Book Review: House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter

House of the Rising Sun
Author: Kristen Painter
Series: Crescent City, Book 1
Publication: Orbit (May 13, 2014)

Description: Augustine lives the perfect life in the Haven city of New Orleans. He rarely works a real job, spends most of his nights with a different human woman, and resides in a spectacular Garden District mansion paid for by retired movie star Olivia Goodwin, who has come to think of him as an adopted son, providing him room and board and whatever else he needs.

But when Augustine returns home to find Olivia's been attacked by vampires, he knows his idyllic life has comes to an end. It's time for revenge -- and to take up the mantle of the city's Guardian.

Then Olivia's estranged daughter, Harlow, arrives. She hates being fae, but her powers are exactly what Augustine needs to catch the vampires. Can he convince her to help him in time? Or will the sparks between them send her running again?

My Thoughts: This new urban fantasy series takes place in New Orleans. There are a variety of different supernatural creatures living there. Augustine is a fae who becomes the city Guardian after his friend and foster mother Olivia is killed by vampires. Augustine had been successfully dodging responsibility until that happened. Now, he is determined to rid the city of vampires.

Another main character in this story is Harlow who is Olivia's estranged daughter. Their estrangement stems from Olivia's refusal to tell Harlow who her father is. Harlow is trying to deny that she is fae but her affinity with computers and her inability to touch anything or anyone with her bare hands without being overwhelmed with sensations clearly make her fae. She comes home to New Orleans to ask her mother for a large amount of money to pay a fine or else she will have to spend two years in prison for hacking into a company computer.

Since Olivia left half of her mansion to Augustine and half to Harlow, a natural rivalry is set up. However, both of them want to bring the vampires who killed Olivia to justice which means they need to work together.

It might be Harlow's mysterious father who is causing many of the problems in New Orleans and Harlow begins to understand why her mother might have kept his identity secret from her.

This was an engaging urban fantasy with lots of interesting characters. It will be interesting to follow along with the series and find out what happens next.

Favorite Quote:

Augustine nodded, but he was done being safe. Since, Livie, he'd cleaned up his act and changed the way he lived, careful not to get involved, not to take on too much responsibility, not to upset his cleverly crafted life. Fat lot of good that had done him. The time to return to dangerous living had arrived. 

I bought this one for my Kindle. You can buy your copy here.