Tag Archives: witches

Dark Heir (by Faith Hunter)

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Urban Fantasy

After a powerful vampire, one of the very first vampires, escapes from the sub-basement where he’s been kept prisoner serious carnage on the streets of New Orleans follows. With the residents up in arms and baying for vampire blood; the council of European vampires threatening war over the imprisonment of one of their own; and traitors working against the Master of New Orleans, it’s left to Jane to hunt down the rogue vampire and do it before seething animosities boil over.

 
Dark Heir is very much a transition book. It deals with a few things which have been bubbling away in the background of the last few books and sets the scene for the next in the Jane Yellowrock series. In that sense, it’s an important book but probably not as good as some of the other books in the series. It was entertaining, especially the climax but the stars of this series are Jane and Beast, and sadly Beast was mostly absent.

Here’s hoping the next in the series has Beast and Jane back to doing what they do best, hunting vampires together.

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 5.44.24 pmYellow, Orange, Red. What it means: red-orange-yellow-guide

Many thanks to Penguin Group and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC. 

Dead Heat (by Patricia Briggs)

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Urban Fantasy

When Anna and Charles fly to Arizona, it’s to visit with some of Charles’s old friends and buy a trail horse for Anna. But on arrival they quickly find themselves rushing to the home of the Arizona alpha’s grandson whose wife, Chelsea has been bewitched.  What they find is three frightened children and Chelsea covered in blood.

It soon becomes apparent that Chelsea was bewitched by a fae and the fae has been kidnapping and killing children. Charles and Anna join forces with the Arizona pack and local law enforcement to hunt down and kill the fae.  But even as they are hunting the fae, he is hunting them and this particular fae is one of the most powerful of all.

 

Dead Heat is a great book which had just a little too much going on. The main story, that of Charles and Anna hunting down the fae who was taking children was great, but there was a lot of time spent on Anna looking at and trying out horses which didn’t really seem to go anywhere and honestly was a bit of a distraction. That said the ending completely blew me away and made it all worthwhile.

Screen Shot 2014-02-27 at 9.12.41 pmMany thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Yellow, Orange, Red. What it means:  red-orange-yellow-guide

Sleight of Hand (by Mark Henwick)

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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.)

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 5.42.32 pmYellow, Orange, Red –– what it means: red-orange-yellow-guide-pdf

The Void (by J.D. Horn)

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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.

Screen Shot 2014-02-27 at 9.12.41 pmMany thanks to 47North and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

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

The Hawley Book of the Dead (by Chrysler Szarlan)

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Paranormal

Reve and her husband were Las Vegas magicians. Then during a show a mysterious man, the Fetch, switched the ammunition in a stage gun and her husband was killed. Being pursued by the Fetch she bundles up her children and runs to her childhood home in Massachusetts.

There she discovers things are not as they seem and she must learn the secrets of a grimoire which has been passed down through her family for generations. But the Fetch has found her and is circling.

The Hawley Book of the Dead isn’t an easy book. It’s quite dense, there is a lot going on, and for the first 40%~50% was quite slow. Then, quite suddenly, the story crashes into you and it honestly becomes a bit of a roller-coaster ride.

Overall, I enjoyed this book despite the slow start. The second half more than made up for that.

Screen Shot 2014-02-27 at 9.12.41 pmMany thanks to Ballantine Books and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC.

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

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.

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 5.42.32 pmYellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

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.

Screen Shot 2014-02-27 at 9.12.41 pmYellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

Ghouls Rush In (by H.P. Mallory)

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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.

 

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 5.42.32 pmMany thanks to Montlake Romance and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

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

 

Avoiding Alpha (by Aileen Erin)

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Young Adult

Tessa who is both a witch and a werewolf is not having a very good day. Her best friend Meredith was cursed years earlier, a curse which trapped her werewolf and prevented her from shifting. Now she has suddenly fallen violently ill and as her life is slipping away, it is left to Tessa to save her. But saving her might only be possible if she makes a deal with the devil, the witch who cast the spell and is leader of a powerful coven of witches.

 

Avoiding Alpha is such a great book. It sits somewhere between a long novella and a short novel, but despite its length (or lack of it) it packs in a whole bunch of story. Aileen Erin has managed to deliver a book which sets the scene and introduces characters who will take the stage in Alpha Divided (due out in October),  but she has also given us a book which stands on its own merits. It never drags and is entertaining to the last page turn.

Screen Shot 2014-02-15 at 8.51.33 pmMany thanks to Ink Monster and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

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

That Touch of Magic (by Lucy March)

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Paranormal (Romance?)

After losing her job as the town librarian and with bills to pay, Stacey begins selling potions to help make ends meet. But with no formal education in the ways of magic it’s trial and error from the get-go. When her potions start to produce unintended comic side-effects she needs to find out what she’s doing wrong and quickly.

Then Leo her former lover, the one she never got over shows up in town and wants a second chance. With her magic going haywire and Leo refusing to leave town she can’t seem to catch a break. And if that’s not enough, she finds herself caught in a sinister magical web which could very well cost her her life.

That Touch of Magic is amazing. It’s been two years since A little Night Magic hit the shelves and it’s obvious that Lucy March has kept herself busy. I don’t often read books that are this polished. This book is good fun but there is a hard edge to it that some may find confronting. Not me, I loved it!

Yellow / Orange / Red – What it means.  https://floatingleaves.net/yellow-orange-red-what-it-means/