One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: M/M Urban Fantasy; LGBT
Series: N/A
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 360 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Riptide Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Black knows all about the dark underbelly of life. He should. He lives it every night. He and his twin sister were little more than children when circumstances forced them to the streets. Now they're Nightwalkers, selling themselves to survive.

Not sex...or blood, for that matter. Their vampire johns - Lyche, they call themselves - don't drink blood, and sex has never been one of the services the siblings offer. Besides, vampires have other needs. What Black and his sister sell is their chi, their life energy.

Hey, it's a renewable resource, and vampires pay well for it. Not that the transaction is risk-free. Quite the contrary, especially as he and his sister don't just sell their chi. They steal vampire chi for themselves in the process.

Turns out, their johns don't appreciate that much, a fact that becomes painfully clear when Black taps the very last vampire he should have anything to do with, Monsieur Garthelle. Not only is Garthelle the top vampire in the city and the law of the land, but the chi tap Black did on the guy goes wrong in a way that no other has.

Now he's got two choices. Either he lets Garthelle turn him and his sister into his two pet spies during some swanky party thing the vampire is holding for his nearest and dearest not-exactly-friends, or Garthelle will end them both.

Which really isn't any choice at all, is it?


With a fresh and original twist on vampire mythos and a complex and intricate story, Etzweiler's Blacker than Black was a much more entertaining read than I was expecting based on the cover alone. No offense to the art designer, but wow - that cover does this book no favors at all. Fortunately, both the atmospheric world and Black's travails after biting off more of Garthelle's chi than he could handle made up for it nicely.

I loved the mystery and investigation surrounding the murdered Lyche, and the world that Black and his sister are surviving in has just enough of a touch of slightly futuristic dystopian nightmare to give it a seedy, humans-are-second-class-citizens-at-best flavor but not so much that it turned me off (I'm not normally a fan). It was a nice balance, and all the meatiest plot threads were woven together in a way that slowly revealed more and more pertinent details about the characters and the Lyche culture.

It wasn't love at first chapter for me, though. I have to admit, I had to work at it a bit in the beginning. Black is narrating his story in first person perspective. Nothing unusual about that; a good majority of urban fantasy fiction is the same. What was unique...and, for me, off-putting, was the present tense in the telling. It made the beginning of the book in particular feel a bit odd and jarring, and I was well into the story before I realized I was no longer getting jerked out of the read every few minutes by the style of the narration.

The fact that Black wasn't my favorite character didn't help matters, either. I didn't dislike him. He had several good points. I just didn't think he was all that strong as the lead character - especially in comparison to his sister, who I loved. Black tended to focus too much on the fallout of his tap of Garthelle's chi for my taste, shortchanging the story's potential for more comprehensive world building and additional plot depth.

And because the story is being told by Black, who is almost completely ignorant of Lyche culture and all the labyrinthian politics, obfuscated loyalties, and seemingly cross-purpose agendas, he didn't serve as a very good source of information about them as the story progressed. I was forced to learn what I could as Black did, around his obsession with fighting off the effect of Garthelle's chi. There just wasn't sufficient explanation for me to be able to fully immerse myself in the world, or be consistently solid on was going on in it.

I liked what there was, don't get me wrong, and some of it I liked a whole lot. There just wasn't quite enough of it for me.

Black's sister would have made a stronger protagonist, I think (though that would obviously have put the kibosh on the M/M leanings). She was brash, cagey, independent, and showed no fear, even when she felt it. And she loved the hell out of her brother, which softened her roughest edges nicely. I was saddened to see her so underutilized in the story, but every moment of page time she got improved whichever scene that included her.

Garthelle was the other character that really worked for me. I can't say I feel like I knew him all that well by the end, and I still don't completely buy his motives or the wisdom of the decision to bring Black and his sister into his situation, but I loved his inscrutable, stoic exterior, especially when it was so clearly covering up a much more vulnerable side of himself. His machinations were deliciously Machiavellian, but those moments when he let his guard down around Black were some of my favorites of the book.

It all set a nice foundation for the personal conflict between him and Black, but as most of Black's best efforts were made with the hopes of getting out from under Garthelle's influence, it threw a monkey wrench into the arc of the romantic relationship between them. I just never felt they were ever on equal footing - neither in Lyche culture nor in the relationship that slowly develops between them. That put a serious crimp on the romance-flavored aspects and made some stuff at the end of the book not quite as satisfying as I would have preferred.

If this was a first book in a series, I think most of my other issues with parts of the story - an abrupt ending, the odd relationship jump between Black and Garthelle, and the myriad questions that lingered after the final page - would have been largely mitigated. Plus, I'm greedy. When I'm impressed by the originality of a book's world or the freshness of the plot, I can only want more.

This book begs a sequel. Or a series. As a stand alone it was entertaining, if not always consistently so, and I liked it. If it was the start of something bigger, it may have been love by the end. For now, I can only hope to see more of Black and Garthelle...and Red and Blue, for that matter...at some point in the future.

Genre: M/M Urban Fantasy
Series: Section Thirteen, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 265 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Dreamspinner Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




It's only been a month since exiled sidhe Tuulois MacColewyn agreed to join the police department's newly reappointed Section Thirteen, the section dedicated to investigating crimes by or against paranormals. Though time with his new lover and partner, NYPD Inspector Joss Vallimun, is definitely one of the perks, the workload is intense and resources are few. Cole's life is becoming barely recognizable.

Not only is Section Thirteen horribly overworked and wretchedly understaffed with only Cole, Vallimun, and Cole's erstwhile best friend, Detective James Corhagen to handle the caseload (everyone else keeps fleeing in terror when slimy things rise up out of the sewers - the cowards), but the cases themselves are getting more and more disturbing. Even for a sidhe who's seen, done, and snarked his way through as much as Cole has.

The burned and partially masticated bodies of several young boys have turned up in the morgue, and Cole has to use his abilities to question the victims. Disturbing as that is, there is also the brutal slaying of a private school teacher by what appears to be a pack of fey wolves on Staten Island. And they're not the only fey to be acting in a way that's against their nature, either, and they all have one thing in common: a suspicious black collar somewhere on their body and tales of enslavement to a new lord and master.

It's a complicated, dangerous, stressful time to be the only full-blooded sidhe cop in NYC. Good thing he's pretty.


Sometimes it's the story, sometimes it's the characters, ideally it's a combination of both. There are a myriad of different reasons that a book or a series of books appeals to me. In this wacky but weirdly wonderful series, it's the combination of Cole as a main character, the utter charm and likability of several of the secondary and ancillary characters, and the author's writing style that have made me a fan.

The first book was campier than this one, more flamboyantly wicked and generally bizarre. I embraced the flighty storyline, ignored most of the camp, and accepted the chaos in the writing because I adored the insouciant, irrepressible, irredeemable Cole. He was a delight of a character. He still is, but this installment offers a slightly more serious, darker version of the sidhe.

His character, intentionally or not, actually seemed to perfectly reflect his situation and the tone of the book. It was as if even the immortal Cole is feeling the strain of the amount of work Section Thirteen is dealing with and he's worn out enough to mute some of the natural incandescence of his personality. Or maybe he's just more relaxed now that he's having sex on a regular basis thanks to the big and brawny Joss.

Whatever it is, I liked this version of Cole very much. He's still a wellspring of sarcasm and sardonic humor, but he's not quite as persistent to the point of annoyance with Corhagen (who I still avidly dislike), and his actions in this book evidence a more accurate reflection of his emotional investment in the people he cares about than they did in the first book. All very good things.

The storyline was a bit more complex than that of the first book, yet ironically easier to follow. There seemed to be more going on as far as sources of external conflict, and while I think the plot lacked a little of the emotional intensity that the first one had, I also think it was better constructed overall. Plot points and story elements were added as the book progressed, all building on a solid foundation, and it provided an increasing level of danger and intensity throughout the read, as well as bulking up the narrative with depth and dimension.

This still isn't a book that's flawless in concept and construction. There is still a good dose of camp, and there are scenes and story threads that get a bit chaotic. The humor is certainly very subjective, and I wouldn't recommend it for romance-only fans. There is a thin thread of romance in this book, as Cole and Joss seem to be building an actual relationship as opposed to just occasionally having hot (very hot) sex, but this isn't at all a romance series and that thread stays ancillary to the plot-driven story elements.

I just think this book and this series is a hell of a fun read. In fact, I have such a good time when I'm reading, and I love Cole's character so much, that I get swept up in what's happening and forget to think about the book critically. Maybe that makes me a bad reviewer. All I know for sure is that it makes me a happy reader.

Genre: M/M Urban Fantasy
Series: Infected, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 376 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher for review. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




In Infected: Private investigator and werecat Roan McKichon is called to the scene of an ex-cop's mauling to sniff around for clues. His infected status is no secret to the police force he once served, and he's gotten called in on a few "kitty crimes" in the past. In this case, though, Roan knows the prime suspect may just be his lover and business partner Paris Lehane.

If that worry isn't enough, their two-man firm has just picked up a new client, and Roan is on the trail of a missing teen. When he discovers that the kid is a werecat wannabe, the investigation points Roan towards one of his least favorite people and places, Eli Winters and his Church of the Divine Transformation.

Roan can deal with the small-minded fear and bigotry of the ignorant, those who hate him because he's gay...or infected. It's the ones who worship as gods those who are infected that seriously wig him the hell out. After all, the infection is a disease. A painful, life-shortening disease that brings physical agony once a month, steals your dignity and your identity, and threatens the general population. And he'll tell the kid that. If he can find him before he ends up as cat food.

In Prey: Roan and Paris are approached by the last person they'd expect to request their services. The venerable Eli Winters, leader of the Church of the Divine Transformation (or, according to Roan, werecat-worshiping nutcases), informs Roan that several young werecats from his congregation have been murdered and he wants Roan to find out who is responsible.

While Roan tries to find a cold-blooded killer, Paris works his own angle on the investigation, curious as to why Eli has brought this case to them. It's not like there are any warm feelings between the man and Roan. What they find will call into question everything they thought they knew about the zealot and threatens to push Roan into a situation that could more than ruffle his fur. It could end his life.


I enjoyed my introduction to author Andrea Speed and the two stories that kick off this series, Infected and Prey. It bears mentioning that this isn't a romance series, though the relationship between the main character Roan and his partner Paris plays a major part. While the two love each other, sex is glossed over or mentioned only in passing, and there are certainly no romance novel tropes in the storyline. Romance-only fans should be warned.

While I have a preference for romance in my reading, these two stories really worked for me. The world, while not expansively explained, was a big high point. It's got a real-world feel that appealed to me. Take away the paranormal elements and the plots of both stories could just as easily have fit in any hard-boiled detective novel.

The paranormal elements, though, were another high point. I loved the concept of a population of werecats created by a virus, with that virus spreading like any sort of real-world virus. And these aren't socially acceptable werecats, either. For five days of each four week virus cycle, the infected transform into one of several cat species, depending on the strain of their virus. They lose their humanity and become the predators. The rest of the time they are no more or less human than they ever were.

Hey, I'm a beast five days out of the month, too. I can relate.

The absolute best part of both stories and the most compelling element of the read for me were the characters. I loved Roan. He's a rough, complex, cynical bastard who edges towards bitter, especially when he allows himself to think about the future. In many ways, Roan is the quintessential jaded private investigator, grim and determined but a touch humorless about life. He's also a wounded loner, a sarcastic reprobate, and a closet White Knight.

Paris is definitely the more charming of the two of them. He's everything tall, gorgeous, and yummy, with a sensitive soul and a gentle nature. Fairly ironic considering his strain. His sense of humor is sharp and he's not afraid to use charm, humor, or his stunning good looks as shamelessly as he needs to to get what he wants, for himself or to help Roan.

Together they fit really well, though, each offering an essentially needed piece to the other. A fact that makes certain elements of this story just damn heartbreaking, actually.

While executed very well, the plot-driven investigative elements of both novellas weren't as satisfying to me. They were okay, but I found them more interesting for the information they provided about the world and the effect the werecats have in that world. I also felt the pacing in the middle of both novellas slowed, getting bogged down as each investigation languished. Then evidence would pile up or pieces would start to fall into place, and the pace would pick up through to the end.

I did find it odd at first, then distracting, then bordering on annoying, just how often the fact that Roan is gay is mentioned, referred to, brought up, thought about, or discussed throughout both stories. By basically everyone, but especially by Roan himself. It seemed more of a major story element than even him being a werecat, and that just struck me as peculiar and one of the few things that niggled me as seeming unrealistic.

Realism. Seems an odd word to use in reference to a piece of fiction with a fantasy theme. It's fitting, though.

Speed hasn't pulled any punches in this debut, not when it comes to what it's like to be a werecat, or gay, or...whatever, exactly, Roan is or will be. And frankly, from the very first chapter it's clear that this series is not likely to be heading in a direction that's going to assure the characters any sort of a fairy tale ending. There is definitely a sense of realism in all that, and a sort of hopeless desperation. It's compelling reading, very well-conceived and executed, and I can't help but wonder what comes next.

Quotables from Infected:

"You just cursed him out?"
Reluctantly, he shrugged. "Guy was drunk. Kinda clumsy."
Paris stopped massaging the back of his neck and gave him a mock-stern look. "Clumsy how?"
"He may have walked into a wall while I was trying to handcuff him."
"Just the once?"
"Repeatedly. But he honestly did fall down the stairs all by himself."
"Repeatedly walking into walls can do that to a person."
"So I hear."

"You just can't keep from being a smart-ass, can you?"
"Snarky is my default setting."

Quotables from Prey:

There were so many good reasons for hating people on an individual basis that mass, generic hatred seemed idiotic. Hate a person for who they were, God knows he did, but for what they were? Moronic and lazy.

Genre: M/M Urban Fantasy
Series: Gray Zone, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 220 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Dreamspinner Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.



There's nothing Liam wouldn't do, nothing he hasn't done to protect and care for his two younger brothers. His stepfather is a drunk, sadistic bastard and Liam is all that stands between him and the tattered remnants of their innocence. His own he traded to insure Chris and Kevin keep theirs as long as they can.

Liam does what he can to assure his brothers don't hear, even as his screams echo in the shadows along the broken streets of the Gray Zone. He's been brutally raped, beaten, cut, burned...his body sold over and over to feed his stepfather's perverse hungers and seed his vices. He's been used and abused by sick, brutal men. And he'll keep taking it, knowingly, for as long and as often as it takes to keep Chris and Kevin safe.

It's not like there are a lot of choices in the Gray Zone, that colorless, hopeless strip that's stuck between the shimmering lies that humanity still tells itself and the gritty darkness of the Dens of the Kin, more honest but infinitely more dangerous. It's not a happy life, it's sure as hell not a good life, but it is life.

The night Liam first sees the Lesser-Bred Jericho is the first time he feels a spark of sexual need and hunger. What he can't fathom, what makes no sense to him whatsoever, is how Jericho looks at him. Not like he's a freak, scarred and ugly, or that he's dirty and over-used, shattered and alone, though Liam knows he's all those things. But with an unearthly beauty, Jericho stares at him as if he's...precious, special, and deeply, deeply desired.

It's a gift Liam doesn't trust but once felt, can't escape, and it hearkens a change that will alter every aspect of the desiccated life Liam is struggling to live. It will change...everything. And in so doing, will threaten the two children Liam has worked so damned hard to protect.


There's something about this series that just levels me. In fact, I hadn't actually planned on reading this book after the first left me feeling so shaken and disturbed. I like dark fiction well enough, but this series goes beyond such tepid terminology. It's a gut-clenching, brutal peregrination through a land stripped of anything recognizable as humanity, desiccated, devastating. Horrifying.

And then there are characters like Liam. His unwavering concern for Chris and Kevin and the conscientious care he provides them in the face of the wretchedness of their home life made for some truly captivating reading. I fell in love with him and his siblings, felt every ache and pain that the trio suffered throughout the book, every bloody, caustic wound inflicted.

Liam's life in the Gray Zone leading up to his becoming is the driving force of the plot, and it is so damn heartrending. The nightmare he endures to protect the brothers he loves is inconceivable, and the layers of betrayal he faces are enough to leave grown men blithering like idiots. How his heart and soul stayed as pure as it did is a mystery, but it made for some damn compelling storytelling as the tension and unrelenting sense of impending doom grew larger and larger.

I love the world that Wilder has created for this series. It's gritty, deadly even, but brilliantly imaginative. The Kin, a dragon race that serves as the impetus behind the existence of the Gray Zone in Atlanta, hasn't had an active role in the series to date, but their Lesser-Bred children have been more than enough to carry the series so far.

Make no mistake, the Kin aren't human in thought or deed, and neither are the Lesser-Bred once they've transitioned. They feed on sex, blood, and flesh. Period. Their needs and their habits are often...uncomfortable when viewed through lenses colored with human sensibilities and morality.

On the other hand, children are valued highly by Kin. They don't smell of sex, so they are not used for sex, and they are never victimized by Kin or Lesser-Bred. Ask Liam how he feels about that particular fact. Holding that up against the life Liam has been forced to lead, and I can't help but feel the monsters of this series aren't the ones with scales. The dichotomy makes for a powerful and intriguing theme that's being threaded through the series.

This isn't a series for the faint of heart, and it's not one I'd recommend for romance-only fans. Though the it's listed as M/M romance, I disagree with that categorization. Dark urban fantasy, yes. Very, very dark. There's a lot of sex (warning: not all of it consensual), but this book has even less "romance" than its predecessor, and neither book ends in anything resembling a Happily Ever After for its main characters. It's just not that sort of world.

Frankly, I'm utterly and completely addicted to it. The writing is strong, the world is complex and the characters reach in and claw out a nest for themselves in my heart. At this point, I can't not read it. I can't wait to see what Wilder comes up with next, even though I'm fairly confident I'll feel nearly gutted and disturbed by parts, if not all of it. Personally, I'd like a closer view of the Kin than we've gotten so far, but whatever story it is, I'm in. I'm absolutely all in.

Genre: LGBT - M/M Urban Fantasy
Series: Section Thirteen, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 220 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by publisher Dreamspinner Press. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Exiled from Faerie for almost a century, full-blooded sidhe Tuulois MacColewyn is working in New York City, minding his own business and taking the occasional enforcer job whenever his funds start getting low or he's feeling a bit of ennui. He is, in fact, just washing off the effects of a job when an old friend grabs Cole's attention...and Cole himself...right out of the shower, and yanks him through a portal straight into an active crime scene.

It's been a year since Cole last saw Detective James Corhagen. A year since the end of a friendship and loose working partnership that Corhagen decided was too intensely complicated to continue, and a relationship that the detective, intent on having a family, claimed he no longer wanted. Now Cole is standing, naked and wet, in a summoning circle Corhagen drew, at the command of a spell that the detective had cast.

Cole is just twisted enough to enjoy every moment of the turning worm, even as Corhagen informs him of the supernatural nature of the three homicides and kidnappings that prompted Corhagen's spellcasting. Cohagen has come to Cole...or summoned Cole to come to him...to ask the sidhe for the sort of help he once freely provided. With no clues and no way to stop a potentially supernatural killer with a taste for kidnapping infants, Corhagen desperately needs Cole's unique skills to have any hope of stopping these crimes before more babies are ripped from their parents' mutilated corpses.

Cole, being Cole, agrees to do what he can...for the right price...and if he just happens to get some personal pleasure out of the job, well, no self-respecting Fey wouldn't.


The Thirteenth Child isn't a perfect book. The plot is fast and packed with wild characters and wicked action, but the narrative is chaotic in places and some of the characters didn't get much definition. Character motivations and emotions didn't always translate well, which limited the emotional impact of some major scenes. The world-building and character backstory were unique and imaginative, but inconsistent, and at times seemed contradictory or lacking in clarity. The timeline, both for the past relationship between Corhagen and Cole as well as the current storyline, was hard to get a solid handle on and also seemed inconsistent in places. And Cole's abilities and powers seemed to fluctuate based on need and he came off as Mary Sue at times (I don't know the term for the male equivalent, sorry).

That being said, I sort of loved this book. It was delightfully campy in places, with Cold Hands of Death and pitchfork-imbued scarecrow constructs, power-hungry half-sidhe monsters with a Mommy fetish and teenage military-weapons hoarders, and Cole. I love Cole. He is an irreverent, insouciant rogue with a wicked sense of humor and nothing resembling shame. Despite any critical issues, I couldn't help being quickly drawn in and getting totally invested in his life and his story.

He really is the backbone of the book, but the supporting cast also included some spectacular secondary characters who I loved. Corhagen wasn't one of them. He was my least favorite of them all, in fact. His issues and his history with Cole were a point of contention between them throughout the story. It got a little old, especially as the rejection of his core needs and desires, as well as any lingering feelings he has for Cole annoyed me from start to finish.

Fortunately, there were a couple of other secondary characters who were real scene-stealers in their own right. I was particularly enamored with Robyn, who was the most kick-ass kid-sized weapons specialist and demolition...expert (she likes to make things go boom) I've ever had the pleasure to read. Inspector Vallimun, whose presence allowed me to deal with my dislike of Corhagen, also grew on me more and more as the story progressed. I ended up liking him far more than Corhagen.

The story has twists and turns that set up some truly great scenes of mass destruction. I love those scenes. There were also elements of mystery or at least secrecy shrouding Cole's past and those elements get woven into the present-day plot threads in pleasantly surprising ways. Not everything was explained as well as I would have liked, not all my questions got answered, but I got enough to keep me entertained.

M/M purists should be warned about one thing, though. Cole isn't exactly gay. I actually can't say that any of the characters I met in this book are. If labels are important, I'd broadly classify those who participate in the described sex scenes (which are all M/M or M/M/M) as bi-sexual. There are mentions of Cole having sex with, or thinking of having sex with, more than one woman in this book, though none of those sex scenes are described in any detail. That doesn't bother me, but I know some readers prefer their M/M stories to have no mention of hetero sex at all, so I wanted to mention it.

In Cole's case, he's sidhe, and in this world, the sidhe are a highly sexual race, just as likely to have healthy and frequent sexual relationships for everything from offering comfort to expressing friendship to procreating with mates, and they are just as likely to be with males as females, Fey or human, or any combination and number of one or all of the above. Personally, I liked the racial distinction and thought it helped define aspects of Cole's nature.

So The Thirteenth Child isn't perfect, but perfection is highly overrated. What it is, is a rousing good time with memorable characters and an imaginative story. It's a little wacky, a little corny, hella sexy at times, and not always completely clear. It's tongue-in-cheek and wryly sardonic. It's Cole, who can do everything from shape shift to freeze with a touch; who will work if you pay him but fight to the death if he cares. Who will taunt you and tease you and force you to see the hardest truths. Who you want on your side, and who you want to see again and again. I know I do.