Review: Thea Harrison – Devil’s Gate

The Elder Races Series:
Book 4.6:
 
Devil's Gate: Duncan Turner and Seremela Telemar
 

 
Summary:
From Goodreads.com
"When it comes to love between a medusa and a Vampyre, it's every man, woman, and snake for themselves. "
"A Novella of the Elder Races"
 
As a coroner, medusa Seremela Telemar has always felt more comfortable chatting over a dead body than over drinks. But when her wild niece, Vetta, runs off to Devil's Gate, a lawless town that has sprung up overnight in a modern-day gold rush, she knows she has to extricate her before the rebellious girl gets into real trouble. Though she's confident in her head snakes' ability to defend her against attackers, Seremela is still a bit nervous about braving this modern-day Wild West by herself.
 
Vampyre Duncan Turner is not about to let his new co-worker go into that chaos alone. His Vampyric power and lawyer smarts make him the perfect ally, and the fact that he already had his eye on Seremela for more...personal reasons, doesn't hurt matters. Any romantic thoughts pull up short, however, when they arrive at Devil's Gate and learn Vetta is set to hang by morning.
 
In order to save Vetta and themselves, Seremela and Duncan are going to have to fight fire with force and magic with fangs. And pray they make it out of Devil's Gate alive.
 
Warning: Contains mother effin' snakes in planes, cars, tents, and beds. Luckily, our hot Vampyre hero doesn't mind them one bit...
 
Review:
 
This was a great novella from Thea Harrison! I have really come to enjoy her Elder Races novellas, it has given us a chance to follow up on some previous characters, meet new characters and get stories outside of the current Elder Races story line.
 
When I saw that this book was featuring a medusa, I was a little worried about how T. Harrison was going to handle Seremela’s snakes. I have to admit, Harrison pulled it off quite well. I think giving the snakes their own personality and how they responded to Duncan was the correct way. I think it could have gone horribly wrong, if not done correctly, but we end up viewing the snakes as sentient beings with a bit of a rascally personality. Seremela herself was a sweetheart, she typically put her family before herself and when push came to shove she could become a fierce momma bear type. She is a bit on the shy side and has a hard time believing that someone as handsome as Duncan who ever be attracted to her, she does consider herself all that glamorous or sexy. But Duncan sees something in her that she doesn’t see herself and I loved that about Duncan. He appreciates her mind as much as her body. He likes that she’s on a bit of the shy side and a researcher and academic. It gives us geeky types a bit of hope. LOL Duncan is dominant without being overly so, he knows when to step up and when to back down and accept that Seremela was not going to back down.
 
The story itself was interesting, basically Seremela and Duncan have to enter dangerous territory to find and bring back her runaway niece. Devil’s Gate is a ruff “town” that sprang up and there are all sorts of interesting characters there. That deck of Tarot cards we have seen before pops up again. They seem to be following our characters around. We get to encounter another Djinn, and I have to admit I’m becoming fascinated with Djinn’s! There is a build up the sexual tension between Duncan and Seremela, I kind of wish it had exploded earlier, but I understand that there really wasn’t time for it within the story. It was so packed with other goings on. This was a fast paced entertaining story which if you have already been reading this series I would highly recommend it. If you have not been reading the Elder Races I would suggest at least reading the first two book before taking on this novella. There were details from the 2^nd book that probably wouldn’t make much sense if you haven’t read that book and I don’t think the 2^nd book would be as enjoyable without the 1^st book.
 
Rating: