Blog Tour: 59. Dark Descendant by Jenna Black...

Jenna Black first caught my eye with the cover for Siren Song, due out in July. Then I found out she has a new UF novel, and when Pocket Books organized a blog tour, I had to sign up...

About the author:
Jenna Black is a typical writer, which means she's an "experience junkie." She received B.A. degrees in physical anthropology and French from Duke University. She once dreamed of being the next Jane Goodall, until she realized that primates spend eighty percent of their time not really doing anything. She moved on to such pastimes as grooming dogs and writing technical documentation before creating the popular Morgan Kingsley urban fantasy series and The Guardians of the Night paranormal romance series. She lives in North Carolina.

Find Jenna online at her website www.jennablack.com, and on twitter

About Dark Descendant:

From the acclaimed author of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist books comes the gripping first novel in a new series about a private eye who discovers, to her surprise, that she’s an immortal huntress.

Nikki Glass can track down any man. But when her latest client turns out to be a true descendant of Hades, Nikki now discovers she can’t die.... Crazy as it sounds, Nikki’s manhunting skills are literally god-given. She’s a living, breathing descendant of Artemis who has stepped right into a trap set by the children of the gods. Nikki’s new “friends” include a descendant of Eros, who uses sex as a weapon; a descendant of Loki, whose tricks are no laughing matter; and a half-mad descendant of Kali who thinks she’s a spy. But most powerful of all are the Olympians, a rival clan of immortals seeking to destroy all Descendants who refuse to bow down to them. In the eternal battle of good god/bad god, Nikki would make a divine weapon. But if they think she’ll surrender without a fight, the gods must be crazy...

Title: Dark Descendant (Descendant #1)
Author: Jenna Black
ISBN-13: 9781451606799
Paperback: 325 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2011
Purchase at IndieBound, Amazon, The Book Depository
Source: Simon & Schuster

drey's thoughts:
I was really looking forward to Dark Descendant--so much so that I picked it up as soon as I received it... Nikki Glass bounced around the foster care system when she was a child, until she landed with the Glass family and they adopted her. Now grown up, she's a private investigator suffering through her sister's matchmaking (non-)abilities when a client calls for help. Ignoring her gut instinct, she heads out, only to have her entire world turned upside down faster than you can say "oops".

I'm not sure if I like Nikki much. There's nothing specific that makes me not like her, but there's nothing specific that makes her stand out, either. Instead, I find myself more interested in Jamaal, the half-mad one, and in Anderson, the leader. The bad guys are almost laughably incompetent--even while they're powerful.

While I did like the premise of descendants of the old gods starring in a new series, I felt like  Dark Descendant was just a teaser. There has to be more to this world than the descendants of gods duking it out with each other.

drey's rating: OK: There's a lot of promise in this series, but I'll wait for the next one to see if it bears fruit...

Have you read Dark Descendant? What did you think? And if you hadn't, here's your chance to pick up a copy...

Giveaway!
Thanks to Pocket Books, I have two copies of Dark Descendant for you! US only, no PO Boxes please. To enter, fill out the for before 6pm CST May 23rd. One entry per person, multiples will be disqualified (you may want to comment after filling out the form so you know you've already entered)... Good luck!