the a hunter and they go around the country (ala Supernatural, but without the incest undertones...maybe) getting rid of all the things that go bump in the night. Cool. One night Dru's dad goes out on a mission and he comes back a zombie and Dru is forced to kill her own father. That is the climax of this book and it's on page 43. Now, the rest of the book revolves around Dru dealing with her father's death, trying to figure out who killed him and then how to deal with changes within her. She has an ability which her grandmother dubbed "the touch" (horrid name) and it's role is discovered eventually.
Dru was an odd character for me, she was head-strong, independent and pretty tough all things considering. However, she was a little stupid when it came to handling situations. She spends pages upon pages trying to figure out if she should go right or left and ignores advice because her inability to stop hearing her father's voice in her head. Also, she is somewhat of a racist. Now, I'm not sure if this is a character thing or maybe the author's projection, but Dru repeatedly refers to Graves, who is half-Asian, as a half-breed and brings up race often when talking about his physical features. It was one of things that made me sort of uncomfortable reading it, because I wasn't sure what the point of it was. It didn't seem like the writers was trying to make Dru racist towards Graves in terms of feeling superior or such, but at the same time I think referring to a bi-racial person as a half-breed is pretty telling.
As I said before the middle and end drags on a bit, mainly because we get a lot of information splattered across chapters. While the mythology is good, there is too much of it at once that when all of it is being explained, it all sort of meshes together. That being said, I was glad to see that St. Crow did her research for this book and was able to give the reader that information.
Graves and Christophe are two very interesting secondary characters, but it is a little clear that they will be the beginning of a love-triangle with Dru. I enjoyed both boys' sense of humor and the way they solidified themselves in Dru's life.
Overall, I recommend checking out this book, it was a fun read, however, I will only be getting it in e-book form. Hardcover is for books I MUST have, this...not so much.