Tracking the Tempest

Tracking the Tempest (2010) Nicole Peeler

First off, there is a lot of boinking in this book. I’d forgotten about that in the time that had passed between this book and the first.

Once I remembered that and was able to move myself into that frame of mind, I thoroughly enjoyed Tracking the Tempest.

In the previous book, Jane True discovered her “supernatural” heritage–she’s half selkie, and although she cannot transform into a seal, she does have a strong affinity for water, and draws her power from rivers and oceans. Unfortunately for her, as events in the book progress, she is still very new to her power, and has only been taking her training half-seriously, so when trouble arrives, she is far more dependent upon others than she would like.

That was one of the things I especially liked–Jane is dependent, but she has reason to be (she has only just discovered her powers, and cannot control them well) and she doesn’t particularly like being dependent. This is more clear in her complains about Ryu spending money on her, but it eventually becomes her realizing that she needs to learn to learn how to use and control her powers better.

Jane’s conflicted feeling about Conleth were also, I thought, very well done. She wants to understand why he is the way he is, and she really wants to help him, but he is a mess, and she isn’t sure just what she can do. Of course, in creating such a complex and multi-faceted “bad guy” the other baddies in the story ended up being flatter and less interesting. But you can’t win ’em all.

The last thing I particularly liked was Jane’s attitude about Ryu, and how it changes and evolves over the course of the story. The fact that Jane and her friends often refer to paranormal romance books at their attitudes and actions did feel a bit meta at times, but it also served to set Jane apart a bit from the heroine in your usual paranormal romance.

If you think this might be up your alley, I’d recommend reading the first book, Tempest Rising first, not because of the story development, but because of the character development.
Rating: 7.5/10 (I quite liked it, but there really was too much boinking.)

Published by Orbit

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