ARC Review--House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter

Augustine lives the perfect life in the Haven city of New Orleans. He rarely works a real job, spends most of his nights with a different human woman, and resides in a spectacular Garden District mansion paid for by retired movie star Olivia Goodwin, who has come to think of him as an adopted son, providing him room and board and whatever else he needs.

But when Augustine returns home to find Olivia's been attacked by vampires, he knows his idyllic life has comes to an end. It's time for revenge—and to take up the mantle of the city's Guardian.

I received this ARC from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Kristen Painter's House of the Rising Sun is the first book in her Crescent City series, a spinoff of her House of Comarre series. It's been awhile since I last read those books, but the best part about a spinoff series is that you don't always need to have read the first series, although it is HIGHLY recommended!

As before, Kristen uses multiple third person point of view with her characters. Although, I was happy to see that this time time, at least, there wasn't as many characters as before. Sometimes I got a little character overload with trying to keep up with everyone. This time we mostly just had Augustine and Harlow narrating, but occasionally another character or two popped up. But it definitely made it easier to follow along.

Harlow is in deep trouble with the CCU, she's a tech geek and can hack and do all that other stuff that would probably give me migraines just thinking about. But when she hacked into something so top secret for a client--she wasn't aware of the security levels at the time--she gets fined nearly a million dollars to pay off in a few weeks or go to jail. So she heads to NOLA to visit her mother. They have a very strained relationship because for nearly her whole life, Harlow has pestered her mother about her father's identity and her mother never gives her a name.

Then there's Augustine, the fae who helped Chrysabelle out previously. He's kind of in some hot water, but gets offered the Guardian position and with some reluctance, he accepts. His motive in accepting was due to Olivia--the woman who became a stand in mother when his own was so crappy--is murdered. Olivia is also Harlow's mother, so this is how their paths get intertwined.

I have to say I really enjoyed this one! Although, I guess because Chrysabelle, Malkolm, and the others were all so intense, I thought that these characters would be too. When in fact, they seem...lighter. Granted they all still have their personal issues and whatnot, but it felt less darker than before. They were really a breath of fresh air!

It seems obvious that Augustine and Harlow are going to have romance between them, but I am glad to say there's no insta-love. There's insta-attraction for sure and kissing of course, but there are no declarations of love! Whoohoo! Of course, the "like" word gets thrown out there, but that's baby stepping towards love, so that's okay in my book! (ha! a pun!)

The mystery of Harlow's father does come up in this one, I was almost expecting that to take place next time possibly or further down the line. But Kristen doesn't make us wait long at all! The mystery of her mother's murder is also resolved in this one. But there are still a few problems left unresolved, so there's still plenty more to be done before our characters can sigh with relief!

I really enjoyed this one! The pacing hit about a medium for me. Not fast, not slow...just somewhere in between. Granted, the narrator change ups have a lot to do with that. You get so wrapped up in one of their stories and then you're jumping to the next! It's an endless cycle of not wanting to leave your current narrator! I am definitely looking forward to how this series pans out!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars


House of the Rising Sun releases May 13, 2014