Review – Royal Street

Royal Street (Sentinels of New Orleans, Bk 1)

by Suzanne Johnson

purchased

Mostly during the aftermath of Katrina, this book felt like it was more about the city with a back drop of wizards, vampires, old ghosts and voodoo.  But since I love New Orleans, it was interesting.  Otherwise, the story itself took quite a bit of time to get going.

Dru doesn’t have showy powers like her mentor / guardian.  But her ritual magic gets her by and she wants bigger jobs to prove her capabilities.  Then Katrina hits, after her mentor vanishes and the door between this world and “the Beyond” weakens to allow the beasties through, she is the only Sentinel in the city, gets a new partner and starts to fix things as best she can.

Honestly, there is stuff happening, but not a ton happens.  It is an ode to the city, and a playing with some interesting characters and situations.  I LOVE that historical ghosts show up in present day.  I mean, why else do we love New Orleans (besides the food, jazz, weather, drinking laws, music, I could go on and on here) – if it weren’t for the history of pirates, musicians and voodoo – right?  🙂  Well, we get a few larger than life figures swanning about present day NOLA and wreaking havoc and they are simply delicious.

The present day characters are good, not awesome, but they have potential.  Dru and her partner have a bit of tension between them that might turn into something but this book was more about Dru figuring out some stuff, settling into the mantle of Sentinel and learning about who she is and can be.   It is good and solid and I will be reading the second one soon.  3 rune covered stars made my elves prior to their departure to distant lands.