Hell Gates & Hot Flashes

Paranormal Women's Fiction (Harrow Bay, Book 1)

By: Aurelia Skye, Kit Tunstall

Narrated by: Naomi Rose Mock

Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to the place where things that go bump in the night deliver your milk in the mornings, community is important to human and creature alike, and all Hell occasionally breaks loose.

When Jody Shaw is hired to be the new sheriff of Harrow Bay, a small coastal community, she’s excited to rise through the ranks and try something new. At 43, her career is everything that matters to her, besides her mother and grandmother, who move with her. It doesn’t take long for Jody to learn Harrow Bay is unusual. It’s home to all sorts of supernatural creatures, and there’s a Hell gate right at the center of town. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to build an entire town around a Hell gate?

As Willa, Jody’s mom, tries to figure out who she is now that she’s widowed, and Gram decides to wage war on the tyrant queen of the Senior Center, Jody realizes she’s not quite prepared for her new job when an escapee of Hell comes to Harrow Bay, with a handsome half-demon bounty hunter after him. Drake is clearly large (very large) and in charge, but he’s an insufferable jerk. The sooner she can end their collaboration, the better. Right?

This is paranormal women's fiction featuring a main heroine in her 40s, along with her mother and grandmother. There will be some slow-burn romance, along with the occasional cursing and violence, and some sexual tension.

©2020 Aurelia Skye (P)2021 Aurelia Skye

95 percent happy with this one ...

I did enjoy this, although it's a very quick listen at less than four hours ... It is well-written, the author has skill with words and with getting the personalities and mental visuals across. The personalities are each individual and well-drawn, you can recognize the personality types from people you know, it all seems quite valid. The little demon is kind of Dobie-esque, a funny character, and the half devil bounty hunter would make any woman with hormones pay attention, although the romantic potential is very low key and not a central feature in this book. Altho the grandma figure is definitely fun in that department, a broad characterization of a free-loving hippie chick in her 70's. Her daughter, the main character's mother, is the exact opposite. This is a great cast of characters, a sensitive black single parent female deputy, a shy male werewolf deputy, the town introducing themselves to the MC and trying to explain that while they are shifters and vampires, they just want to live in peace and not cause any harm to anyone. It's all excellent background, excellent characters, some light hearted stuff thrown in for fun.

What makes me wonder whether to invest in another book in the series is that the main character now has become well aware that magic is real, she has been gifted with a beginner level connection to the town's magic, but she is resisting learning magic, even though she knows the whole town is magic and that she's there to arrest, restrain and control any out of control magical beings. While the MC woman sheriff is a mature adult in her 40's, and not a simpering young thing, she was still resisting learning the magic she needs to do her job at the end of the story... if I were her employer, at this point, she'd get a last warning.

But, given that, I know I'll listen to this first book again, because I did enjoy it, and that at some point in the future, I'll buy the next one just to find out if the MC decides to do what she needs to do to be effective in her job. Hopefully she does, because I see a lot of books in this series that could be fun if she becomes competent in her job.