Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre

Posted on by
Reply
Blue Diablo: A Corine Solomon Novel
Blue Diablo: A Corine Solomon Novel
Ann Aguirre

Blue Diablo is the first book in a new urban fantasy series by Ann Aguirre, who also writes the lovely science fiction romance series starring Sirantha Jax (I reviewed Grimspace (book 1) here, and Wanderlust (book 2) here).

 
The Premise: This series centers around Corine Solomon, who is a Handler – someone who can touch an object and recall its past. This means she's really sought after for her skills, but they have a high price for Corine, physically and in other ways. At the start of Blue Diablo Corine is in Mexico, living as an expatriate and not using her special handler talent. She's been in Mexico for about a year, after walking away from a bad relationship where she felt that her ex, Chance, did not really love her and valued her more for her talent than for herself. Unfortunately for Corine, her past doesn't stay away, and Chance shows up, asking for her help to find his mother, Yi-Min Chin, someone Corine really likes.
 
My Thoughts: This book right away does a couple of things that gave it high points in my book:
 
 First of all the setting was not all in the United States, which is refreshing when I see it anywhere. Corine is living in Mexico before events mean she has to travel to Laredo, Texas, and this is reflected in her day to day life, the food, and the language. Spanish is peppered throughout the dialog, and I'm very glad that I took enough Spanish classes in my lifetime to understand it! I also enjoyed the descriptions of food (ah how I love reading about food).
 
The second thing was Chance, Corine's ex-boyfriend, who is a half (at least) Asian hero. I have a huge soft spot for mixed race characters!. He's a very intriguing guy – at first he seems very polished and put together, sort of distant, but I think the reader gets this through the way Corine sees him because the book is written from her first person point of view. As the story progresses Corine begins to realize he may not be the person she thought he was. He's also changed in the year that Corine was away, and there are still feelings on both sides about the other. It's a little bit painful on both their parts and ultimately I hope things work out for them, but Corine is not quick to forgive at all. They have issues to sort out. I had to agree that Corine wasn't always the most gracious character, but love is messy sometimes. On the other hand, it almost seems like Chance actually likes her more for it (Disfunctional? I can't decide. There were a one scene in particular which springs to mind).
 
That brings me to another aspect which I've noticed in Aguirre's work – the romances have their ups and downs and the main characters aren't perfect. They're flawed. Sometimes they do things I don't really like, but ultimately I can understand it, and I hope for them to grow. Which they do. I think Jax grows from book 1 to book 2 of her series, and I expect to see something similar with Corine.
 
But I probably shouldn't just focus on the Chance/Corine relationship. Really I am Team Chance, but there is another love interest involved in Blue Diablo. There is a cop named Jesse Saldana, the main investigator in the disappearance of Chance's mother who has a talent too (he's an empath). Jesse wants to become Corine's mentor, but it's clear he's also interested in more. Whether Corine can trust him is another question.
 
It's not just about the love triangle and the mystery of what happened to Yi-Min Chin. Corine meets some of Chance's contacts in Laredo and makes friends (who I liked), so the secondary characters were strong as well (Eva and Chuch were a really cute couple). And I particularly liked the dog! Ann hints there is a plot twist involving the dog in later books, dying to know what. There is also plenty of action going on – magical and other violence goes on. It's a bit gorey at times, but I didn't find it that dark despite that (not sure what my threshold is though. It may be high).
 
Overall: I liked it – an urban fantasy with an international flare. It's an action packed first book, full of flawed but likeable characters and relationships. Must read for Ann Aguirre fans, and urban fantasy lovers who want to try out a new author who haven't read this one before.
 
Links:
Ann is doing a virtual tour all over the internet (and she's giving away copies of Blue Diablo while she's at it). Check it out!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews

Posted on by
2
Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, Book 3)
Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, Book 3)
Ilona Andrews

The Kate Daniels series is one of my favorites in urban fantasy so it's no secret that I've been salivating over Magic Strikes coming out on March 31st (and shaking my fist at Amazon's April 6th estimated arrival date. Luckily that turned out to be wrong). When I finally got the book I pretty much read it with glee.

 
Here's my reviews of the previous books:
Book 1: Magic Bites (goodreads review)
Book 2: Magic Burns
 
The basic premise is that the world goes through waves of technology followed by waves of magic, and everyone is used to this and just goes on with life. Kate Daniels lives in a futuristic Atlanta and is a mercenary with a hidden past who works part time for the Order (a group of people whose jurisdiction is magical incidents). Right now she's the Order's liaison with the local shapeshifter Pack, and has made various friends among them over the past couple of books.
 
****Spoilers for the earlier books at this point***
 
 
Magic Strikes starts off with Derek (a young wolf shapeshifter that Kate is close to) getting caught by Saiman trying to steal some tickets to an underground fighting event called the Midnight Games. This leads to more trouble for him, and Kate being who she is, rushes into the problem with sword in hand to help. She of course gets caught up in the young wolf's problems, while at the same time annoying Curran (the Beast Lord of Atlanta) who has been kept out of the loop.
 
My thoughts: OK I think my favorite parts have to do with the interaction between Kate and Curran. By the time you get to Magic Strikes, Curran has made it clear he's courting her, but Kate is unwilling to be involved with him. She's got a big secret about her identity and she's still convinced that Curran is just after her for the challenge.  The dance between the two is amusing, and I'm not sure who is going to "win" the game because they've both made some bold and brassy declarations. Anyway, this is one of those relationships that span several books where you know they're supposed to get together and the question is when. I'm just having fun watching it, whatever they do.
 
Another thing I really enjoy about this series is the world building. There's always really well done writing in terms of description – I can read a paragraph or two in this book and my mind's eye easily conjures up the scene and everything going on in it. And there is always something interesting going on, I'm not bored or checking to see how many pages are left, I'm just reading. The series is refreshing in the use of some well-known supernatural creatures and turning them slightly on their head (like the idea of vampires being mindless, bloodthirsty beings that used to be human and are controlled by a group called The People), or using some not-so-well-known creatures and putting them into the story (like oni, frost giants, and rakshasas, to name a few). I'm also really fond of some of the side characters – they're all very interesting and likeable – Derek, Jim, Aunt B, Andrea, Julie, and Doolittle all make appearances, and we get introduced to a couple more (I really enjoyed the sort of geeky shapeshifter Dali).
 
Kate's an interesting character – intelligent and definitely falls under the "kick-ass heroine" title - she's got a magical sword, knows power words, and has a special heritage and an upbringing that made her a deadly fighter. Plus she has a smart-ass mouth to go with it. If you have something against this sort of character, you may not like this series, but if you read books 1 and 2 and liked them, I think you'll like this one too. I think there's a little bit of growth to her as the series goes along. In book 1 she's isolated but by book 3 she's surrounded herself with more people she cares about despite feeling like this makes her vulnerable.
 
Overall: A must read for people who read the earlier books and enjoyed them, especially if you enjoyed Kate and Curran's interactions because their relationship starts to heat up here. There are a couple small revelations about Kate's past and possible developments in a long running story arc regarding that past. A good installment – can't wait for book 4!
 
Links:
Bonus for those who have read this book – I recommend watching Sita Sings the Blues. Semi related I swear.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

On the Edge cover

Posted on by
Reply
On the Edge by Ilona Andrews
On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

This cover has been online for a little bit and I'm finally getting around to posting it. Not sure I like the big man's head on the cover, but really looking forward to the series. There was a blurb about this book at the end of Magic Strikes which I'm planning to review this weekend.

"Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, between the worlds of the Broken (where people drive cars, shop at Wal-Mart, and magic is a fairy-tale) and the Weird (where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny). Only Edgers like Rose can easily travel from one world to the next, but they can truely belong to neither.

Rose thought if she practiced her magic she could  build a better life for herself. But things didn't turn out how she planned, and now she works a minimum-wage, off-the-books job in the Broken just to survive. Then Declan Camarine, a blueblood noble straight out of the deepest part of the Weird, comes into her life, determined to have her (and her power).

And when a terrible danger, a flood of creatures hungry for magic, invades the Edge from the Weird, Declan and Rose must work together to destroy them — or the beasts will devour the Edge and everyone in it…"     

On the Edge is coming out this October. Excerpt here.

I've just updated my wishlist today – added this book, some pictures and others.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Kitty Raises Hell by Carrie Vaughn

Posted on by
Reply
Kitty Raises Hell (Kitty Norville, Book 6)
Kitty Raises Hell (Kitty Norville, Book 6)
Carrie Vaughn
This is the sixth book of the Kitty Norville series. At last I've read all the books out so far (though this is not the final book)! I've read and reviewed the first five books over the past month here:
 
Again – I recommend reading the series in order because although each book is fairly contained, it's better to follow the character growth and relationships as they progress. The premise is that Kitty is a werewolf with a talk radio show. She's the first open paranormal celebrity and has been using her show to educate the world about the supernatural.
 
*** Spoilers for earlier books from this point on ***
 
Kitty Raises Hell occurs really quickly after the fifth book, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand. Because these books were released so close to each other (one in February and one in March this year), I think they are meant to be read together with Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand doing much of the set up for what's going on now. Kitty is back from her adventures in Las Vegas, but the problems she encountered there aren't over yet.  A week after she's in Denver, the werewolf club of New Moon gets a vaguely threatening message – the word "Tiamat" burned on it's front door. All the wolves are on edge, waiting for some sort of attack, and soon they get what they expect in the form of a creature that smells like brimstone and sets fires.
 
Now that Kitty is the alpha werewolf, she knows she has to protect her pack, and in the usual Kitty fashion this means using all her different resources to ask questions – on the air, via her vampire friend Rick, her contact in Las Vegas, and a group of paranormal investigators with their own reality TV show – Paradox P.I. This approach reminds me of seminars that point out the differences in female and male management style. Ben knows that's how Kitty works and usually lets her do this – using her mouth to talk to people to find solutions to her problems, which becomes interesting during their first challenge as the alpha pair, but I'm glad that they choose to use a more mental rather than physical route to solve issues. It's also nice to have the werewolf pack have what seems to be a partnership with the vampires with Rick treating Kitty like a person, not a minion. Hopefully that stays that way.
 
Thoughts: I find myself liking Ben more and more each book. In Kitty Raises Hell he does a couple of things that showed backbone – one is instinctively act like the alpha male when he and Kitty are threatened (and he needed to be I think), and the other is telling Kitty off for doing what she usually does – run off without telling him what she's doing. That actually amused me a bit because yeah I've been on the receiving end of that kind of glare. It does seem more like a real relationship that they still argue and Kitty makes mistakes, but they still like each other. It also puts them on more equal footing. Kitty has someone to answer to – that means she's allowed to do her own thing, but someone wants to have her back too and she can't always just risk herself. Of course, she hasn't really learned to always remember to tell Ben what's going on.
 
We don't really learn much more about werewolves and vampires, except we do learn more about the Vegas vampires and who is really in charge. Otherwise this installment has more of a focus on other supernatural things (specifically what has followed Kitty to Denver). We do however revisit a character from the first book – Kitty's best friend T.J. has an unexpected role in this book. There is some back story about him that I liked learning, and I think it helped Kitty to find out some things about him.
 
Overall: I liked this installment better than the last one – lots more action and less of a feeling of waiting while set up is going on, but my favorite is probably still Kitty Takes a Holiday. I did think "wait a minute" a once when it felt like Kitty was being saved at the last minute, but she does save herself at other points so I guess I won't focus on it. We also still never find out what happened to Ben in Vegas. Is that perhaps a short story somewhere I don't know about?
 
There are a couple of hints about the next book (coming out next year), including an excerpt at the end of this one, but I'm curious as to what's going on with Cormac in jail, because he had something he wanted Kitty to investigate. It will be very interesting to have Cormac leave jail and re-enter the picture, but not sure when that happens.
 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand by Carrie Vaughn

Posted on by
Reply
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand (Kitty Norville, Book 5)
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand (Kitty Norville, Book 5)
Carrie Vaughn

This is the fifth book of the Kitty Norville series (one more book and I'll be caught up!) I've read and reviewed the first four books here:

The basic idea for those who haven't read my earlier reviews is that the series centers on a werewolf with a talk radio show who introduces the world to the supernatural. I'd recommend reading this series in order to understand what's going on and follow the growth of the characters.
 
Carrie Vaughn seems to have two main settings for these books: either In Denver (books 1 and 4), or Not In Denver (books 2 and 3). In Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand – it's a bit of both, but mostly it's Not In Denver. This time, Kitty travels to Las Vegas, which I guess is why the title is what it is (according to wikipedia, it's the name of a poker hand rumored to be held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his death).  
 
*** Spoilers for earlier books from this point on ***
 
At the start of this book, things are going pretty well for Kitty. She's working hard at her job with The Midnight Hour, living in Denver, able to see her family and enjoying time with her mate, Ben. The pack is also doing fine – Rick calls it the "honeymoon period" because as the new alpha pair, Ben and Kitty are encountering no major grumblings about their leadership.
 
At the end of Kitty and the Silver Bullet Kitty and Ben seem to be mated as wolves, and their human sides decide to make it official and get married. Of course, being the people Kitty and Ben are, after stressing over the planning for a traditional wedding (I can relate here), they both agree that a wedding in Vegas would be perfect for them. Of course, Kitty's plans to just elope don't happen, because soon her parents are coming and the radio station wants Kitty to do a 2 hour televised show the same weekend.
 
This book had a slow first half as all the players in Vegas are introduced. Kitty plans out her television show and so much of the book has her doing footwork to meet possible supernatural guests for her show. The back cover blurb describes them so I'll mention who some of them are: "an old-school magician [who] might be wielding the real thing", some of the Vegas "vampire community", and "the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act". Then of course there is the gun show going on in the same hotel Kitty and Ben are staying in, which brings in an element who aren't really werewolf lovers.
 
My thoughts: I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in this book, but no action really seemed to be happening for the first 150 pages except me feeling paranoid as the reader that "Ok this person is hiding something and wants to do something to Kitty. Or maybe that person. Or that one!" -  Kitty gets herself into trouble a lot. Not that she's stupid, but her very nosy nature that comes along with asking questions for a living doesn't help. When the action finally does arrive though, I can't blame her for it – it's more the fault of her being a werewolf than Kitty's curiosity.
 
The relationship in this book between Kitty and Ben feels more secure to me, finally. Again, I'm paranoid (maybe it was TJ's death in book 1 that makes me so), but I hope they stay together because I really like Ben. They act like a real couple who have been together long enough to know each other enough to be partners – compromising works here.  I liked that I could recognize guys I know in real life in Ben. I do still think that in wolf terms though, Kitty is more alpha, but maybe because Ben lets her be, since she's got more experience being a werewolf than him. Hmm.
 
Overall: This book felt more like a transition book than the previous four. Although there is an ending to what happened in Vegas – it does not stay in Vegas (ha ha, sorry, but look at the next books back cover blurb, I'm not the only one saying it). It looks like things end in a small cliffhanger and we'll have to see what happens next in Kitty Raises Hell. Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand was released February, and Kitty Raises Hell a month later in March, so that works out well. Several interesting new characters are introduced and Kitty and Ben's relationship moves forward, but there was a lot of set up in the first half before the action occurred. Also, we don't really hear everything that happens to Ben in this book because it's written from Kitty's POV, which had me gnashing my teeth (I hope that information shows up in the next book too).
 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A plethora of Kitty Norville giveaways across the web

Posted on by
Reply
Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville, Book 1)
Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville, Book 1)
Carrie Vaughn
There are a lot of Kitty Norville giveaways going on right now. I want to post about them since I'm trying to finish catching up with this series by the end of the month (working on it, here's my reviews so far). Apparently there is also a blog tour of these books, which I missed. 😛
 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Winner of the $15 Amazon GC

Posted on by
Reply
The Anticipation
The Anticipation

I had 10 entries for the contest on both livejournal and vox. Lots of interesting books that I will now be looking at possibly adding to my wishlist too.

Random.org generated lucky number 3 as the winner. Third commenter overall was Angie from Angieville!

Congratulations!  She had listed as her top five:

  • Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
  • Tap and Gown by Diana Peterfreund
  • The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff
  • Heroes at Risk by Moira J. Moore (this is on my list too!)
  • Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier 

I'll be sending out an email shortly 🙂

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Close Encounters by Katherine Allred

Posted on by
Reply
Close Encounters: An Alien Affairs Novel, Book 1
Close Encounters: An Alien Affairs Novel, Book 1
Katherine Allred
This is science fiction romance and the cover blurb compares her to Linnea Sinclair, so when the opportunity to read the ARC for this book came up, I jumped on it.  I've been very excited about this new series by Katherine Allred when it first came on my radar last year during a "you choose the design" poll at Eos books, and then I read a 20 page excerpt and wanted to read it even more (now Harpercollins has the first 20% available to browse inside).
 
This book is told from the first person point of view of Kiera Smith, a Genetically Engineered Person – someone who was created in a test tube out of various superior genes of other people. This process is extremely expensive so GEPs are usually created and paid for by a company and then throughout their lives they are expected to pay off the initial expense of their creation. Kiera however, is special even among GEPs. Rather than being made from genes spliced from Naturals (normal non-enhanced people), she was made from other GEPs. This difference is a big issue for her and she's always thinking about it. Kiera works for Alien Affairs – a branch of the government that oversees life in new planets. Basically she is one of the first people to meet a newly discovered alien civilization and introduce them to the rest of the universe. She makes sure that they aren't exploited by greedy corporations only interested in their planet's resources and is an advocate for their rights.
 
At the start of Close Encounters Kiera's vacation with her rock-cat Crigo and her AI ship Max is cut short for a special assignment. Dynatec has applied for ownership of Orpheus Two under the law that if the intelligent life living there dies off in 100 cycles, they can take over. The indigeneous people are a race of very tall, very beautiful people with hair the same color as their eyes, which the first explorers have decided to call the Buri (after a Norse god).  The new world, the technology, and the Buri was plenty of fodder for the mind's eye.  This book was very much a Tarzan meets Jane if they were both super beings surrounded by high technology.
 
This is a science fiction romance, but the romance was secondary to the main plot which was Kiera finding out why the Buri was not reproducing at the rate they should have been. The Buri don't know what Kiera is saying and viceversa so for more than half of the book Kiera can't really hold a conversation with her love interest. She doesn't even know his name and just nicknames him Thor.  Because Kiera can't really fully understand the Buri and only mostly understands their emotions, communication is minimal, and is often held through body language, gesturing, and Kiera's ability to read emotion. This means that the romance is very physical rather than cerebral, and we have the soul mate concept used to bring the hero and heroine together. 
 
I'm not a big fan of the use of soul mates, but the story was well-written and because the romance was secondary it didn't bother me much.   I did have a couple other minor problems along with this though. First of all, there were some things in here I found a bit inappropriate for a representative of Alien Affairs to do. Kiera is supposed to be their best and yet I had the feeling that if an anthropologist read this book, they'd be disagreeing with some of her actions. For example, I was surprised when I read how Kiera showed the Buri how to use shampoo.  Was it really necessary for her to get naked and then soap the leader in front of the tribe? OK it linked into the plot, but this is one of the scenes I found hard to swallow. Another issue I had was that a lot of things were too idealized. When we're first introduced to Kiera who is not only a blonde bombshell but even more enhanced than the usual GEPs. Then we're introduced to the Buri who have surprisingly almost the same super-human qualities as our main character, who live in a planet which itself is unique and full of mostly friendly, ideal flora and fauna. Kiera is extremely lucky throughout the book with the way things went for her. It was a bit too easy.
 
Despite those issues, there were a lot of interesting ideas in here. I enjoyed all the devices Kiera used in her ship for food and for temporary shelter, what she used to communicate, her knowlege of Galactic Federation law, her weapons and fighting, and all the details that descibed her techologically advanced life. A life which contrasted nicely with what she met in the new planet – the jungle, the strange creatures, the Buri costumes and their food preparation – it was all very well thought out and keep me turning the pages with curiosity.
 
Overall: From the very beginning of this book I could understand the comparison with Linnea Sinclair's writing, and I think you should definitely pick this up if you are a science fiction romance fan. This was a fun space opera read with an interesting world and characters.  I did find things a bit convenient and the main character a little perfect, but I would still recommend this for science fiction romance lovers, and I will pick up the second book. 
 
Katherine Allred's website (there's a book trailer for Close Encounters there)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn

Posted on by
Reply
Kitty and the Silver Bullet (Kitty Norville, Book 4)
Kitty and the Silver Bullet (Kitty Norville, Book 4)
Carrie Vaughn
Kitty and the Silver Bullet is the fourth of the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. The basic idea for those who haven't read my earlier reviews is that the series centers on a werewolf with a talk radio show who introduces the world to the supernatural.
My earlier reviews:
 
*** Probable spoilers for earlier books ***
 
The books started in Denver, and while the last couple of books did not take place there, it's Kitty's home. So it was with a sense of inevitability that in Kitty and the Silver Bullet, things come full circle and Kitty has to go back and face what she left behind. The biggest immediate problem is Kitty's old pack and the alpha pair of Meg and Carl who would like nothing more than to see Kitty dead. Of course Meg and Carl are not Kitty's only problems. The politics involving Denver's vampire Family, headed by Arturo start heating up, which means that Kitty eventually has to make some decision about her interaction with them. 
 
Kitty has done some growing throughout the series which really gets highlighted in this book. First of all, she's actually taken seriously by the various Denver factions (werewolf pack, vampire family, human police) and each either finds her a threat or possibly ally. Then in the course of this book Kitty meets someone much like she was when she was part of the pack and the contrast is surprising. Kitty left as a young, submissive cub but she's grown up, and I'm glad she has.  
 
Everything Kitty left behind the first time has to be addressed so the reader gets more details about Denver – we meet Kitty's family for instance. Before they got only brief mentions and her mother was the most mentioned family member, but this book, they play a larger role. I thought it lent a certain normality to Kitty's crazy life. There's also some interesting side character development – as part of this situation Kitty learns some things about Rick and Arturo, and I felt like I learned some more about Ben's (and maybe a bit of Cormac's) character. There was also some fascinating world building, especially in regard to the vampires. It's good to have Kitty know a lot of things regarding the supernatural, but not everything. I loved seeing how Denver fits in with the rest of the country on vampire terms and of course there are some interesting revelations!    
 
Kitty is in a relationship here but I still think that there is a large window for things changing in that relationship. I'm a bit wary of expecting Kitty to stay happy because although Kitty seems to have chosen a partner, she never really closes the door on the other person in the love triangle she's involved in.  I feel like she can easily go back to the other person if something happens with her current choice. Looking forward to seeing how things develop and expecting to be surprised somehow.  
 
Overall: It's pretty good when you think "OK, this is my favorite book of the series so far", then you read the next book and think – "OK, this one is my favorite book of the series so far!" There was a lot going on in this one, but in a good way. There was a good mix of interesting plot twists, action (lots of it!), character development, and intrigue, with a bit of relationship drama thrown in. In the end I was quite satisfied with this installment.
 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend