Kirsten Reviews: Fearless by Elliott James
Fearless by Elliott James
Pax Arcana #3
When your last name is Charming, rescuing virgins comes with the territory -- even when the virgin in question is a nineteen-year-old college boy.
Someone, somewhere, has declared war on Kevin Kichida, and that someone has a long list of magical predators on their rolodex. The good news is that Kevin lives in a town where Ted Cahill is the new sheriff and old ally of John Charming.
The attacks on Kevin seem to be a pattern, and the more John and his new team follow that thread, the deeper they find themselves in a maze of supernatural threats, family secrets, and age-old betrayals. The more John learns, the more convinced he becomes that Kevin Kichida isn't just a victim, he's a sacrifice waiting to happen. And that thread John's following? It's really a fuse...
Fearless by Elliott James is the third book in the Pax Arcana series. The protagonist, John Charming is a werewolf, former Knight, and is learning to adjust both to working with a team, and courting Sig, the valkyrie he met in the first book of the series.
The motley group is asked for help from Ted Cahill, now a dhampir, and the sheriff of a small town. It seems that someone is after Kevin Kichida, a supposedly ordinary nineteen year-old college student. Whoever has it in for Kevin is sending all the supernatural muscle they can find after him, and John and his companions have their hands full keeping him safe and finding the bad guy.
As it happens, John is both a Charming, and able to recognize patterns, and the more they look into things, the more it seems there’s a tangle of family secrets, and the sort of betrayals that make for lingering resentments - even from beyond the grave.
The series has a lot of familiar supernatural creatures, however this book introduces even more to audiences most familiar with werewolves and vampires. Those not familiar with Japanese culture, its mythology and traditions will likely find this a refreshing change from the sometimes wearying and endless parade of European beasts and spirits.
Meanwhile, another plot thread from previous books, that of the ongoing integration of a faction of werewolves with Knights crops up again, and is both important, and promises to figure prominently in another book.
This book marks the point at which John steps into danger, perhaps rushes in foolishly at times, for the sake of someone who is not part of his immediate group of friends. It should be noted that while John does propose plans that are often risky, he has good reasoning, experience as a tacticien, albeit one learning to work in a group, and is learning to listen to others, making him a refreshing urban fantasy hero.
As the supernatural world is further illuminated with each book, it becomes clear that villains use the Pax Arcana to their own advantage, and in this case, may be stretching it to the point of snapping, which puts all the supernatural community at risk, something that is sure to come up again. Each of the main characters is wrestling with issues of their own while they’re working to organize what is, in essence, a caper, involving an underground supernatural fight club, and the resolution of the story resolves a few problems, raises more, and leaves the field wide open for the next snag to hamper a simple happily ever after.
(Received a copy from the publisher)
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Other Reviews:
Rabid Reads
Reading Reality
The Book Nympho
Previous Books:
1. Charming
2. Daring
