Sleight of Hand (by Mark Henwick)

Posted on February 6, 2015 by setaian

Urban Fantasy

Amber is a private investigator. After discovering a drug and gun running operation in her client’s business she calls in the cops and turns the screws on Denver’s criminal underworld. Unfortunately for her, Denver PD have shut down the business while they investigate and her client is refusing to pay her.

With a serious cash flow problem, when Jennifer Kingslund shows up claiming one of her staff has been kidnapped and someone is trying to ruin her, Amber has little choice but to take on the job. She quickly discovers the job is much bigger than she first thought.

Adding to her problems, the vampire infection that has tainted her blood is taking over, and if she isn’t careful her government minders will throw her into a padded room where military scientists will control her every move.

Loved this book. It’s a bit of a cross between those great hard boiled detective novels of the 1930s and 1940s and more modern Urban Fantasy by authors like Jennifer Estep and Faith Hunter. Amber is a great heroine and this book is filled with secondary characters I can’t help but like. It took four or five books before Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series won me over. Not a problem with this one. I’m already hooked.

(There is a novella which precedes this book called Raw Deal. Well worth starting there to get some background on the characters.)

Yellow, Orange, Red –– what it means: red-orange-yellow-guide-pdf

Black Widow (by Jennifer Estep)

Posted on November 24, 2014 by setaian

Urban Fantasy

When Gin finally killed Mab Monroe she thought her life would get easier. Unfortunately since that day, every single gangster in Ashland has been out to make a name for themselves by taking her out. That is until Madeline Monroe (Mab’s estranged daughter) shows up.

She’s a powerful acid elemental and she’s decided to take over her mother’s empire, but first she needs to take care of business, and that includes getting rid of Gin and all her friends.

She’s one of the most powerful elementals Gin has ever faced and her acid magic can burn right through Gin’s ice and stone magic.

This series had a bit of a shaky start for me –– I wasn’t expecting to be reading book twelve, to be honest I considered walking away from the series after the final showdown with Mab. But I’m glad I continued. The last three or four books have been the best of them all and the series has very much found it’s groove.

The only thing that really didn’t work for me in this book was the romance. I want it to be there, just not necessarily on the page –– and that’s coming from a romance reader. Still that’s such a small part of the story and it’s done and dusted in ten minutes.

Everything else is kind of perfect. It delivers everything I expect from urban fantasy. And as usual the cover art is sublime! Whoever is creating these covers needs to be paid more.

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

Yellow, Orange, Red –– what it means: http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

The Void (by J.D. Horn)

Posted on November 19, 2014 by setaian

Urban Fantasy

Book three and the conclusion to the Witching Savannah series has Mercy Taylor and her family continuing their battle against the foes arrayed against them. After Mercy diminished their powers in book two, The Source, the other anchors have turned against her. Adding to her problems a witch has been using blood magic in her home city of Savannah and it seems she is the target.

With the final battle approaching her friends are dropping like flies and it’s possible the ultimate target is not just her, but her unborn child.

There really is a lot going on in The Void and this book should not be attempted if you haven’t read the first two in the series. You just won’t get it. Personally I think a little too much was going on and the book would have been better served with a simpler story that didn’t feel the need to tie up every loose end. It wasn’t bad, but the first two books were outstanding and I was expecting a lot more from this.

Many thanks to 47North and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Yellow, Orange, Red –– what it means: http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

Poison Promise (by Jennifer Estep)

Posted on July 13, 2014 by setaian

Urban Fantasy

All Gin wants is to be known as the owner of the Pork Pit, home to Ashland’s best BBQ. Unfortunately she can’t shake off her other title, The Spider, the assassin who killed underworld king-pin Mab Monroe. Now every two bit hood who wants to make a name for himself is gunning for her and she spends as much time dealing with them as serving pulled pork and coleslaw.

When she stumbles onto one of her waitresses being threatened by a drug dealer and his goons she steps in and makes short work of them, but it soon becomes apparent she’s bitten off a little more than even she can chew. Now she has come to the notice of Beau Benson, a sadistic vampire who doesn’t just drink blood, he sucks the very life force out of his victims, feeding on their fears and insecurities. And he sees her as the perfect guinea pig to test out his new drugs on.

Poison Promise is book #11 in Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series. It should be getting old. I should be pointing out recycled plots.

I’m not.

Her last few books are easily the best in the series. Heart of Venom (book #9) is a stand out as my personal favorite, but Poison Promise is definitely in the running for the silver medal.

This whole series is brash and violent. It’s unapologetically in your face. It’s great fun for lovers of urban fantasy.

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

Yellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

The Line (by J.D. Horn)

Posted on June 5, 2014 by setaian

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.

Yellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

Ghouls Rush In (by H.P. Mallory)

Posted on May 18, 2014 by setaian

Paranormal Romance

After escaping her domineering husband, Peyton moves into a rundown antebellum home left to her by a distant aunt. Needing to keep herself busy she decides to restore the home to its former glory and manages to get Ryan, a specialist in restoring homes to take on the job.

She soon discovers the home is haunted by Drake, a policeman who died sometime in the early 20th century, and as he visits her in her sleep a story unfolds about a series of brutal murders which terrorised the people of New Orleans in nearly 100 years earlier. And it’s possible that Peyton has inadvertently invited the spirit of the murderer into her home.

She finds herself caught between a ghost who is protecting her from the malevolence that has entered her home and the contractor who is still mourning the loss of his wife.

Ghouls Rush In is quite a surprising book. It wasn’t till page sixty that the ghosts arrived, until then it felt very much like a renovation romance. Even then it seemed liked a fairly cute and harmless ghost story. But at the half way mark it definitely got creepy. There were things going on in this book that had cold shivers running up and down my spine.

It’s really very good, and if books about ghosts, spirits and voodoo sound like your thing, this is definitely one of the better ones I’ve read.

Many thanks to Montlake Romance and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Yellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

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.

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).

Heart of Venom (by Jennifer Estep)

Posted on July 30, 2013 by setaian

Urban Fantasy

Many years earlier Sophia was kidnapped and brutalised by Harley and his sister, both powerful fire elementals. She escaped with the help of Gin’s mentor and surrogate father Fletcher, but it nearly killed them. Now Fletcher is dead and Harley has returned and dragged Sophia back to his mountain fortress.

Gin launches a suicide mission to rescue Sophia and kill Harley once and for all, but when Harley and his sister combine their fire magic they are all but unbeatable.

In Heart of Venom Jennifer Estep turns her attention to Sophia, one of my favorite characters from the series. The entire series is brash and in your face, and this book is quite possibly the best yet.

I also want to say, that cover is superb. The artist has absolutely nailed it.

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

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Tag Archives: urban fantasy

Sleight of Hand (by Mark Henwick)

Black Widow (by Jennifer Estep)

The Void (by J.D. Horn)

Poison Promise (by Jennifer Estep)

The Line (by J.D. Horn)

Ghouls Rush In (by H.P. Mallory)

Black Arts (by Faith Hunter)

The Spider (by Jennifer Estep)

Best of 2013 (imo)

Heart of Venom (by Jennifer Estep)