A biker and a cowboy must fight the coming apocalypse in the second book of the Blood and Bone contemporary western fantasy series.
It’s the End of Days, and Gabe and Remi–an ex-con biker and a Texas cowboy–have been conscripted to join the heavenly host in a battle against Lucifer’s spec ops troops: demons who inhabit characters from fiction, history, myths, legends, and folklore.
But Gabe and Remi, still learning their roles, now must deal with one particular demon wearing the body of an infamous murderer: Jack the Ripper. Young women bearing the names of the murder victims killed during the Ripper’s time are turning up dead, setting Gabe and Remi on a perilous path to save whoever they can, while also battling members of Lucifer’s vanguard bent on killing them.
Sinners and Saints is myth and magic, gods and goddesses, angels and agendas.
The second book in Jennifer Roberson’s new series, Blood and Bone, lives up to the potential in book one. Not only that, but I think it actually is slightly better. In the first book, Jennifer Roberson was still developing the characters and their world. Now, in the second, she is finished with the development stage and everything comes together much smoother. The rapport between Gabe and Remi is stronger, the action much more defined, and the twists in the plot unexpected.
In this novel, it picks up immediately after the action of the first book which can be a blessing or a bane. In this case, Roberson uses the voice of the character to bring readers up to speed very quickly. While it is certainly helpful to have read the first book and I highly recommend it, it is not impossible to follow the story without that prior knowledge. But what makes this so intriguing is the way the story twists and spins as the main characters, Gabe and Remi, attempt to figure out who and how to stop their newest antagonist, Jack the Ripper. Within the story, nothing is quite what it seems nor is their mission quite what they expect. And that lack of black and white, is exactly what makes the story so compelling.
In addition to the plot, I love the descriptions of the area. The book is currently set in modern Flagstaff, Arizona area and as a native to Arizona, Roberson’s descriptions are so authentic and real. I love having a western urban fantasy set in this area and better yet, it adds to the western elements of the book. That Roberson is so familiar with the area makes for a book that resonates with me and I think will do so with other readers from the area. But even more, it adds in texture and reality in a way that few other authors manage. While my fantasy does not have to be realistic, when an author uses a real location, it can add in a compelling aspect and that’s exactly what has happened here. Not only that, but it is definitely a different take on urban fantasy to have the protagonists be a biker and a cowboy. While it might not be to everyone’s taste, Jennifer Roberson’s writing is excellent and the story intriguing.
So for the second book in a series, Sinners and Saints does a fantastic job of adding in new twists and turns, new aspects to the world and some elements of intrigue that will keep readers coming back for more. There are enough loose ends for several more books and I, for one, can’t wait for more of the adventures of Gabe and Remi.
