Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity--and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and when her work with the cryptid community took her to Manhattan, she thought she would finally be free to pursue competition-level dance in earnest. It didn't quite work out that way...

But now, with the snake cult that was killing virgins all over Manhattan finally taken care of, Verity is ready to settle down for some serious ballroom dancing—until her on-again, off-again, semi-boyfriend Dominic De Luca, a member of the monster-hunting Covenant of St. George, informs her that the Covenant is on their way to assess the city's readiness for a cryptid purge. With everything and everyone she loves on the line, there's no way Verity can take that lying down.

Alliances will be tested, allies will be questioned, lives will be lost, and the talking mice in Verity's apartment will immortalize everything as holy writ--assuming there's anyone left standing when all is said and done. It's a midnight blue-light special, and the sale of the day is on betrayal, deceit...and carnage.
~~

If you have not yet picked up a book by Seanan McGuire I am telling you (again) - GET THEE TO THE BOOKSTORE! Again and again she manages to create dynamic characters in both familiar and unfamiliar environments, that while being definitely non-human you find yourself relating to as a reader. I would almost say this is more true in her InCryptid series than her Toby Daye because technically the human is the main character. Verity, despite all her skill as a cryptozooligist, is still just a human but McGuire's skill is so great that this is never isolates her from the pain and suffering of the 'monsters' around her.

In this particular book things are not going well for Dominic or Verity, as the Covenant decides to come to town and check things out for themselves. Emotions are tried (and hurt), and people (or monsters - whatever) are also hurt. I knew going in that as an author McGuire chooses to not make sexual violence a 'tool' of character growth but I found myself wanting to cover my eyes anyway! Can you imagine how that feelings? Desperately wanting to know what happens next but stuck looking away because things are JUST that intense? Suspense is something I expect from McGuire (look at the entire Toby Daye series) but damn this woman keeps topping herself and has created yet again an action filled, suspense driven novel that has just enough romance to keep this heart happy.

Overall Feeling - A

Series -  1) Discount Armageddon 2) Midnight Blue-Light Special