Familiar Stranger by Michele Hauf ... QC #100

4 Stars! ~~~ I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience with the dark realm!

Familiar Stranger by Michele Hauf

Silhouette Nocturne # 21 – August 2007

Dark Enchantments Book 1 of 4 

He’d witnessed the extraordinary, again. This time Jack Harris was an agent with MI5 in England, and the monster, demon, devil had just sucked the living heart out of his partner; the partner Jack thought he was in love with. The anger within Jack made him a perfect agent for the P-Cell, a special super-secret group within MI5 that killed the demons, or the OEs, (otherworldly entities). He wanted revenge for his partner; carrying the guilt that he couldn’t save her and the guilt from his childhood when he’d made a child’s wish. Mersey Bane is a familiar with the uncanny ability to shift into a black cat. She’d been trained from little to be a capture specialist; she traps the demons for later return to the dark realm or for permanent storage. Crossing paths with Jack while he’s on a hunt is far too much of a coincidence. From the moment Mersey sets eyes on him, she has the strongest urge to kiss him. And much to Jack’s surprise she does! But they work for rival groups; Mersey for the Cadre that captures the demons and Jack for P-Cell that destroys them. Yet they have a connection to one another that goes back to when Mersey was still in the womb and Jack had been a wide-eyed brave little boy.

This is my very first Nocturne and my first in the paranormal genre. It took me a bit to get into this book, until I realized that the teeny tiny print was my hold up and I reached for the 1.5 readers. Then the story took hold and I was introduced to the world of demons and familiars. I loved Ms. Hauf’s Jack; he’s one delectable hero and I wouldn’t mind snogging him for awhile! Mersey believes with all her heart that she’ll find “the one” that is for her. But in the meantime she’s lonely, and she doesn’t want to hold back her intense attraction to Jack. They have some really hot scenes! And being privy to their naughty thoughts is a real treat! This book had an unusual ending that I found surprising but actually very fitting. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience with the dark realm.

Excellence: Very Good ~ Steaminess: Heat Wave

My Totals = 37 ~ Harlequin Imprint = 37 ~ Other Publisher = 0

March Mini-Challenge ~~ “New-to-Me” ~ #10 & 11

• Michele Hauf - I recently listened to a Harlequin podcast that had a few shared thoughts from the Executive Editor of Nocturne, Tara Gaven. Listening to her descriptions of the Dark Enchantment series sparked my interest and I’ve chosen the series to be my introduction to the paranormal genre. This book is much longer than I’m used to reading, and it is a huge compliment to Ms. Hauf that she captured my interest right to the very last page. I love her witty sense of humour and I look forward to reading more of her books.

• Nocturne – As I mentioned above, the print size was teeny tiny and this always slows me down. And I see that this is not unique to only this book in the imprint, the next in the series has the same font size. So to read this line I’ll have to have my readers on, like I have to with the Medicals and the Mod X’s reissued as Presents. I found this book to read like some of the Intrigues. The plot drives this story but the characters are rich and very well developed. I would have loved to have a list of characters at the front of the book like they do with the Intrigues, and perhaps a bit of a glossary so I wouldn’t have to go searching in the book to recall what a certain term meant. The glossary would be most helpful to us newbies to the genre. I’m very much looking forward to reading the next in this series; I understand I’ll get a taste of werewolves!

~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog