The Last Angel by Natasha Rhodes

From the Solaris site:

An angel is found murdered on the streets of Sunset Boulevard. To the media gossip mongers, it’s the biggest story ever. To the Hunters, an underground monster-fighting hit-squad, it’s just another case of ‘whodunnit’. To Kayla Steele, their youngest and newest member, it means a last, desperate chance to bring her murdered fiance back from the dead, and to others with a far darker purpose it is the means to destroy the human race. If the Hunters are to stop the onset of Armageddon they must join forces with their most hated enemies, the werewolves…

One thing is quite clear from the onset - Natasha Rhodes is here to stay. A "new" author in the paranormal / urban fantasy genre, she cut her teeth working on the movie novelisations and tie ins including Blade: Trinity, Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance to Dream.

This has clearly stood her in good stead. The girl knows how to spin a good yarn and she clearly loves Los Angeles, there is even mention of the Viper Room!

In retrospect, I should have read Dante's Girl first, as initially not a lot of the story made sense to me as I started off. But then, gradually on my part (erm, meh?) the light dawned on a few things and I got into the swing of the story as matters were explained (by a very patient author) for nitwits like me. And I loved every jot of it. Some of the storyline and references are still obscure, but that will be remedied once I've read Dante, so to be honest, that is my only gripe.

Natasha has a definite writer's skill - she writes at a tremendous pace and does expect you to keep up. The brutality is real, the characters are strong and punchy and Kayla is quite real in her "innocence" (for a lack of a better word). We get pulled deeper into the world of the Hunters as their animosities, loyalties etc. get played out against a background of a Constantine-like Los Angeles. When the book came to an end I frantically paged right to the back thinking, waitaminute! where's the rest? Sadly, we have to wait a little more for the next instalment. This however, is no hardship because, like all good books, this one can do with a re-reading. And trust me, it will go onto the TBRA pile! Especially once I've got Dante under the belt. Who, by the way, does sound...scrummy!

If you love Blade, Constantine, Van Helsing, Kim Harris, Kat Richardson and Mike Carey, you will like Natasha Rhodes.

She writes vividly and the storyline is just that different to keep your attention, as is Kayla as a main character. There is tremendous scope to grow the character and the general storyline and I really do look forward to seeing what else Natasha has up her sleeve.

She is definitely an author to watch out for!