Friday, April 6, 2012

Suzanne Johnson - Royal Street - Giveaway, Character Guest Post, And Review

Royal Street (Sentinels of New Orleans #1)
by Suzanne Johnson


As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.

While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.

To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.


Paperback, 336 pages
Expected publication: April 10th 2012
ISBN 0765327791 (ISBN13: 9780765327796)


Review:

Since the age of seven DJ (Drusilla Jane) has she’s trained with Gerald St Simon as a junior wizard, and deputy sentinel for New Orleans. She also has the ability of Empath. Along comes Hurricane Katrina, DJ is ordered out to Alabama, Gerry stays behind to guard an opened portal. That's when the action really starts up.

This is an amazing book to read. It not only has Wizards, but also, fae, elves, ghost, weres, and vampires. I really enjoyed the way the author mixed the world building. Our reality, actual events, historical figures (pirate Jean Lafitte), and paranormal characters. 


The characters are well formed. DJ is a bold, smart, and devoted heroine. Toss in Alex and Jake who both like DJ, and let the fun and interesting love triangle roll out in front of your eyes. The plot will leave you guessing at every turn. It just goes some many directions and not in a bad way. 

The pace flowed well. Ending wasn't a cliff hanger, but it really does set it up nice for a squeal that will be craved. And Last but certainly not least the cover. It fit so well into the story. Bravo Ms. Johnson!

My Rating 4.5 Stars!





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Character Guest Post: Pirate Jean Lafitte of Royal Street


The Pirate’s Plans

(As transcribed by Suzanne Johnson)

Bonjour, mes amies. Je m’appelle Jean…Bah. You wish this to be in English? (Snarls at the lowly author transcribing his words onto a laptop, who nods.)

Very well. My name is Jean Lafitte, and in the year 1806, as a young man of twenty-six, I arrived in the city of New Orleans—Nouvelle Orleans sounds so much nicer, do you not think? (Lowly author nods, since she has learned it’s much easier to just agree with whatever he says.)

Within a decade, I became the most famous privateer to sail the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and had a thousand men at my command on the Louisiana coast. (Lowly author pipes up: Most people remember you as a pirate.)

Bah. History has called me a pirate, but I simply took what belonged to the Spanish, and they are  mongrels, oui? You must stop interrupting me, Jolie. (Lowly author swoons slightly at the endearment, issued in a deep, husky baritone with sexy accent.)

Now, where was I? Ah, oui. I was quite the handsome man, and many women wished to enjoy my company. As I am quite kind and considerate, I attempted to accommodate as many as possible. (Lowly author rolls eyes.)

Of course, my human life reached an unfortunate end. But imagine my surprise when—voila! —I was given a second, immortal life through the power of human memory. Now, I am a leader of the group of formerly famous individuals known as the Historical Undead. And we are very much alive.

As I am now immortal, how do I fill my unlimited hours, one might ask? This is my current difficulty. The borders between the modern world and the Beyond, where I live in Old Orleans (along with such unsavory creatures as vampires and elves), are enforced by the wizards. If I wish to enter modern New Orleans to conduct business, I must wait for someone with magical abilities to summon me.

Often, these are young folk who expect me to look like someone they call “Johnny Depp” or “Jack Sparrow.” I do not know these blackguards, although I issue an open invitation to duel with this Captain Sparrow or Monsieur Depp should either be brave enough to face me. (Lowly author considers trying to explain such newfangled things as movies, but decides against it.)

And as soon as I set foot into modern New Orleans, the local wizard sentinel chases me down and sends me back to the Beyond. How is a privateer to conduct business when he must constantly elude capture by a wizard?

Yet I have devised a plan. The current wizard sentinel, an arrogant and unreasonable peasant named Gerald St. Simon, has a young protégée—she is quite lovely, I am told, and I believe would be susceptible to my considerable charmes romantique. Her name is Drusilla, although she chooses to go by the unfortunate sobriquet of DJ.

Bah—those are alphabet letter, not a proper name for a young lady. (Lowly author rolls her eyes again—she’s heard this tirade before.)

Nonetheless, the next time some human with magical talent summons Captain Jack Sparrow to New Orleans, I shall arrive and arrange to meet the lovely young wizardess in a remote location. Perhaps to woo her first with my considerable mots d’amour, and then with a business proposition she will be unable to refuse.

For to refuse the famous pirate Jean Lafitte? It could be deadly, n’est-ce pas? (Lowly author points out that if he kills the heroine of this urban fantasy series before the first book is released, it will be a very short series indeed.)

Royal Street, in which Jean Lafitte has his chance to charm the young wizard sentinel DJ Jaco, releases April 10 from Tor Books.




Check Out This Book & Author Suzanne Johnson:

Website: http://www.suzanne-johnson.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Street-Suzanne-Johnson/dp/0765327791/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316618287&sr=8-1

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/royal-street-suzanne-johnson/1104154893?ean=9780765327796&itm=1&usri=royal%2bstreet%2bsuzanne%2bjohnson

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Suzanne_Johnson

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5046525.Suzanne_Johnson









This bracelet is made of a stone called Yellow Turquoise, which is a naturally occurring blend of quartz, jasper and serpentine found in turquoise mines. It's a pretty deep teal color, and its magical properties are emotional grounding and courage.

&&&


Two books 
Internationally
Through April 15

35 comments:

Aurian said...

Great review, thank you. I am so looking forward to reading this book myself. And meeting a "real" pirate!

auriansbooks at gmail dot com

Jackie said...

Pirates, New Orleans, Wizards and I am hooked so the book is going on my wishing to read and the bracelet sounds gorgeous!
Thanks for the cool post with Jean and a review that "hinted" this book is one for me to enjoy also.

jacabur2008(@)gmail(.)com

Roger said...

Hi Suzanne,

Enjoyed the Jean Lafitte Character Guest Post. Will be looking for the postman daily now. If Amazon would only ship today . . .

molly.frenzel said...

As always, great interview. Thank you for the giveaway. I can't wait for this book!

molly(dot)frenzel(at)gmail(dot)com

Unknown said...

This book is on my radar for quite sometime now! The guest post was really interesting, thank you!

anniech85(at)gmail(dot)com

Unknown said...

I would love to meet a pirate. I think that would be neat. Please enter me in contest. I would love to read this book. Tore923@aol.com

Michelle Bledsoe said...

You can not go wrong with this book. I can't wait for Tuesday. I preordered mine last week to make sure I got a copy. I laughed when I read one of her short stories on her sight because her boys are from my hometown....LOL
Thanks for the review.

koonie2888@yahoo.com

Suzanne Johnson said...

Thanks for stopping by to keep "Jean" company, everyone :-)

Michelle--I'll have a new short story going up in early May featuring the Picayune boys :-)

felinewyvern said...

With so many great elements (wizards, demons, pirates!!) in this book it had to go on my wish list immediately :D

ilona
felinewyvern at googlemail dot com

Reading Mind / The Loyal Book said...

I have been looking forward to read this book ever since I sulbled on Suzanne's blog!

aliasgirl at libero dot it

miki said...

Great review, it really made me impatient to discover it

all the best

isabelle(dot)frisch(at)gmail(dot)com

Unknown said...

Bonjour Jean, enchanté de faire votre connaissance. Oh Jean, you can speak French to me any time, *bats eyelashes* :-)

Thank you for the fun post and the great review, I've had Royal Street on my wishlist ever since I glimpsed its cover and then when I read the blurb I knew it would be a riot! :-D

Congrats on the very anticipated and soon to be here release Suzanne and good luck on the road! :-)

stella.exlibris (at) gmail (dot) com

Unknown said...

Pirates and wizards and demons.......I am so there. Thank you for another TBR! delphinareadstoomuch at yahoo

Suzanne Johnson said...

Merci, mes amies (says Jean)!

Mary Preston said...

I have added ROYAL STREET to my wish list - wizards & pirates - YAY!! A great review thank you.

marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

Melliane said...

Thanks for this guest post, it was really interesting to learn more about Jean! lol when I started it I was surprised to see french, it was really fun. It's also a great review, I really loved the book as well!

ellana_(at)hotmail(dot)fr

Jamie Leigh Martin said...

jamielovesweeping@gmail.com

Added to my Amazon wishlist!

sienny said...

Hi Suzanne!

i've wanted to read this one from the first time i read the blurb. so i hope i win this one :)

smile_1773@yahoo.com

Kristen - Seeing Night said...

Great review, Ive heard a lot of positive comments about Royal Street. Ive had this one on my wishlist. Thanks for the giveaway!
seeingnightreviews@gmail.com

Anne R said...

Great review, I am super excited to read this one!
Thanks for the giveaway.

areeths at new dot rr dot com

Krysykat said...

Thanks for the review, I'm going add this to my tbr list.

Morganlafey86@

elaing8 said...

I am really looking forward to reading this.Great review.
elaing8(at)netscape(dot)net

Linda said...

Was that a pirate wizard or a wizard pirate?! Hot damn but the book sounds good. I'd love to win a copy. PLEASE pretty please?

thumbelinda03@yahoo.com

Anne said...

I've been reading about Royal Street everywhere and the the reviews have been great.

acm05atjuno.com

Sharon Stogner said...

I love UF when it includes all sorts of supernatural creatures. This looks like something I will enjoy :) thanks
sstogner1 at gmail dot com

Denise Z said...

Well this sounds just dandy! I love this genre and am looking forward to a new read. Once again the cover gets me at first sight and I am trying so hard not to be shallow, but it is just so pretty. Saving grace your awesome review definitely justifies the wishlist. Thank you for sharing and for the lovely giveaway opportunity.
dz59001@gmail.com

Allie said...

Adding this to my must read list!

Read Between the Lines said...

awesome review and I really want this book
berrylicious_cutie(at)hotmail(.)com

k2sgal said...

Great interview and review

k2sgal@aol.com

ArtemisG said...

Great post! New Orlean, wizards, demons, pirates - I think that Royal Street has everything and Jean Lafitte looks amazing!
Thank you for the giveaway!

artgiote at gmail dot com

Catalogermom said...

After reading the review and blog post, I'm really intrigued by this book. Would love to read it. Thanks for the giveaway.
catalogermom (at) gmail (dot) com

Jen B. said...

I thought I had entered this giveaway. I am really excited to read this. Thanks for the giveaway. jepebATverizonDOTnet

Teresa K. said...

I so love the cover on this book and I do like the storyline and excerpts.

I can't wait to see the inner action between DJ and Jean Lafite. Thank you for the contest.

Teresa K.
tcwgrlup41(at)yahoo(dot)com

Tina B said...

Awesome post! Loved the Pirate's Plans!!! The bracelet is very nice also. :)
Thank you or te giveaway!!
Trb0917 at gmail.com

Unknown said...

Than you for sharing this read with me. TBR for certain sure! delphinareadstoomuch at yahoo

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