'Jealousy' Strange Angels #3 by Lili St CROW

Received from the publisher

From the BLURB:

Love is a battlefield.

Just when Dru thought she was safe, everything exploded her face. Her mom and dad are long gone, her protectors Graves and Christophe kinda want to rip each other's throats out, and a four-hundred-year-old nosferat named Sergej won't stop hunting her until his bloodthirsty army of suckers has torn her to shreds.

Dru's finally made it to the Schola Prima - the Real Deal djamphir training facility and home of the Order - and life is about to get even more Real World. There's a brand new svetocha in town - a readheaded vixen named Anna who's got the Order wrapped around her pretty little finger, and who'd rather kill Dru than share the spotlight. Turns out Dru's got something Anna wants. And his name just happens to be Christophe Reynard.

This is the third book in Lili St. Crow’s ‘Strange Angels’ series.

‘Jealousy’ picks up pretty much where ‘Betrayals’ left off. Dru and her band of merry men; Graves, Dibs, Benjamin and Ash have made it to Schola Prima. Prima is the main school training facility for wulfen and djamphir. Schola Prima also happens to be where the only other svetocha, Lady Anna, resides. But now with Dru at Prima, there are two svetocha... and Anna seems to think that two is a crowd.

Anna is a great villainess, mostly because she’s the exact opposite to Dru. Anna is beautiful and coquettish and the epitome of femininity. Anna revels in being the only woman amongst supernatural men, and she especially adores being a sacred svetocha. Dru, on the other hand, is more concerned with packing a punch than chipping a nail – so she and Anna make great adversaries. It’s a case of Anna’s feminine wiles versus Dru’s blunt force, and it makes a wonderful challenge;

Anna leaned against the open door, just like an illustration in a fashion magazine. Perfect, poreless, and with a sweetly poisonous smile. Another nasty, tiny little thought struggled in the back of my head, then drowned in the need to find a bathroom really, really quick.
“What?” As in, What do you want now?
“Welcome to the Schola Prima, sister.” Her glossy mouth quirked up at one corner, a half-smile that held no warmth. “We’re going to be great friends.”

‘Jealousy’ sees the ‘Strange Angels’ universe grow and expand as Dru is given a first-hand peek into ‘The Order’ who rule the supernatural underworld. A world that Anna currently oversees, and could one day pass to Dru’s leadership. There’s a lot more world-building in ‘Jealousy’ and it makes for fascinating reading.

‘Jealousy’ is also about Dru growing up and learning some new life lessons. In her previous life with her father she was always on the run and on the hunt for what goes bump in the night. In ‘Betrayals’ she was slowly unlearning all the training that got her father killed and put her in danger. In ‘Jealousy’ Dru is learning to trust those around her and is discovering that she’s not as alone as she once thought she was. It’s an uplifting message and a fascinating character progression for our girl Dru.

Going hand-in-hand with Dru’s revelations and realisations is the development of her relationship with the two ‘men’ in her life; Graves and Christophe. I don’t want to give anything away, but Lili St Crow is doing a masterful job at teasing out these two characters and their standing in Dru’s life. As much as the novel is about Anna’s ruthlessness and Dru understanding ‘The Order’, it’s also about her budding relationship with these two men – the most important men in her life since her father. I am as torn about Christophe and Graves as Dru seems to be, I love them both and what they bring out in Dru!

‘Jealousy’ is a wonderful read. Fast-paced, action-packed and with sharper edges and a more nitty-gritty storyline than the YA urban fantasy genre has seen recently. But be warned – ‘Jealousy’ ends on a Grand-Canyon-sized cliff-hanger. When you read the last page your blood will race, your heart will be in your throat and your skin will prickle with impatience for the 4th ‘Strange Angels’ book... Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until 2011 to find out what happens next... damn!

5/5