Review--Haunted by Jeanne C. Stein

Anna Strong—kick-ass bounty hunter and vampire—has made some enemies in her time. But it’s not just her old foes she should be worried about…

Anna’s shape-shifting friend Culebra finally opens up to her about his life before he owned Beso de la Muerte, a bar catering to supernatural clientele. As if summoned by the conversation, Culebra’s past stumbles into his bar in the form of an old buddy cashing in a favor.

Soon Anna, Culebra and her ex, DEA agent Max, find themselves deep in Mexico, dealing with drug cartel infighting, old vendettas and missing girls. Mexico just may prove to be Anna’s best match yet…


Finished Jeanne C. Stein's Haunted this morning, having started it Friday morning. It was pretty good! Like with most of my reads lately, I couldn't recall a lot of what went down last time, but was able to get the general idea of it through the storytelling.

In this one Anna learns of her friend, Culebra's dark past and how it soon catches up with him when an old friend, Ramon, comes to him asking for help. In order to help him, he'll have to return to parts of Mexico where he left behind his old and dangerous life. Anna and Max come along as well to aid their friend, despite his seedy past.

Naturally, nothing is at is seems in Mexico. Big and bad things are going down and Anna, Max and Culebra find themselves involved, whether they wanted to or not, but considering the seriousness of the situation, they feel morally obligated to exact some justice!

This was a pretty fun and exciting read. I'll admit that the beginning was a touch slow. Although, I did like seeing Anna spend time with Frey and his son John-John. There's a few surprises there as well, but I won't get into it.

Anna's love life with Stephen, the reporter she is currently romantic with--and someone I have nearly no memory of since it's been wayyy too many books since I've read the books in this series and when he was introduced--is going pretty well. But when she takes on this dangerous and sudden case, she kind of neglects him in the relationship sense. Worried it might put a barrier between them, but knowing nothing can be done about it, she goes on ahead with Max and Culebra anyway.

Like all Jeanne's books in this series, this one was filled with a lot kickass action! Anna is definitely one fierce heroine! She fights with a passion and purpose! She's very good at what she does, yet she does have weaknesses, which any hero or heroine has. And hers are her friends and family, in that she will do anything and everything to keep them safe, which is usually how she ends up in these situations.

Overall this was a fabulously fun read that was completely entertaining! Although I do miss seeing some of the other characters we've met, like David, but it seems fitting somewhat for Anna's connections to her human friends and family to be drifting as she progresses with her vampire life. For she will one day have to leave everything and everyone behind. 

Jeanne totally blew me away with the ending though! It was definitely one of those earth-shocking, earth-shattering kind of endings that left me gasping! But there was still a nice turnabout at the very very end, like last line of the ending! I very much look forward to seeing how she wraps up this series this year!

The Anna Strong Chronicles is definitely a series I recommend to the Urban Fantasy reader, because Anna is pretty much the definition of Urban Fantasy heroine! She's tough, strong, kickass and knows how to take care of herself in every sense of the word! And yet, there are moments in between that we get  to see the human side of her, to make her more endearing to us as the reader and I have come to love reading her adventures and trials! She's definitely come a long way for in her 18 months as a vampire that spawned 8 books!


Overall rating 5/5 stars