Jealousy by Lili St. Crow

Published: July 2010
Publisher: Sleuth Razor Bill
# Pages: 316
Copy provided by: Library
Summary: Goodreads

Dru Anderson might finally be safe. She’s at the largest Schola on the continent, and beginning to learn what it means to be svetocha–half vampire, half human, and all deadly. If she survives her training, she will be able to take her place in the Order, holding back the vampires and protecting the oblivious normal people. But a web of lies and betrayals is still closing around her, just when she thinks she can relax a little. Her mentor Christophe is missing, her almost-boyfriend is acting weird, and the bodyguards she’s been assigned seem to know much more than they should. And then there’s the vampire attacks, the strange nightly visits, and the looks everyone keeps giving her. As if she should know something. Or as if she’s in danger. Someone high up in the Order is a traitor. They want Dru dead–but first, they want to know what she remembers of the night her mother died. Dru doesn’t want to remember, but it looks like she might have to–especially since once Christophe returns, he’ll be on trial for his life. The only person who can save him is Dru. The problem is, once she remembers everything, she may not want to…

Jealousy is the 3rd installment in the Strange Angels series by Lili St. Crow. (She also writes adult fiction under the name Lilith St. Crow.) The first two books, 'Strange Angels' and 'Betrayals', are fast paced and exciting and I thoroughly enjoyed them. So I was really looking forward to reading 'Jealousy'. Unfortunately, the first half of the book seemed rather a let-down to me after everthing that had gone on previously. I normally take notes while I'm reading so that I will have something to go on when I post, and I realized that I was halfway through the book and hadn't written anything at all!

Then wham, things started happening at a frenetic pace and I remembered why I had loved the first two books so much. Instead of werewolves and vampires, in this series we have loup garou and djamphir - hybrids, instead of the real thing - but that doesn't slow the action down once it gets started. Dru is at the centre of a mystery concerning her mother, Elizabeth, and she is trying to remember what happened the night her mother died. The growing relationship between Dru and Graves is slow, hesitant and very sweet. Christophe is the typical bad boy, with a soft spot for Dru. Anna is a supreme Bitch (note the capital B), and I just love the host of minor characters like Dibs and Shanks. By the end of the book, I was thoroughly enjoying all my favourite characters and I'm now really looking forward to #4 in the series 'Defiance', which is due out in Spring 2011. If you haven't tried this series yet, you are in for a treat.