#25: Raven Calls - C E Murphy

2/27/12

Don't you just love it when you go into a bookstore and when you're browsing the shelves you find a new book by one of the authors you like to read. It's definitely a kid in a candy store kind of moment. Your eyes get wide, your mouth forms an "o", and you start hopping just a little bit because you're so overcome with excitement. Well imagine working in a bookstore and seeing the book come in with a shipment and just waiting, itching to take the book home with you. When I saw this book I was having a conversation with two other employees in the back room and my eyes fell on this book that I didn't even know was being release yet. I cut between the other two women and grabbed the book from the cart it sat on. Neither woman said anything they just shook their heads with amused understanding.

Joanne Walker has been fighting to come to terms with the reality that she is a shaman and that there are powers in the world that she has to heal and others that she needs to stop with her power. Joanne having just finished a werewolf fight in Seattle, quitting her job, and finally able to pursue the feelings she and her boos have for each other now must go to Ireland. She as felt a pull that she must go there and the timing couldn't be better because Joanne has a secret, she's been bitten by a werewolf. In Ireland she will fight a power stronger than any she has dealt with before and hopefully will find a way to heal her bite before the beast takes over.

One of the reasons I like C E Murphy's Walker Paper series so much is because of the seamless blend between the world magic and the world we accept as the normal world. Joanne is a great character, relatable and easy to like. While in all the other books we get to know the  Native American half of Joanne's heritage in Raven Calls we get to learn about the Irish-Celtic portion of it and how it affects her in the way the Native American part doesn't. Murphy brings to life the beauty of Ireland and the light and dark parts of it's mythology. Murphy's style is inviting and exciting. The stories and the characters are so real that it seems like you're there and part of it. Wonderful read for anyone who likes mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, or just a good read (def. start at the beginning with Urban Shaman though).