Tantra

Tantra wavered between a 3 and 4 star book for me, and I have to admit that I'm disappointed that the author doesn't seem to have written a sequel.

I'm not a fan of the Laurel K. Hamilton-style hard-bitten vampire hunter, and this book was pretty trope-y from the get-go (mid-twenties, attractive female hunter in leather!), but it never got too overwhelmingly rote for me. It's definitely both a debut novel and a self-published novel, and I had my expectations adjusted accordingly. The pacing was off at times; for example the death of her boss and destruction of their hide out is dealt with in a weirdly perfunctory manner, and the love interest gets sadly little development.

Where the book departed from the common urban fantasy tropes it got interesting– the interpersonal relationships of the author with her aunt and cousin, implied relationship with her mother and arranged marriage subplots were fresh, as was the incorporation of a variety of Indian magic and holidays. I read it in a day, and there were only a handful of moments where I rolled my eyes.