PopSyndicate.com

The second book in the Anna Strong bounty hunter series offers up intense action that will keep you turning the pages – and craving more.

This week, I craved a good novel with vamps and shapeshifters and things that make my toes curl at night. I wanted something intense, action-packed, something that would keep me glued to my seat on this cold winter day.

I knew immediately what I needed. I needed Anna Strong. (Well, an Anna Strong vamp adventure novel.) Anna is the creation of author Jeanne C. Stein, a talented writer I met a year ago at a Chicago conference. Stein is passionate about her signature character, and with good reason: Anna Strong rocks.

In her first adventure, The Becoming, Anna was turned into a vampire by a violent seemingly harmless crook she and her partner, David, were trying to catch. There is something special about Anna and her future, but what it is, well, we are destined to learn throughout the series.

In her next adventure, Blood Drive, Anna is a step closer to her destiny as she confronts the blood lust of her new heritage. Anna’s brother died 14 years ago. His old girlfriend comes back and tells the family she bore his child. Now, the girl is missing, and it’s up to Anna to find her. Nothing is as it seems, and Anna must sift through fact and fiction to find the girl before someone deadly does first. As Anna weaves through her intense, five-day investigation, she must deal with her blooming violent tendencies, thirst for blood, and growing pressure from the vamp hierarchy to get some training. For a woman who always had amazing self-control, it’s a bitter pill to know she must now relearn to live as the undead – balancing her super strength and need to feed while living in a human world populated with other immortals.

Author Stein delivers with a fast-paced tale that you won’t be able to put down. Anna Strong is tough, powerful, yet vulnerable and uncertain of herself as a newly-turned vampire.  Every page of this 297-page novel is packed with action and twists that will keep readers guessing – and wanting more from the series. I liked the addition of others with supernatural powers and can’t wait to see how they shape Anna’s professional and personal lives. Personally, I think Stein’s series bests Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, which started out great, but quickly fizzled. Stein started strong and continues with same – a great sign for a long-term serial.

If you are craving a tightly-woven, crafty vamp series, get Anna Strong today. The novels are guaranteed to become permanent fixtures in your reading repertoire.

4