"If you're a fan of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, you will love this book!"

Forever Crossed is the name of the funeral home where medium Olivia Peters works; they guarantee that Grandpa doesn't rise as a zombie or a vampire. For a fee they will also contact the departed in the three day window between this life and the next -- that's Olivia's job. She isn't exactly a witch, and she isn't a necromancer, but surviving an attack by a wereleopard has left her with some odd abilities, and then there's her beloved Nana, who was a Wiccan witch, some of whose talents she seems to have inherited.

Oh, yes, and her boss Linc has contracted for her to help the police with a series of nasty killings. The most recent one involves a witch who faced a vampire, used her magic to try and save the third person present -- and then incinerated herself to prevent the vamp from turning her. Two other women were killed, probably by the same vampire. As if that isn't enough for one gal's plate, the local vampire Ruler, Antonio, wants her to help him find the vampire who's behind the killings -- a rogue named Feine who's trying to overthrow him. There's also this gorgeous wereleopard -- the leopard king, in fact, named Luka who makes Liv's temperature rise.

After making some inquiries, Liv decides to go to a night club to search for a nasty vampira Dominatrix who is rumored to have been involved with one of the victims. Luka assigns one of his leopards to guard her, and shows up himself -- in time to see her set Feine on fire after shooting him. A second attack on Liv makes up Luka's mind for him: Liv has to go to a leopard safehouse.

Even with a gorgeous wereleopard to distract her, Liv is startled by the fact that Luka seems to think she's the embobdiment of some sort of myth of his people. And then there's that nasty vampira and her pal.

Olivia is a wonderful wisecracking heroine in the tradition of Anita Blake, but blessedly lacking Anita's hang-ups about sex, religion, the Undead and shapeshifters. Luka is the anti-Richard, a feline stud who isn't whiny or neurotic and who actually LIKES being a shifter. Even the cops are a lot less neurotic about supernaturals! The story crackles with sexual tension and thrills galore and the dialogue sizzles. There are enough loose ends for several books, and I can hardly wait for next outing with Liv and Luka and Antonio. I've been getting fed up with Anita's neuroticism and Richard's sulking, and this series has all the pluses and none of the drawbacks. If, at times, it reads like fan fiction — well, let's face it: there are only so any ways to write vamps and weres, and this is a terrific read!

Sensuality Rating: one very explicit hot heterosexual love scene and oodles of sexual tension.

Reviewed by Gillian Fitzgerald
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted September 25, 2004

Also available from the publisher in e-book format.

Summary

Welcome to the Triangle, where wereleopards romp, the dead talk back, and blood-thirsty predators stalk through the city's darkest hours. But when the doors open at Forever Crossed, the only funeral home in the Carolinas with an anti-rising guarantee, Olivia Peters is ready for anything the night may bring. At least she thinks she is. Between dating the wereleopard's Ra'Jahn and working for the city's Undead Ruler, her world is a whole lot more dangerous than it used to be. And to top it all off, the wereleopards believe that she's their prophesied Shaman, a witch who is neither human nor wereleopard. Olivia denies being a witch or their prophesied Shaman, but she can't deny the claim their leader is making on her heart . . .