Hallowed

In the second installment of the Unearthly Trilogy (after Unearthly), teenaged Clara Gardner is learning more about her abilities and obligations as an angelblood, a human who is part angel by birth. She and her mother and brother, all angelbloods, had moved to Wyoming because of the fiery visions Clara was having and the wildfire had, indeed, occurred. In a departure from what she believed she was destined to do, Clara had rescued a fellow student, Tucker, rather than Christian, another angelblood. Now, Clara is confused, being unsure of what her true purpose might be and torn between destiny and free will. She’s becoming very sure of one thing, though—there is going to be a death and someone she loves will not be at the graveside service.

Adding to Clara’s fear is the unwanted attention of a fallen angel, known as a Black Wing, a being who has tried to kill her and her mother and who creates an aura of overwhelming sorrow whenever he’s near. Unable to tell Tucker everything because of the danger full knowledge would bring, Clara’s main source of comfort is all the other angelbloods in her community and there are quite a few. Maggie, Clara’s mom, has her own secrets and begins to divulge them to Clara and her brother, Jeffrey, culminating in two major revelations.

Angels are the theme of more and more dark fantasy or paranormal books these days, especially in the young adult arena, but Hand brings a fresh perspective to the angelbloods of her trilogy. The religious aspect is handled lightly but with enough depth to convey understanding and the expected rollercoaster of feelings of those just learning what they are—confusion, anger, fear, joy, guilt, shock, sadness, peace—are shown to the reader as though there really is not much difference between angelblood and human teenagers when it comes to emotions. That in itself is unusual and very welcome in this subgenre. The author also gives Maggie a complexity that is often ignored in young adult novels and it’s refreshing to have a parent play such a central role.

The trouble with a really good book is having to wait so long for the next in the trilogy or series. The third Unearthly novel cannot come too soon and Hallowed is the first book I’ll be putting on my list of favorites in 2012.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2012.

Incarnate

Eighteen-year-old Ana has spent her entire life abused and reviled because she is a nosoul, born without a past into a world in which everyone else has been continually reincarnated for 5,000 years. Those who are reborn remember all their past lives and those of other people.  Ana was born when Ciana died and not reborn and most people believe she stole Ciana’s rebirth.  Ana has left the uncaring Li, the mother who hates her, setting out to find the answers about who and what she is and why she was born. She must go to Heart, the city where all but a few live, and it is a journey filled with bitter cold and the deadly attacks of sylphs whose burns never heal.

Ana meets a young man, Sam, who saves her life and shares with her a love of music while not seeming to be overly concerned about who she is. Sam leads her to Heart, a city with a huge temple and soaring white walls that pulse with heat and perhaps life. There she finds enemies and friends and those who would fight dragons and she begins her search to answer the questions that obsess her. Why was she born? Did she steal Ciana’s life? Is she the only nosoul—or newsoul—or just the first and what will happen to her when she dies? Will she be allowed to stay in Heart or is solitary exile her destiny?

Incarnate is the first entry in the Newsoul trilogy and is based on an intriguing concept, that of endless reincarnation and memory. It’s difficult to define, really, as it has elements of dark fantasy and science fiction as well as romance but that is not a flaw because it will have crossgenre appeal. Ms. Meadows develops her characters nicely and, at the end of the book, I found myself wanting to know what will happen to them all, not just the “good” ones. An odd thing happened as I didn’t always care very much for Ana, becoming rather tired of her self-pity, but that feeling faded soon after I finished and I now believe she is a character who will stay in my mind for quite a while.

One last note—the cover of Incarnate is one of the most striking I have seen in all my years as a reader and a bookseller and I’m pretty sure  booksellers in brick & mortar stores will shelve this face-out and in their windows for maximum effect.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2012.

Hellbent

Cherie Priest has joined my short list of automatic buys, whether she’s writing a new zombie thriller or an urban fantasy/paranormal featuring Raylene Pendle, vampire and thief.

Raylene thinks she’s a real bad-ass, and so she is. She’s all that and more, although as her list of housemates grows to include not only the homeless orphan human kids, Pepper and her brother Domino, but the blind vampire Ian Stott, and Adrian deJesus, ex-Navy SEAL drag queen, you’ve gotta wonder if she’s got a live, beating heart.

This adventure has Raylene’s business associate, Horace, cutting her in on a deal worth millions. All she had to do is steal some outrageous magical artifacts (you’ll laugh your head off when you find out what they are) from some old guy in the suburbs. The trouble is, a powerful magician is after the same artifacts, and it looks like Raylene and she will have to duke it out to gain possessiom. Not so easy, even with Adrian’s help.

At the same time, Raylene has to intercede on Ian’s behalf in a feud between hostile vampire “houses’, then convince his family he’s…er…dead. And, oh yes, try to rescue Adrian’s deaf vampire sister, while she’s at it.

Often hilarious, full of action and great characters, Hellbent is another terrific read. I can’t wait for the next book to see who else Raylene’s gonna add to her household. I just hope they all like kittens.

Reviewed by C.K.Crigger, September 2011.

The Shattering

Summerton is a lovely resort town on the west coast of New Zealand, a town that’s perhaps a bit too perfect. While other small towns struggle to remain vibrant and appealing and they watch their residents, especially the younger ones, move away in search of better lives, Summerton just continues to attract tourists in greater numbers and few of its inhabitants ever leave for good.

Seventeen-year-old Keri is struggling to understand why her beloved older brother, Jake, would have committed suicide, never having indicated that anything was wrong. One of the worst things for Keri is that she always had plans for every contingency, no matter how unlikely, and that made her feel safe; Jake’s death, this way, was something she had never even considered. She found him and, although she has blocked out the memory, the pain of not understanding is intense and she takes little comfort from the family gathering for the Maori celebration of his life.

Then, an old childhood friend, Janna, approaches her one day and asks if she would like to know who murdered Jake and Keri immediately senses that this may not be a wild idea. Janna tells her a boy from Auckland, Sione, is on his way to town to show her his research indicating a string of suicides over a period of years, all older brothers living in scattered areas of the country but who had all been in Summerton on New Year’s Eve. Sione has identified a number of other odd patterns in these deaths and the three teens set out to find the killer and exact revenge.  The perfect town of Summerton, though, may not let that happen.

I’m a big fan of young adult dark fantasy and I’m always on the lookout for something a little different. The New Zealand setting of this story was what first attracted me but the first page hooked me thoroughly. I immediately “felt” who Keri was , what drove her, and Janna and Sione took equal billing. That’s partly because of the author’s style in having each chapter be from the perspective of one of the three but there’s more to it than that. All along, I believed these characters and experienced their emotions, their physical pain and their moments of happiness—even in the midst of great sorrow and anger, there will be happiness. I couldn’t help thinking I’d like to know these teens. Put quite simply, Karen Healey has created a mesmerizing tale and is a writer to watch.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, September 2011.

Congratulations to Terry Parrish,

winner of a signed copy of Under the Dog Star

by Sandra Parshall!

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Hard Spell
Justin Gustainis
Angry Robot Books, July 2011
ISBN 9780857661159
Mass Market Paperback

Detective Stan Markowski and his partner, Karl Renfer, have been called out to a crime scene but it’s not your run of the mill crime scene. These cops are part of the Scranton, PA, Occult Crimes Unit which was set up to handle crimes involving the local supernatural community, folks known to Stan and Karl as “supes”. In this case, a wizard has been tortured to death to make him give up a crucial artifact and then vampires begin to be murdered—yes, the undead can be murdered. They discover that these crimes are not limited to Scranton and that a very, very bad wizard with evil intentions may be involved.

Amongst all this are meth head goblins, white and black and gray witches and assorted demons of the hungry sort.

Adding to the problem is the fact that Stan has a personal attachment to the supernatural world, an attachment caused by a deliberate and extremely difficult choice he made in the past, and the wrong move could prove to be devastating. Stan and Karl (who has a penchant for all things James Bond), with a little help from some friends and more than a bit of hindrance from a pair of distinctly unpleasant witchfinders, have to pull out their usual weapons—crosses, silver bullets, wooden stakes and holy water—and get into some heavyduty detecting. The final outcome will almost certainly be deadly but to whom?

There was one thing I didn’t particularly care for in this story and that’s the fairly lightweight roles given to the females (although they don’t need to be kickbutt, a little more self-reliance would be nice) . Having said that, Hard Spell was really enjoyable for its blend of humor and horror. I also appreciated the characterization of the supes as being generally badass with an occasional sense of honor, none of this cutesy stuff so prevalent these days in urban fantasy. Gustainis also has developed the characters of Stan and Karl enough so I really liked them and cared what happened to them but he hasn’t overdone it—there is more to be learned in the next book.

There is some strong language and the violence is not for the faint of heart but neither of those elements bothered me, probably because I expect them in a noirish novel. When all is said and done, I strongly recommend Hard Spell and I’m looking forward to the next book. After all, who can resist a SWAT (Sacred Weapons and Tactics) team hellhound named Daisy?

By the way, don’t call 911 for a supe emergency—dial 666.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, September 2011.

Ghost Story

Last year, Jim Butcher left Harry Dresden fans with the mother of all cliffhangers. Our favorite wizard, Harry Dresden, was critically wounded by a gunshot, bleeding copiously, and falling into the icy cold waters of Lake Michigan. This ending was worse than the infamous Dallas cliffhanger because readers cared deeply about Harry Dresden.

Ghost Story, the thirteenth Dresden Files book, opens with ghostly Harry in an alternate version of Chicago. He’s given a choice: to move on or to return as a ghost and solve his murder. Of course, there’s a catch. If he doesn’t solve his murder, at least three people he cares about will be badly hurt.

Knowing Harry as we all do, this really isn’t much of a choice. When people he loves are at risk, he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they’re safe. In the last novel, Changes, he risked many of his friends’ lives, sacrificed the woman he once loved, and killed an entire race of evil vampires just to keep his daughter, Maggie, from being sacrificed. Now it’s time to see the consequences.

When Harry returns to this world, he realizes those choices have changed Chicago in ways he’d never have imagined. It’s May and the city’s locked in a monstrous blizzard. But there’s more, Karrin Murphy, who still does not believe Harry is dead is forced into a mutual-aid agreement with crime-boss Marcone to prevent a new evil, the Fomor, from taking over, the Grey Ghost is wandering the streets, and the Corpsetaker is back.

Many of Harry’s old allies are almost unrecognizable. Molly Carpenter, his Padawan-wizard, is now a vigilante who people on both sides fear. Dr. Butters, the ME who figured out vampires were real, is back and he’s got a new sidekick. Karrin’s hard-edged with grief over losing him just as the two of them were about to discover each other.

New characters are coming into the fore. “Fitz” an Oliver-Twist type young man with magical powers and his gang to be rescued from an evil sorcerer. An interesting name choice, since “Fitz” means illegitimate child.

Ghost Story isn’t entirely classic Harry Dresden. Harry’s engaged in a lot more introspection than the usual fast and furious action. Butcher manages to make those thought processes real to the reader so we get to see some dimensions to the character that have heretofore been masked in movement.

What sets Jim Butcher apart from many of his contemporaries in urban fantasy is that his characters do develop and change over time. Butcher‘s worked diligently through the years to build a coherent and believable world. Actions have their consequences and there’s no better example than what we are reading in this portion of the series. Ghost Story provides an excellent bridge between his earlier work and what will follow.

I can’t honestly say it is possible to pick up this thirteenth book without at least having read Changes. I’d suggest you start from the beginning and read all the Dresden Files books. They’re well worth the effort:

1. Storm Front
2. Fool Moon
3. Grave Peril
4. Summer Knight
5. Death Masks
6. Blood Rites
7. Dead Beat
8. Proven Guilty
9. White Knight
10. Small Favor
11. Turncoat
12. Changes

Reviewed by Rebecca Kyle, August 2011.

Congratulations to Lynette Kutzke, winner of

a copy of The Square Root of Murder

by Ada Madison!

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Downpour
Kat Richardson
Roc, August 2011
ISBN 9780451463982
Hardcover (ARC)

Back in 2006, I picked up the paperback of Greywalker because the title intrigued me. I started reading and I couldn’t stop. I told several friends about the series and predicted it would be one to follow.

Downpour is the sixth book in that series. The title fits in more ways than just describing Washington State’s weather. Private Investigator, Harper Blaine, is literally deluged with trouble. She is still recovering from a shooting where she’s died for the third time (that she knows of) and returned to this world. One more death and that’s it for her. As she says, “Getting shot’s not like it looks in the movies.” It’s been six months, and she’s just now getting back on her feet. Harper’s got an important job tasked to her the first time she came back from the dead: to help the denizens of the Grey, the space in between here and The Big Sleep.

Since “ghosts and vampires don’t pay the bills,” her initial assignment is traveling up the Olympic Peninsula to a place called Crescent Lake on a follow-up of a background check for a regular legal client. The witness she’s investigating, Darin Shea, seems wrong to her, but the surroundings are even worse. “Blood Lake” the locals call the place and that fits better.

Harper’s working on the Shea background when she stumbles upon a burning car. She tries to rescue the driver only to discover the accident is not happening in the here-and-now, but in the Grey. When she runs the tag, she discovers the driver, Stephen Leung, has been missing for some time and nobody’s filed a report. As a Greywalker, she’s obligated to help solve this case so Leung can earn his rest.

Add to that, Seattle PD Detective Rey Solis is on her case about the disappearance of her ex, Will Novak. Harper could tell him what really happened, but he’s definitely not going to believe her.

Downpour is even more atmospheric than its predecessors which mostly take place in Seattle. Blood Lake’s an eerie and fascinating setting and the skillfully woven intertwined plots will keep you guessing long into the night.

I confess, I’m getting tired of the “kick butt heroine” that urban fantasy spawned. Instead of the tank tops and tramp stamps, Harper wears regular clothes and carries her ferret Chaos around. Harper’s got weaknesses, but she’s making the best of her lot with humor and intellect. I enjoy Harper’s relationship with her current squeeze, an off-the-grid computer genius named Quinton and the “carpet shark” Chaos. Think you get all the fun of having a ferret around without the nasty chores.

It is possible to read Downpour without its predecessors. Richardson has woven enough backstory in without annoying infodump to give new readers a heads up and old readers a refresher. Still, I’d recommend that you start from the beginning if you enjoy noirish fantasy with a Raymond Chandler flavor. Here’s the Greywalker series in order:

1. Greywalker
2. Poltergeist
3. Vanished
4. Underground
5. Labyrinth
6. Downpour

Reviewed by Rebecca Kyle, July 2011.

Hexed

Atticus O’Sullivan is the last Druid on earth, as far as he knows.  Recently he got into a major battle with a god who wanted Atticus’s sword back, although Atticus had it legally, at least in the paranormal world.  After he won this particular battle, gods from all over the paranormal world want him to take on another battle: kill Thor.  It’s all kinds of gods, too, not just those from the pantheon of the Norsemen.  Even his lawyer, the vampire, wants Atticus to kill Thor.  This is not a battle that Atticus wants under any circumstances.

While Atticus is trying to avoid a battle he’s pretty sure he can’t win, other battles present themselves.  There is a fallen angel using a high school as his feeding grounds, mostly killing Native Americans.  Coyote persuades Atticus to help get rid of the angel.  The local witch’s coven is on the verge of signing a nonaggression treaty with Atticus.  Before this can happen, another coven invades.  The original coven wants Atticus to help them drive out the newcomers; Atticus believes it is not his fight, until he finds out that he has knowledge of this coven, up close and personal knowledge.  The cherry on the sundae, so to speak, is the arrival in town of a group of Bacchants from Las Vegas, looking for new blood.  Everyone in Tempe’s paranormal world has a vested interest in cleaning up the neighborhood; it will be very dirty work.

Hearne writes very well.  His characters are believable, once one accepts the paranormal aspects of the story.  The conflicts, large and small, are also believable, especially given the (largely beyond the ken of mortals) motivations and behaviors of the gods, large and small.  Atticus is a hoot, and so is his dog Oberon.  The growing relationship, professional and possibly personal, between Atticus and his apprentice is truly fun to watch.  This is book two in a three-book series.  It is not necessary to read Hounded first, although knowing some of the back-story would probably be helpful.  The third book will be Hammered; it should be as much fun as the first two.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, July 2011.

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Remy Chandler isn’t your normal, run-of-the-mill Boston PI.  He’s got another side to him, a side most people don’t get to see.  Usually that’s a good thing.  If you get to see the other side of Remy, it usually means bad things: you are dying and he wants to offer comfort, you have seriously irritated the man and he needs a lot of strength to handle you, or he loves you.  Remy’s other side is that of an angel, the angel Remiel of the host Seraphim.  Remiel’s power is not something to mess with, since it taps into the power of the Almighty, and we know what S/He can do when he’s ticked off.

Remy is working a missing persons case for a woman.  She and her husband brought their child Zoë to Boston in hopes of finding some treatment for her autism.  Zoë has an unusual talent: her pictures seem to depict future events.  Zoë’s mother is convinced that her husband had kidnapped Zoë for nefarious purposes.  Apparently in their misspent youth, they joined a cult and promised their child to the god Dagon, to serve as his human form.  They reneged and Dagon is not happy.  Has Zoë’s father changed his mind about their decision?

Also hunting Zoë is a woman who can get pretty much anyone to do whatever she wants – she is the original Delilah, back again.  She believes Zoë holds the key to her happiness and she is willing to do some pretty unpleasant things to get happy.  Delilah is being pursued by Samson (yeah, that Samson) and his numerous offspring; they want to kill her.  And Dagon is looking for her as well.  The field is pretty crowded, and most of these people have no scruples at all.

This is Sniegoski’s third book in the series.  I’ve listened to the second book (Dancing on the Head of a Pin) and enjoyed that one as well.  Sniegoski’s Almighty is VERY Old Testament.  Remy doesn’t always understand why the Almighty does what s/he does (and that s/he is totally ME – not Sniegoski), and still he believes it’s all for the best in the very long run.  Remy’s world has nothing of fairies, elves, trolls, and the like; it’s all Heaven and Hell and the denizens of both.

Both books are read by Luke Daniels.  Once in a great while, a character will sound vaguely like another character, but not often enough for it to be a problem.  I think his characterization of Marlowe is superb; Marlowe is Chandler’s dog.  Other than that, Daniels does a good job; I’d listen to him reading other works any time.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, May 2011.

Soul Catcher

Do people and places really have souls? Could we all have lived before and been reincarnated? What if it is true and our soul mates were out there really searching for us? Not only does Leigh Bridger make this theory sound interesting, but possible as well in her urban fantasy Soul Catcher.

Livie (short for Olivia) Van Belane is plagued by dreams of demons and uses her only cure, learned in childhood, to get rid of them. She draws the demon then burns the drawling. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, one demon was too smart to be so easily burned away and escaped Livie’s drawling to enter the world.

Turns out this demon, nicknamed Pig Face, has been hunting Livie’s soul and killing her mortal body for the last two hundred years. Thankfully for Livie’s sake, she is not alone in her battle against the demon. Her soul mate, a soul hunter named Ian, wants to help (if only she will let him) and she has several other souls who have been her friends & family throughout the centuries. The location pogs (souls) also provide Livie help on her quest to figure out why this particular demon wants her dead again.

Soul Catcher is creative and full of reincarnation theory that allows Leigh Bridger to place the hand full of characters in different time periods, which she does through visions and dreams the main character has. There is a Harry Potter-like feeling to some of the creature descriptions but the profanity that is appropriately used ensures that readers will not think the man characters are running around in Potterville. The concept of a soul hunter (Ian) and a soul catcher (Livie) is interesting even though I feel that soul banisher might have been a more appropriate title. The struggle that Livie must go through personally to come to grips with the unseen (by most) world she now finds herself in and to learn how to reclaim her soul catcher abilities keeps the story moving forward. The book is fast paced and full of action that will keep you reading. If modern-time fantasy is your thing, then you will definitely want to pick up Soul Catcher.

Reviewed by Brenda Cothern, March 2011.