Wild & Steamy (anthology) by Meljean Brook, Jill Myles, and Carolyn Crane

Posted on September 2, 2011 by janicu

Meljean Brook,

Jill Myles, and Carolyn Crane

There was about a week where this self-published anthology by a few well-known authors in romance and UF was 99 cents, and this week happened to coincide with my being on a plane for 6 hours as I traveled west across the U.S. So to my trusty nook it was downloaded. Wild & Steamy is now priced at the still reasonable $2.99. Currently it is only available as an ebook.

Meljean Brook has excerpts of all three short stories up on her website here.

Two of the three short stories/novellas were stories set in existing worlds. Carolyn Crane’s “Kitten-tiger and the Monk” is set in the same world as The Disillusionists Trilogy, and Meljean Brook’s story, “Blushing Bounder” is set in the world of The Iron Seas series. I couldn’t tell whether or not the third story, “Vixen”, by Jill Myles is similarly set in the same world as a series or not (the writing didn’t make me think it was), but research online reveals that it is part of the Midnight Liaisons world.

Blushing Bounder by Meljean Brook: Constable Edward Newton and his wife Temperance are recent newlyweds living in London. Theirs is a strained marriage, as Temperance once thought her husband was an honorable man, until he compromised her reputation and made a marriage to him and a move from New Manhattan to “bug”-infested London her only choice. Temperance is appalled at the amount of Horde devices she sees in this new city, and is terrified of the tiny machines that practically everyone has injected into their systems.

This was a mostly sweet story about two people who have to work through misunderstandings in order to be together, with a bit of police procedural thrown in. I haven’t read any of the books in The Iron Seas series yet, but I understand that Constable Newton is a secondary character, and his detective, Detective Inspector Wentworth, is probably a main character in The Iron Seas series. She has a cameo, and I was able to understand the steampunky industrial London setting and it’s concepts pretty easily. What I had trouble understanding was minor: I didn’t understand the inspector’s reputation in London (it is not a flattering one), and I had trouble pinpointing Temperance’s age (her sickness and heightened sense of propriety made her seem older to me, until I read about her backstory and revised my estimate).

Overall: Really liked the world, and found the hero/heroine likable and their story quite sweet. A nice little read.

****

Vixen by Jill Myles: Miko is a were-fox (or kitsune) living alone in the back woods. Because of her heritage, she is “prone to polygamous relationships” but Miko isn’t satisfied with being being outside of a steady relationship. She knows too well the loneliness that life can cause – her mother being a prime example. So when local hunters start a fox-hunting club, and Miko’s mom sends over two shapeshifter bodyguards to protect her, she isn’t happy at the disruption to her quiet existence at first, but her were-fox nature is interested in selecting a mate. Or two.

This was the most sex-y story in the anthology, where the the problem of the fox hunters felt like a vehicle to introduce the menage rather than the focus of the plot. If you like steamy stories, particularly ones with a menage, this one will work. Threesomes are not my thing so for that reason I found this the least enjoyable of the stories. This also had the greatest “paranormal romance” feel of the three, with the familiar concepts of a mating urge, protective males, and shapeshifters coming to play.

Overall: Didn’t really like this one, but I’m not a fan of threesomes, so it was a personal taste issue.

****

Kitten-tiger and the Monk by Carolyn Crane: Sophia Sidway, a woman with the power to revise memories, is tired of regretting the things she has done. She wants to start anew – “to be stopped – once and for all”, and the one person who can do that is the Monk, a shadowy disillusionist who can “reboot” criminals. Sophia has been told that only The Tanglemaster knows where the Monk lives, but when she visits The Tanglemaster, Sophia is confronted by her first love, a man she betrayed years ago and has regretted it ever since.

This story was probably my biggest reason for buying this ebook in the first place. I am a BIG fan of The Disillusionists Trilogy (cannot WAIT for the third book), and this story provides some back story on two secondary characters. Sophia is actually a character I’ve disliked in the series so far (the first two books), so it was a surprise to be shown a more vulnerable side. This story is very character driven, in a good way. I enjoyed learning about Sophia’s past and I think it was presented in a way that you don’t need to have read the series to understand what was going on. The only issue I had was that the sex in this story seemed extraneous, but that is a minor complaint.

I’m not sure how story fit in with the rest of the trilogy. It may or may not be required reading if it informs upon the general plot of the series.

Overall: This was my favorite of the three. The character development in the short space was very well done. A must-read for fans of The Disillusionists Trilogy.

My impression of the whole anthology would be that these stories were entertaining and the price was reasonable. Worth it if you are a fan of any of these authors.

Buy: Amazon | Nook | Smashwords | All Romance Ebooks

Other reviews:
Smexy Books – B
Fiction Vixen – B
Smart Bitches Trashy Books – A
Book Girl of Mur-y-castell – positive

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

Posted on August 1, 2011 by janicu

Magic Slays

Ilona Andrews

I pre-ordered the signed edition of this book from Powell’s ages ago but it took me some time to get to it once I got the book. I just didn’t want to make the experience go too soon! This is one of my favorite UF series and is book 5. If you haven’t started this yet, I highly recommend that you do (read at least the first two books):

Book 1: Magic Bites –

Book 2: Magic Burns –

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Book 3: Magic Strikes –

Novella – Magic Mourns in Must Love Hellhounds anthology –

Book 4: Magic Bleeds –

***** This review has spoilers for earlier books, read at your own peril! *****

The Premise: Kate Daniels has quit the Order and gone into business on her own, backed by Atlanta’s shapeshifter Pride. Unfortunately she didn’t leave the Order on good terms and they’ve done all they can to sully her reputation. Business is so slow it’s non-existent, and Kate has been twiddling her thumbs for months. Then two things happen. First, a vampire escapes the control of its navigator, and Ghastek asks for Kate’s help to contain it. Then a member of the Red Guard hires her to look into the disappearance of an engineer and applied magic-theorist along with the project he was working on. These are both simple enough assignments on the surface, but much more rides on Kate understanding whats really going on.

My Thoughts: Whenever I start a Kate Daniels story, I expect to be pulled into a high action melee spiced up with a bit of romance courtesy of the Beast Lord. In this aspect, Magic Slays delivers exactly as promised. Once chapter one begins, Kate is back to business. Disaster strikes when a vampire gets loose and then Kate finally gets a job, but it seems too simple a job for the Red Guard to be paying her to do it. Of course it isn’t long at all until Kate is up to her elbows in trouble, but the difference here is that this job requires more finesse than Kate has shown in the past. Magic Slays has a more restrained Kate, who tries to use more investigation than muscle.

The story is also a little different because Kate’s life is different. This book has the same Kate, but she’s no longer with the Order nor does she live alone in her Atlanta apartment. Now she lives in the Pack stronghold, and her day-to-day frustrations include her status within the Pack, trying to start up a business, and mentoring a group of teenaged misfits, including her own ward, Julie. This makes Magic Slays the first book in probably the next chapter in Kate’s life, and for that reason I found it very different from the rest of the series, but in a good way. This feels like a “turning point” book. It feels like Kate finally has self-made family around her, and I also felt like Kate is beginning to make concrete plans for the final confrontation she’s been heading towards throughout the series.

In the romance front, things are also different. For the longest time, Kate has been dancing around a romantic entanglement with Curran, but now they’re in a committed relationship. Things aren’t completely stable however. Usually when there is a slow burning romance over a series of books, the magic can disappear once a couple finally gets together, but that isn’t the case here. I thought that the way Curran and Kate’s relationship progressed in Magic Slays made it one of the best books I’ve read with a couple after they finally hooked up. I loved that things were still being ironed out, that they were still learning how to live with each other, and that they both still had insecurities. They’re happy, but at the same time, they’re human and this book reflects that. I loved that they’re both essentially the same characters and being together doesn’t change who they are. They still have the same back-and-forth relationship after they’re together but we know that they love each other.

Overall: Another great installment. I don’t know how many ways I can say the same thing after I read one of these books, so just imagine me pressing this book into your hands, nodding enthusiastically. If you haven’t read this series…seriously, read it will you? I think the last one I read always ends up being my favorite. The great draw for me is the mix of great worldbuilding (a post-apocalyptic Atlanta, flooded by waves of magic and technology), action, and romance, but what elevates it even beyond that is a snarky brand of humor that’s used judiciously. Smiling because of Kate’s exchanges with Curran or best friend Andrea? Now that’s real chicken soup for the soul.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Chachic’s Book Nook – positive
Angieville – positive (“Crunchy Kate goodness at its best”)
One More Page – positive
SFF Chat – positive
Calico reaction – 8 (Excellent)
Fantasy Book Cafe – 8/10
Smexy Books – A
Lurv a la Mode – Four scoops (out of 5)
One More Page – positive
Fiction Vixen – A
Babbling about Books, and More – B+

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Posted on July 5, 2011 by janicu

Hounded

Kevin Hearne

The Iron Druid Chronicles have been on my radar since Chelle’s cover feature on them. Nice covers, but want to shave that soul patch thingy. Anyway, when I found a copy of Hounded for sale at my library’s sale area, I grabbed it.

The Premise: Atticus O’Sullivan is a two thousand year old Druid, but he looks anything but. In fact he looks like a young twenty-something kid and that’s the way he likes it. No one suspects that the young occult bookshop owner in Tempe, Arizona, is hiding from the Old Ones. A god named Aenghus Óg holds a grudge against Atticus because of a magic sword, and has been searching for him for hundreds of years. Whenever Atticus feels Aenghus get close, he usually moves, but this time Atticus is tired of running. Arizona is home turf, and a good place as any to take a stand against a god who is hellbent on destroying him. Atticus has made preparations and allies, but even so, it’s impossible to guess what tricks his longtime enemy may have up his sleeves.

Read an excerpt (the first 6 chapters) of Hounded here

My Thoughts: Atticus O’Sullivan has been laying low for centuries, and he’s good at it. He’s over two thousands years old and the last living Druid. His latest residence is in Tempe, Arizona, which is as far from those hunting for him as possible, and blessedly low on gods and the Fae. Of course, given time, his enemies find him yet again, forcing Atticus to decide to run or make a stand. The sword Aenghus Óg is after is a big prize, and Atticus is visited by other gods and creatures with a stake in the outcome of the upcoming battle and who muddy the waters on who to trust.

Despite all that hangs over his head, this is a fun main character. Atticus narrates with a keen awareness of the humor in almost every situation. It’s a constant source of amusement and an inside joke with the reader that he’s older than everyone he knows, including the local paranormals (a coven of witches and a pack of werewolves), while he pretends to be a “young-Irish-lad” (he hasn’t survived this long by being incautious). Helping to maintain this sense of humor is Atticus’ beloved Irish Wolfhound Oberon, with whom Atticus can speak to mind to mind. I love a dog sidekick (one of my favorite tropes), and the relationship between Atticus and Oberon is quite amusing and heartwarming. Here’s a sample mind-to-mind conversation between the two (Atticus is in italics, Oberon in <angled brackets>):

[…] I don’t trust witches.
<You think she’s going to try something? Should I move behind her?>
No, she knows you’re here. She can see through the camouflage. But I think she’s hiding something from me, and I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
<When did she drop the first shoe? I missed it.>
Never mind. Just listen. Once she drinks the tea, she will try to surprise me with something. She is waiting for the contract to be fully in effect before she says anything.
<Well, then give her back the check and send her packing! We don’t need to play her witch’s games. They always want to get you and your little dog, too.>
I knew I never should have let you watch The Wizard of Oz.
<Toto didn’t deserve that kind of trauma. He was so tiny.>

As the conversation shows, the humor in Hounded has a lot of pop culture references (but not obscure ones). This is big part of the humor in the book, as well as a sort of “foiling the bad guys is fun” schtick. What I mean by this is that Atticus goes though these trials and tribulations but you always end up feeling like he’s going to come out of it relatively unscathed, a “Phew, still alive” grin on his face. If I were to compare it to anything, I’d say that Atticus is like the urban fantasy version of Michael Westen from Burn Notice (if Michael Westen was a kick-ass Druid undercover as a twenty-one year old). It’s hard to believe that anyone is going to get the best of him. He’s so paranoid and he’s seen it all, plus he has his backup. Hounded has of several attempts by Atticus’ enemy to box him in, but Atticus survives because he plans ahead and thinks on his feet. And he has friends who will help him bury the bodies. After a reading string of darker urban fantasy, it was nice to sit back and just enjoy Atticus handling the latest debacle, which runs the gamut from goddesses to giants, getting knocked down in the process, but rallying pretty quickly (thanks to his Druid powers).

Being a Druid is a pretty nice gig, particularly when it’s combined with Atticus’ accumulated knowledge. He’s figured out how to stay young for an extremely long time and how to ward off most attacking spells without selling his soul. Part of the world building in the story is explaining what being a Druid entails, but the other part is describing the supernatural world Atticus is aware of. In this series, all pantheons exist at the same time. It isn’t directly explained, but I understood the existence of deities and other mythical creatures to be a result of human belief. If an idea is worshiped by enough people, it will exist. This means that there may even be different versions of the same god (Thor is an example), in existence at the same time. There’s a mix of supernatural creatures and ideologies, but in Hounded the pantheon Atticus mostly deals with is from his own Irish upbringing. As for the setting, I have a lot of family who live in Arizona and Hearne captures the Tempe area like a true Arizona native. It was well done and made me look forward to my next visit (and also eager to check out some of the places referenced in the book).

I don’t think Hounded really sets out to be serious, so when I think of my one complaint about the story (that I wish that there were deeper relationships between the characters), I’m not really sure I can make that complaint really stick. There are plenty of side characters, but hiding his past and his power is Atticus’ modus operandi. So far, the deepest relationship is the one between Atticus and Oberon, and I wish there was more than that, but the events in Hounded may have created an opportunity for relationship development in later books.

Overall: Hounded is a refreshingly lighthearted urban fantasy. I liked the mix of action and improvisation, presented by a narrator who appreciates the comedy of pretending to be innocuous while being much, much older and more powerful than he appears. It made me smile often, which is quite a nice pick-me-up, and I’m looking forward to enjoying the next one.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
My Favourite Books – positive
Karissa’s Reading Review – 5 out of 5
The Book Pushers – B
Star Metal Oak – positive
Ticket to Anywhere – positive

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Posted on June 20, 2011 by janicu

River Marked

Patricia Briggs

This is one of the few urban fantasy series that I make sure I stay on top of (and with the number of series I’m in the middle of, this is no mean feat). With the change to hardcover and my all-my-books-in this-series-are-paperback-dammit stance, I bought the UK copy, only to find that the paperback in the UK is oddly bigger than usual and messes up the conformity of my bookshelves anyway. Why do you do this, publishers? Why? My book-buying OCD dislikes you.

River Marked is the 6th book of this series, which you should really read in order. If you haven’t read the last book, I urge you to skip this review and go to an earlier one, since the premise itself has a spoiler for earlier books.

Book 1: Moon Called
Book 2: Blood Bound
Book 3: Iron Kissed
Book 4: Bone Crossed
Book 5: Silver Borne

**** This review contains spoilers for earlier books ***

The Premise: Mercy Thompson is a magnet for trouble, and has no reason to believe that a romantic getaway with her significant other will be any different. A relaxing trip for two at a private campsite begins idyllically, until Mercy and Adam rescue a terrified Native American man floating alone on his boat. This encounter brings Mercy and Adam face to face with an evil in the Columbia River, but it also gives Mercy a chance to meet her father’s people and to learn some surprising things about her heritage.

My Thoughts: Compared to the other books in this series, River Marked is a bit toned down. After a shindig where Mercy sees the people she loves, she finally gets a bit of relaxation and alone time with Adam. The Pack and Mercy’s responsibilities, including worrying about vampire Stephan are touched upon, particularly at the beginning of the story, but the focus quickly shifts to couple-time. I don’t think there’s been much space devoted to just Mercy and her romantic relationship in previous books, so this trip alone as a couple comes at what feels like the right time. I liked seeing Mercy actually having time for herself and not necessarily being Everyone’s Keeper. Yes, there are problems looming in the horizon, but for now things in the Tri-Cities can take care of themselves and Mercy takes a break.

That said, Adam shows his brains and his familiarity with his mate when things begin to happen and not being too surprised: things just happen around Mercy. His expectation of disaster, but also his respect of Mercy’s ability to deal with it highlighted why he’s the right guy for Mercy. That said, he isn’t thrilled at the danger to his wife, and there are moments where his protective instincts override all else, but he doesn’t call in the cavalry, nor does he expect Mercy to walk away. He assesses the problem, takes into account his wife’s ability, and decides he, Mercy, and a handful of Native American allies can handle it. This is a book that focuses more on Mercy’s romance than previous books. This is good in some ways – I liked seeing Mercy in a happy, established relationship (and there were some real misty-eyed bits), but it danced a little on the over-emphasizing line for me with the constant references to Mercy and Adam’s healthy sex life. Even though it was mostly alluded to and not gone into detail, it wore thin for my tastes, but this is a relatively minor complaint, because it was balanced with what I DO like to see; the quiet, realistic moments as a couple in a healthy relationship.

But my favorite part of River Marked was the new and surprising discovers that Mercy makes during the story about her heritage as a half-Native American. Mercy and Adam are close to tribal territory and their rescue of one of their own kicks off a series of visits from men who recognize Mercy as a skinwalker (although they call it something else) and who knew her father, Joe Old Coyote. I always like seeing some interesting new world building, so I was fascinated by the new information that gets dropped (like a bomb) in River Marked. There have been installments in this series where the concentration has been on the Fae, or on vampires, or on werewolves, but never really on Mercy and her own history and her own magical abilities like this before. It was a pleasant surprise and I’m hoping we get some reappearances by one of the characters she meets in River Marked in further installments so we can find out more.

In contrast to Mercy’s usual adventures, this one is almost quiet, despite it coming with the usual dangers of death and dismemberment. It doesn’t take long for everyone to figure out that the danger is some sort of evil lurking in the water, and the problem is just how to stop it. This is a relatively straightforward problem in comparison to some of Mercy’s other adventures, although I found the river creature as creepy to read about as it is to watch Jaws. Blergh, not wading into any rivers for a while.

Overall: I’d call this a solid, maybe a bit muted installment of the Mercy Thompson series. With 5 books of non-stop action, there had to be a bit of a breather where Mercy could pull back a little and have the focus on herself and this was it. That’s not to say that there was no action – there was, but in my mind this is more of a character growth rather than action driven installment in comparison with the rest of the series. I also found this review a bit hard to write because it’s difficult to qualify how I felt reading this book, which was: it basically delivered what I expected. I liked it, but it also didn’t blow me away, but on the other hand, “solid” and “as expected” from Briggs feels like a high bar.

Buy Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository (UK ed.)

Other Reviews:
See Michelle Read – positive
Un:Bound – positive
Book Binge – 5 out of 5
Persephone Reads – “I enjoyed it, but not wholeheartedly.”
SFF Chat – “while I did enjoy reading River Marked it wasn’t my favorite book of the series”
Books & other thoughts – positive
Tynga’s Reviews – positive
Wicked Lil Pixie – 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell (reviewed with Silver Borne) – “Even if I did not love as much as the previous book I still loved it”
Scooper Speaks – positive
The Book Smugglers – 8 (Excellent)
Smexy Books – B

Other Links: an interesting series on Feminism in the Mercy books @ What If Books

Ghosts & Echoes by Lyn Benedict

Posted on March 21, 2011 by janicu

Ghosts & Echoes

Lyn Benedict

I’d read Sins & Shadows about a year and a half ago (

) and have been meaning to read the second book, Ghosts & Echoes for a while, but didn’t get around to it until the recent Border’s bookstore closings where I picked up a copy. This is the rare urban fantasy where the POV was not in first person, but in third!

The Premise: Sylvie Lightner is worn out after what happened in Chicago recently, and she’s taken a long vacation, but she’s back in Miami now and back to work. Unfortunately for her, her desire to take on an easy case, one without complications and potential heartache is thwarted by two new clients. One says he is possessed by a ghost, and the other what’s Sylvie to catch a band of thieves. Both cases are more closely linked to Sylvie than she is happy with.

Read an excerpt of Chapter 1 of Ghosts & Echoes here

My Thoughts: This is an urban fantasy series with a very human heroine. Human but for a special ancestor, which leaves Sylvie with a secret voice in her head that tells her what to do to survive. Otherwise, she is normal, and has to use human means to track down problems in the Magicus Mundi, the supernatural world that most people don’t know exists. She is the one people come to if they want strange problems solved. It’s a very specialized P.I. service, and one that barely covers the bills, but Sylvie knows a lot about the dark magics and woo-woo that exists in the world. Due to this expertise, she gets two new cases that no one else would be able to figure out. Adam Wright, a Chicago beat cop finds Sylvie through a dream – he has a ghost inside him and wants the ghost out. The other case is a series of robberies, where the thieves seem to be able to walk through walls and doors. Sylvie uses a mix of legwork and special contacts (mixed with a bit of threatening) to solve these cases.

In the first book, Sylvie struck me as an angry heroine. There are reasons for this – it’s because of what was happening around her, and because of her own particular genetic legacy. In Sins & Shadows, this worked for me within the story and I wondered how Sylvie would grow over the series. In Ghosts & Echoes, this anger is still there, and yes, it still works when her anger is due to her frustrations in being one step behind in stopping the evil around her, but there were times when her attitude rubbed me the wrong way (and more than it did in the first book). I’d noted before that Sylvie is perfectly willing to be rude for someone’s own good (like preventing her assistant from being in danger), but maybe in her home territory, I wasn’t expecting her to be like this to everyone. I do think that she tries to hold herself back, but when she is pressed for time, she doesn’t have the patience for niceties. Somehow her lack of empathy towards people who weren’t her friends and family felt more pronounced in this installment, and I found it more difficult to empathize with her.

This darkness extends to Sylvie’s cases. Both of them turn out to be related to her personally. The ghost that is possessing her client is someone Sylvie knows. One of the thieves that are robbing local stores is someone Sylvie knows. Her moral dilemma here is who deserves her loyalty more – the people that she loves, or her clients who need her help. Her choices aren’t easy. There was a balancing game, and I think that the consequences reflect real life: it never goes as planned. There is definitely a high amount of emotional charge in this story because of Sylvie’s conflict and the personal slant of her cases. I really identified with Sylvie’s frustration in dealing with the people involved. This is all good, I want to be involved in the characters lives and to be emotionally connected.

The problem I had with Ghosts & Echoes is that I was ultimately unhappy with how dark it became, which is a very personal reaction. I understood what Sylvie was trying to do and from a logical point of view, I’m not really sure how she could have changed how things turned out, but from a visceral point of view, I like to end a story feeling like although there is bad, the good outweighs it, and in Ghosts & Echoes I’m not sure I liked where the scales stopped. There was a resolution and I’m sure it’s a resolution that worked for many readers, if not most, but I was left feeling unsettled.

Overall: A really well-written and gritty urban fantasy. I recommend this series for UF fans who want a realistic story and don’t mind a flawed and abrasive heroine. I would put this book in the “like” column for the writing and world building alone, but my emotional reaction to the overall plot (more bitter than sweet for me) puts it in the “OK” column. I’m wavering between my heart and mind on how to rate the book.

I want to know what happens next to Sylvie, but I’d be reluctant to read Book 3 if I find out that the story continues to be this disconcerting. ~~A review on Amazon suggests that there is a third book coming out but I haven’t seen any news about it’s title or publication date.~~ Thanks to Scooper, I learned the third book is Gods & Monsters, out next month.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Literary Escapism – positive
Fantasy Literature – 5/5

Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire

Posted on March 16, 2011 by janicu

Late Eclipses

Seanan McGuire

Ahh, October Daye. This is one of my favorite series, and each time I read a book, I want to read the next one right away.

Late Eclipses is the fourth book of the series:
Book 1: Rosemary and Rue –
Book 2: A Local Habitation –
Book 3: An Artificial Night –

**** There may be mild spoilers for earlier books in this review ****

The Premise: Toby has had barely any time to settle down after the events of the last book when she is ordered to appear before the Queen of the Mists, and since Toby has annoyed the queen before, this request sounds like trouble. Soon after that she receives news that Lily, her friend and The Lady of the Tea Gardens is sick. When more people are stricken, it becomes apparent that Toby and all that she holds dear are a target. When Toby detects the scent of an old enemy, Oleander de Merelands, in the wind, she thinks she knows what’s going on. Unfortunately, things are never simple for Toby, and this time she may have very few options to save both her friends and herself.

My Thoughts: When I think about the October Daye series, I think about structures that are built piece by piece and brick by brick. The first book, Rosemary and Rue was the cornerstone, and every subsequent book has built upon that. It’s not just the worldbuilding (where there are pockets of worlds through secret doorways and fae creatures live parallel to the ordinary world – love it), but the way Toby’s back story has informed and continues to inform the current plot. This is why I don’t recommend reading this series out of order (it can be done, but it wouldn’t be as much fun); without the first books, the places Toby has been and people she has met wouldn’t be as significant in the current story.

I love how there are always hints throughout the books about Toby and her situation. It’s like some kind of delicious game between the reader and the writer. I try to guess what’s coming, I spend time mulling over what happens in the books and what some remarks may mean, and I wait for the next book. Then I’m either rewarded by being somewhere in the ballpark or I’m completely and utterly wrong. In Late Eclipses I was happy to have some of my suspicions answered, but not the way I expected. Of course I can’t speak of it here, but let’s just say that it is good stuff. In fact, this book manages to be the best in the series so far because of all the revelations within. It’s not unusual in urban fantasy to find a main character that investigates otherworldly crimes, but the guessing games set this series apart.

In Late Eclipses the newest disaster is a mysterious sickness which strikes Toby’s friends (friends who cannot get sick), right when Queen of the Mists begins her machinations involving Toby. As usual there’s a lot of action and Toby spends much of the book breathlessly running from one place to the next in an attempt to stop bad things from happening. In the past Toby gets knocked around quite a bit. This book is no different, even with Toby making smarter decisions and with friends backing her up. I was at the edge of my seat, mentally yelling at Toby to watch out because it seemed like someone was out for her in particular. There was more of an anticipatory feeling throughout this book than in the past because it wasn’t as simple as finding a murderer. This felt like a conspiracy.

I was expecting characters that until now have been off the page to finally show up (not a spoiler, since this is on the back blurb), but Toby has many more allies now than she did when the series started. They rally around her, even when it could result in adverse consequences for them. I really like that Toby’s circle of friends has grown over the course of the past three books, and it’s very touching to see the rewards of her being her usual Hero self.
The side characters in this series are great, and we get to learn a little bit more about them in Late Eclipses, especially Toby’s Fetch, May, and her liege, Sebastian. There’s also some new information about people who don’t love Toby, including Raysel. The only problem I had with the characters was that I noticed there were a lot of them who hate Toby for failing as a Hero. It was odd for this motivation to pop up repeatedly, but before I got too perturbed by this, the characters differentiated themselves from each other, making the observation moot. Your mileage may vary on this pattern.

Of course one of my favorite secondary characters is Tybalt, King of the Cats. I’m always hoping that there will be romance between him and Toby. The romance in this series is never in the foreground, but there are some interesting developments here. I think fans of both Tybalt and Connor will be happy with how things go in this book. It does complicate things for the next one though. I was already looking up the release date for the next one, One Salt Sea while I was midway through Late Eclipses (September 2011).

Overall: If you are an urban fantasy fan, you should read this, but don’t stop at the first book, because the overarching storyline builds up as the books go along. It is rewarding to keep reading the series – if I think over what was revealed in this book, I become positively gleeful. I need to run out and find someone who has read it so we can discuss. To me, this series just gets better and better, and this is the best installment yet.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Fantasy Cafe – 8.5 out of 10
Scooper Speaks – positive (“the bom-diggity-dog”).
Lurv a La Mode – 5 scoops (out of 5)
All Things Urban Fantasy – 4 out of 5
Fantasy Literature – 4 out of 5

Secrets of the Demon by Diana Rowland

Posted on March 1, 2011 by janicu

Secrets of the Demon

Diana Rowland

Ever since book 1 of this series I’ve been loving it’s unique premise: that of a Louisiana detective with the ability to summon demons who has her work as a cop intersect with her extra-curricular activities. I’ve had Secrets of the Demon, the third of the series, on pre-order. My reviews of the first books are here:

Book 1: Mark of the Demon

Book 2: Blood of the Demon

***** If you haven’t read the first books there may be mild spoilers for them in this review. *****

The Premise: Kara Gillian is now part of a special FBI task force along with her duties as a homicide detective at the Beaulac, Louisiana, Police Department. Along with FBI special agents Ryan Kristoff and Zachary (Zach) Garner, the team investigates a threat to the lead singer of local band Ether Madhouse. The team doesn’t think the threat is real, until Lida Moran is snatched by some creature during her band’s last song. Kara knows that there was no demon, but there is some kind of magic in Lida’s abduction. Magic that she senses again during a murder investigation. As more people begin to die, Kara must find out the connection between the band and the murders, and in the meantime, her life continues to be complicated by her special association with Demon Lord Rhyzkahl and her confusing relationship with Ryan.

Read an excerpt of Secrets of the Demon here

My Thoughts: I was surprised to see that the cover art for this third book is so different from the first two, but then I remembered that this series has changed publishers. It’s not bad, I could do without the bit of bra poking out or the thing behind Kara, but in person the background is less overpowering.

This is not a series that should be read out of order, and I think that although the third book does a lot of catching the reader up to what has happened so far, it can’t really cover the subtle progression of Kara’s relationships to those around her. For that alone, I highly recommend reading books 1 and 2 before reading this one. When you read all three books you can appreciate more where things have been and where they’re going. This is especially true of the ongoing love triangle. I have to say that in the first two books when it comes to Kara’s relationship with Ryan and her relationship with Rhyzkahl, I’ve been pulling for Ryan. This is based on the fact that I didn’t trust Rhyzkahl at all. In this book however, I’m surprised to find myself wondering if Kara’s relationship with Rhyzkahl could be deeper than I thought. It doesn’t help Ryan’s case that he’s been very judgmental about Kara’s relationship with Rhyzkahl when he really has no right to be. At this point things could go either way, and I never thought I’d say this, but I think I may be happy with either, as long as Kara makes a choice she’s happy with. I’d love to see a deeper relationship with EITHER of the two men here.

As for Kara’s other relationships, she continues to develop friendships all around and she’s learning that she’s not as alone as she thought. From her Sargent, to her Aunt’s boyfriend, to her best friend Jill, Kara’s circle is growing and I’m happy to see it. I like the way that these secondary characters have developed over the books, each revealing a little something more in each progressive volume, and each unique. The banter between Kara and the others usually works too, but I have to say that there are a couple of minor missteps. Mostly this was in feeling like although Kara was supposed to be in her late twenties, she sometimes read as older, and a little behind on the times. I was thrown out of the story by the over-use of “bitch” and “chick” whenever Kara spoke to Jill (it’s not like I don’t fondly call my girl friends this, but sparingly, not every sentence), and by a random “for the win” (fine, I’m being nitpicky on that one, but still).

The investigation in this book and the otherworldly connection to it was not exactly demon-related, and Kara spends more time using her mundane police skills over her arcane knowledge to solve the case. The case is a big part of the plot but I felt more drawn to the longer running story ARC – what Kara’s relationship with Rhyzkahl means and who Ryan really is. Next to that, the murders didn’t feel as strong, and when the person behind it was revealed, it was almost an unbelievable surprise, but overall I felt pretty satisfied.

Overall: A really good continuation to the series in terms of Kara’s involvement with the demon world and with Rhyzkahl and Ryan. My interest in the murder investigation was overshadowed by my interest in Kara’s developing relationships, but I got what I wanted from the longer running story arc, so I was happy. After finishing Secrets of the Demon, I’m dying to find out what happens next. This is an urban fantasy series that has police drama, romance, sex, and friendship, but also: humor. There’s just the right dose of banter and irreverence to keep things from getting dark.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Lurv a la Mode – 5 scoops (out of 5)
Babbling about Books, and More – B+
Smexy Books – B
Wicked Lil Pixie – 5 out of 5
The Discriminating Fangirl – 4 out of 5

Double Cross by Carolyn Crane

Posted on January 11, 2011 by janicu

Double Cross

Carolyn Crane

This is a book I’ve held back on buying until I decided that the self-inflicted torturing to hold back the TBR had to stop. I’m glad I bought it but Holy Shizz, I need the third book now!

My review for Book 1:

Mind Games –

The Premise: Justine Jones continues her work as a disillusionist for Packard, and her newest target is Ez, a dangerous highcap who can manipulate a person through their dreams. It seems like business as usual, until Justine starts wondering if Ez is really responsible for the murders she was imprisoned for. Meanwhile, a new band of killers is hitting Midcity – the Dorks. These unknown people have been shooting at seemingly random Midcity dwellers, who are later identified by Packard’s men as highcaps. No one can figure out how the Dorks can tell that their victims are highcaps or how they are impervious to highcap abilities, including precognitivity. Justine fears for the safety of the highcaps in her life: her paramour Otto Sanchez, and her enigmatic leader, Packard.

**** There are spoilers for the first book in this review, so if you haven’t already read book 1, you may want to avert your eyes and skip to the ‘Overall’ section ****

Read an excerpt of Chapter one of Double Cross here

My Thoughts: One of the things that I love about this series is the comic-book, fight-between-good-and-evil feel. In Midcity, a sprawling metropolis with a comic book name, live highcaps, people who have superhero-like powers hidden behind ordinary facades. Among the highcaps are two powerful men: Sterling Packard and Otto Sanchez. While Otto thrives under the glowing approval of his fair city as their Golden-Boy mayor, Packard is a criminal mastermind who is content to manipulate Midcity in obscurity. Each is the other’s greatest enemy.

The good guys have a little tarnish on their armor and the bad guys believe that they’re White Knights protecting the city at all costs. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who is who. Especially if you are our books narrator, Justine Jones. In the first book, Mind Games, she trusted Packard until she found out that disillusioning people comes with a price — total reliance on Packard or becoming a mindless vegetable. Similarly, she distrusted Otto (he was her target for disillusionment), until she discovered his past with Packard and the real reason Packard wanted him disillusioned. This reader is firmly in the Packard camp, but that doesn’t mean the way things ended in Mind Games left me despairing. The relationship between Justine and these two different men is a work in progress, and I’ve been having a great time trying to pick up on the author’s hints about what’s coming next (and nodding to myself when I realize things set up in the first book. This includes the first person present narration — ha, I see what you did there, Ms. Carolyn Crane). I said this in my review of the first book, and I’ll say it again: it’s been a treat to revel in the GREY! And while Justine doesn’t seem to be asking this question, I am: who is the real hero and the real villain? I think Double Cross steps us closer to the answer.

Double Cross begins shortly after Mind Games left off. Packard works with Otto’s people in an uneasy alliance in return for his continued freedom. His group of disillusionists, which includes Justine, are still working, but now their targets are those highcaps imprisoned by Otto over the years. Justine, as is her nature, wonders if Disillusioning these people is the right thing to do: would they prefer imprisonment over being rebooted? She doesn’t feel free herself because she has to keep ‘zinging’ people with medical fears to stay alive; she doesn’t want to do something that gives herself relief at the expense of others. This leads her to be dismayed when Packard remarks that Ez, her newest target, doesn’t seem to have the right personality to have done her crimes. Unfortunately for Justine, circumstances allow Ez a way to worm into her and Packard’s dreams, which means she has to disillusion her or be a victim of Ez herself.

With Justine’s involvement with both men, she’s yet another reason for them to be rivals. Justine is relieved to be back in the good graces of the charismatic Otto, whom she thinks is the perfect man, and stays wary yet drawn to Packard. Packard warns Justine about Otto’s character, but Justine sees manipulation in everything Packard says. Underneath it all, Packard and Otto’s past is simmering under the surface. I’m happy to say that Double Cross settles some questions about that past and what started their rift. It also settles which man Justine really loves, but it’s not quite time for an HEA yet. Anyway, there were hints made in Mind Games that finally make sense, and I was happy with the story I got. For extra points Packard and Otto’s past neatly dovetails into the present. Perhaps a little perfectly, but I liked the way things went, and I liked how their past informs their current journeys (one towards redemption, another towards moral ruin).

I think that Double Cross is the book that has me more obsessed about the three main characters and their relationships, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that it furthered my understanding of a couple of favorite side characters as well. The two I felt I got to know a little better were Shelby, the eternal pessimist, and Simon, the gambler. Shelby surprises us with a little bit of optimism in this story, and it was rather delightful to see her character grow. Simon is his usual self but he and Justine have an understanding . Although Simon keeps doing risky things, and Justine sometimes has to stop him, they have a friendship of sorts.

So. The ending. It was a bit of a cliffhanger and I’m not sure what to say about this. I won’t say anything about what the cliffhanger was about, just my reaction to it: I am surprisingly OK. I usually hate a cliffhanger, but you guys, this one was a little bit awesome. Although I would like to know WHY there is no information online about WHEN the next book is out EXACTLY(?!?!! Why?!?!) I’m not feeling so totally sideswiped that I will go out on a killing rampage. I warn you though: you will want to read book 3 really badly after reading Double Cross, so this may be something you want to take into account when deciding when to read this book.

Overall: I’m loving this urban fantasy series and despite the cliffhanger ending (really, when is book 3 out?), I think this installment is as good if not better than the last. As usual, there’s an excellent balance of imperfect characters with a well thought out plot. The three core characters (heroine, and two men whose roles haven’t been solidified yet), show us a little bit more who they really are in each book, but I still can’t predict their next move. I’m very satisfied so far with where things are going, but I’m relieved that this is a planned trilogy — the final book can’t come soon enough.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Karissa’s Reading Review – gave it 4/5 but called it bleak and warns you’ll be left feeling angry (I think this is because of the cliffhanger)
Read, React, Review – positive
My world.. in words and pages – positive
Ellz Readz – positive
Babbling about Books, and More – B+
Smexy Books – 5/5
The Book Smugglers – 8/10 (check out the “Smuggled” videos posted there – hilarious)
Fiction Vixen – 5/5

Black Wings by Christina Henry

Posted on January 4, 2011 by janicu

Black Wings

Christina Henry

This book is one that just came out recently (November 2010) and I got a copy through another blogger – this is a review of an ARC copy.

The Premise: Madeline (Maddy) Black has been fending for herself (with the help of her building’s gargoyle, Beezle), since the death of her mother when Maddy was 11. She’s also an Agent of Death, whose job it is to usher newly dead souls to the Door (to the afterlife or something else, Agents never know). To supplement her income, Maddy writes recipes and rents out an apartment in the building she owns in Chicago. Life is busy and there’s no time for a social life, until Maddy becomes the focus of power struggles among supernatural beings. She gains a really good-looking tenant, Gabriel Angeloscuro, around the same time that demons and a shadowy, terrifying beast appear to attack her.

Read the first chapter of Black Wings here

My Thoughts: This books world building started off quite promisingly with the details of Maddy’s job as a Agent, trying to coax an unwilling soul into being untethered from her body and going to the Door. The description of the powers that come with Maddy’s job – the wings, the ability to speak to souls, invisibility (to most people), and how she does it felt like a fresh new take on the idea of reapers, shinigami and psychopomps. I think that if this book had been just about that aspect of Maddy’s life I would be interested, but Black Wings takes it further by introducing us to the world of angels and demons because of Maddy’s unique heritage. She never knew who her father was, assuming he was either dead or abandoned her, but most of her problems are from being his offspring. First there is an attack by a monster that almost gets Maddy, then demons appear at her front door trying to do the same. Her new tenant, Gabriel, is linked to all of it but can only tell Maddy so much. All of this is affecting Maddy’s ability to do her job and her boss J.B., another good-looker who Maddy constantly clashes with, is not happy, and neither is Beezle, who feels responsible for her protection.

Maddy spends much of the book ping-ponging from one surprised revelation to the next — from who she is to who Gabriel and the other players in the whole mess are. Interspersed among the narrative told from Maddy’s first person point of view, are flashbacks in which Maddy relives part of the life of someone named Evangeline, a peasant girl who fell in love with Lucifer and had his children. There is a lot of fallen angels and their offspring world building here.

All of these things make for a fascinating world, and the writing is paced well to keep the pages turning, but I’m afraid I had some nits along the way. One of them is that although this is definitely an urban fantasy, I have this weird associative feeling between Black Wings and young adult paranormals, and I think that the timing of this read is why. First of all, fallen angels are very popular in young adult fiction right now. Secondly, I’ve just read Almost to Die For by Tate Hallaway and Glimmerglass by Jenna Black (two YA paranormals), so the idea of a girl discovering she’s the daughter of someone supernaturally powerful puts to mind those books. The idea is familiar, and so is falling in love with someone put by her side by her father, which Maddy does with Gabriel.

Then there’s Maddy’s voice. Maddy is supposed to be 30 in this story, but she often acted a lot younger and used phrases that felt more appropriate from someone in high school. She says things like “Knock much?”– is this the influence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? That’s fine, but Buffy was high school/college age, not 30. Maddy mouths off at really inopportune times, not unusual in a UF heroine, but a couple of times she pushes it and ends up looking more immature than spunky. Her virginity and impetuousness with Gabriel underline her youthfulness.

I also found myself unable to connect to the relationships Maddy had with other characters in the book. They don’t feel quite real. Although Gabriel is gorgeous and a little broken, the lack of lead up to their attraction made their relationship feel superficial, and when Maddy’s friend dies early in the book, she seemed to barely mourn. It felt like I was reading someone going through the required motions with no thought behind them. Basically: I wanted more.

Those problems with Maddy aside, when she wasn’t speaking or making eyes at Gabriel, she seemed a lot more like the UF heroine I’d expect – she tries to help innocent people from the demons and monsters on the street, she wants to figure out what’s going on before more people die, and she wants to do her job. Sometimes she stumbles in these goals but she’s determined and that makes her endearing. And she’s not a pushover — she figures out quickly when someone is trying to use her. When she does figure out what’s going on at the end of the book, she makes some very smart moves, and that makes the last part of the book, the strongest part of the book for me.

I’m not sure what to make of J.B. He seems set up as a third in a love triangle but it feels half-hearted. I feel like we’re going to see a twist that involves him in the next book. I hope he gets to play a bigger role. There’s a few players and story arcs set up in Black Wings that look promising for book 2, Black Night, which comes out Autumn, 2011.

Overall: Black Wings is a fairly good read that I’d recommend with reservations. The biggest issues I had was Maddy’s sometimes inappropriately irreverent voice and the lack of depth in her relationships, but on the other hand, I did like the way the story ended and how Maddy ultimately handled things. There’s plenty of set up here for to encourage me to read the second book, but I haven’t decided yet if I’ll continue. I think this is a book a lot of people have liked, so not everyone will not have the problems with it that I did.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Book Binge – 4/5
The Geeky Bookworm – 4/5
Fiction Vixen – 4.5/5
All Things Urban Fantasy – 4/5
Smexy Books – C- (this was the review I found most similar in opinion to mine..)

Draw One in the Dark by Sarah A. Hoyt

Posted on December 30, 2010 by janicu

Draw One in the Dark

Sarah A. Hoyt

As soon as I could, I picked up the first book in Sarah A. Hoyt’s urban fantasy duology, Draw One In the Dark, based on my enjoyment of Darkship Thieves and on the promising blurb on the Baen website. Yeach though, this is a book cover that screams “I probably also own a howling wolf t-shirt” ..you do this on purpose Baen, you have to.

The Premise: Kyrie Smith and Tom Ormson both work at a the Athens Diner, in Goldport, Colorado, but they don’t really interact with one another. Then one night Kyrie goes out to the back parking lot of the diner to investigate a noise. She discovers Tom in dragon form, standing over a corpse. When he changes back to human form, he has no idea what happened, and Kyrie decides to help him until she can figure out what is going on. Kyrie is a shape-shifter too (her other form is a panther), and she understands the turmoil and loss of memory sometimes caused by the inner beast. The two find out that this is not the only body in recent weeks, and that Tom’s past is catching up with him: people he stole something from are looking for him.

Read an excerpt of the first six chapters of Draw One in the Dark here

My Thoughts: Tom is confused about what’s going on at first, particularly since he can’t remember why he’s standing over a dead body and is covered in it’s blood. Kyrie is the one who has it together and tells him what to do so he’s not caught naked and covered in blood. When they realize that they’re both shifters, the whole situation creates a sort of tenous bond even though Kyrie’s initial impression of Tom hasn’t been favorable. They get to know each other along the way, although after the scene at the restaurant they find themselves leaving a dangerous situation only to find themselves in another one before they begin to figure out what’s going on. Their two problems are the dead bodies that keep showing up, and the dangerous people chasing after Tom. Along the way, they are helped by other characters – Officer Trall, who is investigating the recent deaths, Keith, a college student who is Tom’s next door neighbor, and Tom’s father, who has connections to Tom’s pursuers.

This series has a completely different voice from the last Sarah Hoyt book I read, Darkship Thieves. Instead of first person, which is common in urban fantasy, Draw One in the Dark is in third person and jumps between Kyrie and Tom, and later, to a lesser extent, to Tom’s father, Edward Ormson. There is no kick-ass female heroine with special abilities. Instead we have a ragtag group of everyday, ordinary, people for which shifting has often been a burden. This book definitely does not romanticize the ability to shift or the shifters who can do so.

The ordinariness of the characters bring to mind the Kitty series by Carrie Vaughn so I think I’d recommend this book for readers who enjoyed that one. The world building here is much like that of Vaughn’s as well – it’s not necessarily a place where people understand magic and they react to it within what they can fathom. Kyrie and Tom for instance have no idea why they can change. It’s something that began to happen in puberty and upset their already-stressful teen lives. They’re still trying to figure out how it all works – how to tell other shifters, what affects their shifts, and how to have an ordinary life while keeping this side hidden. I liked that there’s enough complexity in the lives of the characters (not just in Kyrie and Tom’s) that we see missteps and flaws in all of what they do, even though ultimately these are the good guys. This is particularly true of Tom’s father Edward, who comes to Goldport thinking he has to clean up after his screw-up son again, only to realize that he may have failed his son as a father in the first place.

Before Draw One in the Dark starts, Kyrie didn’t think much of Tom, and wrote him off as a junkie who will eventually disappoint everyone, even if she has never seen him act high in the six months he’s been working at Athens. When she spends more time with him, she realizes that this impression was a self-defense mechanism. She’s actually attracted to him, but years in the foster system has made her wary. As for Tom, he’s always thought Kyrie was pretty but way out of his league. These observations about each other are often peppered throughout the story, and there’s a sort of puppy-dog eying of each other throughout with neither really doing much about it. Their fledgling romance is further complicated by Rafiel Trall – police officer and lion shifter who has an interest in Kyrie, particularly since she’s another cat shifter.

Overall: Quite a solid contemporary/urban fantasy, with a rather thoughtful perspective on shape-shifting and how it may affect a person’s life. It puts to mind books by Charles de Lint or Carrie Vaughn, mostly because the characters are ordinary and unvarnished. I thought that Tom and Kyrie’s awkward steps towards a courtship was sweet but romance here is not really of the searing kind. It’s more of an everyday, two kids you like who end up liking each other kind. I’d read the next book, Gentleman Takes a Chance, to see these characters grow. It also makes me realize how versatile this author is because the voice in this story is so very different from the other book I’ve read that was written by her.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | Baen ebook

Other reviews:
I couldn’t find one through google’s social search, but I may have missed you. Let me know, and I’ll link the review!