Graves of Wrath by Lina Gardiner

May 30th, 2019 Kimberly Review 26 Comments

30th May
Graves of Wrath by Lina Gardiner
Graves of Wrath
by Lina Gardiner
Series: City of Bones #1
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Source: Author
Purchase*: Amazon *affiliate
Goodreads
Rating: One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Heat Level: One FlameOne FlameOne FlameHalf a Flame

DEATH DEFINES HER . . .

When Jess Vandermire, Captain of New York City’s Vampire Hunting team, learns that her brother, Regent, has been sent to Paris for three months by the Vatican, she’s devastated. Regent’s been too involved with vampires as a priest to go to Paris without fearing vampire retribution. He’ll need backup. Lucky for him, Jess and her partner, John Brittain, have some vacation time coming.

Once Jess and Britt arrive, they know something’s not right in the city. Women are being murdered, and the vampire population is on the edge of revolt. But worst of all, the City of Lights is home to a lot of shadows, ones that move—and kill—of their own accord. But Jess’s existence is rocked to the core when Regent comes across a life-changing, long lost family secret.

It’s starting to look like there’ll be no rest for the wicked.

City of Bones—some secrets don’t stay buried . .

urban mystery Law ROMANCE

Graves of Wrath, the first book in the City of Bones urban fantasy series by Lina Gardiner took us to Paris where a dark shadow is hunting humans and vampires alike.

This is the first book in the City of Bones series, but it is also a spinoff or continuation of the Jesse Vandermire, Vampire series. It wasn’t necessary to read the previous books, as I did not. However, the players and romance are already established. I felt I missed out a little on their connections. The story held its own, and I quickly became caught up in the suspense.

While this falls between a paranormal romance and an urban fantasy it will survive without the romance. Therefore, I classified it as urban fantasy. (thank you Ilona Andrews)

Jesse is Captain of the New York City’s NYPD Vampire Hunting team. When her brother Regent, a Catholic priest, is given a secretive assignment by the Vatican, Jess gets a tingle. That turns into a niggle. Unable to ignore the sense of foreboding, she takes a sabbatical and heads to Paris. Her lover and team member, John Brittain accompanies her.

Welcome to the City of Bones. While I felt a little left out regarding relationships and supernatural abilities Gardiner soon brought me up to speed. Jess was right, there is something sinister in Paris.

I found the case, the French police, the underground and the church all to be fascinating. A murky shadow is possessing and killing humans and vampires. The Church’s take was fascinating as were the ideas Jess and her team uncovered. The suspense slowly built until the action exploded.

I enjoyed the pace, developments and side stories, like that of a young vampire.

This was a fresh tale mixing mythology, paranormal creatures and an unlikely crew comprising of an angel, a priest, a vampire and a scientist.

The next book, Silence by the Grave is available and I will share my review in late June. For those using Kindle Unlimited the series is available.

A vampire, an angel and a priest travel to the city of love in Graves of Wrath by Lina Gardiner #ParanormalRomance #vampires #JesseVandermire Click To Tweet
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About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

26 Responses to “Graves of Wrath by Lina Gardiner”

  1. Lindy@ A Bookish Escape

    This sounds like a fascinating story! I love mythology and paranormal romance. A vampire hunting team, Paris, The Vatican, all sound like they came together to create an interesting spinoff series!. Wonderful Review Kim!

  2. sjhigbee

    Thank you for highlighting this one – I like the fact it’s available on KU. Great review as ever, Kimberly:)

  3. Heidi

    Good to know I can get this on my Kindle and that you could read it without being lost. I will have to check it out as I always want more UF.

  4. Lily B

    I only heard about this recently and thought it sounded good, will have to check it out. Not sure if the romance will connect with me, i HOPE it does

  5. Tracy Terry

    You had me with the phrase ‘vampires as a priest’. Probably not a book that screams ‘read me’ though I admit I find the whole Church/Catholic priest/Vatican thing interesting if not surprising.

    Tracy Terry recently posted: WWW BOOK CLUB READS.
  6. Ailyn Koay

    Like your intro there, what’s a vampire, an angel and a priest can do in City of Love anyway? Chaos must be fun to watch

  7. Jackie

    Great review! Interesting enough I am Catholic 🙂 I mean, I liked Dan Brown’s book The DaVinci Code.