A review by vikingwolf
Blood and Silver by James R. Tuck

5.0

I've been binge reading this series in a week and this book is the best one so far. I love Deacon Chalk and his urban fantasy world.

After a good day out at the carnival with Tiff, Deacon witnesses a were-lion and his gang of thugs attacking a pregnant were-dog called Sophia and is determined to save her. So when other were-lions come to claim her as theirs, Deacon isn't very keen to let anyone take her. He is caught up in a turf war with two warring lion brothers who each want Sophia for something, a war which divides the local shifters and will bring Deacon's people face to face with monsters they never dreamed existed.

Deacon has been enjoying spending time with Tiff without dating, and thinking that things in his life are ok so it's not a surprise when carnage breaks out around him. Kat has started dating but her boyfriend is using magick which infuriates Deacon after what it did to his own family years ago. You know that is going to come back to bite big time at some point. Ronnie is trying to deal with being den mother to Charlotte's spider offspring and preventing them from attacking customers who get a bit grabby! Deacon himself is realising that he can heal and to some extent control and attack other supernaturals using his mind and the power from the Angel blood, which is really interesting to the plot. We get to see Charlotte and George again which is great and get introduced to Boothe the were-rabbit, Ragnar the geriatric wolf, the snotty Lord of the Forest were-stag, Lucy who body shares with a rhino spirit, Marcus the pacifist were-lion and his mate Shani.

Ooh but the bad guy shifters are sooo exciting! Were-Shark! Yes, a great white shark shifter who is so scary that he terrifies Charlotte! Were-Komodo! Were-Snake! Seriously how cool is that??? The battle between all these shifters on both sides was so entertaining in the motel scene that I was on the edge of my seat reading it. Throw in vicious Were-Lion, vampires and werewolves AND the awesomeness of a Were-Dinosaur!!!!! That was a serious WTF moment and I loved it! In the face of these monsters even Deacon is a bit concerned about their chances! These are battles on a huge scale where everyone has to use every bit of power and cunning they have just to survive, never mind defeat their enemies. Great stuff!

This was my favourite book of the three main novels just because of the sheer scale of the battles and the range of characters in it. There were sub plots featuring the emotional angst of Deacon, Tiff, Kat, Ronnie and Larson, all of which were pretty enjoyable. Deacon and Tiff are so sweet as a couple and he turns into such a teddy bear around her! They seem like an odd match but there is just something about the two of them together that I really like. Kat on the other hand, is making some really bad choices in men! Gah, I don't like Larson's attitude to Deacon at all. Stop whining and blaming Deacon for all your problems! If you hadn't been idiot enough to want to start chasing vampires, you wouldn't be in this mess!!! Grrr.

As always, the battles are brutal which is just how I enjoy them. There is the good mixture of kickass action, character development, emotion, tension and dry humour that I've come to expect in this series. It did not disappoint in any way. I loved our team of characters and hope we see a lot more of them in many books to come!