Out of Nowhere by Patrick LeClerc

Quote of the Book

“The sympathetic nervous system is designed to handle a leopard leaping down on you from a tree, not one sending you a note to meet him at sunrise.”

Blurb

An urban fantasy, pacy, funny and compelling to the last page…

Healer Sean Danet is immortal—a fact he has cloaked for centuries, behind army lines and now a paramedic’s uniform. Having forgotten most of his distant past, he has finally found peace—and love.

But there are some things you cannot escape, however much distance you put behind you.

When Sean heals the wrong man, he uncovers a lethal enemy who holds all the cards. And this time he can’t run. It’s time to stand and fight, for himself, for his friends, for the woman he loves. It’s time, finally, for Sean to face his past—and choose a future.

A story of love, of battle—and of facing your true self when there’s nowhere left to hide.

Personal notes

I’ve read this book as part of the SPFBO contest. My rating and opinion is only mine, it’s not FBR’s official score for the contest. Check out or other reviews and progress on my SPFBO 4 page! You can read my interview with Patrick LeClerc here!

Song of the Book

Review

Out of Nowhere is a decent, fast paced urban fantasy which will keep you entertained, but it’s not a book that will stay with you for a long time probably. It’s good but for me it doesn’t really stands out in its genre.

Sean Danet works as a paramedic, where he can use his skills unnoticed, without having to move around more often than necessary. Living for hundreds of years teaches a man how to keep a low profile and recognise the signs when it’s time to burn the bridges – not literally. Mostly. This time around Sean lives a decent life, is being surrounded by friends like Nique (who happens to be gorgeous and sexy and apparently everyone’s wet dream) and Peter who have his back no matter what, and has a job he loves. Things start to go ashtray when one day they are called to attend man who fell and broke his ankle. Sean uses his healing to spare the man some pain and an extra few days of immobility, and although he is not waiting for a thanks, a knife and several attempts on his and his friends’ lives is not exactly what he expects in return.

To figure out who and why wants to get him so bad, he seeks out the help of a linguistics professor. As it happens, Sarah is a beautiful (as every women in this book), clever, blonde woman with whom Sean instantly falls in love with. Now, I have nothing against a little bit of romance, but this one made me roll my eyes hard. Their relationship just happens too fast and has an insta-love kind of feel to it. I like strong, independent, smart female characters, but Sarah’s appearance and critical role in the events made me question how the hell did Sean survive hundreds of years? Apart from having fighting skills – having spent most of his life as a soldier – it’s a small miracle he can still keep himself alive. Sarah manages to solve most of his problems which would require logical thinking or computer usage. He just plays along and makes the plans as they dig deeper in the mystery. Overall, I didn’t really liked how women were treated. At least we learn Sean is a good cook and lover. To be fair, it was the worst possible time for me to read a book where the love affair has an important part in the plot. I also can’t comprehend how is it that he had absolutely no idea about the danger he was in, again, for hundreds of years? Or that he didn’t think there must be others with skills like his? Well, okay, we get an explanation for this, but would have made more sense if he encountered them somewhere during his life to give him an inkling. Would have added a bit more depth to the story in my opinion.

As for the writing, Out of Nowhere is mostly fast paced, and the scenes are rolling nicely after each other. LeClerc attempts to give a sarcastical voice to Sean, but not always succeeds. Still, some of the banter between the paramedics made me smile. I especially loved the way they got back to their manager who tried to set a new rule for them. The camaraderie was strong between them. From the way they interacted with each other and the ease LeClerc used the lingo with, it was quite obvious he feels at home there. The end is a bit rushed and I kind of waited for a climatic point towards the end, which didn’t really come. But I have to give extra points for Hungary being mentioned more than once 😉 Though I’m not sure if this gives us a bad publicity…

Overall, Out of Nowhere is an enjoyable urban fantasy, which brings nothing new to the genre, but has some interesting ideas and a potential to build on as the series continues.