Final Heir by Faith Hunter

The stakes couldn’t be higher in the newest novel in the New York Times bestselling, pulse-pounding Jane Yellowrock series.

Jane Yellowrock is the queen of the vampires, and that makes her a target as she fights to maintain control and keep peace in the city of New Orleans. She has enemies at every turn, because vampires live forever, and they keep their grudges alive with them. That includes the Heir, the vampire sire of the Pellissier bloodline, which gave rise to Leo Pellissier himself—Jane’s old boss and the former master of the city.

With the Heir and all the forces of darkness he can muster arrayed against her, Jane will need all the help she can get. She’ll find it in her city, her friends, her found family, and, of course, the Beast inside of her.

Don’t miss our reviews of other books in the Jane Yellowrock series!
For book #11, Cold Reign, click HERE.
For book #12, Dark Queen, click HERE.
For book #13, Shattered Bonds, click HERE.
For book #14, True Dead, click HERE.

 

 

Book 15
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆
Final Heir is the fifteenth and final installment in the Jane Yellowrock series. It is absolutely necessary to read all fifteen installments. None of the novels can be read as a standalone. Even with rereading countless times, this complex storyline is often times confusing.

Bittersweet. While I was ravenous to discover what life Jane, Beast, Bruiser, and the rest of the cast would lead unto their Happily Ever Afters, I was still saddened to let the series go. The novels are at the top of my reread list, so I can easily recapture the emotions they made me feel by cracking them open again. As for the ending, it's easy to let my imagination wander to envision Jane and her sidekicks happily interacting with one another in their forever to come.

The Heir to the Sons of Darkness is in NOLA, seeking the Dark Queen crown that rests upon Jane's head. Not only is he the strongest vampire, the closest to the originators, but he is also Leo's master. Not only is he Leo's master, he's Leo's sire in more ways than one. This causes more than a few problems for Jane, especially with the fact that Leo is bound to her consort, she's taken over his territory and all that comes with it, meaning there are no secrets safe from Leo, and the Heir has a direct line into Leo's thoughts, no matter if the newly resurrected outclan priest is as loyal to Jane as she is to him.

Jane is still suffering from random shifting, unable to shift at critical times to save her own life. I'm not entirely sure this was ever answered for the reader. After rereading True Death, then jumping straight into Final Heir, I gathered that Jane's half form is her natural form now, with her human and cougar shapes being secondary. Other than Beast knowing the answer, I don't believe it was ever answered for Jane or us readers.

Angie's (Jane's? Beast's? Brute's?) angel has been trapped for eons by the Heir, a scattering of complex timelines connect into this time and place, with Jane the only hope for good to reign over evil. The vampires are weeping for their lost souls, the product of Judas Iscariot's betrayal (his sons were the Sons of Darkness). Final Heir is the last showdown that started over two thousand years ago, the origin of many religions.

While I was eager to learn Jane's happily ever after, I wasn't only reading slowly because I wanted to enjoy the journey. I found Final Heir extremely tedious to read and in no way a page-turner. While exciting in parts, there were so many battles that I became desensitized to their outcomes. Countless battles, scene after scene, the tapestry tied together by out of place mooning over Bruiser. While I love Bruiser and enjoy the connection he has with Jane, the random "my George" or "my Jane" from Leo felt more authentic than the nonstop narrative of Jane being dreamy over Bruiser during life in peril moments. Eli was forever hurt, since the previous novel. Continually at death's door, a major focus for Jane. This made for a bizarre pacing that had me putting the book down, and not just because I didn't want to get to the ending too soon.

Jane would be in one battle, while another raged, or left the battle she was currently in to run to another battle, their people scattered all over NOLA, harmed and on death's door... on every single page. Then the only downtime experienced was an info-dump of how all these complex threads tied together, with a peppering of Jane mooning over Bruiser/George, which was so out of place for Jane. It lessened their intense connection during interactions between them, most of them always and forever seeming as a final goodbye. I was desensitized to whether they'd be together or if Eli would survive yet another stupid "charge into battle" moment instead of allowing himself to heal. It was emotionally exploitive to the point that I was numbed after the first third.

The major storyline was a good one, the origin of vampires, along with their connection to angels and demons. The only issue I had was how complex this was written. I know the story like the back of my hand, but the bloodline, mythology, theology, and genealogy felt overly complex and overly explained, to where I felt as if I needed to take notes and be tested on it. Info-dumps that weren't easily digested by this reader, causing me to lose focus and interest.

Those issues aside, the Jane Yellowrock series will forever be at the top of my reread list, always the first recommendation given when one of my fellow readers is looking for Urban Fantasy. Final Heir was a satisfying ending to a longstanding series. I cannot wait to see what Faith Hunter creates next.

Jane Yellowrock – along with Beast, a character unto herself – was the most intriguing, creative, and original Urban Fantasy heroines I've read to-date, with her origins, Native American ancestry, and her take-no-prisoners attitude. Jane was loyal and honorable to a fault, picking up randoms along to way to add to her found family. Utterly devoted to her people, selfless and self-sacrificing. It will be hard to let Jane go, but easily enough to reopen Skinwalker and experience it all from the beginning again and again.

 

 

New York Times bestselling author FAITH HUNTER writes three series: the Jane Yellowrock series, dark urban fantasy novels featuring Jane, a Cherokee Skinwalker; the Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy/post-apocalyptic series and role playing game featuring Thorn St. Croix; and the Soulwood Series featuring Nell Nicholson Ingram.

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ARC provided by

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Final Heir (Jane Yellowrock #15) by Faith Hunter to read and review.