Monthly Archives: June 2014

Better Homes and Hauntings (by Molly Harper)

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Paranormal Romance

Trying to rebuild her business after her former business partner decided to ruin her reputation and send her to the wall, Nina accepts a job away from the city restoring a mansion on an isolated island. Together with a very small team they are restoring the house and gardens which have stood deserted for more than 100 years. But they quickly encounter a malevolence that is haunting the house.

As they work, they begin to uncover a story of murder, betrayal and a curse that has passed down the generations. Now it seems that the ghost has decided to focus all of its fury on Nina.

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Better Homes and Hauntings is such a great book. Molly Harper writes with an intelligence and wit that is refreshing and completely addictive. This book actually has a slow build to the story which I haven’t noticed in her previous books and it took a little commitment, especially in those early chapters, but once I was hooked that was it, I just couldn’t put it down.

 

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 5.42.32 pmMany thanks to Pocket Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

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The Source (by J.D. Horn)

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Paranormal Fantasy

When Mercy came into her powers at the end of book one, The Line her almost normal life ended. Now she has gone from being the one with no powers who was routinely dismissed to being at the centre of a seething maelstrom of plots and counter-plots.

When her mother who she thought was dead shows up telling her to trust no-one she doesn’t know where to turn. Together with the one person whose motives she fully understands, Aunt Ginny, she tries to find the truth in a whole haystack of lies.

 

 

The Source is a much better book than The Line. It feels like a more well rounded book, the story feels stronger and all in all it’s more entertaining. It’s not perfect, it felt like it was wandering off in the wilderness in the middle section and there was really too much going on, but taking into account that this is the author’s second novel (the first being The Line) it’s quite an impressive effort.

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The Duke’s Holiday (by Maggie Fenton)

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Regency Romance

The Duke of Montford likes everything to be neatly lined up. A place for everything and everything in it’s place. The one blemish on his ordered ledger is a small unprofitable estate in Yorkshire. An estate which was swindled out of the family 100s of years earlier and will only return to him after the last male descendent of the Honeywell’s, the cads who swindled his family, shuffles off his mortal coil.

When Montford discovers that the aforementioned Honeywell did in fact pass on many years earlier he immediately smells a rat. Someone has been sending him reports from the estate and it’s lack of funds and signing them “A. Honeywell”.

Astrid Honeywell has been managing the estate and the family brewery since she was a child. Unfortunately as a woman she isn’t a legitimate heir and by rights the estate should be returned to the Duke of Montford. After Montford sends his right hand man to investigate she realises her number is up, but she won’t go down without a fight.

Astrid is completely wrong for Montford. Everything about her is wrong. Her hair is an unruly mess or red tangles. Her eyes are different colours, and not only does she wear a man’s clothing she insists on riding her horse astride. She definitely won’t fit into his ordered life.

But despite driving him crazy at every turn, she is also the first person who has been able to make him come alive –– to enjoy life, to get drunk and to make a fool of himself.

 

The Dukes Holiday is a complete romp. It’s great fun form beginning to end, one of those rare perfect books that I can’t fault in any way.

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The Line (by J.D. Horn)

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Paranormal Fantasy / Urban Fantasy

In a family of powerful witches, Mercy is the one person who has no power. Her twin sister is the golden girl and is expected to take the reins when her Aunt Ginny, the matriarch finally dies. But when Mercy visits a Hoodoo Root Witch who steals power to use in love spells and curses, she finds herself in the middle of some serious complications. Her aunt is brutally murdered and she suspects the death was a part of blood spell performed by the Root witch.

With nobody she can trust she needs to figure out what is going on before the killer decides to take her out.

 

The Line is very good paranormal fantasy reminiscent of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files. Strangely Mercy Taylor is being touted as the next Sookie Stackhouse –– I’m not seeing it but then again I’m not particularly a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse books. Personally I think this book is better, certainly more fun.

If I have a criticism, it’s that there was a bit of info-dumping towards the end and because of that the final few chapters started to drag. But I’m still impressed and will be reading book two The Source first chance I get.

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