I have just updated a previous post for Jocelynn Drake with a review of the final book in her DARK DAYS series: Burn the Night.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
FINDING A SERIES OR AN AUTHOR:
Sunday, July 31, 2011
UPDATE! Final book in Jocelynn Drake's DARK DAYS Series
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Karin Harlow: L. O. S. T. Series
Author: Karin Harlow
Series: L. O. S. T. Series (SMR, Romantic Suspense)
Ratings: V4; S4; H2
Publisher and Titles: Pocket Star
Enemy Lover (2010)
In Enemy Lover, the heroine is Angela Giacomelli, who was a Baltimore cop when she was raped and mutilated by a human trafficker. When Angela recovered from her injuries, she sought out her attacker and killed him, for which she was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Angela's fellow officers and even her boyfriend turned their backs on her, so she feels as if she has nothing to live for. As the story opens, a fearful Angela is in a bus on her way to prison when she is kidnapped by a phony prison guard and winds up in the war room of L.O.S.T. headquarters surrounded by big, scary dudes. The leader of L.O.S.T. (Mr. Black, aka the Godfather) talks Angela into joining his group. He then rehabilitates her, changes her name to Jax Cassidy, and sends her out on missions with the rest of his team, all of whom are big, handsome, well-trained male warriors who also came from sketchy backgrounds. In one of her first missions, Jax is sent to take down Marcus Cross, a henchman for Lazarus, the leader of the Solution, another secretive quasi-military group that is not nearly as honest and patriotic as L.O.S.T. Naturally enough, Jax and Marcus immediately fall for one another even though they lie to each other and mistrust each other most of the way through the book. Matters are further complicated when Marcus reveals to Jax that he is a vampire. Not only that, but the villainous Lazarus, who is an older, stronger, and really crazy vampire, is Marcus's maker and master. The loving couple must learn to trust one another while they decide how to take down Lazarus.
In Enemy Mine, the heroine is Selena Guererro, a half demon/half human who leads a double life—actually a triple life. First and foremost, she is a spy/tracker/killer for Los Cuatro, which, on the surface, is a Latino humanitarian organization. She also kills demonic Hellkeepers in order to collect their hearts in a magical necklace so that she can gain enough strength to kill her demon father, Paymon. Finally, she is a mother who must keep her daughter's existence hidden both from the child's father and from her own father. Talk about a rough life! The hero is Nikko Cruz (aka Johnny Cicone), one of the L.O.S.T. warriors. Eight years ago, Nikko (then called Johnny) and Selena were lovers. When she became pregnant, her demon father tried to force her to give him her soon-to-be-born child's soul in exchange for her life and Nikko's. To keep them both safe, Selena had to make it appear that she got rid of the child. She did this to make Nikko hate her enough to leave her—so that he would be safe from her father. She pretended to have an abortion, and when she told Nikko, he not only turned against he, he killed her (at least that's what he and the police department thought). Nikko was on his way to prison for that murder when L.O.S.T. reached out to him. For all these years he has lived with his hatred for what Selena did to his unborn child and with his guilt for having murdered her. So, as you can imagine, both of their minds are raging with angst-filled guilt and self-loathing thoughts. In the opening scene of the book, the situation between Selena and Nikko is re-opened when he is nearly killed while trying to highjack a load of uranium, and she injects him with vampire blood to save his life. Now he knows that she is alive and that she works for a different team than he does. A Russian mobster has stolen the uranium and plans to sell it to the highest bidder, one of whom is a demon who wants to use it to kill as many humans as possible and become king of the world. The uranium plot line is constructed so that Nikko and Selena are forced to work together for the good of humankind (as is so often the case in these paranormal romances). Needless to say, the road to their HEA is extremely rocky (but very erotic).
Series: L. O. S. T. Series (SMR, Romantic Suspense)
Ratings: V4; S4; H2
Publisher and Titles: Pocket Star
Enemy Lover (2010)
Enemy Mine (2011)
This blog entry was revised and updated on 9/27/11 to include a review of the second book in the series: Enemy Mine. That review follows this overview of the series so far:
This blog entry was revised and updated on 9/27/11 to include a review of the second book in the series: Enemy Mine. That review follows this overview of the series so far:
This is a first and foremost a paranormal romance series, but it is a special ops kind of series as well. In this world, a covert organization (Last Option Special Team, aka L.O.S.T.) exists to eliminate enemies of the U.S. who are beyond the usual limits of the justice system. L.O.S.T. is made up of super warriors (primarily men) who have made some severe blunders in their former lives and have accepted membership in L.O.S.T. in order to get a second chance. In each book, a couple meets in a swirl of lust, participates in a series of dangerous escapades, and eventually achieves their HEA.
In Enemy Lover, the heroine is Angela Giacomelli, who was a Baltimore cop when she was raped and mutilated by a human trafficker. When Angela recovered from her injuries, she sought out her attacker and killed him, for which she was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Angela's fellow officers and even her boyfriend turned their backs on her, so she feels as if she has nothing to live for. As the story opens, a fearful Angela is in a bus on her way to prison when she is kidnapped by a phony prison guard and winds up in the war room of L.O.S.T. headquarters surrounded by big, scary dudes. The leader of L.O.S.T. (Mr. Black, aka the Godfather) talks Angela into joining his group. He then rehabilitates her, changes her name to Jax Cassidy, and sends her out on missions with the rest of his team, all of whom are big, handsome, well-trained male warriors who also came from sketchy backgrounds. In one of her first missions, Jax is sent to take down Marcus Cross, a henchman for Lazarus, the leader of the Solution, another secretive quasi-military group that is not nearly as honest and patriotic as L.O.S.T. Naturally enough, Jax and Marcus immediately fall for one another even though they lie to each other and mistrust each other most of the way through the book. Matters are further complicated when Marcus reveals to Jax that he is a vampire. Not only that, but the villainous Lazarus, who is an older, stronger, and really crazy vampire, is Marcus's maker and master. The loving couple must learn to trust one another while they decide how to take down Lazarus. 
In Enemy Mine, the heroine is Selena Guererro, a half demon/half human who leads a double life—actually a triple life. First and foremost, she is a spy/tracker/killer for Los Cuatro, which, on the surface, is a Latino humanitarian organization. She also kills demonic Hellkeepers in order to collect their hearts in a magical necklace so that she can gain enough strength to kill her demon father, Paymon. Finally, she is a mother who must keep her daughter's existence hidden both from the child's father and from her own father. Talk about a rough life! The hero is Nikko Cruz (aka Johnny Cicone), one of the L.O.S.T. warriors. Eight years ago, Nikko (then called Johnny) and Selena were lovers. When she became pregnant, her demon father tried to force her to give him her soon-to-be-born child's soul in exchange for her life and Nikko's. To keep them both safe, Selena had to make it appear that she got rid of the child. She did this to make Nikko hate her enough to leave her—so that he would be safe from her father. She pretended to have an abortion, and when she told Nikko, he not only turned against he, he killed her (at least that's what he and the police department thought). Nikko was on his way to prison for that murder when L.O.S.T. reached out to him. For all these years he has lived with his hatred for what Selena did to his unborn child and with his guilt for having murdered her. So, as you can imagine, both of their minds are raging with angst-filled guilt and self-loathing thoughts. In the opening scene of the book, the situation between Selena and Nikko is re-opened when he is nearly killed while trying to highjack a load of uranium, and she injects him with vampire blood to save his life. Now he knows that she is alive and that she works for a different team than he does. A Russian mobster has stolen the uranium and plans to sell it to the highest bidder, one of whom is a demon who wants to use it to kill as many humans as possible and become king of the world. The uranium plot line is constructed so that Nikko and Selena are forced to work together for the good of humankind (as is so often the case in these paranormal romances). Needless to say, the road to their HEA is extremely rocky (but very erotic).
L.O.S.T. is a straightforward SMR series with most of the typical characteristics: smart, kick-ass independent females; hard-nosed, handsome, alpha males; protagonists with tragic pasts; and loads of angst-filled interior monologues. The special ops theme does make it a little bit different from the usual SMR series by adding more than the usual action and suspense. In book 1, the characters (especially the vamps) have a tendency to avoid all contractions in their spoken dialogue—always awkward and unnecessary—but this problem doesn't occur in book 2. The plot lines are well constructed, with an effective presentation of expositional material and plenty of action. If you like paranormal romance with plenty of passion and adventure, you'll enjoy this series.
Friday, July 29, 2011
UPDATE! Lori Handeland's NIGHTCREATURES
I have just updated a previous blog entry for Lori Handeland with a review of the eleventh book in her NIGHTCREATURES series: Crave the Moon.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
UPDATE! Kasey Mackenzie's SHADES OF FURY
I have just updated a previous post for Kasey Mackenzie with a review of the newest book in her SHADES OF FURY SERIES: Green-Eyed Envy.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Jennifer Lyon: WING SLAYER HUNTERS
Author: Jennifer Lyon (Pseudonym for Jennifer Apodaca)
Series: WING SLAYER HUNTERS (SMR)
Ratings: V4; S4; H2
Publisher and Titles: Ballantine
Blood Magic (2009) (Axel & Darcy)
Soul Magic (2009) (Sutton & Carla)
Night Magic (2011) (Phoenix & Ailish)
Sinful Magic (2011) (Kieran & Roxy)
In this paranormal romance series, the primary supernaturals are witches (all women) and witch hunters (all men), with a few demons, gods, and ancestral spirits sprinkled into the mix. Up until 30 years ago, the Wing Slayer Hunters and the earth witches were friends and allies against demon witches and the demons that possessed them. Then, with assistance from the demon Asmodeus, three demon witches captured three hunters and tried to place a curse on them. When the curse went awry, the terrible result was that now all witch hunters are compelled to crave the power contained in witch blood. If a hunter gives in and kills a witch to harvest her blood, he loses his soul for all eternity. A hunter who loses his soul is called a rogue hunter, and the rogues have teamed up to rid the earth of all witches. The witches were also affected by the curse. They lost their familiars, and their ability to perform magic was dramatically weakened, so they have had a difficult time keeping themselves safe from the rogues. The witches can't fight back against the rogues because witch karma causes any use of harmful magic to rebound back at them three times stronger then their original hit. (Got all that? Because there's even more to the mythology. Keep reading.)
The Wing Slayer Hunters, who are the heroes of this series, are trying to reconnect with their creator/god, the Wing Slayer, so that they will have the strength to break the curse. They protect earth witches while trying to stay as far away from them as possible so that they are not tempted by their blood. The Wing Slayers get rid of their blood lust by turning it into good old-fashioned sexual lust. The good witches (and these are the heroines) are mostly in hiding, fearful of all hunters. (Smart girls!)
If this all sounds a bit complex, you're absolutely right. And one big problem is that you don't get much of this information until you're more than halfway through the first book. Lyon would have been better off writing a prologue that explained her mythology so that she could just go on to tell the actual story without having to interweave a myriad of world-building details and mythic narratives about past events into the plot, especially in book 1.
In each book, a hunter/witch couple goes through a mind-boggling series of trials and tribulations until the hunter finally gets his (literal) wings and the two lovers achieve immortality. The first book tells the story of the leader of the Wing Slayer Hunters, Axel Locke, and his witchy lady, Darcy MacAlister.
As Blood Magic opens, Darcy is at the funeral of her adoptive mother. (Right there, we know that she must have some magical talents, because rule number one in paranormal fiction is that heroines who are adoptees have at least one supernatural biological parent.) Shortly thereafter, Darcy is attacked by two knife-wielding men and saved by another one. Her rescuer is Axel, a Wing Slayer Hunter whose rogue father has ordered him to kill Darcy. Axel doesn't plan to kill Darcy; he plans to use her to save his young sister, Hannah, who is dying from a curse by a demon witch. Axel needs Darcy to cast a spell that will break the curse and save Hannah's life. Unfortunately, Darcy doesn't know that she is a witch (remember, she's adopted). As the story plays out, Darcy tunes in to her inner witch so that she can learn the magic needed to save poor little Hannah. In the meantime, the sparks are flying and the angst is flowing between Darcy and Axel. Neither one trusts the other, even in the midst of all of the lust that is going on in their relationship. Eventually, they are put into a situation in which each one must make a huge life-or-death sacrifice to save the other. (This last part reminds me of the steps that the "beloveds" in Katie MacAlister's DARK ONES series must take in order to complete their soul-mate process.) The villain for the entire series is Darcy's rogue father, Quinn Young, who was the first hunter to repudiate the god powers of the Wing Slayer, which led directly to the curse.
Sutton West saved Dr. Carla Fisk's life and touched her blood in the climactic battle at the end of Blood Magic. Sutton is the Wing Slayers' computer expert, and Carla is a psychologist (and a witch). As Soul Magic opens, Sutton is obsessed with Carla, going from feelings of blood lust to sexual lust and back again. Meanwhile, Carla is having visions of herself on the astral plain with Sutton and with her twin sister Keri, who was murdered by a rogue hunter. Eventually, Carla discovers that Keri's spirit is imprisoned in a silver knife that is in the possession of a psychic rogue hunter who goes by the pseudonymous name of Styxx. The Wing Slayer Hunters discover that Styxx is brainwashing mortal women and programming them to kill Wing Slayers. Styxx is also attempting to control Carla through her connection with her twin. As lustful feelings build higher and higher between Carla and Sutton, he is sure that he is her soul mirror, but Carla is afraid that Keri is his real mate. In the midst of all this, there is a breech among the earth witches, with one of them (Silver) trying to take control and turn the other witches against Carla. Eventually, both Carla and Sutton are put into a life-death sacrifice situation in which each one must save the other. Angst levels are extremely high throughout the book as Carla tries not to fall for Sutton because she thinks that he belongs to Keri, and Sutton tries to fight off his rogue leanings so that he can prove to Carla that they belong together.
Night Magic tells the love story of Phoenix Torq and Ailish Donovan. As the story opens, Ailish has just returned to her hometown to die. When she was just 16, her demon-witch mother (Maeve) sold her to the demon Asmodeus in a contract that specified that Ailish would mate with the odious demon within eight years or she would die. Ailish has resisted Asmodeus all that time and now has just two weeks left before the contract ends—most likely with her death. Ailish is an earth witch, but she is also a siren who can enhance magic with her songs. Recently, Phoenix has been hearing singing in his head, and it is getting stronger and more compelling. He follows the songs to the source and is confronted by a kick-boxing blind witch wearing a demon's handfast binding on her wrist. (What a set of character traits!) Ailish was blinded by witch karma after she saved her friend from being strangled by Maeve. So...we have the hunter Phoenix (literally a mythological phoenix), who finds himself soul mirrored to a demon-bound witch. What a dilemma! If they complete the soul-mirror bond and she gives in to Asmodeus to save her life, Phoenix is condemning himself to a soulless death, but if they don't complete the bond, he can't help Ailish use her magic to break the demonic contract. You can guess that this situation creates mountains of angst-filled interior monologues for both of them. In another plot thread, Morgan's pregnancy is approaching the due date, and the rogues and the demon witches want to kill the baby. Once again—just as in the previous books—the lead couple must lay their lives on the line to save one another.
As Sinful Magic opens, graphic artist Kieran (Key) DeMicca is driven to draw pictures of witch kills made by his supposedly long-dead rogue brother, Liam. Key has no control over the drawings; they seem to flow from his colored pencils in times of great stress. Lately, the witch being killed in his drawings is a beautiful woman to whom Key is having an extremely lustful reaction. When he spots that woman at a Comic Con in Las Vegas, Key discovers that she is Roxanne (Roxy) Banfield, a fertility witch who works for her father's graphic arts production company. When they meet, Key discovers that Roxy is his soul mirror, and Roxy finds out that Key is her Awakening—the one who will bring her latent sexual powers to life. Both Key and Roxy have had the tragic childhoods typical of paranormal protagonists, and those terrible experiences inform all of their adult relationships. Roxy wants to suppress her witchy traits so that she can be a normal non-magical woman. Key wants to avoid all personal relationships in fear that he will once again cause harm to someone he loves. These misguided passions result in pages and pages of painful, angst-filled interior monologues. In the major plot line (other than the ups and downs of the romance), Key is stunned when Liam reappears in his life, attacking Roxy and tracking down and killing as many fertility witches as he can. Key thought that he had killed Liam ten years ago by stabbing him in the heart. Where has Liam been all these years? Why is he killing fertility witches? Key and his hunter buddies must track down Liam in order stop his killing spree. Key's alter image is a dragon named Dyfyr, and the man and the dragon must make inner peace before he and Roxy can go on to their HEA. In a climactic scene, both Roxy and Key must (like every other couple in this series) make the ultimate life-death sacrifice for one another.
From clues at the end of Sinful Magic, I'm guessing that the hero and heroine of the next book will be Ramsey (Ram) Virtos, the Wing Slayers' up-tight military strategist, and Shayla (Roxy's cousin), who is a rare infertility witch. Her mere presence can cause a man to become sterile—what a dating downer!
Above and beyond the complex world-building, this is a typical SMR series, with tons of angst followed by waves of passion, followed by even more angst, and so forth. The sex scenes are numerous because the witches' magic is sex-based—very appropriate for a paranormal romance series. On top of the elaborate and complicated supernatural history between the hunters and the witches, the earth witches have complexities of their own, as each witch's magic depends the frequent opening of her chakras and her third eye. If you're not familiar with new age spirituality, you'll probably need to brush up on those concepts. If you love paranormal romances starring immortal warriors, go to my Creature Search page and scroll down to the "Immortal Warriors" list of series for even more possibilities.
Click HERE to go to the page on Lyon's web site where she provides a brief bio and a link to an "interview" with each WING SLAYER hero.
Here are some quotations from the series that explain some of the mythological concepts:
Sutton West saved Dr. Carla Fisk's life and touched her blood in the climactic battle at the end of Blood Magic. Sutton is the Wing Slayers' computer expert, and Carla is a psychologist (and a witch). As Soul Magic opens, Sutton is obsessed with Carla, going from feelings of blood lust to sexual lust and back again. Meanwhile, Carla is having visions of herself on the astral plain with Sutton and with her twin sister Keri, who was murdered by a rogue hunter. Eventually, Carla discovers that Keri's spirit is imprisoned in a silver knife that is in the possession of a psychic rogue hunter who goes by the pseudonymous name of Styxx. The Wing Slayer Hunters discover that Styxx is brainwashing mortal women and programming them to kill Wing Slayers. Styxx is also attempting to control Carla through her connection with her twin. As lustful feelings build higher and higher between Carla and Sutton, he is sure that he is her soul mirror, but Carla is afraid that Keri is his real mate. In the midst of all this, there is a breech among the earth witches, with one of them (Silver) trying to take control and turn the other witches against Carla. Eventually, both Carla and Sutton are put into a life-death sacrifice situation in which each one must save the other. Angst levels are extremely high throughout the book as Carla tries not to fall for Sutton because she thinks that he belongs to Keri, and Sutton tries to fight off his rogue leanings so that he can prove to Carla that they belong together.
From clues at the end of Sinful Magic, I'm guessing that the hero and heroine of the next book will be Ramsey (Ram) Virtos, the Wing Slayers' up-tight military strategist, and Shayla (Roxy's cousin), who is a rare infertility witch. Her mere presence can cause a man to become sterile—what a dating downer!
Above and beyond the complex world-building, this is a typical SMR series, with tons of angst followed by waves of passion, followed by even more angst, and so forth. The sex scenes are numerous because the witches' magic is sex-based—very appropriate for a paranormal romance series. On top of the elaborate and complicated supernatural history between the hunters and the witches, the earth witches have complexities of their own, as each witch's magic depends the frequent opening of her chakras and her third eye. If you're not familiar with new age spirituality, you'll probably need to brush up on those concepts. If you love paranormal romances starring immortal warriors, go to my Creature Search page and scroll down to the "Immortal Warriors" list of series for even more possibilities.
Click HERE to go to the page on Lyon's web site where she provides a brief bio and a link to an "interview" with each WING SLAYER hero.
Here are some quotations from the series that explain some of the mythological concepts:
The Wing Slayer hunters' oath: "I vow my allegiance to Wing Slayer, god of the witch hunters. I take the ancient oath of protection for the innocent and justice for the damned. And I swear to fight the curse to my death." (included in most books in the scene in which a new hunter joins the Wing Slayers)
The Wing Slayer and his hunters: "The Wing Slayer had created the witch hunters to hunt and kill demon witches while protecting innocent earth witches. Because the Wing Slayer was half demon and half god, invoking his god powers required complete and total acknowledgement from his witch hunters that he was their god. The demon Asmodeus had his demon witches cast the curse to break the bond between the Wing Slayer and his hunters so he could gain power on earth. It had been working until the five of them [the Wing Slayer Hunters] recommitted to the Wing Slayer, reinstating his god powers." (Soul Magic, p. 3)
The importance of sex to the Wing Slayer hunters: "Sex was how the hunters controlled their compulsion for witch blood. If they gave in to the compulsion and killed a witch, they lost their souls and went rogue—living only for the next 'fix' of witch blood....Losing interest in sex meant the curse was getting a foothold...." (Soul Magic, p. 2)
Soul mirrors: "In the soul-mirror couples so far, the tattoos on the witch hunter came to life, giving the hunter real wings and acting as a kind of familiar for the witch and helping her control her high magic. The way to find out if they were soul mirrors was usually for the hunter to touch the witch's blood..." (Sinful Magic, p. 51)
The Wing Slayer and his hunters: "The Wing Slayer had created the witch hunters to hunt and kill demon witches while protecting innocent earth witches. Because the Wing Slayer was half demon and half god, invoking his god powers required complete and total acknowledgement from his witch hunters that he was their god. The demon Asmodeus had his demon witches cast the curse to break the bond between the Wing Slayer and his hunters so he could gain power on earth. It had been working until the five of them [the Wing Slayer Hunters] recommitted to the Wing Slayer, reinstating his god powers." (Soul Magic, p. 3)
The importance of sex to the Wing Slayer hunters: "Sex was how the hunters controlled their compulsion for witch blood. If they gave in to the compulsion and killed a witch, they lost their souls and went rogue—living only for the next 'fix' of witch blood....Losing interest in sex meant the curse was getting a foothold...." (Soul Magic, p. 2)
Soul mirrors: "In the soul-mirror couples so far, the tattoos on the witch hunter came to life, giving the hunter real wings and acting as a kind of familiar for the witch and helping her control her high magic. The way to find out if they were soul mirrors was usually for the hunter to touch the witch's blood..." (Sinful Magic, p. 51)
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
UPDATE! Laurie London's SWEETBLOOD Series
UPDATE!
I have just updated a previous post for Laurie London with a review of the newest book in her SWEETBLOOD series: Embraced by Blood.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Diana Rowland: WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE SERIES
Series: WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE
Plot Type: UF
Ratings: V4; S2; H3
Publisher and Titles: Daw
My Life as a White Trash Zombie (7/2011)
Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues (7/2012)
This blog entry was revised and updated on 8/6/12 to include a review of the second book in the series, Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues. That review comes first, followed by an overview of the world-building and a review of book 1:
BOOK 2: Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues
The author adds a great deal more to her zombie mythology in this book, explaining that these zombies were not created by a virus like many of the zombies we find in paranormal fiction, but by a parasite that uses prion proteins as building blocks. The process appears to be a surreal combination of vampirism and demon possession. A person must be on the verge of death when he or she is gnawed by another zombie, thus releasing parasitic spores into the new zombie's body. The full explanation of the process is quite lengthy and technical in nature and comes about half-way through this book.
The story line in book 2 follows Angel as she investigates a weird crime that gets her name plastered across the local newspapers in an extremely unflattering way. One day, after Angel brings the dead body of a security guard back to the morgue, a masked gunman ties her up and steals the body. Of course, nobody believes Angel's story, including her zombie boyfriend, Detective Marcus Ivanov, and his Uncle Pietro, the boss of the local zombie mob. Everyone still views Angel as the convicted felon/drug addict/alcoholic she was before she was zombified, so they are sure that the disappearance of the body is somehow Angel's fault. When Angel is suspended from her job, she is determined to prove her innocence by getting to the bottom of the case, and as she begins her investigation things get even more weird. When Angel traces the strange happenings back to the experimental laboratory where the dead man worked and died, she makes connections that lead back to her old nemesis, Ed Quinn, the zombie hunter who tried to kill Angel and Marcus in book 1. Let's just say that Angel ties up a lot of loose ends as she solves this case. Unfortunately, she also gets herself into a lot of dangerous trouble involving secret experiments, mysterious MIBs, and a series of double crosses and betrayals.
This is almost a police procedural—really a PI procedural—because the story follows Angel as she collects clues, spies on her suspects, pieces together the facts of the case, and eventually outsmarts the bad guys. Angel's relationship with Marcus gets fairly bumpy in this story because Marcus keeps underestimating Angel and questioning her level of intelligence. Does Marcus learn his lesson? We'll see in future books.
I enjoyed this book more than book 1. Now that the zombie mythology is fully delineated, many of my criticisms have been answered. Angel continues to develop as a character, becoming more independent and less fearful of the consequences of her new life. Getting an explanation of exactly how her zombiness works is as helpful to the reader as it is to Angel.
WORLD-BUILDING
In this world, zombies can heal themselves and give themselves super strength and speed if they regularly and frequently consume brains. If they miss a few days, however, they begin to fall apart in the familiar zombie way—strips of skin falling off, skin color turning gray, and rotting odor growing stronger and stronger. In book 1, the whole idea of the super-strength zombies and the healing powers of brains just didn’t work for me. It was as if the author took the traditional vampire mythology and forced in zombies as replacements for the vamps:
In this world, zombies can heal themselves and give themselves super strength and speed if they regularly and frequently consume brains. If they miss a few days, however, they begin to fall apart in the familiar zombie way—strips of skin falling off, skin color turning gray, and rotting odor growing stronger and stronger. In book 1, the whole idea of the super-strength zombies and the healing powers of brains just didn’t work for me. It was as if the author took the traditional vampire mythology and forced in zombies as replacements for the vamps:
Traditional Vampires…
> Are created by the bite of another vamp
> Must have human blood to maintain strength
> Attain super strength through excessive blood consumption
> Become mindless monsters without blood consumption
Rowland's Zombies…
> Are created by the bite of another zombie
> Must have human brains to maintain strength
> Attain super strength through excessive brain consumption
> Become mindless monsters without brain consumption
The idea of self-healing, super-strong, über-speedy zombies clashes with the inarguable fact that zombies are undead, rotting creatures—a reality that Rowland’s world-building absolutely denies. Another problem is that a number of upright citizens are walking around as zombies—and no one can tell that they are dead. Although she is herself a zombie, even Angel can’t tell a human from a zombie.
Note added after reading book 2: Although there are still a few points in the mythology that still need clearing up (like the zombies' inability to recognize a fellow zombie on sight—or smell), book 2 does clear up a lot of questions for me. The author builds the new information in as part of the plot, although it is presented in kind of an info-dump manner. Still, better to get all the details out there, one way or another.
Note added after reading book 2: Although there are still a few points in the mythology that still need clearing up (like the zombies' inability to recognize a fellow zombie on sight—or smell), book 2 does clear up a lot of questions for me. The author builds the new information in as part of the plot, although it is presented in kind of an info-dump manner. Still, better to get all the details out there, one way or another.
Book 1: My Life as a White Trash Zombie
This is a book that I wanted to love: great cover art and a terrifically inventive premise. Angel Crawford has always felt and acted like a loser, dropping out of school to lead a pill-popping, alcohol-fueled life. Having a mentally ill, suicidal mother and an alcoholic father hasn’t helped the situation. Currently, Angel is on parole for possessing a stolen car. As the story opens, Angel has just been picked up by the local police from the side of a country road—naked and full of drugs. She can’t remember anything about what happened that night. The next day, Angel receives an anonymous note telling her that she has a job in the county morgue and if she doesn’t show up and act right she will be going to jail. When Angel reports to work, she is surprised to find that she has no problem with the dead bodies, no matter what state of decomposition they are in. She is even more surprised that her stomach growls every time a brain is exposed during an autopsy. So…Angel seemingly has a new addiction: brrraaaaaaaains! Add in a cute police detective and a serial killer who chops off heads, and you have an imaginative new paranormal series. The major theme for book 1 is that Angel’s zombiness actually saves her life. By the end of the book, she has cleaned up her act and has become an upstanding citizen.
The serial killer plot thread sustained my interest right up until the killer was unveiled. The killer’s identity came out of left field, and not in a good way. In one short scene and with no real clues, Angel is suddenly able to spot the villain and charge in for the rescue. The suspenseful build-up was a lot better than the actual ending.
This is a book that I wanted to love: great cover art and a terrifically inventive premise. Angel Crawford has always felt and acted like a loser, dropping out of school to lead a pill-popping, alcohol-fueled life. Having a mentally ill, suicidal mother and an alcoholic father hasn’t helped the situation. Currently, Angel is on parole for possessing a stolen car. As the story opens, Angel has just been picked up by the local police from the side of a country road—naked and full of drugs. She can’t remember anything about what happened that night. The next day, Angel receives an anonymous note telling her that she has a job in the county morgue and if she doesn’t show up and act right she will be going to jail. When Angel reports to work, she is surprised to find that she has no problem with the dead bodies, no matter what state of decomposition they are in. She is even more surprised that her stomach growls every time a brain is exposed during an autopsy. So…Angel seemingly has a new addiction: brrraaaaaaaains! Add in a cute police detective and a serial killer who chops off heads, and you have an imaginative new paranormal series. The major theme for book 1 is that Angel’s zombiness actually saves her life. By the end of the book, she has cleaned up her act and has become an upstanding citizen.
Having said all this, I must confess that I really like Angel as a character. With her smart (and profane) mouth and her cynical take on life, she is both entertaining and heartbreaking—a girl who never had a chance for a “normal” life, and now never will. Her gradual metamorphosis into a compassionate and honorable young woman is a big part of the charm of the story. I’m looking forward to book 2 to see what’s next for Angel.
Here are a few quotations from book 1 to give you a feel for Angel's need for brains and how she deals with it:
Angel has her first brain cravings: "But I'd been craving brains. The smell was like chocolate and cookies and biscuits and gravy and everything else that was delicious It damn near drove me crazy every time I had to touch one. I'd been fighting the cravings the way I'd never fought the urge to take drugs or get drunk." (p. 56)
Angel's first brain snatch at the morgue: "I looked down at the organs swimming in the clear plastic bag. I didn't even fully remember..unzipping the body bag. A weird calm descended on me. I was really going to do this....I didn't look at any of the other organs. I wasn't grossed out by them; they simply held no interest for me. It was the segments of brain that held my attention....It looked like pieces of bread pudding that had been soaked in raspberry syrup." (pp. 65-66)
Angel gets creative with her brain smoothies: "I...started blending brains up with soup or fruit juice or chocolate milk—stuff that looked normal so that no one would freak out if they happened to open the cooler. I could fit half a brain and about a cup of soup or chocolate milk into each jar or water bottle, and so far it seemed that a jar or bottle every other day kept me from getting smelly." (p. 81)
Saturday, July 23, 2011
UPDATE! Alexis Morgan's PALADINS OF DARKNESS
I have just updated a previous blog entry for Alexis Morgan with a review of the seventh and eighth books in her PALADINS OF DARKNESS series: Bound by Darkness and The Darkness Beyond.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Kim Harrison: THE HOLLOWS GRAPHIC NOVELS
Ratings: V4; S2; H2
Publisher and Titles: Delrey
Blood Work (7/2011)
Blood Crime (10/2012)
As the story begins, Ivy is struggling on two fronts: Although the diabolical Piscary (Ivy's master vampire) continues trying to seduce her, she is defiantly refusing his advances. And then there's the allure of Rachel's blood, which calls to Ivy every time they are together. If Ivy takes Rachel's blood, though, she would be falling into Piscary's trap. As Ivy says, "Rachel was a living, breathing temptation handpicked by Piscary...in his attempt to break my blood fast and lure me back to his bed."
The plot involves two separate assassins, one who is after Ivy and one who has targeted Rachel. At first, the women don't realize that the threat against them is twofold, and Ivy suspects that Piscary is trying to kill Rachel to get her out of the way. As the attacks escalate, Ivy and Rachel must track down the perpatrators and figure out just what's going on.
For readers of the regular HOLLOWS series, this is an interesting look into Ivy's mind as she does her best to suppress her blood lust for Rachel. We saw this play out from Rachel's point of view in the early books of the regular series, but having an opportunity to see into Ivy's mixed-up mind is fascinating, particularly her complicated relationship with Piscary.
Kisten plays a tiny part in the story, but only as a one-dimensional character on the fringes of the action. I'm still not happy with Kisten's artwork. In the books, he is portrayed as a good-looking, sexy vampire, but here, his appearance is commonplace and not handsome or sexy at all.
The artwork is generally the same as in the previous book. The grey-white figures that shadow Piscary and Ivy add great effect as they act out the mental and emotional state of each character. In the analysis pages at the end of the book, there's a nice section that places a scene between Ivy and Piscary alongside Harrison's script for that scene. Harrison includes specific artwork instructions for the shadows as they act out Piscary's clawing at Ivy's soul and Ivy's near submission to Piscary's emotional attack. A page from Blood Work that shows Ivy's emotional shadow is included at the very end of this post.
I always get to the end of a graphic novel and want more—more story, more character development, more complications—but I realize that graphic novels by their very nature must be brief and to the point. This one does a nice job of interweaving the two assassination plots, introducing a surprisingly large number of characters, and providing a satisfying and relatively unpredictable resolution to both sets of conflicts.
As in book 1, this book includes behind-the-scenes sections at the end of the book: "About the Creators"; "Artist's Sketchbook"; and "From Script to Art." Here is the full crew of graphic artists for the book:
First, the story: This is a prequel novella that tells the story of Rachel and Ivy's first meeting from Ivy's point of view. It's nice to have Ivy back in the main story; she has been relegated to the background in recent books. As the story opens, Denon (the big jerk who is Ivy's boss at Inderland Security—aka IS) introduces vampire Ivy to her new partner, Rachel Morgan, a young earth witch. At first, Ivy is in full anti-Rachel mode, pegging Rachel as an ineffectual hindrance who will just slow Ivy down. Soon enough, though, Ivy becomes intrigued by Rachel's enthusiasm and her witchy powers—and drawn to her blood. The two make baby steps toward bonding as they track down some black witches who are draining werewolves for their powerful blood. All the way through the story, we see a man standing on the edge of several scenes, just watching. And on the very last page (in the Epilogue), we finally see that man reporting back to a partially drawn Trent (we see just his arm and his voice bubbles). Even way back then Trent was drawn to Rachel in a big way. For me, this back story on the Rachel-Ivy relationship is quite interesting, especially in light of their adventures in the print books. The last four pages of the book are given over to a Q&A session with Harrison about the creative process of putting this book together.
What's not so good about the story:
* The brevity—there's not much meat to it
Publisher and Titles: Delrey
Blood Work (7/2011)
Blood Crime (10/2012)
This post was revised and updated on 11/29/12 to include the second of the HOLLOWS graphic novels, Blood Crime. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the series and a review of book 1:
OVERVIEW
The HOLLOWS graphic novels are told from Ivy's point of view and they are set in the months before the regular series begins. Blood Work tells the story of the first uneasy meeting between Ivy and Rachel and follows the two on their first case together. Blood Crime deals with Ivy's growing attraction to Rachel and her delectable blood, an attraction that Ivy is trying desperately to ignore.
Click HERE to read my critique of the entire HOLLOWS series. Click HERE if you'd like to compare the artwork in the graphic novels to examples of Rachel Morgan fan art.
BOOK 2: Blood Crime
The plot involves two separate assassins, one who is after Ivy and one who has targeted Rachel. At first, the women don't realize that the threat against them is twofold, and Ivy suspects that Piscary is trying to kill Rachel to get her out of the way. As the attacks escalate, Ivy and Rachel must track down the perpatrators and figure out just what's going on.
For readers of the regular HOLLOWS series, this is an interesting look into Ivy's mind as she does her best to suppress her blood lust for Rachel. We saw this play out from Rachel's point of view in the early books of the regular series, but having an opportunity to see into Ivy's mixed-up mind is fascinating, particularly her complicated relationship with Piscary.
Kisten plays a tiny part in the story, but only as a one-dimensional character on the fringes of the action. I'm still not happy with Kisten's artwork. In the books, he is portrayed as a good-looking, sexy vampire, but here, his appearance is commonplace and not handsome or sexy at all.
The artwork is generally the same as in the previous book. The grey-white figures that shadow Piscary and Ivy add great effect as they act out the mental and emotional state of each character. In the analysis pages at the end of the book, there's a nice section that places a scene between Ivy and Piscary alongside Harrison's script for that scene. Harrison includes specific artwork instructions for the shadows as they act out Piscary's clawing at Ivy's soul and Ivy's near submission to Piscary's emotional attack. A page from Blood Work that shows Ivy's emotional shadow is included at the very end of this post.
I always get to the end of a graphic novel and want more—more story, more character development, more complications—but I realize that graphic novels by their very nature must be brief and to the point. This one does a nice job of interweaving the two assassination plots, introducing a surprisingly large number of characters, and providing a satisfying and relatively unpredictable resolution to both sets of conflicts.
As in book 1, this book includes behind-the-scenes sections at the end of the book: "About the Creators"; "Artist's Sketchbook"; and "From Script to Art." Here is the full crew of graphic artists for the book:
Illustrations: Gemma Magno
Colors and Lettering: Mae Hao
Design: Zach Matheny
BOOK 1: Blood Work
First, the story: This is a prequel novella that tells the story of Rachel and Ivy's first meeting from Ivy's point of view. It's nice to have Ivy back in the main story; she has been relegated to the background in recent books. As the story opens, Denon (the big jerk who is Ivy's boss at Inderland Security—aka IS) introduces vampire Ivy to her new partner, Rachel Morgan, a young earth witch. At first, Ivy is in full anti-Rachel mode, pegging Rachel as an ineffectual hindrance who will just slow Ivy down. Soon enough, though, Ivy becomes intrigued by Rachel's enthusiasm and her witchy powers—and drawn to her blood. The two make baby steps toward bonding as they track down some black witches who are draining werewolves for their powerful blood. All the way through the story, we see a man standing on the edge of several scenes, just watching. And on the very last page (in the Epilogue), we finally see that man reporting back to a partially drawn Trent (we see just his arm and his voice bubbles). Even way back then Trent was drawn to Rachel in a big way. For me, this back story on the Rachel-Ivy relationship is quite interesting, especially in light of their adventures in the print books. The last four pages of the book are given over to a Q&A session with Harrison about the creative process of putting this book together. 
What's good about the story:
* Having Ivy tell the story
* Seeing Kisten again (Have you missed him as much as I have?)
What's not so good about the story:
Now, the artwork:
Naturally enough, some of the characters don't look like the mental images I have created for myself—particularly Kisten. (I'm still broken hearted about his demise.) But that is always going to be true of a graphic novel based on a well-loved set of print characters. An interesting section at the end of the book (entitled "Artist's Sketchbook") shows Maia's initial sketches alongside Harrison's comments and corrections. Also included are Harrison's descriptions of all of the main characters: Rachel, Ivy, Kisten, Piscary, and Denon.
What's good about the artwork:
* Rachel (fairly close to my own mental image—except that her hair should be redder)
* Ivy "pulling an aura, or shadow" (ghostly, but full of energy) (See figure at right.)
* Piscary (he looks suitably fascinating, sexy, and lethal—why doesn't Kisten look this good?)
What's not so good about the artwork:
* Kisten (One reviewer on amazon.com said—and I agree—that he looks like the kid who mows my lawn.)
Here is the full crew of graphic artists for the book:
Pencillers: Pedro Maia, Gemma Magno
Inkers: Eman Casallos, Jan Michael T. Aldeguer, Jezreel Rojales
Colorists: P. C. Siqueira, Mae Hao
Inkers: Eman Casallos, Jan Michael T. Aldeguer, Jezreel Rojales
Colorists: P. C. Siqueira, Mae Hao
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Seressia Glass: SHADOWCHASERS
Author: Seressia Glass
Series: SHADOWCHASERS (UF)
Ratings: V3; S2-3; H2
Publisher and Titles: Pocket
Shadow Blade (2010)
Shadow Chase (2010)
Shadow Fall (2011)
"The Majestic, " short story in The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2 (2010) (Rinna & Bale's story)
In Shadow Chase, Kira and Khefar head for London to pay a last tribute to Bernie Comstock, but they are sidetracked by a vision in which Ma'at and Isis charge them with retrieving a stolen amphora and returning it to the god Nun. In the urn isn't returned quickly enough, the Nile River will flood and cover the entire earth with endless depths of water. In other plot threads, Kira learns a great deal more about her parents and about her genetic heritage, and she and Khefar become lovers.
Based on book 1, I have to say that this is a mediocre series—not bad, but certainly not great. Kira's character doesn't feel fully developed. Although she has many angst-filled interior monologues, they are unenlightening, and so whiny that they are more annoying than revealing. Kira's relationship with Khefar lacks passion and deep emotion, perhaps because his character is relatively one-dimensional. Khefar spends most of his time in a perpetual scowl, while Kira makes one egocentric decision after another, as if she is the only person on earth who can save the world—an unfortunate characteristic common to many UF heroines. For me, the most interesting character is Anansi, the trickster demigod. He, at least, has a multifaceted personality—full of humor, compassion, cunning, and solicitude.
In Shadow Fall, Kira gets in touch with her Shadow side when an Egyptian museum exhibit goes horribly wrong. Ever since Kira absorbed Shadow power during the climactic battle in the previous book, both she and Khefar have worried that her Shadow side will grow stronger than her Light side. Recently, Kira has been having nightmares in which the evil god Set and the Lady of Sorrows (Myshael) try to force her to submit to them and do their bidding. They call Kira "daughter" and tell her to give in to her dark Shadow heritage. In the meantime, Balm sends Kira a mysterious box containing letters and a necklace that belonged to Kira's mother, and when Kira examines them, she learns the shocking circumstances of her conception and birth. When the Shadow forces cause innocents (including Kira's BFF, Wynne) to fall into comas after visiting the Egyptian exhibit, Kira and Khefar take a stand against Set, Myshael, and Marit (their Shadow opponent from book 1). As the book ends, Kira begins to accept the fact that she will never be rid of her Shadow side, so she must maintain a balance between the Shadow and Light sides of of soul.
In this book, Khefar has stopped scowling all the time, and we learn a bit more of his history, so at least his character becomes more developed. Kira continues to be mostly mouthy, and she has one of the most ridiculous I-feel-so-guilty moments that I've seen recently.
Here's the set up: Wynne has been rushed to the hospital in a coma of unknown origin, and Kira and Khefar have just arrived to see what's going on. At this point in time, no one knows what's wrong with Wynne and no one knows that others have fallen ill as well. Here is the quotation: "Tension hung on Kira like armor. Khefar saw the set of her shoulders and knew she blamed herself. It didn't matter that they had no idea what had happened to Wynne Marlowe. All that mattered to Kira was that her friend had fallen ill and she hadn't been there to prevent it." (pp. 212-213) Wow! Wynne could be ill from any number of natural or magical causes, but Kira immediately takes full responsibility and assumes all guilt for Wynne's condition without a single fact on which to base her misguided conclusions. It takes a mighty big ego to believe that you, and you alone, are responsible for the health issues of all of your friends. This tendency for illogical, all-consuming guilt is a chronic problem with many paranormal heroines, and I find it annoying that authors create such absurd, irrational protagonists. It's like they have a psychotically exaggerated earth mother complex. Also part of that scene is an implausible confrontation between Zoo and Kira in which Zoo blames Kira for causing Wynne's illness with her magic. This is totally preposterous because Wynne is Kira's best friend in life, and it is obvious to everyone that Kira would never harm Wynne. I'm sure that the author is going to use the distrust between Zoo and Kira for some type of plot thread in the next book, but she should have set it up in a much more believable manner. So...still not enjoying the series very much.
This blog entry was last updated 8/14/11.
Series: SHADOWCHASERS (UF)
Ratings: V3; S2-3; H2
Publisher and Titles: Pocket
Shadow Blade (2010)
Shadow Chase (2010)
Shadow Fall (2011)
"The Majestic, " short story in The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2 (2010) (Rinna & Bale's story)
This blog entry was updated (8/14/11) with the addition of a review of the third book in the series: Shadow Fall.
The mythology in this series is centered on ancient Egyptian goddesses, particularly Ma'at (goddess of truth, balance, and order) and Isis (goddess of nature and magic). The theme of the series is the balance between light and dark, order and chaos. The series heroine, Kira Solomon, is a Shadowchaser who protects humankind by battling various demonic (aka Shadow) forces. Kira uses her psychometric talents and her fiery power to track down and defeat various Shadow spirits, particularly the Fallen, whose spirits can possess human bodies and turn those bodies into Avatars (aka possessed bodies). Kira is the Shadowchaser protector of Atlanta, where she reports to a Section Chief of the Gilead Commission. Kira became a part of Gilead when she was twelve years old. Like many UF heroines, Kara was adopted, and she doesn't know the identities of her biological parents. Her adoptive parents dropped her off at the Gilead when her powers erupted at the start of puberty. Those powers can drain the life force from any person she touches, so Kira must wear gloves at all times, unless she is facing an enemy. The Shadowchasers could be called the Special Ops troops of Gilead's enforcers.
Here's a quotation from Shadow Blade explaining the role of Shadowchasers: "Shadowchasers were sent in when upper echelon Shadow creatures attempted to disrupt the Universal Balance and tip the world into Shadow and Chaos, usually in ways that involved high body counts." (p. 11)
One of the weirdest things about the series is the name of the person who heads the Gilead Commission. She is called Balm (as in Balm of Gilead, from the spiritual and the bible verse). Balm is Kira's surrogate mother and protector as well as being the leader of Gilead. As Kira says at one point, "There has always been a Balm in Gilead...." (Shadow Chase, p. 154) To me, it just seems very strange to name a character "Balm of Gilead."
As a side job, Kira is a freelance antiquities expert who also collects a variety of ancient objects and texts. As Shadow Blade opens, Kira's mentor (Bernie Comstock) has brought her an ancient, magic-infused dagger to identify. When Bernie is murdered by a demon sent by a Fallen who wants the dagger, Kira vows to avenge his death. Shortly thereafter, the owner of the dagger turns up: a 4,000-year-old Nubian warrior who has the ability to come back from the dead—over and over again. Naturally enough, Khefar is tall, dark, and handsome. (Isn't that always the case with these ancient immortal warriors?) After a rough start, Kira and Khefar team up to go after the Fallen who is responsible for Bernie's death. They are aided by Khefar's traveling buddy, the West African trickster demigod, Anansi (aka Nansi or Nansee). Also assisting are Kira's two best friends, both human, who are weapons experts: Wynne, a metalsmith, and her husband Zeroun (aka Zoo), a witch. By the end of the book, the dark forces have gone down in defeat, but they have left a bit of themselves within Kira.
************************************
In Shadow Chase, Kira and Khefar head for London to pay a last tribute to Bernie Comstock, but they are sidetracked by a vision in which Ma'at and Isis charge them with retrieving a stolen amphora and returning it to the god Nun. In the urn isn't returned quickly enough, the Nile River will flood and cover the entire earth with endless depths of water. In other plot threads, Kira learns a great deal more about her parents and about her genetic heritage, and she and Khefar become lovers.
Based on book 1, I have to say that this is a mediocre series—not bad, but certainly not great. Kira's character doesn't feel fully developed. Although she has many angst-filled interior monologues, they are unenlightening, and so whiny that they are more annoying than revealing. Kira's relationship with Khefar lacks passion and deep emotion, perhaps because his character is relatively one-dimensional. Khefar spends most of his time in a perpetual scowl, while Kira makes one egocentric decision after another, as if she is the only person on earth who can save the world—an unfortunate characteristic common to many UF heroines. For me, the most interesting character is Anansi, the trickster demigod. He, at least, has a multifaceted personality—full of humor, compassion, cunning, and solicitude.
************************************
In this book, Khefar has stopped scowling all the time, and we learn a bit more of his history, so at least his character becomes more developed. Kira continues to be mostly mouthy, and she has one of the most ridiculous I-feel-so-guilty moments that I've seen recently.
Here's the set up: Wynne has been rushed to the hospital in a coma of unknown origin, and Kira and Khefar have just arrived to see what's going on. At this point in time, no one knows what's wrong with Wynne and no one knows that others have fallen ill as well. Here is the quotation: "Tension hung on Kira like armor. Khefar saw the set of her shoulders and knew she blamed herself. It didn't matter that they had no idea what had happened to Wynne Marlowe. All that mattered to Kira was that her friend had fallen ill and she hadn't been there to prevent it." (pp. 212-213) Wow! Wynne could be ill from any number of natural or magical causes, but Kira immediately takes full responsibility and assumes all guilt for Wynne's condition without a single fact on which to base her misguided conclusions. It takes a mighty big ego to believe that you, and you alone, are responsible for the health issues of all of your friends. This tendency for illogical, all-consuming guilt is a chronic problem with many paranormal heroines, and I find it annoying that authors create such absurd, irrational protagonists. It's like they have a psychotically exaggerated earth mother complex. Also part of that scene is an implausible confrontation between Zoo and Kira in which Zoo blames Kira for causing Wynne's illness with her magic. This is totally preposterous because Wynne is Kira's best friend in life, and it is obvious to everyone that Kira would never harm Wynne. I'm sure that the author is going to use the distrust between Zoo and Kira for some type of plot thread in the next book, but she should have set it up in a much more believable manner. So...still not enjoying the series very much.
Click HERE for links to excerpts from the three books. Click HERE for profiles of the main characters in the series.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Darynda Jones: CHARLEY DAVIDSON/GRAVES SERIES
Author: Darynda Jones
Series: CHARLEY DAVIDSON/GRAVES
Plot Type: Paranormal Chick Lit Sit Com with Overtones of Suspense and Horror
Plot Type: Paranormal Chick Lit Sit Com with Overtones of Suspense and Horror
Ratings: V4; S4; H4
Publisher and Titles: St. Martin's
First Grave on the Right (2/2011)
Second Grave on the Left (7/2011)
"For I Have Sinned" (e-book novella, 7/2011)
Third Grave Dead Ahead (1/2012)
Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet (10/2012)
Fifth Grave Past the Light (7/2013)
Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet (10/2012)
Fifth Grave Past the Light (7/2013)
This post was revised and updated on 12/14/12 to include a review of the fourth book in the series: Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the world-building and reviews of books 1, 2, and 3 and the novella:
Meanwhile, Charley is angry with Reyes because she believes that he used her as bait to flush out Earl. She's also furious with her father for having her arrested while she was in the hospital recovering from her extremely severe injuries. (To review: Charley's father and step-mother have treated Charley horribly all her life—her stepmother abusing her and her father overlooking that abuse but using Charley's supernatural talents to his own advantage. They are truly reprehensible human beings.)
The primary reason that Charley's life is tied into knots is her overwhelming fear. She can't sleep; she keeps imagining that someone is breaking in; she's afraid to go outside her apartment; and she keeps the biggest pile of unopened boxes stacked over the chair and the bloodstained carpet in the exact spot that Earl tied her up and took a knife to her body. In this book, Charley is definitely not the fearless badass that she has been previous books. This time around, she is drowning in sweat-soaked terror, and, unfortunately for Charley, demons are attracted to fear like kittens to catnip. One demon takes a whiff of Charley and tells her that he enjoys being "close enough to you to taste the sweetness of fear wafting off your flesh." (p. 163)
One day when Charley is gazing out of her window, she catches a glimpse of Reyes lurking around her apartment building, and this gives her the incentive to confront him. To her dismay, she learns that he has been fighting off a growing group of demons, all of whom are after her. Charley makes peace (of a sort) with Reyes when he claims that he had no idea that Earl would go after her—and, after all, he did rescue her then, just as he has for all the years of her life.
In the midst of all this, Charley gets a new client: Harper Lowell, who claims that someone has been harassing her for a very long time—leaving dead rabbits in her bed, cutting the brake lines of her car, and taking other dangerous, stalkerish actions against her. I have to admit that I never saw the outcome of this story line coming—it was a complete surprise to me, so I'd better not say anything more or I'll spoil it for you. (When I first realized what was going on, I said, "Oh no—no way!" but after I reread some of the scenes, I calmed down and accepted that the author had really pulled off this bit of suspense in a very neat and unpredictable manner.)
Aside from the tidal wave of feather-brained one-liners that pour forth from Charley like a waterfall, this book moves along quite well, right up to the point that it collides full speed with a bizarre sub-plot that involves bank robbers and Charley's biker friends (the ones who own Charley's favorite deserted insane asylum and whose leader is one of Charley's lust interests). This story line is forced awkwardly into the middle of the real plot because the author needed to make a few things happen in the real plot and apparently couldn't think of a better way to do it.
Most of the obvious conflict is resolved, but the demons are still out there, and they are still focused on Charley. To add to Charley's mixed feelings about Reyes, Charley's frenemy, Garrett Swope, who had a near-death experience in the previous book, has some wild news for Charley about just where he wandered while he was "dead." Garrett's new information fuels his openly hostile feelings for Reyes, and that situation will certainly play out in a future book. In one scene midway through the book, Charley finally pries some information from Reyes about her real family history and her potential powers, and Reyes even explains why he keeps calling her "Dutch."
Once again, Charley's "humorous" narration is so annoying as to be distracting. I mean, really, who names their body parts? Well, Charley does: her breasts (Danger and Will Robinson); her brain (Barbara); her skull (Fred)—not to mention Virginia (and I'll let you guess which part that is). Here's a bit of dialogue that provides an example of how confusing this can be:
Looking at the British paperback cover (at left), one might assume that the publisher is going for the urban fantasy market, but with its many girlfriend moments, snarky interior monologues, and hyperactive coffee schtick, this series is definitely chick lit, not urban fantasy. The girly, sparkly-shoes U.S. cover art for book 1 (at right) is right on the mark.
BOOK 4: Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet
The story opens two months after Charley's horrific torture at the hands of Earl Walker, Reyes' abusive, psychotic, human "father," and she is suffering from PTSD, which has manifested as agoraphobia. For Charley, this means staying inside her apartment in front of her TV, remote in one hand, telephone in the other, and eyes focused on the Home Shopping Network. Her small apartment is stacked full of mostly unopened "stuff," and her friends and family are concerned about her mental health. Cookie is also concerned about Charley's financial health because Charley hasn't done any investigation work all during this recovery time.
Meanwhile, Charley is angry with Reyes because she believes that he used her as bait to flush out Earl. She's also furious with her father for having her arrested while she was in the hospital recovering from her extremely severe injuries. (To review: Charley's father and step-mother have treated Charley horribly all her life—her stepmother abusing her and her father overlooking that abuse but using Charley's supernatural talents to his own advantage. They are truly reprehensible human beings.)
One day when Charley is gazing out of her window, she catches a glimpse of Reyes lurking around her apartment building, and this gives her the incentive to confront him. To her dismay, she learns that he has been fighting off a growing group of demons, all of whom are after her. Charley makes peace (of a sort) with Reyes when he claims that he had no idea that Earl would go after her—and, after all, he did rescue her then, just as he has for all the years of her life.
In the midst of all this, Charley gets a new client: Harper Lowell, who claims that someone has been harassing her for a very long time—leaving dead rabbits in her bed, cutting the brake lines of her car, and taking other dangerous, stalkerish actions against her. I have to admit that I never saw the outcome of this story line coming—it was a complete surprise to me, so I'd better not say anything more or I'll spoil it for you. (When I first realized what was going on, I said, "Oh no—no way!" but after I reread some of the scenes, I calmed down and accepted that the author had really pulled off this bit of suspense in a very neat and unpredictable manner.)
Aside from the tidal wave of feather-brained one-liners that pour forth from Charley like a waterfall, this book moves along quite well, right up to the point that it collides full speed with a bizarre sub-plot that involves bank robbers and Charley's biker friends (the ones who own Charley's favorite deserted insane asylum and whose leader is one of Charley's lust interests). This story line is forced awkwardly into the middle of the real plot because the author needed to make a few things happen in the real plot and apparently couldn't think of a better way to do it.
Most of the obvious conflict is resolved, but the demons are still out there, and they are still focused on Charley. To add to Charley's mixed feelings about Reyes, Charley's frenemy, Garrett Swope, who had a near-death experience in the previous book, has some wild news for Charley about just where he wandered while he was "dead." Garrett's new information fuels his openly hostile feelings for Reyes, and that situation will certainly play out in a future book. In one scene midway through the book, Charley finally pries some information from Reyes about her real family history and her potential powers, and Reyes even explains why he keeps calling her "Dutch."
Once again, Charley's "humorous" narration is so annoying as to be distracting. I mean, really, who names their body parts? Well, Charley does: her breasts (Danger and Will Robinson); her brain (Barbara); her skull (Fred)—not to mention Virginia (and I'll let you guess which part that is). Here's a bit of dialogue that provides an example of how confusing this can be:
"Now, where do you suppose her heart is?" her counterpart asked.
Betty White? She was going for Betty?
Instinctively, my hands shot up to cover her. She was so fragile. So vulnerable. And [someone] wanted to jab her with an ice pick? Not on my watch. (p. 274)
Did you figure out who "Betty White" is? Yes, she is Charley's heart. And how romantic is this lust scene between Charley and Reyes as Charley continues to name her womanly parts, even in the throes of passion: "...my bra hung unfastened and he cupped Danger in his palm....he kneeled beside me and took Will's peak into his blistering mouth..." (pp. 253-254) Unbelievably silly!
The paperback version of Fourth Grave will be published in March 2013. Click HERE to read a lengthy excerpt (the first three chapters).
WORLD-BUILDING
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| U.K. COVER |
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| U.S. COVER |
This world contains no vampires, werewolves, or demons. The series is set in modern-day Albuquerque, where Charlotte (Charley) Davidson has a human job as a private investigator and a supernatural job as the Grim Reaper. Yes, Charley is the one and only Reaper—a bright and shining presence that attracts stray ghostly spirits so that they can go into her light and then advance toward whatever befalls them in the afterworld. When Charley was born (and she remembers every minute of that day—and all the subsequent days thereafter), a dark figure was there telling her what was expected from her in her Reaper job. Charley's been helping the dead ever since, and as you can imagine, this hasn't been easy. Few people in her life know who—or what—she really is. Most just think that she's a little nutty. Charley's Dad, an ex-cop, and her Uncle Bob, still a cop, have always relied on Charley to help them solve cases. They got the credit for catching the murderers, but it was Charley who actually tracked down the bad guys. Supporting characters include Charley's fashion-challenged secretary, Cookie, and another private investigator (and nemesis), Garrett Swope. Garrett would like to be more than Charley's associate, but so far he and Charley spend most of their time bickering and trying to one-up each other.
BOOK 1: First Grave on the Right Charley has been having sensual dreams about a tall, dark, handsome, and very seductive man who murmurs, "Dutch," as he turns her dreams into erotic hallucinations. Right in the middle of one of those wet dreams, Charley gets a call from Uncle Bob that he has two new murders to solve. When that turns into three murders, with all of the victims being partners in a local law firm, Charley interviews the ghostly lawyers and begins her investigation. All through this book, Charley is being beaten up, thrown about, threatened, and abused by various villains. Her face is a continuously color-changing kaleidoscope of blackened eyes and purple-to-green-to-yellow bruises. As Charley continues to get to the bottom of the murder case, she is also trying to discover the identity of her dream lover. She needs to know how he is connected to the dark entity that she remembers from her birth, who has helped her escape death several times during her life. Who is this guy and why is Charley unable to resist him? Why does he call her "Dutch"? Most of these questions are answered by the end of the book, but even more questions are raised—to be answered in books 2 and 3.
Charley is a likable enough character, and the supporting characters are relatively well developed. What bothered me about First Grave on the Right was the profusion of incessant, wisecracking, trying-to-be-cute patter, both in Charley's extensive interior monologues and in her conversations with other characters. The level of over-the-top, manic, smart-mouthed chitchat is way too high. If Jones had dialed back a few notches on the one-liners and dropped a few of the too-many plot threads, the story would have been much stronger. For the most part, the plot in book 1 is well laid out, although there are a few instances in which Charley makes huge leaps of logic based on clues that seem to pop out of the woodwork. There is one major problem with the character of Garrett. He is supposed to be a private investigator, but he goes along on police raids and even drives an unmarked police car, neither of which seems logical. I hope that Jones cleans this up in future books because this stumble in characterization definitely interferes with the interesting relationship between Charley and Garrett.
BOOK 2: Second Grave on the Left
Charley's newest PI case involves the disappearance of Cookie's friend, Mimi. As Charley tries to track down Mimi, she discovers that a number of people related to Mimi's past have turned up dead in recent weeks. Then, she is visited by two different groups of men who are also searching for Mimi, and they want Charley to walk away from the case.
BOOK 2: Second Grave on the Left
Charley's newest PI case involves the disappearance of Cookie's friend, Mimi. As Charley tries to track down Mimi, she discovers that a number of people related to Mimi's past have turned up dead in recent weeks. Then, she is visited by two different groups of men who are also searching for Mimi, and they want Charley to walk away from the case. Charley now knows the identity, of her supernatural lover. He is Reyes Alexander Farrow (aka Rey'aziel, Son of Satan). Reyes' physical body is supposed to be in prison serving a ten-year sentence for killing his no-good, abusive father, but suddenly he disappears from his cell. Charley has trouble concentrating on her search for Mimi when the ethereal version of Reyes shows up to tell her that his physical body is trapped by a horde of demons who hope to lure Charley to his side so that they can use her as a portal to heaven—a really bad idea. By the time the whole demon situation is cleared up, Reyes has made up his mind to let his mortal body die because he thinks that it makes him too vulnerable, thus putting Charley in danger. Charley, of course, begs to differ because she really likes that body! As the plot climaxes, we learn the secret behind Mimi's disappearance and the true reason why Reyes is so afraid of the demon entrapment.
The overload of sardonic wisecracks is still in evidence, particularly in the first chapter, but by the time the story gets going, the jests and smart-alecky comebacks slack off a bit—thank heavens. Jones writes some sparkling lines, but they are often lost in the deluge of wannabe hilarity. Charley's scenes with Reyes frequently follow some of these "humorous" dialogues, and when this occurs, the humor immediately switches off and the sappiness kicks in. For example, in Chapter 3, as Charley unwillingly shares her shower with the spirit of a dead homeless man, she says things like, "This is one Froot Loop beyond certifiable." Paragraphs later, when Reyes shows up at the end of that same shower scene, Charley completely loses her sense of humor as she looks at him and thinks, "He was like the desert, stark and beautiful, harsh and unforgiving, with the promise of treasure behind every dune, the allure of water hidden just beneath the surface." That schmaltzy line is so over-the-top that I'm still not sure if it was another attempt at humor or if she was really serious.
I did like this book better than book 1, so I'll keep reading. Second Grave ends with a cliffhanger regarding the Charley-Reyes relationship, and I'm curious to see where that is headed, particularly since Garrett Swope appears to be ready to step up (in a romantic way) at any time. Click HERE to read some deleted scenes from the first two books.
BOOK 3: Third Grave Dead Ahead
At the end of the previous book, Charley bound Reyes to his physical body because he had threatened to kill that body to protect Charley. Charley now realizes that she shouldn't have bound Reyes, but she has been unable to break the binding. When Charley visits Reyes and continues to trust him enough to unbind him, Reyes breaks out of prison. He kidnaps Charley and tells her that his father, whom he supposedly murdered, is not dead and that Charley must track him down. He also hints that Charley has powers that she must learn to unleash and that more trouble is ahead with the demons from the previous book. Reyes' brutal treatment of Charley (both emotionally and physically) underscores his demonic side.
Meanwhile, Charley has her own case to solve. A prominent doctor's wife is missing, and he wants Charley to find her. Since Charley can read people's feelings, she is certain that the doctor's weird emotions signal that he is somehow involved with his wife's disappearance. She decides to take the case but turn the tables on him by proving his guilt. As Charley begins her investigation, her father demands that she quit the PI business. When she refuses, she unhappily realizes that she suddenly has a permanent escort—Garrett Swope and his staff—who are shadowing her everywhere she goes. The plot follows Charley as she tries to find both of her missing persons: Reyes' father and the doctor's wife. As it turns out, Reyes' father doesn't want to be found, and he has no compunctions about using murder as a means of stopping Charley's investigation.
One last plot thread involves the biker gang who now owns the abandoned insane asylum inhabited by Rocket, the ghost who can tell Charley the names of dead people. Someone has poisoned their dogs, and they want Charley to find the villain. By the end, Charley has a deeper relationship with one of the dogs (Artemis) than she could ever imagine. She also shares a few kisses with Donovan, the biker gang leader. (Charley has never been shy about the fact that she is physically attracted to good-looking men, and that seems to include gangbangers.)
Once again, Charley gets slashed, beaten up, and generally punched around, once by Reyes. Her semi-romantic relationships with the men in her life, now numbering three (Reyes, Garrett, and Donovan) are getting more and more complicated. Her relationship with her father has turned poisonous, due to his latest unforgivable actions against her. The ending of this book has a few giant holes (e.g., Why does Charley accept indirect responsibility for a dog's death when she had absolutely nothing to do with it? How can a friend of hers be declared dead and then wake up two days later?)
I've given up on criticizing the over-the-top one-liners and silly situations that are crammed into each book. Luckily, they thin out as the action increases. The inventive story lines are compelling, and you won't want to stop reading once Charley gets into the thick of things. At the end of this book, Charley finally does unleash some of her power, which should serve her well if and when the looming demon war does occur—as Reyes predicts it will.
NOVELLA: "For I Have Sinned"
This story is told from the point of view of a dead woman who shows up in Charley's bedroom in the middle of the night with no memory of her identity or of how she died. After Charley asks a few questions and checks with a few contacts, she quickly figures out what probably happened. Then Charley gently leads the woman into a gradual realization of the circumstances of her life—and her death. This is a sweetly emotional story that plays down Charley's usual wisecracking comments and shows us her softer side. Reyes pops up a few times, and he is also nicer than usual. The primary value of this story is to point out that Charley has more depth than is evident in the novels.
BOOK 3: Third Grave Dead Ahead
At the end of the previous book, Charley bound Reyes to his physical body because he had threatened to kill that body to protect Charley. Charley now realizes that she shouldn't have bound Reyes, but she has been unable to break the binding. When Charley visits Reyes and continues to trust him enough to unbind him, Reyes breaks out of prison. He kidnaps Charley and tells her that his father, whom he supposedly murdered, is not dead and that Charley must track him down. He also hints that Charley has powers that she must learn to unleash and that more trouble is ahead with the demons from the previous book. Reyes' brutal treatment of Charley (both emotionally and physically) underscores his demonic side.Meanwhile, Charley has her own case to solve. A prominent doctor's wife is missing, and he wants Charley to find her. Since Charley can read people's feelings, she is certain that the doctor's weird emotions signal that he is somehow involved with his wife's disappearance. She decides to take the case but turn the tables on him by proving his guilt. As Charley begins her investigation, her father demands that she quit the PI business. When she refuses, she unhappily realizes that she suddenly has a permanent escort—Garrett Swope and his staff—who are shadowing her everywhere she goes. The plot follows Charley as she tries to find both of her missing persons: Reyes' father and the doctor's wife. As it turns out, Reyes' father doesn't want to be found, and he has no compunctions about using murder as a means of stopping Charley's investigation.
One last plot thread involves the biker gang who now owns the abandoned insane asylum inhabited by Rocket, the ghost who can tell Charley the names of dead people. Someone has poisoned their dogs, and they want Charley to find the villain. By the end, Charley has a deeper relationship with one of the dogs (Artemis) than she could ever imagine. She also shares a few kisses with Donovan, the biker gang leader. (Charley has never been shy about the fact that she is physically attracted to good-looking men, and that seems to include gangbangers.)
Once again, Charley gets slashed, beaten up, and generally punched around, once by Reyes. Her semi-romantic relationships with the men in her life, now numbering three (Reyes, Garrett, and Donovan) are getting more and more complicated. Her relationship with her father has turned poisonous, due to his latest unforgivable actions against her. The ending of this book has a few giant holes (e.g., Why does Charley accept indirect responsibility for a dog's death when she had absolutely nothing to do with it? How can a friend of hers be declared dead and then wake up two days later?)
I've given up on criticizing the over-the-top one-liners and silly situations that are crammed into each book. Luckily, they thin out as the action increases. The inventive story lines are compelling, and you won't want to stop reading once Charley gets into the thick of things. At the end of this book, Charley finally does unleash some of her power, which should serve her well if and when the looming demon war does occur—as Reyes predicts it will.
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