POISON TREE

Here’s a new paranormal world populated by all new characters for fans of Atwater-Rhodes.

Alysia is human, but she has achieved level three in all three guilds in the warlike Bruja, an assemblage of paranormal organizations. She’s also a tech expert, and she takes her talents to SingleEarth, an organization intended as a refuge from the paranormal wars. Meanwhile, Sarik, a tiger-woman who’s trying to escape her tyrannical father, is in love with vampire Jason. These are only a few of the major characters in this entangled maze of people, paranormal creatures, relationships and organizations. Readers may need to chart it all to keep things straight. Atwater-Rhodes provides little direct exposition, leaving her readers to infer much of the structure of the story from conversations, a technique that helps immerse readers into the narrative but that may confuse those less attentive. She delivers her customary action-filled suspense, however, enriched with plenty of fighting and weaponry. The characters, whether witches, vampires, tigers or humans, can heal either themselves or others, facilitating many gruesome, normally fatal wounds that boost the action. Fans of the author’s previous series will find much of the same entertainment here, with possibilities left open for plenty of sequels now that this book has outlined a new setting with fresh romances and rivalries. The tigers are a nice touch.

Complicated, but suspenseful.