REVIEW by Jena: Seven Crows (Buffy/Angel Crossover Novel) by John Vornholt

One crow sorrow,

Two crows mirth,

Three crows a wedding,

Four crows a birth,

Five crows silver,

Six crows gold,

Seven crows a secret,

Which must never be told….

In a sleepy little town on the border between Arizona and Mexico, Agent Riley Finn and his operative wife, Sam, have tracked down an international smuggling ring involving vampires. Surprisingly the call for reinforcements is answered by Buffy Summers and the atoning vampire Angel.

Now tempers are flaring in the heat of the day — and night — as people are dying and locals are turning a blind eye to the deadly events. Bodies are turning up in the surrounding desert, some drained of blood, some having succumbed to another, fast-moving death. Riley Finn is noticing the arrival of more and more crows to this area, ominous portents of the events ahead. But even Mr. Secret Agent Man is distracted from his job when his wife goes undercover with Angel….

Ok, so this is my big dorky moment in the big dorky sun.  My love of urban fantasy and PNR really took off in the early 2000’s when I discovered the Buffy novels.  See, I was this super huge mega-fan of the show (……..ahem…still am…ahem……..) and when the show ended, I went through withdrawals on a major scale.  All of these characters that I grew to love were just….gone.  Well, sort of.  A few spun off into the show Angel but that isn’t the same thing.

This case of withdrawal led to one of my friends giving me a nudge and saying “hey, there’s books!”  I immediately ran out to my now-defunct local book store and found a SECTION of Buffy books.  Yes, an ENTIRE SECTION.  Written by all sorts of different authors, they are basically fanfiction.  Sort of. 

After reading about a dozen of them, I came across Seven Crows.  I ended up reading it at least 20 times over the next few years until one day it just vanished.  To this day, this is my favorite Buffy book and I hope to be able to read it again one day. 

In the Buffy/Angel universe (carryover from the show) – This book takes place after Angel has left and moved to L.A. and also far enough out that Riley has also left and found his Nora Fury (thanks for that reference Xander!).  Buffy gets a call from Riley asking for her assistance on a case out in the deserts of Arizona and she accepts, seeing it as a bit of a vacation that she’s going to get paid for. 

The thing I loved about this book was the tie in of the old “poem” (don’t know that it’s really considered a poem).

One crow sorrow,

Two crows mirth,

Three crows a wedding,

Four crows a birth,

Five crows silver,

Six crows gold,

Seven crows a secret,

Which must never be told….

It comes up at the beginning of the book and ties plot lines together, line by line, throughout the story.  But not in an obvious way.  All together, it ends up piecing together a great story with a classically Joss Whedon-style Buffy/Angel mystery. 

The Joss Whedon/Marti Noxon humor is dead on in the writing, as is the romantic ties that bind.  The author was meticulous in the continuity with the two shows’ plot lines so the whole thing fits seamlessly together, rather than feeling like a completely separate story that just happens to star the same characters.  The history is there and if you’re a BtVS/Angel fan, you’re totally going to love this story.  I just wish I had been able to see this story on screen because this would have made a bitchin’ two part episode.  Maybe three part….

Overall, I am giving Seven Crows five dusty stakes (‘cause in Buffy, vampires turn to dust when you stake them)!  This particular novel goes down as my all-time FAVORITE Buffy book. 

Unfortunately, it was written back in the day before ebooks were a thing and even on Amazon, you can only buy used copies of it.  BUT if you happen to be lucky enough to find a copy, snatch that bitch up because it’s so worth the read.  If you’d like to snag a used copy from Amazon, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.

Some of my other favorite Buffy and/or Angel novels are:

Blood and Fog by Nancy Holder  <–Cool spin on the story of Jack the Ripper!!
The Burning (The Unseen Trilogy #1) by Nancy Holder
Door to Alternity (The Unseen Trilogy #2) by Nancy Holder
Long Way Home (The Unseen Trilogy #3) by Nancy Holder
Immortal by Christopher Golden
Tempted Champions by Yvonne Navarro
The Lost Slayer by Christopher Golden
Sanctuary by Jeff Mariotte
The Longest Night Volume 1 by
Little Things by Rebecca Moesta
Return to Chaos by Craig Shaw Gardner
Out of the Madhouse (Gatekeep Trilogy #1) by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder
Ghost Roads (Gatekeeper Trilogy #2) by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder
Sons of Entropy (Gatekeeper Trilogy #3) by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder

Any of these ones are GREAT reads and they’re not just a retelling of an episode (which some of the Buffy novels are).  If you like the idea of reliving an episode, I recommend Chosen by Nancy Holder.  Chosen is the entire final season of the show turned into a rather large novel, with each chapter being one of the episodes.  If you were a fan of the show, you know that season was pretty epic and being able to read the “ending” of the Buffy story is kind of fun.   There are other books too that are episodes that have been novelized but I found that they were always my least favorite episodes. 

All of the authors listed above are great ones and they totally capture the feel of Joss Whedon’s creation. 

Anyway, there’s my little dork out session.  I am hoping that there are some Buffy fans out there among our readers who will really like this one and find a new way to bring their old school obsession back into their lives.