More by Vicki Pettersson The Scent of Shadows

Joanna Archer, Las Vegas based super heroine living disguised as her own dead sister Olivia, follows a shadow, a super powered enemy, across alternate dimensions, through invisible portals, and right into a nasty ambush. But, just when it looks like she's going to die, one of the shadows turns on the other, acting like an ally among the enemies. Joanna gets the surprise of her life when the pretty female shadow agent initiate, not only helps to defeat one of her own kind, but kisses Joanna instead of killing her.

Joanna's father is the leader of the shadows, while her mother was a hero of the light. The pretty young shadow initiate seems to think that Joanna can be convinced to fight for the darkness. The trouble is, Joanna's allies, the other heroes of the light, wonder the same thing. Even as she fights to prove her loyalty, her need for revenge on the shadow who brutally raped her as a young girl pushes her to defy orders and puts them all at risk. She must be true to her own path, but her defiance could lead to the death of everyone she cares about. When the shadows find a way to wipe out all of the heroes at once, and take half the city's population with them, Joanna's half shadow, half light nature could hold the key to survival, or it could be the death of them all.

Joanna's attraction to the powerful hero, Hunter, even while her heart still belongs to Ben, the love of her life who she must never see again, complicates things even further. Her heart is as torn and battered as her body, but she must keep up the fight. The shadows don't relent just because a hero nurses a broken heart.

Vicki Petterson has created a truly unique urban fantasy world with a richness of tradition and depth of character that makes it feel vividly real. I highly recommend this book to any fan of urban fantasy. I would compare it to Jim Butcher or Charlaine Harris, but I think it owes more of its heritage to Frank Miller's graphic novel masterpieces like Dark Knight and Sin City. Read at your own risk, highly addictive.