Betrayed by Blood

In this second installment in Dranoff's series (after Mark of the Moon), bartender Dana Markovitz returns in a rollicking tale of demon battles, mystery, sex, and romance. Dana is a forthright cat-shifter with a lot of thorny issues: she is sleeping with cat-shifter Sam and also is a "friend with benefits" to bisexual vampire Jon. A strange purple octopus from another dimension named Frank is stalking her, and an angry female demon is trying to kill her. Into this mess walks her former lover Owain, with clues to her father's disappearance and a contract to locate a demon who is her boss's brother. Dana's multiple problems come to a head during Toronto's Pride weekend, when she realizes whom she truly loves and makes additional progress on understanding her father's absence. A love triangle verging on a quadrangle; a gripping first-person narrative; and tastefully described sex contrasting with orgiastic public intercourse make this a well-rounded paranormal tale.