Review: Iron Hunt

Title: The Iron Hunt

Author: Marjorie M. Liu

Published: June 2008

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fiction

Stand Alone/Series: Hunter Kiss #1, Prequel: Hunter Kiss in Wild Thing Anthology

From the Author Site: Silver smoke winds around my torso, peeling away from my ribs and back, stealing the dark mist covering my hands and lower extremities…tattoos dissolving into demon flesh, coalescing into small dark bodies. My boys. The only friends I have in this world. Demons.

I am a demon hunter. I am a demon. I am Hunter Kiss.

By day, her tattoos are her armor. By night, they unwind from her body to take on forms of their own. Demons of the flesh, turned into flesh. This is the only family demon hunter Maxine Kiss has ever known. The only way to live—and the very way she’ll die. For one day, her demons will abandon her for her daughter to assure their own survival—leaving Maxine helpless against her enemies.

But such is the way of Earth’s last protector—the only one standing between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veils. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment—and one man—changes everything...

Heroine: Hunter Maxine Kiss is the latest and last of the Hunters. She is descended from the first Hunter in an unbroken female line that started ten thousand years ago when the veil was erected and the demons imprisoned. Over the centuries the other Hunter lines have died out leaving only the Kiss line and finally Maxine as the only Hunter-Warden left to protect the earth from demons. The story starts with Maxine "knowing" who and what she is but as the story unfolds that understanding starts to falter.

She is a totally kick-ass heroine but soft-hearted, unless you are a demon. Definitely ranking up there with Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels and Meljean Brook's Lilith as one of my favorite no-nonsense heroines. The kick ass first and ask questions second type of ladies. Gotta love that.

Plot: Loved the storyline. The veil that keeps the demons imprisoned and the earth safe is falling and only Maxine is left to protect the earth from the coming demon apocalypse. Already scouts are coming through and Maxine must find the strength and knowledge to protect not only herself but the whole world.

There are mysteries about Maxine that even she does not know and something "the boys" won't/can't tell her. Something spoken of in hints and riddles but never fully explained. The discovery of the hidden world around her, things her mother never told her about and surprises for everyone involved.

Review: A page-turner that hooked little claws into me and didn't let go until the very end. Action packed with lots of mystery around every corner. Just enough mystery to be tantalizing and kept me flipping to pages to find out more and now leaving me begging for more. This storyline is definitely going on my A-list. Marjorie has added bits of lore/myth/fairytales into the storyline and I can't wait to see how she uses these bits in the future.

Love "the boys"! Even though only Zee can communicate with Maxine, they all seem to just leap off the pages with their love and protectiveness toward Maxine (they are also going on my list of immortal companions to have right up there with Meljean's Sir Pup... so I seem to like the ones that can "dispose of the evidence" go figure). I am still a bit mixed about Grant, I like his character and he does make a nice foil for Maxine's toughness but he seems a bit wimpy to me.

All told in the first person. Seems to the trend in urban fiction. I like it. It so much easier to keep up with all the twist and turns and keeps the suspense building since the reader only knows as much as the heroine/main character.

Keeper?: Yes

Recommendation: Excellent story with lots of tension and action. To fully enjoy the storyline, read the short story Hunter Kiss first. It set the scene of the story and provides some very important world building facts.

Rating: 5