THE SCENT OF SHADOWS

Author: Vicki Pettersson ISBN: 0060898917 3/2007 PARANORMAL Publisher: EOS

When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert. By rights, she should be dead. Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset—a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow—seeking answers to whom or what she really is . . . and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure. But the nightmare is just beginning—for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own . . .

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Debut author Vicki Pettersson wrote an awesome paranormal contemporary romance called THE SCENT OF SHADOWS. Don't let the length of this book intimidate you—it's a fast paced story that will keep you turning the pages. But be warned, this is one book you won't want to read before bedtime!

What you aren't going to get when you open up the pages of THE SCENT OF SHADOWS is a paranormal full of vampires and werewolves. What you will get is a smart, edgy and sometimes frightening story of a woman battling the forces of good and evil.

Joanna Archer's life hasn't been easy. She survived a brutal rape and beating, and was left for dead at the young age of fifteen. Since then she's been learning how to defend herself with the aid of martial arts. Her life is going to take a drastic turn on the evening of her twenty-fifth birthday. When a blind date that night turns out to be more than Joanna expected, she narrowly escapes with her life, and later that same evening she encounters another deadly attack on her life and becomes witness to the death of her sister.

It is at this point where Joanna learns who and what she is. THE SCENT OF SHADOWS really takes off at this point of the story and never slows down. I love the dark, gritty atmosphere the story inhabits. I love Joanna—she's strong, no nonsense and is extremely capable of taking care of herself. I love these types of heroines.

I can't think of anything better than reading a book by a debut author and having it blow me away. Vicki Pettersson is definitely an author to be on the look out for. The next book in the series is called THE TASTE OF NIGHT. I can't wait to read it!

If you like the more dramatic paranormals, where there is no clear cut happily ever after, than Vicki Pettersson's THE SCENT OF SHADOWS is a book that you will enjoy reading!

Julie Kornhausl