No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong

In her acclaimed Women of the Otherworld series, bestselling author Kelley Armstrong creates a present day in which humans unwittingly coexist with werewolves, witches, and other supernatural beings. Now, in this spellbinding new novel, a beautiful necromancer who can see ghosts must come to terms with her power—and with an evil she never thought possible.

It’s the most anticipated reality television event of the season: three spiritualists gathered together in one house to raise the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. For celebrity medium Jaime Vegas, it is to be her swan song—one last publicity blast for a celebrity on the wrong side of forty. But unlike her colleagues, who are more show than substance, Jaime is the real thing.

Reluctant to upstage her fellow spiritualists, Jaime tries to suppress her talents, as she has done her entire life. But there is something lurking in the maze of gardens behind the house: a spirit without a voice. And it won’t let go until somehow Jaime hears its terrible story. For the first time in her life, Jaime Vegas understands what humans mean when they say they are haunted. Distraught, Jaime looks to fellow supernatural Jeremy Danvers for help.

As the touches and whispers from the garden grow more frantic, Jaime and Jeremy embark on an investigation into a Los Angeles underworld of black magic and ritual sacrifice. When events culminate in a psychic showdown, Jaime must use the darkest power she has to defeat a shocking enemy—one whose malicious force comes from the last realm she expected. . . .

In a world whose surface resembles our own, Kelley Armstrong delivers a stunning alternate reality, one where beings of the imagination live, love, and fight a never-ending battle between good and evil.

It comes as a bit of a surprise to me, as this feeling has kind of just snuck up on me a little, but I think that Kelley Armstrong may well be one of my favourite authors. In some of the earlier books, I felt as though I had forgotten that I enjoyed her books, so I learned all over again how much I enjoyed them. I don't think I had that feeling this time, because I really hadn't forgotten, and despite the very dark subject matter, I really enjoyed this one too.

My main reason for enjoying this is definitely the development of the relationship between Jaime Vegas and Jeremy Danvers. Jaime is a forty something celebrity necromancer, who is trying to catch a break so that she can get her own TV show. Jeremy is the alpha of a werewolf pack. Whilst he is older than Jaime, it's not that squicky because werewolves age much slower than humans and therefore he is from all appearances in his late 40s. So, there is your first point of difference in this book - an older couple!

Jaime has agreed to take part in a celebrity reality TV show, featuring two other clairvoyant type characters who also both want to get their Hollywood break. The aim of the show - to find out who killed Marilyn Monroe. Unfortunately for Jaime, there are some other ghosts who want her attention, and soon she becomes involved in an investigation into what appears to be a group of humans who are experimenting with human sacrifice (most specifically child sacrifice) as a way of powering their spellcasting. I do think that this book, and Broken have been a lot darker than some of the earlier books in the series, but Armstrong manages to balance that darkness against the other plot elements within the book, with the result being that it is not overwhelmingly dark or dismal.

Luckily Jaime is not alone in investigating. There is assistance from Eve and Kris (who featured in the book Haunted), Hope, and later in the book Karl (from the novella Chaotic ), although for Jaime this is a double edged sword type of assistance, because she really wants to be self sufficient in the supernatural world and doesn't want to always be rescued or protected by someone else. The most important person she wants to impress is Jeremy. She has had feelings for him for going on four years, and with him coming to visit her is Los Angeles, and assisting her, she is beginning to think that there could be hope of something more with him or perhaps she is just thinking this way because it is what she wants to see. Let's just say the chemistry between these two was smokin' hot!

We also got to know Jeremy a lot better in this book. In previous books he has always been the alpha, the one always in control, and sometimes a little aloof and reserved, but in this book he has moments of sharing with Jaime his thoughts about what it is like to be the alpha, and his thoughts about the future.

All in all, this was another enjoyable entry in this fantastic series.


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