One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Entwined Realms, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 374 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Romantic Geek Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.



Twenty-six years ago, her life began...and her world ended.

Larissa Miller grew up in the years following the Great Collision, the day the human realm and the realm of magic slammed into each other and merged. Sheltered by her single father and four elder brothers, all of them cops, she's lived a pretty idyllic life in the human-only city, the dangerous reality of orcs, necromancers, werewolves, and any of the sundry deadly creatures who now share her world a distant concern.

Of course, distant concerns can get a whole lot closer pretty damn fast when you're attacked by a group of zombies, creatures of nightmare who shouldn't even be able to get past the magical wards that protect the city. Larissa's life doesn't seem quite so idyllic after that. She just doesn't know why. Neither why she is being targeted by the baddest of the baddies nor why a gargoyle came to her rescue. But she's going to find out.

For three months Terak has clung to the shadows, watching the human woman whose fate is linked to that of his clan, according to one very inscrutable Oracle. As clan leader, it is his responsibility to protect her. He just didn't know what he was protecting her from until he caught the scent of death and decay on the breeze.

Even after the zombie rescue Terak doesn't know how Larissa's safety will impact his clan but it no longer matters. Given the depth and breadth of the rage that courses through him at the mere thought that anyone would dare attack what was his, he has more than a sneaking suspicion that the little human has become very important to him. And with a necromancer after her, as being set upon by zombies would indicate, his little human's problems are just beginning.

He will end them for her or die trying. He is gargoyle. It's what he does.


I can't even begin to adequately express just how much I loved this book. Reading it was the most fun (with a book) that I've had all year. I loved it. I loved the world, loved the story, loved the characters. It was a trifecta of awesomeness!

There was so much great storytelling going on in this book. Everything from the prologue, which gutted me, to the conclusion, which tantalized me, was a thorough, intriguing, thrilling, emotional journey that captivated me and held me in thrall until the end. Not only were the primary plot threads and story elements woven together well and fully developed, but there was a delicious subtlety to elements which were merely introduced. At times it was maddening, but in the very best, "Ohhh, I want more of them/that NOW!" way that left me ravenous for the continuation of the series.

Without doubt, Monsch has a gift for creating exactly the sort of varied, sophisticated narrative and three dimensional plot that I most enjoy. To be honest, though, that gift pales in comparison to her sheer, unmitigated genius for character creation.

Larissa is a solid heroine, and while she isn't my preferred type for the genre (she's a little too innocent for that), I loved her personality and practical attitude. She gets a lot shoved at her at once, and I couldn't help but admire the way she soldiers through some fairly massive paradigm shifts, adapting as she goes. Her growth and evolution throughout the story was appealing, and I was pleased with the ease of her acceptance of Terak.

And positively delighted by his consternation over it.

Terak was a whole other massive dose of fantastic. First: gargoyle. Yay! I think they're sadly underutilized in the genre and I'm a total sucker for them. Second, Terak is my absolute favorite type of romantic hero. He's a big, bad, and totally kick-ass warrior, but when it comes to Larissa, he's befuddled by the strength of his instinctive reaction to her, even as he revels in it. And his confused pleasure every time she does or says something that displays her trust and comfort level with him was so damn endearing. Loved him.

That said, I have to be honest. Though wonderful and fully entertaining, neither Larissa nor Terak, nor their romance, were what pushed this book over the edge of five star reads into that ultra-small group of books I consider favorites. That honor lies exclusively with the few members of the Guild we meet in this book. Secondary characters Fallon and Laire stole every single scene they were in, exploding across the page and into the main characters' lives with a vitality and multihued vibrancy that is absolutely unmatched in recent memory.

I loved Larissa and Tarek, but Fallon and Laire rocked my world. I'm dying to spend more time with them and find out all those devious, delicious little details about their lives and acquaintances, details that were merely hinted at in this book. They were truly spectacular.

I'm not saying there weren't any critical elements. There were one or two things that didn't work for me nearly as well as the rest, or things that I would have liked to see evolve a bit differently. Most notably was a moment late in the book where Larissa hops on the Stupid Train for a short jaunt to Hapless-Victimtown despite spending every preceding moment in the book being exceedingly cautious and pragmatic. And I think I pulled an eye muscle with the severity of the eye roll that her moment of doubt about Tarek's motives caused. That was pretty heavy-handed and awkward.

All of that is usually exactly the sort of stuff that dims my enthusiasm for a read, but it just didn't in this case. There was way too much awesome going on before and after it all. The minor quibbles I had didn't do much more than flash on my radar before being overshadowed by my overwhelming pleasure in everything else. So very much pleasure, so much reading entertainment, so much fun. Absolutely the best time I've had while reading in a very long time. I'm so incredibly bummed that the next book won't be around until 2014. So long to wait!!

Quotables:

"Before Laire comes up with a reason why we should start removing clothes to prove some theory, I got a question." Fallon said. "Can we teleport out of here if this turns ugly?"
"Nope, our only hope will be for you to swing your sword, Wulver to fang out, and me to set everything on fire... Ooh! Liquor," And Laire turned way, walking to the bar.
"Laire, get back here! You do not drink before we meet with our mortal enemy."

"I don't think you belong here."
Laire plopped down on the barstool. "And I'm supposed to care about the opinion of someone who drools over corpses? Your implants have more sense than you do."

"Please tell me you recognize the most in-demand mercenary in the business?"
"Why, did we have a drunken one-night stand you forgot to tell me about?"

"Who do they think I am, sending a pansy-ass like that against me?"
Fallon patted Laire's shoulder, a there-there motion. "I don't think they knew we'd be waiting when they prepared this trap. But for you, we'll send his head back to them with a note to not insult you again. Does that make you feel better?"
Laire gave a long, theatrical sigh. "I don't know, maybe."

Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Brothers Sinister, Book 2
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 315 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by the author via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




With an inheritance of 100,000 pounds, being politely boorish and kindly offensive enough to ward off the interest of titled men seeking a fortune in a wife is exceptionally hard work for Miss Jane Fairfield. It's a desperate balance on a tightrope over the chasm that is the indentured servitude of marriage. Until her sister reaches her majority, however, it is Jane's reality. She will do anything, be anything she needs to be to save her sister. Even make herself a laughingstock. A punchline. A blight.

As plans go, hers is working quite well until the day she is introduced to Mr. Oliver Marshall. No matter how gauche her gown or how rude her behavior, Mr. Marshall obstinately refuses to be anything but gracious to her. Even amused at her most reliable devilish tricks.

Well...that certainly won't do.

Oliver only wants one thing in life: everything. Ambitious and proud, he's on the cusp of finally making his mark in the political arena. His efforts in fighting for the rights of the common man hearken to the modest origins he's worked so hard to rise above. The one thing he doesn't need in his life is a woman like Miss Fairfield, no matter how clearly he sees through her ruse and how enchanting he finds her. She's everything that would close and lock the doors he desperately needs to be opened, and certainly the very last woman on the planet he'd marry. Friendship, at least, he can do, and given the pool of sharks she's swimming with, she definitely needs one.

Even if he happens to be one of those sharks. And is desperate to take a bite of her.


I loved this book.

Jane and Oliver were wonderfully unconventional characters, and that lack of convention fell neatly along my preferences for the genre. Jane is intelligent, cunning, and strong, and about as far removed from a proper society debutante as a character can be, willfully and knowingly being brash and socially inept...while staying within the bounds just enough to keep her uncle from intervening. Some of the most entertaining moments were seeing her pit her skills against the deadly polite and back-biting scions of high society, where backhanded compliments are an art form.

That her efforts took a toll on her made her sympathetic, that she did it anyway because of her love for her sister made her a hero. I adored her. She was a brilliant balance of flagrant self-possession and shadowed pain, of casual confidence and weary insecurity. She knew herself so well she was able to make a weapon of her inadequacies, to make lemonade out of the lemons her life has given her.

Oliver was a bit of an odd duck himself, and I loved him despite...or maybe because...he was really the antithesis of heroic throughout most of the book. Where Jane was a quintessential nonconformist, Oliver has survived by having conformity beaten into him to the point where he doesn't even realize he's no longer the man of integrity he has believed himself to be. He is his ambition, and some of the things he does, or debates doing, for that ambition were definitely less than heroic.

For all that, though, he still has a conscience, and Jane first pricks it, then sets it ablaze the longer they are acquainted. She is everything he once was and is no longer, and he's parched for her thirst-quenching presence. The effect they have on each other is fantastic and deliciously ominous as the conflict between their opposing goals reached its climax. It was very compelling.

The whole story was compelling, and wonderfully rich in plot and character. Secondary and ancillary characters were vibrant and real and regardless of how short their time on the page, they left their mark. There was even a nice secondary romance featuring Jane's sister that was fraught with emotion and complexity, and plot threads surrounding Oliver's colorful family that rounded out the book nicely. I was especially enamored with Oliver's aunt. She had a brief role, but it packed one hell of a punch.

Truly, this one is the whole package. Great characters with faults and foibles easy to embrace (or loathe, as the story dictates), a wildly satisfying and emotional romance, and a plot with wonderful diversity and depth to weave it all together. It pulled me in from the start, gripped my heart hard, and refused to let go until the last page was read. My Happy Reader buttons were flashing in contented bliss when it was all over.

One might even go so far as to say I was tickled fuchsine by the whole thing.

And okay, it taught me a valuable lesson. I won't wait so long to pick up another Milan book next time, especially if we're going to see what's going on with Oliver's cousin Sebastian in the next book in this series. There's story there. I want it.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 6
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 324 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever publisher Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Four months in Lucky Harbor has netted banking specialist Grace Brooks two best friends and a town she adores, but it's still falling short in the career department. Though she takes as many odd jobs as she can get while she searches for one in her field, her savings account is really feeling the pinch of her extended not-quite-vacation. Surely that's the only reason she doesn't correct the delectable Dr. Josh Scott, dreamiest of the McDreamies, when he misdials a number for a dog walker and calls her instead.

She really does need the money, and honestly, how hard can walking one dog be?

Single father, town doctor, brother of a troubled young woman in a wheelchair, Josh has gotten used to wearing a lot of hats in his life, but lately the weight of all his many responsibilities is grinding him down to the bone. Coming home to deal with one more in a long string of catastrophes surrounding his son's dog Tank is just the tip of a very large iceberg. He wasn't expecting to be poleaxed by a soaking wet and distraught Grace, who was still in the ocean searching for the dog she thought she lost.

She may be the worst dog walker on the planet, but there's just something about the woman that brings Josh to his knees. She obviously needs help, and that's what Josh does, he helps...everyone but himself. But maybe, if Josh can loosen up a bit, and Grace can let go and have fun for a change, they'll both find exactly what they need, and more than they ever dreamed possible, with each other.

Okay, so maybe chocolate doesn't make the world go around, but it sure makes the trip worthwhile.

Six books into the Lucky Harbor series and I just gotta say, I want to live there. Seriously, I would totally move there if I could. Like each book in the series, the town is wacky, weird, and unrepentantly wonderful. Filled with a colorful mix of salty and spicy and sweet characters I've come to adore, Lucky Harbor is the perfect backdrop for each installment of this delightful series. And Grace and Josh's book is my favorite of the lot of them.

Feels like I keep saying that, though, with each new book. Funny how that works.

Speaking of funny, Shalvis baked a batch of giggles, snorts, and chuckles into this one. Grace was an absolute riot, and Josh was such a fabulous straight man opposite her charming blunders. I loved both of them, and the chemistry they had together was spectacular. More than just sexual chemistry, they had a genuine way of interacting that just tickled every single one of my Happy Reader buttons.

I loved how their lives slowly intertwined as the story progressed. Yes, they were totally hot for each other, and it was stellar, but equally enjoyable were the family moments, seeing Grace's influence slowly alter the whole Scott family in heartwarming ways. Josh may have been paying her, but the impact she has on his life, on the lives of his sister and son, all of it, just made me feel good.

The whole book made me feel good. I wanted to gobble Toby up every time he said "arf," and Anna was a complicated, realistic terror. Best friends Amy and Mallory were included in nice ways - not overshadowing Grace and Josh time but adding their own well-known and loved personalities to the story. Matt and Ty were there, too, as Josh's best friends. I loved revisiting them and seeing how happy they all are. It's one of my favorite things about romance series and Shalvis did an excellent job incorporating them as secondary characters. She even included - mostly by mention - the characters from the first three books. It added a layer of continuity to this one that I didn't feel as strongly in the previous two stories.

There just isn't anything that didn't work for me in this book. I thought Grace's issues with her parents and Josh's concerns with being a good father and brother added nice layers of personal conflict for both characters. The storyline evolved very naturally around them and those issues added a pleasant level of depth to their relationship.

There were a lot of different elements written into this book, some even struck more somber notes, yet it still managed to be a light, decadent, sexy romantic treat. This is exactly why Shalvis is one of my top go-to authors for feel-good romance. She writes characters that become old friends and stories that touch my heart even as they entertain my mind. She's done that in every book in this series, some to greater effect than others, but this one exceeds them all.

Grace and Josh's romance really is the hot, gooey, sinfully delicious chocolate on top of a fantastic Lucky Harbor sundae. And I truly can't wait to take another bite.

Quotables:

She didn't look ridiculous at all. She looked the opposite of ridiculous. In fact, she looked good enough to gobble up with a spoon. Without a spoon. He was thinking his tongue would work...

"You have more spiders?"
"No," he said without missing a beat. "No spiders."
"You said spiders," she said. "And I saw a big one in the side yard, in the sprinkler well."
"That spider went south for the winter."
"It's summer."
"He wanted to be the first to get out of town."

Ty pointed his beer at Josh. "Want to know what I think?"
"No," Josh said.
"I think you have a case of being a little girl. Maybe you should prescribe yourself a heavy dose of man-the-fuck-up."

Unfortunately, he was a man through and through, and therefore had a penis, which meant that there'd be no reasoning with him.

The Lucky Harbor Series:

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Lost Souls, Book 2
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 98 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Carina Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





Medium Rachel Miller is pulling double duty, serving Vancouver in her job as a member of the Order of Rescue Mediums and acting as a supernatural sensei to newbie rodach Kit Eckeles, the young man she saved from being exorcised a few weeks previously. Of course, the ORM doesn't know she has the sometimes-wraith living with her. That would definitely be awkward to explain.

It's also the least of Rachel's problems, because three bodies have turned up at the Vancouver General Hospital morgue. Nothing unusual with that on the surface, but their cause of death is a problem. Each victim had their souls violently ripped out and eaten, and each were members of the supernatural community.

Vancouver had a reaper on its hands, a voracious killing machine that may just be stronger than anything Rachel can throw at it. And that's if she can keep from being its next entree.


It makes no sense that the short novellas of this series are so damned kick-ass good, with their rich world building and well-developed tales, but Hoar has a true gift for packing a hell of a fictional punch in very small packages. This is the second in the urban fantasy novella series, and I am absolutely a total addict. I love the plot, I love the world, and I am totally wild for the characters.

Despite the short length, the backstory, mythos, and plot threads are finely crafted and delivered in such a way that the story feels like it's a lot longer than it is. Hell, I've read full novels that don't have the same level of detail and complexity of world and characters, so this is a true treat.

There's even a lot going on in the background, characters with their own agendas working for and against Rachel as the main plot arc of the story unfolds. That sort of sub-plotting and subtle foreshadowing is virtually unheard of in stories of this length. I wouldn't have thought it could be done quite so well if I hadn't read it myself. Plus, Rachel is a great main character, strong, independent, and capable in her job, so she makes an excellent heroine. There just isn't anything that I don't love about this story or the series.

Oh. Wait. Yes, there is one thing. This second installment is it for the foreseeable future because there are only two published stories in the series, and according to the Hoar's blog, the third is a work in progress. Who knows when or even if it'll be available any time soon. What?! NO! I need more of Rachel and her ghost-kicking, rodach-teaching, Vancouver-saving life! What a total bummer it will be, not to mention waste of spectacular writing ability, if this awesome series doesn't continue soon.


The Lost Souls Series:

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: The Ash Trilogy, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 400 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle




It was a gorgeous day as Lena Riddle walked her retriever Puck along their normal path through the woods. The weather was perfect, the company perfect, and Lena was enjoying herself as much as her dog. Then she heard...something. It was faint, like a soft grunting, and it raised the hair on the back of Lena's neck even as Puck started to balk at continuing along their path. He'd never done that before.

As eerie as that experience was, it was one that eventually faded from her mind as time passed. It was an inexplicable one-off, freaky but largely forgettable. Then one night a woman's scream shattered the stillness with panicked desperation and ripped Lena from a dream.

Ezra King is a cop on leave, staying in his grandmother's house in the small town of Ash to heal from his wounds and a tragedy that still haunts him. Meeting Lena definitely draws his attention away from his own problems. She is beautiful and compelling...and way more than he can handle, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to try. From wanting her.

When their paths cross again at the police station, he overhears her statement about the screams that had woken her the night before. It's clear to him that the cops aren't convinced she heard what she claims to have heard, as if her blindness somehow precludes her from being a reliable witness. They thought she imagined it, or had been dreaming.

Ezra isn't so sure. His cop senses are tingling. But Ash isn't a big city where violent crime is as prevalent as it is tragic, it's a nice little town where nothing ever happens and everyone knows everyone else. Where a blind woman has taken his breath away and left him shaken.

Could it also be a place where something very, very bad happened to some poor, unknown woman? And if so, the person responsible may not like Lena having been witness to it. He may not like it at all. That's not a risk Ezra's willing to take.


I loved this series debut by Walker. It had all the elements that make a Romantic Suspense one of my favorite genres. The main characters were complex and well-defined, and their chemistry simmered and smoked on the page. The storyline balanced their romance and the threads of suspense in such a way that both plot elements were fully rounded out and meaty. It's a delicate balance, and one that many in the genre don't quite manage.

Walker does flawed and/or damaged characters particularly well, and that was in evidence here with Ezra, who has the full travel set of emotional baggage dragging along with him everywhere he goes. His physical and emotional wounds help flesh out his character and explain a lot about who he is as a man and a cop. He's not perfect by any means, nor does he fall victim to that too-good-to-be-true pitfall, but his faults and moments of darkness emphasize his struggle to rise above his issues for Lena's sake and safety. I loved him a lot.

And Lena is everything I adore in a romantic heroine. Strong and independent, intelligent, with a bit of a bite to her personality when warranted, she appealed to me on every level. Her blindness is a challenge she meets and beats daily, and there's not an ounce of self-pity or weakness in her even as she works around the few limitations she has. I loved her attitude.

I also appreciated Walker's attention to detail in regards to Lena's blindness. In the first few chapters in particular she described things from Lena's point of view in a way that subtly but masterfully clued readers in to her lack of vision without spelling it out. As the book progresses she remained true to the basic but often overlooked fact that description given from a blind character's point of view has a very different emphasis than for one who is sighted.

There were a nice group of secondary and ancillary characters with a myriad of tiny plot threads woven together between them, colored by their combined sense of familiarity and personal history, and driven by a few small external conflicts that added depth and complexity to the plot even as it flavored the whole of the story with a lovely small-town feel.

Not to be outdone, the main arc of the suspense is a taut, grisly psychological thriller that Walker deftly weaves throughout the rest. It's my personal favorite of the suspense genre, which I'm sure added to this book's appeal for me. It's also a thread that spans the three books in the trilogy, so there is no final resolution to that storyline at the end of this book. Instead of making the book feel incomplete, however, Walker provided readers with plenty of story between the main characters, including a hell of a romance, and those elements allowed for a nice sense of closure at the end, even as it enticed me to pick up the next book.

And I did. In fact, I have to find out who the sick, sadistic bastard is who is raping, torturing, and killing women. Walker keeps his identity tightly concealed. That, too, is a preference of mine in psychological thrillers and romantic suspense. Then again, this book hit so many of my preferences for books in this genre that I couldn't help but love the whole book. I can't wait to see how it all evolves from here.

Genre: Steampunk Romance
Series: London Steampunk, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 448 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


When her father was murdered and the Blue Blood responsible put a price on her head, Honoria Todd slipped out of the city proper with her younger sister and brother. They disappeared into the rookeries, into the fringe of life on the edge of Whitechapel. For six months she's been using an assumed name and practically starving as she works to the bone to feed her family and keep her brother's illness at bay.

The rookeries have their own version of a king, and no one dares cross the rogue Blue Blood known as Blade. If you're under his protection, no one would dare hurt you. If you're an enemy, the angels themselves couldn't save you. And as Honoria scurries home from her much-needed job, hiding herself along the journey to keep secret where she lives, one of Blade's people waylays her and lets her know a chilling fact. She's been summoned for an audience with the king.

Blade's viral count is dangerously high. He's already showing signs of the first symptoms of the Fade, that slow, inexorable descent into madness that will change him from man to monster, from blood-drinking ruler of the rookeries to mindless, ravening vampire. He doesn't have much time left.

Blade views Miss Todd, and yes, he knows who she really is, as a pawn. He's aware that his most reviled enemy, the member of the Echelon responsible for his infection and, ultimately, his sister's death, is hunting Honoria and her siblings. The price on their heads, most notably Honoria's, is extremely high.

He doesn't know why...yet...but he'll find out. And he'll use that knowledge to get what he wants. That's what he does. That's what he has always done. Then again, he's never before met anyone quite like Honoria Todd. And as he gets to know the fiercely prim warrior that challenges and resists him at every turn, even when exhausted and half-starved, he comes to realize something almost miraculous for it's simple truth. The king of the rookeries, battle-hardened gang leader and borderline monster, has met his match.

But with a voracious vampire cutting a bloody, deadly swath through Whitechapel and his own Fade creeping ever closer, the damnable truth is that it may just be too late for him. It may be too late for them all.


Wow, what a spectacular debut this was! I loved everything about it. The world was gritty, dangerous, and dark, the characters were full of strength and passion and furious honor...even as they danced along the gray line between black and white, and the story was action-packed, dangerous, and powerfully emotional. Hands down this is one of my top three reads of the year to date. I'm definitely the most excited I've been about a new series in a very long time.

I'm still sort of a steampunk neophyte, so I don't have a large reservoir of material to compare, but I loved the mix of steampunk and paranormal in this fantastic romance. The steampunk elements were fairly low key, which might bother true enthusiasts, but my largest passion is paranormal romance, so this worked just fine for me. I'd even suggest the steampunk-curious try this one to get their toes wet. I think it would be a good way to delve into the genre.

The whole grimy, soot-stained, virus-ridden world felt deliciously fresh and original, and I adored what was a completely new take on both vampire and werewolf mythos here. The ruling Echelon, with their infected blood rites and power-hungry House structure, was freaky-scary in concept. Considering they were knowingly and enthusiastically infecting themselves with a virus that demands blood-drinking and would lead to their eventual destruction when the virus overwhelms them, it all seemed a rather profound statement on the vagaries of vice and power.

I loved it.

And Honor and Blade were fantastic main characters. Honor was everything I could have ever dreamed. Fierce, intelligent, independent, proud, she was both a free thinker and riddled with prejudice and fear, stubborn and generous in equal measures. She sometimes took wild, dangerous risks, throwing herself into battle for those she loved, and she would defend them to the death. She stood up to Blade, a man who is everything that most terrifies her, even when he had her completely at his mercy. I liked her as a person and respected the hell out of her character, even when her obstinacy regarding Blade started to really frustrate me.

One of my favorite things about this book was that it wasn't just me that it frustrated. Blade was quite vocal in his frustration with Honoria, as well. That was a fantastic thing to read. I can't tell you how many times I've suffered with a mind-numbingly frustrating heroine's sundry issues only to curl my lip at the hero's seeming limitless patience for - or obliviousness to - those issues. Sometimes it's just nice to see a hero call her on it, be affected by it, acknowledge it as the head-cracker it is. Blade did that, and I loved it.

That's not the only reason I loved Blade though. He was...it. The perfect "it." Bad boy with a heart of gold, borderline monster with a soft spot for his woman, honorable crook, violent protector, the most loyal libertine. And he had this unguarded tenderness in him for Honor. Against even the warnings of his own people he wanted her and took care of her, fought with her and yearned for her, protected her and wanted to throttle her. He was jealous and adorable with it, fierce and sexy as hell with it, resolute and uncompromising and utterly trustworthy with it. He was, in short, perfect. Even his flaws were perfect.

Together their chemistry was tempestuous, emotional, fraught with tension, and absolutely incendiary.

Combine two awesome characters with a perfect complement of memorable secondary and ancillary characters, give them a layered, complex plot with several meaty, overlapping plot threads to keep them racing against time and evading danger, and you have this book. I was in reader heaven. I loved the story, the journey from the opening words to the final sentence. Villains and their villainy, hopelessness, loss, injury, lust, threat, risk, failures and triumphs littered the whole of the book in such a way that every chapter was an odyssey.

Some story elements surprised the heck out of me, some I'd figured out fairly early, some made me nervous and some made my gut churn with dread, desperate for it all to work out. The overall plot did absolutely everything it was supposed to do. It entertained the hell out of me.

Books like this are exactly why I'm so rabid about reading. I was transported into McMaster's world and held there until she deigned to let me go. Her writing is a stylized joy, her imagination a fierce weapon, her sense for story and character a tremendous gift. And I'm thrilled, just thrilled, that there is more to come in this series. I can't wait.

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Alternate Universe; Futuristic
Series: Psy/Changling, Book 10
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 432 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


He wants her. There's no use lying to himself about that. Hawke aches to possess her with a single-minded intensity that has his wolf starving for the most intimate of skin privileges. But he's not going to take her. He's a mature wolf changling, alpha of SnowDancer, and significantly older than she is. But damn, he wants her.

PsyNet defector and cardinal X-Psy Sienna Lauren is an adult in the pack, and given her past, she's older than her years. She is the ultimate weapon, one that requires unimaginable discipline, and it makes her crazy that the one man she wants, Hawke, refuses to see her as anything but the child she was never allowed to be.

As attacks by an aggressive faction of Psy known as Pure Psy are leveled against SnowDancer and the winds of a burgeoning war start to blow in their direction, Hawke's focus is torn between his pack and his desire for the one woman he refuses to take. His resolve is legendary, but even he has to see that a woman who can fight for her pack, risk her life for them, is old enough to decide who she lets into her bed.

She has to do something to show the stubborn wolf she is more than the child he sees. Even if it endangers the woman she's become.


I can't tell you how many times I've highly anticipated a book in series only to have that book disappoint in some way or another. You'd think I'd know better than to ever let myself feel that anticipation, but it's a lesson I seem to need to keep learning. Or maybe it's books like this, those rare awesome books that are highly anticipated...and manage to deliver for me on every front...that keep anticipation burning.

Don't know. Don't care, either, at the moment. I'm too busy being thrilled with this book.

Obviously, as I'm still reading this series at the tenth book, both the series and the author are favorites of mine. Some of the books in this series have been more beloved than others, and I do slightly prefer Singh's Guild Hunter series to the Psy/Changling series, but both are two of my favorite ongoing series and I highly recommend both for fans of well-written and imaginative paranormal romance/urban fantasy romance.

I loved everything about this book. The complexity of the plot and the myriad of plot threads that Singh wove together throughout the story were impressive. There's so much that goes on, and so many characters involved in so much of it, with a rock-solid foundation built by every one of the preceding books, that I would definitely not recommend a reader new to the series start here.

It could be done, Singh has a gift for condensing necessary exposition and fitting it in well with current developments, but so much of the emotional impact would be lost that it just shouldn't be.

I adored the relationship arc and character developments for Hawke and Sienna in this book. It wasn't what I would call a traditional romance, really, and that's what I love about Singh. She has such a gift for creating stories that fit perfectly with the characters featured in it. Hawke and Sienna have known each other for a while, have battled and locked horns, have struggled against their attraction for years, so the relationship between them is in a completely different place and needed completely different things than, say, Judd and Brenna did in their book.

The pack, the past, who they are, what they're responsible for, what they can do, the issues each have with how they feel, the threat of the Psy, all of that plays a significant role in each character's definition and development, not to mention on their romance. It was frustrating at times (very frustrating at times). It was enlightening at others. There were moments that made me mad and moments that made me laugh. Sometimes it just flat-out broke my heart. For me, though, all the sublimely well-crafted pieces that factored into their personalities and into every moment of their relationship arc worked...perfectly. I loved every second of it.

I was also very much in love with the secondary romance between pack healer Lara and Walker, Sienna's uncle. Where the relationship between Hawke and Sienna was rocky, fiery, raging with emotion, and practically shouting its passion and angst, hurt and strength, stubbornness and pride, Lara and Walker's relationship balanced that with its quiet implacability, its soft moments and tender touches. The frustrations were more internal, the feelings more subdued. That relationship created such a wonderful counterpoint to Hawke and Sienna's point that I can't imagine what the book would have been like without it.

By no means is this book, or any of the books in this series, focused solely on the romance, though. This one definitely provided some forward progression on the Pure Psy threat and the continuing degeneration of the Council and the PsyNet. There are so many, many balls up in the air in this series that a single book can't really touch on every plot point without being six hundred pages long, but there were certainly a lot covered here. Singh manages to keep me guessing on some things, keep me horrified about others, and still manages to introduce new story elements all the time.

Honestly, I don't know how she does it. I don't know how this series, even at the tenth book, feels just as fresh, just as original, just as intriguing and compelling and a thousand times as complex as it did in the beginning. I open a Psy/Changling book and feel like I'm visiting old, beloved friends who I care about very much...even if I wouldn't want to catch a meal with them. In particular, I want to thank Singh for the gift of seeing Lucas and Sasha's newest development meet the world.

I'm so incredibly invested in this series. To me that's the mark of a series that is a step above, one that has just that little extra that makes it stand out among a huge crowd. This, its tenth installment, is perhaps the best of them for me. It certainly did not disappoint.

Quotables:

"Do you really think I'd let you go that easily?"
An implacable glance from eyes that were suddenly decades older than him. "I'm not yours to let go."

"Walker doesn't glare...He just looks at you until you obey."

"You're in my every breath and every thought, intertwined so deep inside me that love's not a strong enough word - you have my devotion, your name branded on my soul, my wolf yours to command. A hundred years? It'll never be enough. I want eternity."

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Team EDGE, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 301 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by the author for review. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


When EDGE operative Dillon Caldwell was given a mission to infiltrate the Sanchez Drug Cartel and bring down its head, Rafael Sanchez, Dillon figured it would be a long, grueling year that he might not survive. He had no idea it would be three horrific, gut-churning years, or that the price paid for his efforts would be a nightmare worse than abject failure.

Then, after his cover was blown, he watched in horror as his wife was slain in front of him. His parents were next. And his sister, who died, broken and burning, in his arms.

Dillon, wracked by loss and guilt, is nearly rabid in his hunt for Sanchez, intent on ending his reign of terror. What he finds along the way, though, will change everything Dillon thought he knew to be true. Washed up on a nearby beach, badly beaten and suffering from exposure, is the woman he thought dead for the past twelve months. His wife Sara is alive.

Dillon's stunned relief and joy are short-lived, however, shredded by the razor-sharp fangs of betrayal and kept secrets, scorched by the obvious disdain from a woman who may as well be a stranger. And if that's not enough, not only is Sanchez is still out there, but Dillon can't even trust the people he works for. Not when they kept the truth about his wife from him, not when someone on the inside burned his cover.

He's got a sadistic, murderous drug kingpin after him and someone from his own country betraying him. He's got a wife who is alive, but looks at him with loathing. And he's got the knowledge that, despite all best efforts, he has failed every single person he loved. Struggling with that burden is bad enough, but Dillon's plate isn't yet full. The stakes that he's played with for three years are raised higher still when he finds out that Sanchez has something of his, something Dillon didn't even know existed. And it's a game-changer in every way.


K.T. Bryan doesn't just kick off her Team EDGE series with this powerhouse of a story, she fills it with rocket fuel and launches it straight into the stratosphere. Powerful writing, a hell of a plot, and two flawed characters thrust into one incredibly perilous situation after another are the backbone of this awesome debut. As in all things, the devil is in the detail, and Bryan proved herself adept and snagging that devil by the throat, slamming it down on the page, and introducing her characters to hell. Gut-churning emotion, sweat-soaking suspense, and so much action I felt like I needed a nap after, The EDGE of Trust snatched me up and commanded my attention through every single white-knuckled page.

Sure, there is no shortage of like-themed romantic suspense out there. There are certainly elements in this book I've read elsewhere. It has a military flavor, of course, and the former Navy SEAL alpha male warrior, now an EDGE operative, with plenty of testosterone and a rabid sense of duty to cause and country. The Bad Guy, head of a Mexican drug cartel, is an extremely violent sociopath who is so coldly ruthless it's a wonder he doesn't shit ice cubes. You'll surely recognize him, too, for all that type has been portrayed in everything from books to television to movies.

The plot, too, didn't have a whole lot of surprises in the direction it took or in it's major points...but how it was set up, fleshed out, and executed in full was superb. The fluid timeline, including moments of the past interspersed with current events, so often a stumbling block in books, was handled exceptionally well. Readers are treated to a fairly comprehensive view of the lives of the characters leading up to and including the real-time crises without once obscuring the main plot thread. Of note, I loved the passages from Dillon's journal, as it gives readers insight into the emotional price an undercover agent pays and how his character in particular evolved during his undercover assignment.

And when it comes to Dillon and his wife Sara as characters, we reach what, for me, elevated this book from a solid suspense read I really enjoyed to one of my favorite reads this year. Not only were they deliciously flawed and grievously wounded individuals (preferred for the depth it gives the characters), but their emotional baggage and all their issues were ripped open and exposed in deliciously gritty, brutal fashion, in actions and reactions, fights and fury, angst and passion. It wasn't always pretty, certainly wasn't traditional for a romance novel, but it was so damn realistic (within the fictional framework) that I was left shaken by several scenes, my heart in my throat and my stomach in knots.

Grief, confusion, betrayal, guilt, blame, shame, and worse...including ugly emotions that danced dangerously close to hatred, Bryan gleefully dipped her brush into them all and splattered them into the gaping, bloody wounds of her characters' lives. The result was a story-long evolution of a relationship, one that provided an unflinching and brilliant portrayal of two characters who used to love each other very much, then lost it all...or gave it away, and now have to deal with the aftermath of every painful choice and uncertain decision if they are going to have any hope of peace. Never mind absolution.

It was messy and harsh as hell, and made for some gripping, frustrating, and agonizing reading. I loved every second of it.

This definitely isn't a book for the faint of heart. Not only was the emotional gamut fairly harsh and unrelenting, but Bryan doesn't shy away from scenes of physical brutality either. While the majority of the book was fairly average for the genre in that regard, there were at least three scenes I can think of right off the top of my head that pushed the envelope. One was graphic enough and included subject matter that hit me hard, and I'm not a particularly sensitive reader.

I am a reader who appreciates Bryan's ability to create the sort of story she's written here. Well-written and complex, taut and emotional, action-packed and exhausting, this series debut is the whole package. It's one of the best romantic suspense novels of this type that I've read and one of my favorite reads of the year. In short, wow. Awesome read.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Lost Souls, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 67 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided by publisher Carina Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


Hindsight being what it is, Rachel Miller should have climbed right back on her motorcycle and ridden away as soon as she saw...and felt...the charming house she'd been called to clear of a dangerous spirit. The waves of rage and pain that emanate from the house jar every cell in her body. She had dealt with aggressive spirits before, though, and had plenty of experience in her job with the Order of Rescue Mediums. A wraith is nasty, but doable. Metaphysically speaking, at least.

When she engages the nasty spirit, trying to release it from the home, it doesn't respond like any other wraith Rachel has ever seen or heard of before, drawing into question just what, exactly, she is dealing with. If it's not a wraith, she has no idea what it is, and successfully releasing it just got a whole lot closer to impossible.


She can't just walk away, no harm, no foul, either. Once she actively engages a spirit, she is bound to follow through until either it's gone or she's dead. If she doesn't, she's kicked out of the Order, the repercussions of that so severe that dying by not-wraith may actually be preferable.

As if her situation isn't dire enough, she's got a supernatural mob boss all up in her business and her client is mixed up in something so threatening it forces Rachel to look over her own shoulder. She's definitely had easier jobs. If she can't get rid of whatever is in that house with the oh-so-bad vibes, though, she won't ever have another.


It's hard for me to believe, but with only about 20,000 words, Hoar created a totally satisfying, thoroughly entertaining urban fantasy series debut that rocked my world. I didn't even know that was possible. I'm sure part of my appreciation lies in my love for hauntings, ghosts, ghost busters, ghost investigations, et al., but without Hoar's deft and comprehensive storytelling ability, this very short but lovely story would have still fallen flat.

There isn't a significant amount of expansive world-building, or pages of exposition to set up the story and the characters, but as it turns out, Hoar didn't need it to kick her story off and make her main character, Rachel, believable and sympathetic. I enjoyed her. Her quick-witted, sardonic, take no prisoners personality is really right up my alley.

Combining that likable character with a main plotline that has depth and you have a story with teeth and enough layers to keep me coming back for more, unsure what to expect next but happy to find out. The building blocks for the future of the series were laid well, right alongside a fully realized story conflict with enough closure to make the novella feel complete. And okay, it's true, I sort of had an instant if perhaps unwise attraction to supernatural mob boss Janus. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I swear, I adored the tension between him and Rachel.

There's no romance in this short novella, per se, but if the series is heading that way, I hope it includes Janus. Call me a romantic, but even the possibility of him redeeming himself because of his feelings for Rachel flips my switch. I'm a total sucker for a redeemable bad boy.

At this length, there isn't room for sweeping, epic plot and a wide diversity of characters. Hoar kept her tale conservative in that regard, careful not to overextend herself. That being said, she definitely made the most out of what space she had and maximized every word that went into it. I was engaged and entertained from word one. I love that about this story.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Celestial Blues, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 432 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me through the Amazon Vine program. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




A Centurion's gig should be simple. Someone dies a sudden and violent death, he shows up to escort the terminally confused into the Everlast. That's how it's supposed to go, anyway. Doesn't mean it always goes that way.

It's not that former PI and current angel Griffin Shaw doesn't sympathize with the hooker who got her throat sliced by her last john. She's dead. It sucks. He knows, because fifty years ago he was murdered, too. He deals with it. Mostly.

So okay, he's not the most sympathetic Centurion, and no, he doesn't believe his latest Take when she is adamant about not being a hooker. Fortunately, believing the dead isn't a requirement for the job. Still, he can't see forcing her to spend eternity in those working girl threads she's wearing, so he bends the rules just a little. Biggest mistake Grif's ever made.

That one moment of sentiment sets into action events that force him back to the mudflat, wings gone, slammed into a suit of meat. Skin. Breath. Life. Sounds great, except for an angel...now not-so-angelic...it hurts. And his punishment isn't over. His "good deed" such as it was, has consequences, and his punishment is to watch those consequences unfold, suffering through them all the while.

Now Grif, a gentleman from way, way back, is supposed to watch the most gorgeous woman he's ever seen get attacked by two men, be raped, then murdered. And stand by doing nothing. Because it's his fault Katherine "Kit" Craig is now fated to die.

Reporter and rockabilly enthusiast Kit is devastated by the murder of her best friend. They had been working together on a potential career-making story when Nic went undercover to get some corroboration on a tip. Now all Kit can do is follow through with that story, because besides ripping her heart out, there's one other thing that Nic's death does to Kit...it convinces her the story she and Nic were trying to verify has teeth. Nic wouldn't have been killed unless those teeth were extra pointy and sharp.

Problem is, only Grif knows that Kit is going to be next. And there's nothing he can do about it.


Gritty and decadently dark, the sheer artistry of Pettersson's new series debut totally rocked my socks. The concept alone is brilliant, and pairing a punished angel who was a PI in the fifties with a reporter who embraces the rockabilly lifestyle to the fullest is the hot fudge on one delicious hardboiled mystery sundae. Pettersson's gift for writing and her superlative grasp of all things Vegas spun the narrative of this tale like a well-oiled and glittery top, neon flashing over the soul-deep rust of human corruption, greed, and sexual deviance.

Grif and Kit were fantastic characters and perfect foils for one another. Kit is the idealistic reporter, passionate in her beliefs and clear in her grasp of black and white. A little naive at times, she cloaks herself in the detritus of a bygone era out of a combination of the yearning for simpler times and perhaps willing ignorance of the sad fact that there are no simpler times. Emotional and intelligent, she is forged by grief but untouched by the seedy violence around her.

Grif is like the shadow that Kit casts. He is all about the gray areas, full of a chilly cynicism that he calls having a solid grip on reality. Even fifty years as a Centurion, touched by the celestial as he was, didn't shake his world-weary view of human weakness. He's filled with angst over his death and the murder of his wife, but he's a man's man and stoic with it. He could have stepped out of a Sam Spade novel, or hung out with Phillip Marlowe and been right at home. He is definitely of a type, yet Pettersson avoids the pitfall of stereotype in lovely and unique ways.

The story, though obviously seeped in the paranormal, reads far more like a mystery than an urban fantasy. The supernatural elements become more like background noise as the story progresses, ancillary to the investigation that Kit and Grif are working on. There are times when it flares up throughout the story, and comes closer to the front towards the book's climax, but it's largely inconsequential to the bulk of the narrative.

That obviously wasn't a detraction for me, especially as I absolutely adored every moment of the leisurely-paced mystery plotline and tend to be picky about angel-themed fiction as a general rule. Fans of more traditional urban fantasy, as well as those who have little interest in this particular style of mystery, might have a less favorable view of the read. For me, it couldn't have possibly been any better.

The relationship between Grif and Kit was complex and added some delightful moments of levity to what really is a pretty horrific case. For all that they are picture-perfect together in appearance, Kit is a modern woman and Gif is a fifties man, and that sparked some great conflict between them. For all that conflict, though, there was also a nice give and take in their relationship that superseded the secrets Grif held, and absolutely enough sexual chemistry to light up the Vegas skyline.

Though there is a thread of romance through the book, this is not a romance novel, and the relationship between them evolved in a way that I felt heightened the intensity of the plot, especially towards the end. I also thoroughly enjoyed Kit's reaction when Grif comes clean, after, of course, Kit started putting pieces together and asked the tough questions. That changed the dynamic of their burgeoning partnership in some interesting ways.

Completely unique and utterly original, this book was a treat on every front for me. The Bad Guys were as bad as it gets, the crimes heinous, the mystery rich and meaty, and the characters vibrant and three dimensional. I can't wait to sink my teeth into the next book in this exciting new series and highly recommend it for fans of highly stylized noir fiction. Plainly spoken, it's art, and while art is always in the eye of the beholder, this particular beholder wants much more to see.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Seascape, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 266 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Bell Bridge Books via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Artist T.J. MacGregor had come to the Seascape Inn to heal. To find peace. There had been a sense of something almost magical about the place on his first visit years ago, and after suffering yet another painful loss and a crushing personal blow, coming back to Seascape had offered him the only hope he could find. That was nine months ago. He still hasn't left.

He can't.

Whenever he tries to so much as step over Seascape's property line, his body is seared by a crushing and bone-deep cold, a brutal cold that strips him of consciousness and leaves him passed out and shivering. His hope has become his prison. His haven a hell. And he has no idea how to break free.

Two years ago, Maggie Wright's cousin Carolyn died in a mysterious car accident that Maggie suspected wasn't all that accidental. Only now can Maggie follow through on a promise she made, a promise to investigate what really happened, to find out why Carolyn was where she was when the car crashed, and maybe even discover who had caused the crash. Maggie had her suspicions and they began and ended with her cousin's fiancé, the respected artist Tyler James, also known as T.J. MacGregor. But she has to find him to question him.

She tries his studio in New Orleans first, but instead of answers, or the man himself, she finds a painting that practically reaches out and embraces her in a cocoon of peace and protection. A painting that shouldn't still exist, if the stories of Carolyn's accident are true. It is a piece she couldn't come close to affording on her own, but the sense of serenity she feels when she gazes at it is one she hasn't felt since she was a child. In that instant, Maggie knows she's going to the place in the painting, the Seascape Inn, for a stay. It is almost a compulsion. Or a quest for something she hadn't realized she desperately needed.

It's her good luck that the very man she seeks to question about her cousin literally trips over her as she is toting her luggage to her room in the inn just days later. Well, it's some sort of luck, at least, as meeting the surly and antagonistic man who probably had a hand in her cousin's death doesn't exactly strike her in any way good. In fact, he pushes every one of her seriously annoyed buttons, and despite the situation...or maybe because of it...she revels in doing her level best to return the favor.

She hasn't even gotten a chance to pin him down for answers before something...odd...about the inn they share starts to seep ever-so-slowly into her consciousness. There is peace - at times - and a feeling of being watched and weighed when no human eyes are around. Then there are those episodes she sees from her window. Inexplicable episodes of...something...when she spots T.J. down by the beach, when she sees him try - flailing and batting at an unseen assailant as he does - to step across some line she can't fathom. When he passes out and collapses from the effort. Every time.

Something is very weird at the Seascape Inn. Something Maggie doesn't understand but can't deny. And it's starting to draw her closer to the one man who not only obviously wants nothing to do with her, but who may have been responsible for the death of her cousin.


For all that I read, or maybe because of it, I'm rarely surprised by a book. There are always going to be books that are better than I expected, some that aren't as good as I'd anticipated, and occasionally a book blurb doesn't accurately represent the book's contents. That's just how it goes and it's not what I mean by being surprised. That's a part of it, maybe, but it's not the whole.


Beyond the Misty Shore surprised me. It was a wonderful love story. And it was so much more. It was a ghost story. A mystery. A sexy romance. It was quirky. Funny. Had moments of tragic loss and gentle hope. It had cute characters with small-town appeal. Stubborn characters with sardonic wit. It was weird. Even a little scary sometimes. It was written with poise and grace and had passages that were so beautifully lyrical they were almost poetic. It was, in a word, unique.

I wasn't expecting to be so captivated by the creep-factor. Or for the characters to grow on me so quickly. Or for the obviously haunted inn to be so subtly and sublimely woven into a story centered in the gift of timeless, selfless love and healing hearts. This book was just so much more than I expected on every front. It exceeded all expectation.

The relationship between Maggie and MacGregor, tense at first, then warming, but quirky and fun throughout, enchanted me. Both are wounded. Both find solace at Seascape and eventually with each other. Their neediness and yearning for peace was intrinsic to them but didn't make them grasping or needy. Their wounded wariness made them real. The metaphorical teeth they bared at each other because of it made them a lot of fun. And the sparks they struck off each other made me chuckle...and eventually pant.

I loved them for their humor when they needed to keep the fear of several big unknowns at bay. I felt for how their growing feelings for each other stirred their panic over their loss of control. They tease each other, and fight loudly, and I adored that. I understood who they are and sympathized with how damaged they were. They were as close to perfect for each other and as characters as any I've read in recent memory.

The grandmotherly Miss Hattie, caretaker of Seascape Inn, was a charming enigma. The woo-woo element of the place was both chilling and heartening at turns. More than one force was at work in the place, not all my questions were answered about that, and I sure did spend a good portion of the book debating on whether the haunting elements were well-intentioned or not. The book clung tight to its mysteries, for sure. All of that was icing on an already pretty fantastic cake, because it kept me thinking.

And simply, it was very beautifully written. It perfectly captured the scene and setting, the history and the mystery, and the deep, complex, sometimes conflicting emotions that are startingly realistic despite the fantastical situation. Powerful emotions, hearty story of love, loss, forgiveness and hope, sweeping romance. This book, quite literally, had it all. I loved it.

If you're a fan of the chilling spine-tingle of haunted houses, characters you want to bop on the head while they make you laugh, groan, and breathe heavy, and romance so powerful it makes your chest ache, this book is for you. If you love stories about the healing of wounded hearts and the magic of the most powerful sort of love, this book is for you. If you like two characters who squabble their way headlong into a relationship while the world around them watches and gossips as small towns do, this book is for you. If you like exquisitely strong writing that pulls you into a story that has all of that, this book is for you. It was, unquestionably, for me.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: InCryptid, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 368 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by the author. 



Sometimes a girl's just gotta dance. For Verity Price, it's more than a party, it's a passionate calling. One for which she trains hard to excel. She's got a year in New York City to try to make a career out of it. If she can't, she'll return to the family and make her side job her primary occupation. Like the rest of her family. For now, though, New York City is her town. And Verity is very protective of her town.

The Prices have been renegades for a couple of generations, after splitting from the Covenant of St. George over ideological differences. The Covenant is an organization that has a much more slash-and-burn mentality than the Prices were comfortable with. See, the Prices are cryptozoologists. They investigate, study, and dispatch (if necessary) the sorts of creatures that go bump in the night. The not-human beings they refer to as cryptids, but everyone else would call monsters.

What separates the Price family from the Covenant? Well...the Covenant doesn't much care what kind of cryptid it is, or whether or not it poses a danger to humanity. They certainly don't bother researching physiology or behavior patterns. They have a far simpler, and frankly, narrow-minded viewpoint. If it's not human, kill it. Kill it a lot. Kill it dead. Kill it until its ancestors forget it was ever a species on our planet.

There's a whole killing theme.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the cryptids in the city mostly accept Verity. She keeps them safe, too, when one species or another starts to get a little peckish and forgets the rules, and she's proven herself to be no threat to non-predatory cryptids at all. That's why she's told about the disappearances, informed that cryptids all over the city are vanishing with no trace and for no easily discernible reason. Or at least she has no reason until she finds out there is sleeping dragon under the city. A dragon believed, erroneously as it turns out, to have been hunted to extinction over three centuries ago. A dragon that someone - some idiotic, ignorant, has-a-death-wish someone - is trying to wake up.

Well...at least that accounts for the missing cryptids. In bloody and horrifying ways.

Now Verity has to find and stop that someone, deal with the dragon (an actual dragon!), try to get into a regional dance competition (she could really use the prize money), cover her shift at the cryptid-owned strip club where she works (the only place she refuses to ever dance), and figure out if she has to kill the Covenant guy who's shown up in her city and started offing the local megafauna like he's some sort of Terminator with hemorrhoids.

All-in-all, just another day in the life of Verity Price, kick-ass cryptozoologist and ballroom dance queen.


Hey, you, stop right there. Yes, I'm talking to you. Before you go any further, you need to ask yourself a few things. Are you a fan of knee-slapping (and bitch-slapping) sardonic humor? Do sarcastic and mouthy heroines with peculiar moral compasses and even odder career goals hold any appeal for you? Would you appreciate a unique...and, okay, a little peculiar (but creative!)...urban fantasy with a spectacularly diverse and original cast of cryptids (and yes, that actually is the technical term)? Have you ever seen an episode of either So You Think You Can Dance or Dancing With the Stars?

If you've answered yes to some/most/all of those questions, then you are welcome to continue. If not...well...you're still welcome to continue (I'm all about the inclusive reviewing), but I'm going to guess this book isn't going to be your cuppa. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit, my answers to those questions range from a resounding, "Yes!" to, "Hell yes, are you daft, man?" on every one.

I had so much fun reading this book. I'm a huge fan of McGuire's October Daye series and have long admired her writing chops, so I was thrilled to hear she had another series starting up. My expectations were leaning towards something similar in tone to that one, but I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised by how not like October Daye this series debut is.

Of course, there are some similarities. Both are well-written with strong female lead characters who trend towards sarcasm as a religion, but Verity is much younger than Toby (with all that implies), she's human, and the world-building - for all its complexity and variety - is not quite as...multihued, lets say, as the world and people in the October Daye series. At least not yet. This book also doesn't stride anywhere near the Fae or anything resembling a fantasy land. I liked the change.

In fact, I liked Verity very much, too. Beyond the fact that she's strong, capable, and delightfully snarky, she's also caring and conscientious about both cryptids and her dancing. She's not prickly and unlikable, like so many kick-ass heroines out there, but she sure doesn't lack for self confidence. She also knows when she's in trouble and can ask for help - an admirable trait. She's not stupid, nor does she make stupid decisions.

Young, yes, headstrong, too, and when it comes to the Covenant guy, she definitely lets her mouth write a few checks her body ends up cashing, but I liked her. I wasn't so fond of Dominic, who struck me as a bit too prissy, even after his world view started shifting a little. My hopes are for some maturing of his character, because compared to Verity, he reminded me of a boy too long home schooled - little to no socialization skills and an unrealistic view of the Real World, combined with an over-inflated ego. My issues with his personality made it hard to really feel whatever romantic or sexual vibes there was supposed to be between him and Verity. I'm a romantic at heart, though, so hope springs eternal.

I enjoyed the plot and thought it was woven together quite nicely. I've got a thing for dragons, so I loved the whole dragon quest, and thought the Land of the Lost references were priceless.

Personally, I would have enjoyed more of Verity's cousin Sarah. I found her fascinating and wish she'd had more of a role throughout the book. I'm not sure I completely understand the familial connection between her and Verity...even though I know it's through adoption (I wasn't sure if that was a euphemism or not)...but that might have just been me missing something. I do wish the explanation of what she is and why she's so feared had been a little more clearly defined for me, though. What was provided almost seemed too polite or something, as if going into detail would be considered rude...or make people run away screaming...so much is kept vague or described sparsely.

Honestly, though, it's the humor that really put this book over the edge into the range of love. I am a total sucker for quick-witted sarcasm and dialogue that's more like pointed banter, and the narrative has that in spades. The quotes that kicked off each chapter were also a blast and so much of the other, smaller touches (like the talking mice) were flat-out awesome for the fun factor.

Lest I've given the impression, however, that this is a lighter-toned or comedic urban fantasy let me disabuse you of that notion - it's not. It's got plenty of wonderful humor, yes. It's also got sacrificial murder, lots of fighting/action scenes, and Bad Guys who are not messing around. All of which worked just fine for me, as I prefer that over fluff fantasy any day.

I loved this book. It's original, funny, creative, and while there's room for more complexity in the plot and more detail for the secondary characters, Verity herself was highly enjoyable and carried the book well. I'd love to meet her sister, though. Like Sarah, she seems deadly, highly individual, and weird. That works for me. This whole book works for me. I want more.

Quotables:

"Do we have to have the 'don't lie to the telepath' talk again? It won't take long. I say 'don't lie to the telepath, it never works,' you glare at me, and then you go find something you can hit."

Self-defense teaches you to kick ass. Ballroom dance teaches you to do it in heels.

"Sure, you can take a heroic stand against the forces of darkness. Or you can not die. It's entirely up to you."

"When in doubt, play dead. Well, unless you might be dealing with a ghoul, or a basilisk, or something else that likes its meat a little ripe. Actually, when in doubt, just start shooting."

"A proper lady should be able to smile pretty, wear sequins like she means it, and kick a man's ass nine ways from Sunday while wearing stiletto heels. If she can't do that much, she's not trying hard enough."

"A lady is never truly embarrassed. And if she is, a lady is never gauche enough to leave survivors."

He was gorgeous, possibly the most gorgeous man I'd ever had the pleasure of having my way with.
Pity he was turning out to be a total asshole.

"Learning something new about the world in which we live is always a wonderful thing. Unless you're learning what a wendigo looks like from the inside."

Mother Nature is a freaky lady who probably created pot so she could spend all her time smoking it.

"Don't worry about me. I'm the bad thing that happens to other people."

"I haven't found the snake cult yet and, when I do, they can explain themselves to me during the pauses."
"The pauses?"
"I can't beat their heads against the wall constantly, now can I?"