Spells of Blood and Kin: A Dark Fantasy is author Claire Humphrey’s first full-length novel. According to Amazon, her short fiction has appeared in a number of publications and I can’t help but think that I would have this a lot more if it had been written as a short story or a novella. There…
Fire Touched is the 9th book in Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, so if you have not read the previous books in this urban fantasy series, you need to just download the previous eight right now. They are that good. I was in a historical romance reading slump when I happened upon Ilona Andrews’ Kate…
Over the years, Kim Harrison’s name has come up numerous times in conversations about urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Admittedly, I didn’t pay a lot of attention since the synopsis of the first book in The Hollows seemed kind of fluffy, not something I’d care much about. Then, The Drafter was published, and I took…
A combination of urban fantasy, alternate history, and paranormal romance (minus the werewolves or vampires), Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews marks the first in a new series following an in-debt private investigator attempting to negotiate a world where her targets possess magical powers. For some quick background, in 1863, scientists discovered a serum that…
When an angel must assemble a team of fighters for the side of good in a battle between good versus evil, she does not choose the good guys. Instead, she picks those cut from a more morally ambiguous cloth. And so begins a new series starring The Baddest Boys in History. Erik, also known as…
Lorenda Christensen is back with the second entry in her DRACIM series, and I found Dancing With Dragons even stronger than its predecessor. Picking up right where Never Deal With Dragons left off, this installment follows Carol Jenski, a secondary character from the first book, on a snarky and romantic adventure of her own. In…
So there is this thing called “show, don’t tell” – one of the first things you learn about good writing. In the end, it is really more about balance than anything else, but the basic idea behind it is to not have large blocks of “let me tell you about this thing that happened/is happening/will…
Let me start this review by saying I enjoy most of Ann Aguirre’s work, as herself and under a couple of pseudonyms. I volunteered to review Agave Kiss, as I have been saving this series as a gift for myself. Hoping to be current before reviewing this last book, I sat down with book one…
Anne Bishop can always be relied upon for excellent prose and wildly creative worldbuilding. Written in Red does feature both. Unfortunately, the characters and plot aren’t strong, and the romance is (deliberately) nonexistent. I’ve read enough better fantasy, often by Bishop herself, not to recommend this book even as a non-romance, but later books in…
This is the first in the author’s Necessary Evil series featuring Kate O’Hara. I didn’t find the hero particularly likeable, but liked Kate, and some of the secondary characters, a great deal. On the strength of that I can give Temping is Hell a qualified recommendation. Kate O’Hara lost her job at her uncle’s publishing…