Law Unto Herself: The Stolen

by Jennifer Barnes

Her name is Forest, but she is better known as Law Unto Herself, a vampire vigilante who is too moral for her own good and too stubborn to know when to quit. Armed with a .44 Auto Mag, a bitching pony car, martial arts skills that would make an MMA prize fighter blush, and a love for heavy metal, Forest fights against the forces of evil. When a member of the Vampire Council contacts Forest to investigate a series of disappearances in their ranks, she thinks it’s just another job that they cannot afford to get their hands dirty with. After a Faerie maiden goes missing after meeting up with some unsavory company gains the attention of Lady Wynn Umbra, Forest’s oldest friend, to investigate, she turns to the vampire for aid. The two quickly realize that the cases of the missing vampires and Faerie are related when they discover a supernatural slavery ring. When the slavers set their eyes on Wynn’s son and Forest’s godson, both Faerie and vampire find themselves outnumbered and outmaneuvered. However, these slavers will find out that Law Unto Herself didn’t get her title for demurely backing down and submitting to someone else’s will.

486 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2021

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun ride of a book befitting the urban fantasy genera. The characters are all complex and individual, with even the minor ones feeling like people and not set pieces. You can tell the characters know each other even when you don't know them yet and it makes the world feel solid and fully formed. Its a world that has it's rules for functioning and sticks with them which is a huge plus when dealing with supernatural and magic! It never feels like things are happening just for convenience's sake and makes everything fit together well.

The use of supernatural lore is skillfully executed and plays wonderfully with the characters personalities and the story itself and there is never a sense of having things just lore dumped on you.

The action is fun and well written and the characters struggle enough that it's never boring but not so much that you can't believe they'll make it through okay.

The only detractor for me is there is a lot of sex talk and rape talk which just isn't my thing. However it's appropriate for the plot, characters and general world that both exist in so it's not just there for no reason.

Overall a solid, engaging read with lots of action!

[Oscarb1007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darkly fun action ride. I loved the complicated relations ships with the MC. They were neither straight forward, or completely explained all at once.. which was kinda nice for a change. The action scenes were soooo well written, in particular the hand-to-hand ones. As well, the plots and character introductions were done almost like a Guy Ritchie movie, which was a good idea in theory, however felt a little more like mental whip lash particularly in the beginning of the story as the characters weren’t really “set” yet. The ending did bring it all together in a very cool way with the view points, so it made getting through the start worthwhile. The only other downside personally was either the reference to or threat of rape in most of the book. Like all of it. It really gets to be a much, but does in places fit with the story line. Overall I really liked the adventure I was taken on and look forward to more with this author.

[Ray Schulte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so.... The MC, Forest, or as her moniker -- A Law Unto Herself, is an ancient vampire with a high moral code of ethics that kicks ass, carries a big gun and drives a muscle era camaro. I am hooked!
She gets approached to look into finding a missing vampire by the vampire council because she is an independent they tend to leave alone due to her high moral code and at the same time her bestie, a very powerful fae, Lady Wynn, is approached because one of her subjects has their daughter abducted. They each compare situations and go investigate the disappearances only to find slavers of humans and supernaturals are at play connecting the events. During the ensuing time Forest teams up with friends of her past/present to go after the slavers with plenty of action and of course, missteps along the way.
Truly a good read and well written.
I look forward to reading more installments in the life of Forest aka Law Unto Herself.

[W.J. Long III · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. Miss Barnes has found a delightfully playful, irreverent and visceral flavor and it makes reading about Forest, Hawk, Gabriel...and even Wynn a thoroughly enjoyable affair.

Miss Barnes, grasp on her characters and interweaving plotlines grows stronger and the novel progresses which makes up for some hiccups in the early chapters, so if you hit a few bumps keep going.

I look forward to her next outing. Hopefully, now that introductions are done and the characters are raring to go, she'll can really let loose and show us what she, and Forest can do.

[Nicholas Tay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well introduced characters, with just the right touch of action, horror references and innuendo.