Maybe once or twice a year I feel the need to step away from reading romance in order to give my brain a little break and give myself a clean slate so that I don't feel as if I'm reading the same thing over and over again, so I'll wait for something to peak my interest and that interest came via Conspiracy of Ravens. Well, to be more exact, it's cover. But then I realized that it was the second book in the series and did a little digging and again, loved the cover to Wake of Vultures, checked out a few of the reviews, both the glowing and the not so glowing, and decided to give this western fantasy ago and overall I enjoyed it the ride. The characters were intriguing, the world was an interesting one and though there were times when the story dragged a little, I still kept turning the pages to see what would happen next. 
 The story revolves around Nettie, a half black half native american, who finds herself in a bit of an interesting predicament after she kills a stranger. She can see and sense monsters. This puts a bit of a hitch in her plans because all she wants to do is be a bronc wrangler and be left alone. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen and she finds herself on a quest, which she didn't actually agree to, and surrounded by more "monsters" than she'd ever believed possible. Nettie is an interesting character and I quite liked her. She has an interesting view of herself, one that you'll have to read the book in order to find out, and despite her lack of formal education and living a life a servitude, she doesn't whine about all that she doesn't have. Instead she makes do and is quite clever when she needs to be. It may take her a while to accept certain things, but once she does she's all in. Though she doesn't have many friends, she is loyal to those who treat her right and she has a strong moral code and sense of honor. 
 I don't read all that many westerns, even in the romance genre, but I loved the feel of this one. It's the wild, wild west with a ton of crazy ass monsters. I will personally never see a harpy in any other way again *shivers*. Is it absolutely accurate to how people lived back then? Possibly, but I'm no historian and as the author pointed out, this is fantasy, though from what I could see the mores, cultures and societal views were on par with time. There's a little touch of racism, gender issues and rank between the haves and have nots, but nothing over the top, it's all simply part of the landscape that this world is built upon and gives it the depth it needs to feel real. 
 As I said, my one issue with Wake of Vultures was the pacing. Sometimes things were going at a good clip, others times things just dragged for me. I'm going to chalk that up to being a "it's not you, it's me" situation because I really enjoyed the interactions between the characters. My favorite supporting character was Coyote Dan, but I loved how each of the characters were well developed. They had their own personalities and they made the story that much more interesting. The language used (I'm not all too sure if that's the correct word to describe it, but dialect doesn't see to fit either) was fun and I liked how it was also used when the characters weren't speaking to each other. It ended up keeping me fully immersed in the world that the author had built. 
 There is a lovely cliffhanger at the end of this book and as I am a lover and hater of cliffys, I would have most likely been shouting WTF when it just ended there, but since I do have Conspiracy of Ravens waiting for me, I'm a little less judgy and am looking forward to finding out what's up next for Nettie and those around her. 
 ~ Copy received from RockStar PR via Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed~