River Marked (2011) Patricia Briggs Things are going well for Mercy–except for the fact that her mother is driving her absolutely crazy with details for her upcoming wedding, which drives Mercy to beg Adam to elope, before things get even more out of hand. But can the Alpha of the Columbia River basin really get [...]
Raven Cursed (2012) Faith Hunter Jane Yellowrock is back in Asheville, NC, providing security for a vampire meeting. Lincoln Shaddock wants to lead his own clan, and has petitioned Leo Pellisser for that right. Shaddock’s ability to shorten the time of devoveo has made him a power, and so Lincoln must decide if he deserves [...]
Cat Tales: Four Stories from the World of Jane Yellowrock (2011) Faith Hunter These are (as the title suggests) four stories in Jane Yellowrock’s world.Three of the four stories feature Jane–the is Rick’s story of how he got his tats and came to work for the vampires. The first story, “The Early Years” is very [...]
Something Wikkid This Way Comes (2012) Nicole Peeler This is a novella set in the same world as her Jane True series, but with a different group of characters, and set in Illinois. Capitola, Moo, and Shar are the halfling detectives. Normally, they only take supernatural cases, but when Capitola’s father shows up at their [...]
Roadkill (2010) Rob Thurman I’ve got one book left and then I’m all caught up on the Cal Leandros series. In a way, that’s a good thing, because I have a huge to-read pile. But mostly it’s sad, because I love spending time in this world. As I reread these books, I keep coming upon [...]
Deathwish (2009) Rob Thurman Yeah, still can’t stop reading the Cal Leandros books. Deathwish is the fourth book, and even better than the previous three. Which are damned good. Unlike the previous stories, in Deathwish, each chapter alternates between Cal and Niko’s point of view. In this I like not only the perspective of Cal [...]
Madhouse (2008) Rob Thurman I have a huge To Be Read pile, yet I can’t stop rereading this series. This book starts off with Cal and Niko working on a kidnapping case. Cal–who is still pretty high strung (justifiably)–hates kidnapping cases, so there probably isn’t much chance things are going to go well. So of [...]
Moonshine (2007) Rob Thurman Yup. Another re-read. I’ve been out of sorts, so a re-read of a favorite series is always good for helping my mood–or at least drawing me out of myself to forget about what’s bothering me. This is the second Cal Leandros book, and it’s even better than the first. Niko and [...]
Magic Gifts (2011) Ilona Andrews I actually finished this a couple weeks ago, but somehow forgot to write about it. For Christmas, the husband and wife team of Ilona Andrews made a novella, Magic Gifts, available for download from the website for a limited time. I of course downloaded it and once I figured out [...]
Nightlife (2006) Rob Thurman This is a reread, because I was talking about it to someone else, and I just couldn’t resist going back to the start of this series. There are so many things I love about this book, and this series. First and foremost, is the relationship between Cal and Niko. “You should [...]
A Hard Day’s Knight (2011) Simon R. Green Walker is dead. Long live Walker. Because now John Taylor is Walker, and now it is his job to keep order (of a sorts) in Nightside. Unfortunately for him, someone has decided it’s time for Excalibur to make a reappearance in the world–and he needs to be [...]
Dracula in London (2004) edited by P.N. Elrod I give up. After six months I’m about three-quarters of the way through, and haven’t enjoyed one single story I’ve read. I generally like P.N. Elrod’s stories, and I’ve read several other anthologies she has edited, all of which I’ve enjoyed, but these stories? No. Yuck. One [...]
Fate’s Edge (2011) Ilona Andrews I have to say I’m glad I didn’t notice the floating man head until after I finished the book, because that floating man head totally doesn’t look like how I pictured Keldar. Keldar is a rogue. That floating head? Just… doesn’t look smart enough to pull off the part. But [...]
The Best Paranormal Crime Stories Ever Told (2010) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers I wouldn’t say the best necessarily, but it’s not a bad selection of stories. And the fact that I got to read it for free probably helped. “Appetite for Murder” is Simon R. Green story that does not feature [...]
Boneshaker (2009) Cherie Priest I started this book the week Grandmom went into the hospital. Unsurprisingly, it took me a bit to get back to it, as I remembered almost nothing of what I read–not because of the story, but because I was distracted. Briar Wilkes had been married to a man claimed to have [...]
Night Watch (2006) Sergei Lukyanenko, translated by Andrew Bromfield I have a HUGE to-be-read pile, so what do I want to read? Things I’ve read before. Go figure. However, Night Watch is well worth a re-read.
Dark Entries (2009) Ian Rankin, Werther Dell’Edera I have a conflicted relationship with John Constantine stories. I love the idea of who Constantine is, but for some reason the stories always fall short of my expectations in some manner. But when I saw that Ian Rankin–whose John Rebus mysteries I love–had written a Constantine graphic [...]
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (2010) Lish McBride Sam can’t decide what to do with himself, which means that by default he has fallen to the painful default of food service. His life is going nowhere, he’s job is crap, but he has friends, and friends can make anything easier. Even drawing the attention of a [...]
Eye of the Tempest (2011) Nicole Peeler There are so many things about this book I should hate–boinking and cliffhangers being the top two–yet I love Jane True and this series. The story takes off where the previous book ended. Jane and Anyan are newly returned to Rockbill after the dire events of the previous [...]
Ghost of a Smile (2011) Simon R. Green As much as I enjoy Simon R. Green’s writing, and as much is it frequently makes me laugh, I found Ghost of a Smile to be disappointing. There is still plenty of dialogue to make me happy: “That’s it?” said JC, after Happy had been quite for [...]
Kiss Me, Kill Me: A Paranormal Anthology (2011) Definitely a mixed bag. But for 99 cents, it’s hard to complain too much. “Impulse Control” by Susan Bischoff was very very good. It’s about teens with superheroes in a “school” for kids with “Talents”. Or more accurately, it’s little better than a prison for kids who [...]
Kitty’s Greatest Hits (2011) Carrie Vaughn Kitty’s Greatest Hits is a short story anthology, so its timeline is interwoven between the various Kitty books. There are also several stories that don’t have Kitty in them at all, although most of those stories contain peripheral characters, and all are set within Kitty’s world. I’d read several [...]
Kill the Dead (2010) Richard Kadrey If you read Sandman Slim, you’re familiar with James Stark, who escaped from Hell to seek revenge for his imprisonment there and the murder of his girlfriend. Now he’s at loose ends, drinking himself into oblivion, living with a disembodied head for a roommate, and trying to make ends [...]
Madame Xanadu Vol 4: Extra-Sensory (2011) Matt Wagner, Marley Zarcone, Laurenn McCubbin, Chrissie Zullo, Celia Calle, Marian Churchland I really like the layout for this volume. We see slices from several years in the 1960s in which Madame Xanadu took part. The first several stories only have Madame Xanadu in the periphery–she steps in to [...]
Kitty’s Big Trouble (2011) Carrie Vaughn Kitty’s latest interest is finding historical figures that may have been supernatural creatures. Someone sends her some indirect evidence that General Sherman may have been a were, but Kitty’s attempts to have his body exhumed and tested are adamantly denied (and rightfully so). Then she comes across a story [...]
This Side of the Grave (2011) Jeaniene Frost The head of the ghouls is fomenting trouble, claiming that Cat is involved in an attempt to subjugate the entire supernatural world, and if they don’t take care of her now, they’ll end up her (and the vampire’s) slaves. Unfortunately, some of Cat’s unique abilities and needs [...]
Magic Slays (2011) Ilona Andrews I’m starting to get nervous. We’re reaching the part of the series where it feels as if we are beginning to build to the final confrontation. Which often means cliff hanger endings. And I hate cliff hanger endings. But so far so good. Kate and Curran are (sort of) luxuriating [...]
Killer Byte: A Diana Tregarde Short Story (1994) Mercedes Lackey A really long time ago–a lifetime ago it sometimes feels like–I read the Diana Tregarde books. And was quite disappointed when Mercedes Lackey stopped writing them. But as I didn’t have ready access to MZB’s Fantasy Magazine, I missed all the short stories. So when [...]
Full Moon City (2010) edited by Darrell Schweitzer and Martin H Greenberg I love anthologies. Though I have to admit that with the way paranormal romance has taken off, the ratio of wheat to chaff has been unfavorable for me. However, Carrie Vaughn and Peter S. Beagle were pretty compelling reasons to get this anthology. [...]
Blackout (2011) Rob Thurman I. Love. Rob. Thurman. There it is. I’m tempted to never ever learn anything about her personal life for fear she’ll one day go all Orson Scott Card on me, and if I lost these books the way I lost Ender’s Game, I believe I would be mortally crushed. What is [...]
Tiger Eye (2005) Marjorie M. Liu I picked up my first Dirk & Steele book at a grocery store, when I realized I had a wait in front of me and absolutely nothing to read. I knew when I bought it that it was a paranormal romance, so managed to enjoy it despite the boinking. [...]
The Gauntlet (2010) Karen Chance This is a short story that is also quite obviously an opening for a new historical paranormal romance, staring Kit Marlowe, vampire. It was a nice distraction while stuck in the car, but I have no interest in reading a series based on these characters, and the story was entirely [...]
Masked (2010) edited by Lou Anders Masked is a collection of superhero stories by a variety of writers, many of whom are well known comic writers. Matthew Sturges, who writes House of Mystery, wrote the opening story, “Cleansed and Set in Gold.” …and I just ended up rereading the story when I flipped through to [...]
First Drop of Crimson (2010) Jeaniene Frost I actually really like Jeaniene Frost’s writing, and loved all of the Night Huntress books I’ve read so far, even the ones I picked up in trepidation, thinking, “this can’t possibly be anywhere nears as good as I’m remembering the earlier books in the series to be.” However, [...]
Under Her Skin (2009) Ilona Andrews, Jeaniene Frost, Meljean Brook So, this was the first full book I read on the Nook. I love Ilona Andrews and also really like Jeaniene Frost, so I figured I couldn’t go too wrong for three bucks. These are three short paranormal romances, focusing on shape shifters, but also [...]