Black Arts (by Faith Hunter)

Posted on December 31, 2013 by setaian

Urban Fantasy

Background

Jane Yellowrock is the last Cherokee Skinwalker. Using bones and teeth as her template she is able to transform into any animal, but on top of this ability, many hundreds of years earlier she took the soul of a mountain lion into her in a life and death battle. That mountain lion is named Beast and she lends to Jane the skills of a predator, a powerful sense of smell and super agility, not to mention some not altogether welcome advice on mating.

Jane works as a vampire hunter and the acting enforcer for Leo Pellissier, the vampire master of the city of New Orleans.

Black Arts

Jane’s oldest and dearest friend, Molly Trueblood has disappeared, and she was on her way to see Jane when it happened. When Evan, an air-witch and Molly’s husband shows up with their two children he brings with him a tornado and a whole truckload of worry.

Jane quickly learns that his worries are well founded, it looks like Molly has been taken by a vampire. And with the strange scent of witch and vampire showing up, she is worried that Molly is being used to power blood magic…and blood magic always demands a life.

Black Arts is book seven in the Jane Yellowrock series and in some ways I think it’s the best yet. Certainly the best since book one, Skinwalker. Some of my favorite characters, characters who have been absent for the last couple of books have returned and things which have been bubbling away in the series are finally resolved, for both good and bad.

This book really feels like a fresh start and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for proving me with this ARC.

Off the Edge (by Carolyn Crane)

Posted on December 22, 2013 by setaian

Romantic Suspense

Even knowing he would hunt her down, Laney gave the FBI the information they needed to throw Rolly, her violent and abusive husband into prison. She has run to the very end of the earth –– to Bangkok to hide from him. But when she spots his enforcer walking into the restaurant where she is having lunch, she knows it’s time to run.

Macmillan is a hunter, but his weapon of choice isn’t a gun, it’s language and words. Using their very own words he hunts down international criminals and then when he’s completed his mission he disappears into the night. He’s in Bangkok to identify and catch the Jazzman, an arms dealer who is selling a weapon that could bring governments to their knees.

When he sees Laney singing at the hotel where the auction is set to take place, he immediately knows she is on the run, and he feels an instant attraction to her. Then he discovers she may hold the key to finally identifying the Jazzman.

Romantic Suspense is a genre dominated by archetypes and tropes. There aren’t too many books that surprise me. Well, Carolyn Crane has once again managed to find something I have never seen before, a quirky…perhaps even oddball idea, and fashion it into a believable and entertaining story. I could go on for pages about the many ways I loved this book, but maybe I’ll just encourage you all to buy this book and find out for yourself…and while you’re at it, read her Disillusionists series.

Many thanks to CrushStar Multimedia and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

How to Run with a Naked Werewolf (by Molly Harper)

Posted on December 19, 2013 by setaian

Paranormal Romance

Anna gave up the life she knew to escape from her violent husband. On the run she has moved from town to town, escaping in the night every time her husband came close to finding her.

Caleb is is a bounty hunter just on the shadier side of the law. He’s also a werewolf. When a collection goes wrong and he gets shot, and nearly run over (twice), Anna steps in and saves him. Unfortunately in the course of her rescue, her car and all her possessions go up in flames. Desperate to get to Anchorage so she can collect her new identity and find another bolt hole, she reluctantly agrees to join him on the road.

How to Run with a Naked Werewolf continues the story of the Graham Pack of loveable but slightly redneck werewolves in Grundy Alaska. Think less Twilight and more Duck Dynasty. It’s what Molly Harper does best, cute and quirky romance with snark. She has the remarkable ability to blend a moral message into her stories without ever sounding like she’s preaching. Another great book from one of my favorite authors.

Many thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC.

The Spider (by Jennifer Estep)

Posted on December 15, 2013 by setaian

Urban Fantasy

Gin (The Spider) and Fletcher (The Tin Man) are assassins. They have been contracted to kill Cesar Vaughn a powerful stone elemental and with Cesar’s daughter, Charlotte showing all the signs of being an abused child, Gin is champing at the bit to get the job done before she is hurt any more. But Fletcher smells a rat and wants to err on the side of caution.

When Gin, literally runs into Sebastian Vaughn, Cesar’s charismatic son there are immediate sparks, but her job is to kill his father and there is no hope for a relationship…still she finds it hard to stay away.

The Spider takes us back to the beginning of Gin Blanco’s career, back before her mentor and adopted father Fletcher was killed inSpider’s Bite (Elemental Assassin Book 1). It’s a bit of a ticker tape parade, showing younger versions of all the stalwart characters in the series.

I keep telling myself I’ll stop reading this series after the next book. I never do. Honestly, I don’t quite know how the author manages to hook me but she always does. The series is a little bit like a car I drove in the late 1980s…a lime green Alfasud. It wasn’t perfect, occasionally frustrating, but it was also great fun and I really loved that car. Just like this book.

Many thanks to Pocket Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC

Best of 2013 (imo)

Posted on December 7, 2013 by setaian

It’s coming up to Christmas and it’s time to do the book review blog version of a sitcom’s dream episode. Yep, the best (imo) of 2013.

The Very Best Five (published in 2013)

1. Up to the Challenge (by Terri Osburn)

(Contemporary Romance.)

I read a lot of contemporary romance and a book needs to be pretty special to stand out. I’m tempted to put her first book Meant to Be in the Best 5 as well, but maybe I’ll let the #1 spot be for both her books and make room for someone else.

2. Heart ofVenom (by Jennifer Estep

(Urban Fantasy)

It’s book 9 in the author’s elemental assassin series. I usually start to yawn after three or four books and there was a bit of that a few books ago, but this one blew me out of the water.

3. Raw Deal (by Mark Henwick)

(Urban Fantasy)

The first of two novellas in the Best 5, Raw Deal reminded me of those great hard boiled detective stories of the 1930s…but with vampires.

4. Night of Cake & Puppets (by Laini Taylor)

(Paranormal Romance)

Laini Taylor writes books you want to read out loud. You just want to say what she has written. Night of Cake & Puppets was a beautiful, sublime fairy tale and the second novella in my Best 5.

5. Lingerie Wars (by Janet Elizabeth Henderson)

(Contemporary Romance)

One of the rare books that had me laughing like an idiot. And yes, when I was writing my review for this I did google “erotic kilt” and I would strongly urge you not to.

Notable Mentions – The Hits

…and the Misses

(yes the irony of mentioning Bloodring is not lost on me).

Night of Cake & Puppets (by Laini Taylor)

Posted on December 2, 2013 by setaian

Young Adult / Fantasy

Why am I sitting here tormenting myself, trying to write a review for this book?

Those who have read Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight will know and love Zuzana and Mik. But until now we’ve only been given fleeting glimpses of their lives. In this novella, on the shorter end of novellas, we finally see them star in their own story.

On a bleak winters night Zuzana, who has been quietly infatuated with Mik , finally gathers her courage to ask him out. With a treasure map, a couple of puppets and five wishes she sends him on treasure hunt around Prague.

If I could give this book 10 Stars I would. I just can’t put into words how masterful this book is. I read a fair bit of Young Adult fiction and a lot of it is kind of sub-standard…a bit like christian rock. Laini Taylor gives us a master class in how good the genre can be. This is what every author should strive to write.

Becoming Alpha (by Aileen Erin)

Posted on November 26, 2013 by setaian

Young Adult / Paranormal Fantasy

Tessa has a gift, though she would call it a curse. When she touches people or objects people have used, she is bombarded with visions. She goes through life avoiding touching anything that has been handled by others. Labelled as a freak, her family takes her from California to Texas in the hopes of fresh start, but the town they have moved to is also home to a pack of werewolves.

After escaping a disastrous party, she gets her first kiss from Dastien, and then Dastien’s wolf decides to claim her with a bite. Suddenly all her problems are multiplied ten fold with pack politics piling on top of schoolwork and being a new werewolf, and as an alpha strong enough to rival the other alphas in the pack she is definitely causing a stir.

Becoming Alpha is pretty damned good. As you expect of a debut novel the author has thrown everything into it and that occasionally doesn’t work, but it’s done with such enthusiasm…almost approaching glee that it’s hard to hold it against her. It’s a good fun story about werewolves and witches with interesting characters. It’s a lot of fun.

(I should note that while this book very much reads as young adult there is a bit of bad language which might make it unsuitable for younger teenagers.)

Many thanks to Ink Monster LLC and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

The Last Clinic (by Gary Gusick)

Posted on November 16, 2013 by setaian

Suspense

When a much loved preacher and anti-abortion campaigner is gunned down outside a women’s health clinic, the police immediately look at the doctor as the most likely suspect. Dr Stephen Nicoletti, is an Ob/Gyn and one of the few doctors in Mississippi who will perform abortions.

It’s left to Philadelphia PD transplant, Detective Darla Cavannah to sift through the evidence and find the killer. But with an incompetent partner who is determined to push his own anti-abortion agenda gunning for the doctor, she has to spend just as much time fixing up his messes as investigating the crime…all the while a killer is on the loose and he’s got a plan.

The Last Clinic surprised me. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. It reminded me a little of another book set in Mississippi, A Time to Kill by John Grisham, but I think this book is better. I don’t read too many male authors, and this book has quite obviously been written by a man, but he’s managed to write a female main character who is both interesting and has depth.

It’s a solid debut novel and a good start to series that has a lot of potential.

Many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Villere House (by Leslie Fear and C.D. Hussey)

Posted on November 12, 2013 by setaian

Paranormal Romance

When Lottie travels to New Orleans, she fully expects it to be a few days of drinking and partying. But almost immediately she starts having vivid flash backs to a drama that unfolded 200 years earlier.

With help from Xavier, the sceptical owner of a shop selling voodoo trinkets to tourists, she needs to unravel the mystery, end a curse, and hopefully be alive at the end. But the malevolant spirit that cursed her family has other plans.

Disclosure: Leslie Fear is both a Facebook and Goodreads friend of mine.

Villere House is an old school ghost story. It’s well paced, well written and entertaining. The romance didn’t entirely work for me, but to be honest that was probably because I kept thinking about the author’s children reading it…it’s hard to get past that. The real highlight for me was the ghost story. It’s rollicking good fun and even managed to creep me out a little.

The Perfect Match (by Kristan Higgins)

Posted on November 6, 2013 by setaian

Contemporary Romance

Honor and Brogan have been friends with benefits for 17 years. Despite loving him for all of that time he’s never seen her as anything more than passing time. As he describes it, she’s like “an old baseball glove”. With her biological clock ticking away she is desperate for more…marriage, children, forever.
But when she suggests marriage, Brogan laughs it off as messing with a good thing. And then a matter of weeks later he rubs salt in by becoming engaged to her best friend.

Tom is an Englishman on a work visa. When the college where he lectures announces they won’t be renewing his tenure his time in the U.S. is suddenly short. But he is desperate to stay in the U.S. and close to the boy he considers his son, so Honor and Tom decide on a marriage of convenience. He will get his green card and be able to stay in the U.S., she will be able to salvage some of the shreds of her pride and hopefully get a child in the bargain.

That marriage of convenience plot line generally annoys me. It’s usually a whole bunch of misunderstandings and missteps and honestly it’s always felt like slow torture to me. But, The Perfect Match is actually pretty good. it’s your typical feel good contemporary romance but with likeable characters and a solid story it worked. I did struggle with the “marriage for green card” aspect but everything else was so good that I’m willing to let that slide.

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