I'm a fan of the urban fantasy genre and consider myself fairly well-versed on the standard mythos and legends of the various supernatural races including vampires, witches, were-animals, etc. However, I can honestly say that Ms. Mells has created a surprising and refreshing world of characters with unique and interesting abilities and histories that creates an opportunity for some amazing storytelling.
At its heart, the PIERCED Series is a story about a girl who has suffered tremendous loss and is searching for safety, stability, family, and ultimately love. During her young life Pierce has encountered the worst of humanity yet manages to begin trusting in others as she works to build a life for herself and her daughter. In PERFECT, we see Pierce finally opening herself up to the possibility of love, while obsessively seeking to destroy her greatest enemy before he can destroy her or her fledgling family. Along the way we meet a host of new characters, some good, some evil, but all quite interesting and central to the plot.
Again, as in her previous installments, Ms. Mells does not waste time on non-essential characters, nor does she create silly conflicts as pseudo-plot devices. Rather, she creates opportunities for her characters to grow organically through realistic experiences, (well, realistic in terms of the fantasy genre), while showing all the warts and flaws that we find so endearing in her very well fleshed-out characters. We see Pierce experiencing psychological trauma and loss, but we also see her newfound confidence in herself and the love of her family pulling her through. If you haven't read the other books in this series, I highly recommend that you do so. Many authors can create a single, successful novel in the fantasy genre. Some can even create two or three before they begin to run out of material and/or begin to go off the deep end. Few, however, and I mean VERY few, can create four consecutive books (don't miss ESCAPED, book 1.5) in a series that are truly worthy of 5 STARS. On top of that, though Ms. Mells leaves us with a very satisfying ending in PERFECT, as any good storyteller does, she leaves the door open for more adventures with not only Pierce, but any number of other interesting characters. I am already trying to figure out where the PIERCED story is heading next, but I am sure Ms. Mells will surprise us all with her wickedly creative imagination.