Lecture toute une Aventure: Under Wraps (The Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles 1) by Hannah Jayne

Hello to all,

Before i go to enjoy a bit "L'été indien" boosting my mood a bit , i wanted to go deeper in my quest to discover the urban fantasy, and more precisely urban fantasy romance. Last time i picked a book about demons and i told you i was going to try to alternate so, with a carefuly planned schedule, today will be one of the few day with mixing species. Often if the Urban fantasy, magical, paranormal creatures are numerous so while in some books the authors choose to focus on only one, other describe a universe with a complexe diversity.

Today i offer you my opinion on Under Wraps by Hannah Jayne.

Enjoy!

Editor : Kensington Publishing Corporation

Publication : 2011

ISBN: 0758258925

Genre: Urban fantasy, romance
Violence: mild
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: +18

Source: gifted by The Crazy Book Slut ( thank you again)

Short description from goodreads :

Sick of wrongful-death lawsuits every time a full moon comes around?

Call the Underworld Detection Agency.

As a human immune to magic, Sophie Lawson can help everyone from banshee to zombie transition into normal, everyday San Francisco life. With a handsome werewolf as her UDA boss and a fashionista vampire for a roommate, Sophie knows everything there is to know about the undead, the unseen, and the uncanny. . .

Until a rash of gruesome murders has demons and mortals running for cover, and Sophie finds herself playing sidekick to detective Parker Hayes. Dodging raging bloodsuckers, bad-tempered fairies, and love-struck trolls is one thing. But when Sophie discovers Parker isn't what he seems, she's got only one chance to figure out whom to trust. Because an evil hiding in plain sight is closing in. . .and about to make one wisecracking human its means to ultimate power. . .

My opinion:

The plot is really interesting and the characters don’t reveal all their secrets in this first book. The universe is special with all these plans interconnected without knowing the existence of others except in via legends and myths. Hannah Jayne keeps the readers wondering about theses demons and creatures without making it completely obscure.

Sophie Lawson is a heroine a bit lost is this world where she isn’t fitting in a category but live on edge. Human but immune to magic she isn’t like her family a seer but she isn’t normal either. She is making the best of it but sometimes melancholy hit her. For me that make her even more real so I can become attached to her more easily. She is working in a special organisation, called UDA – Underworld Detective Agency-, whose utility is to classify all the demons in “humans ‘ world” and to help them, getting job, arbitrate the conflict etc. She isn’t just a worker there she is the right hand of the big boss, his administrative assistant. Sophie also lives with a co-worker: Nina, a vampire fashion victim.

Her boss, Mr Sampson is a werewolf and to be precise a human having been bitten. He needs to be chained every night but apart form that he is really well respected by all the demons and humans. He was a friend to Sophie’s family and it was him who gave her the job. So having said that we understand that the werewolves, in this universe, have some specificities however the author doesn’t give more clues and we will have to wait to see if we can learn more.

The intrigue is very well written and important. The romance is cute with the hesitation and in the same time strong feelings; I want a bit more of Sophie and “Parker”, if he stops to play with her that’s it .I think most readers will be surprised by the ending.

Now that being said, I must also admit that I was disappointed in the editing part of the book. At least twice I found the exact phrase or question twice. It could seem to be nothing but it prevents the readers to be completely immersed in the story. You are reading and suddenly you think “ hey I already read this part?!” so you check if you didn’t lost a page, if the same page wasn’t printed several time and you see that no, it’s not a print error but also no you aren’t crazy and less than 20pages before you had the exact same phrase. I was really bothered by that. If it was something important, something that yes the characters could insist on it it would have been okay but even in this perspective the phrase should have had the same meaning but avoided the same wording. Here it’s noting like that. It’s asking is living with a roommate vampire is weird and if a gun is given to shoot at someone…for me that’s not something important. All I can think to explain something like that is a error in edition, the phrase had to be there but the second scene about it (or first one perhaps) had to be modified and it was forgotten. What is sad it also that it happens at the beginning of the book, in the first half so he could give a bad impression on some readers. However like I precise apart of that the story is good and I planning to read the second book (without the same mistakes I hope^^;;)

Score: 4/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

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