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Fearless by Elliott James


This is book three of the Pax Arcana series, following Charming and Daring.  

Ex-Knight and current werewolf John Charming is called on by his old flame, the valkyrie Sig, to help protect a young man named Kevin Kichida.  Kevin has been targeted by an ancient sorcerer to be used in a blood rite and John must locate and defeat the sorcerer before that happens.  To do so, he and Sig must enter a kind of magical creatures fight club to get the sorcerer's attention.

I love these books and I was really glad to find that it's an on-going series with at least two more entries already.  This one explores a lot of Japanese supernatural entities, some of whom may be familiar (the kitsune) and some not (yuki-onna).  As usual, the deeper theme of "family is something you choose" runs through the book.  Charming has spent most of his life abused and running away from those he was told were his family and his traumas influence his current relationships.

The style of the writing is breezy and action-forward with snappy dialogue and cute chapter titles.  At a shade over 400 pages, it's a moderate length, long enough to feel substantial and to tell the story but not so long you get bogged down.  I'm really looking forward to reading book 4 and I highly recommend you pick up books 1 and 2 if you haven't already read them.

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