Jacob 
Jacquelyn Frank
Published 2006 376 pages
Summary (from the book jacket)
Since time began, there have been Nightwalkers – the races of the night who live in the shadows of the moonlight. Love with humans is absolutely forbidden, and one man makes certain to uphold this ancient law: Jacob, the Enforcer…
For 700 years he has resisted temptation but not tonight…
Jacob knows the excuses his people give when the madness overtakes them and they fall prey to their lust for humans. He’s heard every one and still brought the trespassers to justice. Immune to forbidden desires, uncontrollable hungers, or the curse of the moon, his control is total – until the moment that he sees Isabella on a shadowy New York City street.
Saving her life wasn’t in his plans. Nor where the overwhelming feelings she arouses in him. But the moment he holds her in his arms and feels the soft explosion of her body against his, everything changes. Their attraction is undeniable, volatile, and completely against the law. Suddenly everything Jacob has ever believed is inflamed by the heat of desire…
The Review
Jacob is the first novel in Jacquelyn Frank’s Nightwalkers paranormal romance series. The Nightwalkers are the secret races that walk the night such as demons, vampires and lycanthropes. While vampires are mentioned in this novel I feel it is only fair to point out early on in the review that vampires may exist in the Nightwalker world but there aren’t any vampire characters in this particular novel.
Jacob concentrates on introducing readers to the world of the demons and it follows the story of Jacob, a demon Enforcer and Isabella, a human librarian who is thrust into the supernatural world of demons and necromancers when she falls out of a window and into the path of Jacob. Interaction and interbreeding between humans and demons is strictly forbidden, nobody knows this better than Jacob (after all it is his job to enforce the rule) but he finds himself unable to resist Isabella’s powerful attraction.
The more time Isabella spends with Jacob, the more she begins to change and gain strange new powers. With the appearance of a new necromancer threat aimed at the demons, she will need all of her new powers if she is to survive.
The Nightwalker demons are not like demons of popular myth. They are not evil and don’t have any of the usual demon traits, such as horns and tails or a desire for your immortal soul. The Nightwalker demons describe themselves as Elementals and they have powers that are strongly connected to the four traditional elements (Earth, Wind, Fire and Water) plus two extra elements of the Mind (for telepath/empath demons) and Body (demon healers.)
The Nightwalker demons look human and have a duty to protect humans from the Nightwalker races, including themselves. They only have one major weakness which is that if they are summoned by a necromancer, their personality is stripped away and they become trapped to do the bidding of the necromancer. This is a fate worse than death for any demon because once the necromancers have trapped them they are painfully transformed into completely evil beings.
Jacob is an exciting start to the Nightwalkers series. The romance between Jacob and Isabella is sexy and intense and the backdrop of forbidden love, secret destinies and the necromancer threat keeps readers engaged.
Firmly aimed at the romance part of the paranormal romance market, Jacob should appeal to fans of Christine Feehan’s Dark series since it has a lot of the same fated lifemate ideas and possessive alpha males that made those books such a big hit with romance readers - although I think it lacks the humour and universal appeal of Kresley Cole’s popular Immortals After Dark romance series. Still, Jacob has engaging characters and plenty of original fantasy ideas - it will be interesting to see how these characters and ideas are expanded on in later novels.
Note for vampire fans: Damien the fourth novel in the series is the tale of Damien the vampire prince and should obviously have more vampire content!
Rated at 3.5 out of 5 (rated down half a star for the lack of vampires!)
LoveVampires Review Rating: 
You can find out more about the Nightwalkers series and read an excerpt from this book at Jacquelyn Frank’s website. Visit Jacquelyn’s site.
If you liked this story you may also enjoy:
Damien by Jacquelyn Frank
Dark Prince by Christine Feehan
Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole
Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian
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by Richelle Mead (13th November 2008)
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= Good
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= Below Average
= Poor