** REVIEWERS CHOICE AWARD **

Elizabeth Phoenix can find people by touching objects of theirs and visions of people’s actions from touching them. These psychic abilities helped her immensely as a cop, but they didn’t endear her to her fellow officers. She quit the force after one of her hunches killed her partner, reinforcing her suspicions that she didn’t really fit in anywhere. She must rely on these talents when she becomes “the seer”, the role she must play to prevent doomsday. Ruthie, the only mother Elizabeth ever knew, was the previous seer, and as she died from a brutal attack, she passed her gift on to Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth struggles with her new responsibilities, but the men in her life come to her rescue. Jimmy, a long-ago love who cheated on her, teaches her of the Nephilim, a catch-all phrase for supernatural bad guys: vampires, werewolves, and many more. As the story goes, the Nephilim are on Earth to challenge mankind or as Elizabeth puts it “To kill, enslave and eat.” Elizabeth’s other trainer is a powerful skinwalker, the mysterious and oh-so-sexy (in his own way) Sawyer. Sawyer must help Elizabeth open herself to her powers and has little time to do it before it’s too late. 

Lori Handeland combines suspense, passion and more than enough creepy beings in Any Given Doomsday, the first book in the Phoenix Chronicles, to keep fans on the edge of their seats and turning pages long into the night. Handleland owes me at least a half night’s sleep. She outdid herself with this urban fantasy gem, and I can’t wait for the next installment, Doomsday Can Wait. With so many books hitting the shelves, consider this one a must read. 

Readers will find it easy to like Elizabeth, a woman with a difficult past growing up on the streets and an understanding of her own weaknesses. She struggles against the responsibilities forced on her as she never embraced her powers in the first place. The story takes Elizabeth from Wisconsin to New Mexico and New York with the Nephilim nipping at her heels. Jimmy and Sawyer help her with knowledge, but she will have to look more deeply inside herself to truly succeed, something she’s not so sure she can do. And that’s a lesson from which we all can learn.  

Elizabeth still loves Jimmy, and she has an intense attraction to Sawyer, but those relationships will be put to the test. Many of her characters have considerable depth that neither Elizabeth nor readers knows whom to trust and whom to fear.  

Handeland gives readers a fast-paced story with a tight plot and realistic dialogue. Enjoy this confrontation between good and evil, an adventure with the eminently likeable Elizabeth and see how she does against Doomsday.

 Reviewed by Katherine Petersen for The Road to Romance

March 12, 2009