Fairest Vol. 4: Cinderella – Of Men and Mice (2014) Mark Andreyko, Shawn McManus I’ve been hit or miss with the Fables spin-off series. I hated Jack, didn’t much care for Cinderella, but have quite enjoyed Fairest. But I was hesitant when I saw the latest volume of Fairest was Cinderella. This series continues to […]
Whispers Under Ground Audible version (2012/2012) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith I am enjoying listening to this series so much. I tore through all the available books when I first came across the series, and have been waiting impatiently for the next book in the series, but the narration by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is such […]
Blood Cross Audible version, (/2010) Faith Hunter, Narrated by Khristine Hvam I quite like the narrator for this series. She does a good job of distinguishing Jane and Beast’s voices, as well as the different accents and voices for the other characters (and there are a lot of characters in this series). This is the […]
Fair Game (2012) Patricia Briggs This is the third Alpha & Omega story, and although it is about Anna and about Charles coming to terms with the changes in his position as the Marrok’s enforcer, but even more important are the changes to the world that Anna & Charles and Mercy Thompson live in. Throughout […]
Eternal: Shadow Falls: After Dark (2014) C.C. Hunter This is the second full book of Della Tsang’s story (although she has been the center of several novellas, one of which is the reason I started reading this series). Della coming to terms with being one of the Reborn, and also dealing with her continued guilt […]
Broken Soul (2014) Faith Hunter The latest Jane Yellowrock installment finds Jane and the Mithrans preparing for the visit of the European Council–a visit that seems it will bear nothing good for Jane. Of course, she does get to learn a new form of fighting. “Ernestine keeps all the lists,” Wrassler said. “And the pools.” […]
Fables Vol. 20: Camelot (2014) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Russ Braun, Barry Kitson I actually read this last month, but since it was on the day we caught the train, I forgot about it when I came back. It wasn’t until I was trying to clear off the table I remembered I’d hadn’t […]
Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014) Maggie Stiefvater I knew this was not going to end cleanly. I KNEW it. But I read it anyway, because OMG I love this series. This book begins a few weeks after the last book ended. Maura is missing, Blue and the Raven Boys are getting ready to start school, […]
Frost Burned (2013) Patricia Briggs Mercy and her step-daughter, Jesse, are hitting the Black-Friday sales when a panic attack causes Mercy to wreck her rabbit. When she can’t reach anyone to come pick her up, she discovers that with a few exceptions, the entire pack has been kidnapped—which takes some doing, kidnapping an entire pack […]
The Winter Long (2014) Seanan McGuire I held onto the book for a while, solely because I knew I was going on vacation, and would have the time to read the whole thing in one sitting. This book tied up some loose ends that I hadn’t realized were loose ends, and made for a slow […]
Downfall (2014) Rob Thurman I fully admit that I have been avoiding reading this book. As the series has gone it, it has become more and more clear that Niko and Cal won’t outlive each other. If one is killed, the other will fall soon after, most likely in a horribly violent and destructive way, […]
Black Water (2014) Faith Hunter This is a collection of three Jane Yellowrock short stories / novellas: Black Water, Snafu, and Off the Grid. Black Water is set after Blood Trade and before Black Arts, as Jane returns to Chauvin after receiving a text from Rick’s family that someone with a gun was looking for […]
Hunting Ground (2009) Patricia Briggs The second Alpha & Omega book finds Charles & Anna sent to broker negioations with the European werewolves, to find a way to make the Marrock’s bringing the American werewolves out of the supernatural closet. The biggest problem is going to be the head of the European werewolves, who is […]
River Marked (2011) Patricia Briggs Although Mercy and Adam are supposed to be on their Honeymoon, unexpected gifts from the fae lead to (when dealing with fae anyway) the expected consequences, of danger and threat. But more importantly, we learn more about Mercy’s father, and finally meet Coyote (THE Coyote). Figures that are both tricksters […]
Silver Bourne (2010) Patricia Briggs This story has three separate story arcs: Mercy receives a call from Tad, asking her to check on the owner of the book fae book she borrowed, Samuel has started to sink further into his misery, and Mercy begins truly to have problems with the Pack, now that she and […]
Cry Wolf (2008) Patricia Briggs My reaction to this book, re-reading it and after reading half the Mercy books and the short story anthology is quite different from my initial read. First and foremost, I realized this story is as much about Asil and Bran as it is about Anna and Charles. I’ve grown to […]
Bone Crossed (2009) Patricia Briggs This book makes up for very end of the last book, where only a week after her rape, it seems like Mercy is ready to jump into bed with Adam. She isn’t and she doesn’t, and Adam wouldn’t. So points all around for Adam. And it’s good that things are […]
Iron Kissed (2008) Patricia Briggs I had forgotten just how dark this story was. Bad things happen to Mercy. Very bad things. And Mercy just doesn’t brush these things off, which means seeing Mercy suffer as she tries to recover. It’s very hard to read. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very well done, and it’s […]
Blood Bound (2007) Patricia Briggs This is a second book in the Mercy Thompson series, and finds Mercy inadvertently caught up in vampire business. There are so many little tidbits that I enjoy, dropped randomly throughout the books. The Marrok, the leader of the North American werewolves, insists that all of the wolves wear a […]
Moon Called (2006) Patricia Briggs I started listening to the Audible version of Moon Called, and I don’t know if it was the narrator, the fact that I’ve been so blown away by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith who reads Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series, or a combination of both, but I just couldn’t listen to it. So, […]
Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson (2014) Patricia Briggs As I’ve mentioned previously (and repeatedly) I love short stories. They’re a hard thing to love sometimes, because there are so many poorly written ones out there. Luckily for me, Patricia Briggs tends to do them well, so I didn’t hesitate to pick […]
Moon Called: Audible Version (2006/2009) Patricia Briggs and read by Lorelei King After finishing Moon Over Soho, I needed something new to listen to, and since I seemed to be in the mood for supernatural fantasy, I decided to start Patricia Brigg’s Moon Called, especially since I was reading and enjoying her collection of short […]
Moon Over Soho: Audible Version (2011/2012) Ben Aaronovitch and Narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith It’s quite possible I’ve fallen a little bit in love with Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, for the way he reads Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant books. The story is good–I thoroughly enjoyed reading it–but listening? Amazing. He is really good at the voices and the […]
Midnight Riot (2011/2012) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith I’ve had audio books that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed before, but until now, I’d not had the experience of a reader making a book better. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith did that. He is amazing. He did various accents that made each character distinct and they all sounded different. Even […]
Kitty’s Greatest Hits (2011) Carrie Vaughn Il Est Ne (Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (2008)) A Princess of Spain (The Secret History of Vampires (2007)) Conquistador de la Noche (Subterranean Online (2009)) The Book of Daniel (Talebones #39 (2009)) The Temptation of Robin Green (The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance (2009)) Looking After Family (Realms of Fantasy […]
Skinwalker (2009/2010) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam I started listening to this, and ended up going back and re-reading the entire series. But I still finished the audio version, because I thoroughly enjoyed it. First, Beast and Jane have distinct voices, which is important, since they often have conversations in Jane’s mind. Also, the […]
Lord and Lady Spy (2011) Shana Galen This is not an historical romance. It’s a steampunk, without the automatons. Or perhaps it’s fantasy, with boinking. But it is not historical fantasy. Why? Because it’s wildly inaccurate as far as the history goes. So inaccurate that even I–who am terrible with dates and other numbers–caught multiple […]
Black Arts (2014) Faith Hunter And now I’m all caught up on Jane Yellowrock–at least until the new book comes out in October. The book opens with Jane under attack–from Evan Trueblood, who believes that Jane is hiding his wife, Molly. Jane and Evan came to an uneasy truce in an earlier book, but Molly […]
Jane Yellowrock World Companion (2013) Faith Hunter I have conflicted feelings about this. The co-author put a lot of work into the time-line and weapons list and such. And it’s a great reference if you’re not familiar with Jane’s world. But it’s not something to sit down and read. There are three stories: two short […]
Cat Tales: Four Stories from the World of Jane Yellowrock (2011) Faith Hunter These are four Jane stories, two from Jane’s point-of-view and two from Rick’s point-of-view. The Early Years Cat Tats Kits Blood, Fangs, and Going Furry “The Early Years” is set right after Jane ages out of the children’s home. We get a […]
Have Stakes Will Travel: Stories From the World of Jane Yellowrock (2012) Faith Hunter This is a collection of Jane Yellowrock short stories, some of which were published elsewhere, but I love short story collections, so I sprung for this, and two other collections. The stories are: WeSa and the Lumber King Haints Signatures of […]
Blood Trade (2013) Faith Hunter The sixth book in the Jane Yellowrock series finds Jane very much out of sorts. She hasn’t heard from Molly since the death of Evangelina, Rick is mad at her (because she thought he shot her), she’s still mad at Bruiser, and Beast is chained to Leo. But a job […]
Death’s Rival (2012) Faith Hunter Jane is back to working for Leo, and she’s out West to gather blood samples from sick vamps–and vamps aren’t supposed to be able to get sick. There is a lot that happens here. Jane has to pay the piper for statements she made earlier (in the last book). There’s […]
Raven Cursed (2012) Faith Hunter Book four in the Jane Yellowrock series finds Jane back in North Carolina, running security for a meeting between a representative from New Orleans and Lincoln Shadrock, a vampire who wants to become a Master. It’s also where Molly is, but Evan wants Molly to have nothing to do with […]
Mercy Blade (2011) Faith Hunter Book three in the Jane Yellowrock series, finds Jane taking on a long term contract with Leo Pellissier and the New Orleans vamps to provide security. Unfortunately, Leo doesn’t seem to trust her enough to tell her things that are important–like the weres coming out of the supernatural closet and […]
Blood Cross (2010) Faith Hunter The second book in the Jane Yellowrock series (and another re-read). Jane has remained in New Orleans to hunt the vampire who is making young rogues–and allowing the free into the population where they kill, unrestrained. Additionally, while Evan is in Brazil, Molly and her kids are staying with Jane, […]
Skinwalker (2009) Faith Hunter This is a re-read. The first book in the series introduces us to Jane Yellowrock, a skin walker and rogue vampire hunter. She’s come to New Orleans at the request of the local vampire council to take out a rogue who has been killing civilians. I enjoyed going back to the […]
Magic City: Recent Spells (2014) Paula Guran Table of Contents “Street Wizard” by Simon R. Green “Paranormal Romance” by Christopher Barzak “Grand Central Park” by Delia Sherman “Spellcaster 2.0” by Jonathan Maberry “Wallamelon” by Nisi Shawl “-30-” by Caitlín R. Kiernan “Seeing Eye” by Patricia Briggs “Stone Man” by Nancy Kress “In the Stacks” by […]
Rising Stars, Vol. 1: Born in Fire (2001) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, John Livesay, Edwin Rosell, David Wohl, Dennis Heisler, Dreamer Design, Robin Spehar, Liquid!, Matt Nelson, John Starr, Tyson Wengler Rising Stars, Vol. 2: Power (2002) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, […]
Hellboy: The Midnight Circus (2013) Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, Dave Stewart Couple things about this: 1) It came out as hardback. 2) I purchased the kindle version, because it was cheaper than the hardback (and by now we should all know my feelings about hardback books). 3) This is more of a novella than regular […]
A Fistful Of Sky (2002) Nina Kiriki Hoffman I’m in need of comfort reading right now–and it needed to be an ebook, so I splurged and bought the ebook version of A Fistful Of Sky and dug in. Gypsum LaZelle comes from a magical family. At some point when they are young teenagers, most LaZelle’s […]
Urban Shaman (2005) C.E. Murphy I read this several years ago, and never read any further in the series, though I remember finding the book and the premise interesting. But I’d forgotten the story completely, and decided I needed to re-read the start before I dove into any sequels. Joanne Walker (named by her mother […]
Dirty Magic (2014) Jaye Wells I desperately needed something distracting, so picked up Dirty Magic, read a couple chapters, wasn’t sure it was what I was in the mood for, but the next day picked it back up, and discovered it served admirably as a distraction. Kate Prospero spent her youth cooking dirty magic. She […]
Strange Brew (2009) edited by P.N. Elrod This is a re-read, and as such, I skipped the stories I didn’t like or wasn’t in the mood for. Seeing Eye by Patricia Briggs Last Call by Jim Butcher Death Warmed Over by Rachel Caine Vegas Odds by Karen Chance Hecate’s Golden Eye by P.N. Elrod Bacon […]
Hellboy in Hell Volume 1: The Descent (2014) Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart My feelings about Hellboy? It’s complicated. I tend to love the Hellboy collections that are more-or-less short story collections of his adventures. The stories about Hellboy’s inheritance, I tend to enjoy much less, so… every other collection I love. Hellboy in Hell, Volume […]
Farthing (2006) Jo Walton I had forgotten how dark and depressing this this story is. Mind you, it’s good, but it has the feel of a dystopia without actually being a dystopia. It’s 1949, but not 1949 as we knew it. For England, World War II ended when England made peace with Hitler. Charles Lindburg […]
Hounds of Autumn (2013) Heather Blackwood I really wanted to love this. The cover is gorgeous, and the premise is fabulous–a young female inventor in an alternate London, living her life within society’s constraints. The problem in this case is the steampunk. I think there should be a corollary to Clarke’s Law, “Any sufficiently advanced […]
Dangerous Women (2013) edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois “Some Desperado” (Red Country story) by Joe Abercrombie “My Heart is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott “Nora’s Song” by Cecelia Holland “The Hands That Are Not There” by Melinda Snodgrass “Bombshells” (Harry Dresden story) by Jim Butcher “Raisa Stepanova” by Carrie Vaughn “Wrestling Jesus” […]
Disenchanted & Co., Part 2: His Lordship Possessed (2013) Lynn Viehl Again, gorgeous cover, and I love the world building, but the story? Bletch. She now moons over Lord Dredmore, who has, at least according to Kit, zero redeeming qualities. Kit also seems to get dumber as the book goes on. Even though her friends […]
Disenchanted & Co., Part 1: Her Ladyship’s Curse (2013) Lynn Viehl This book has a gorgeous cover and a fabulous premise. Unfortunately, for me, it lived up to neither. Charmian Kittredge lives in Toriana, an alternate North America, one where there is no United States, because the Revolution failed. And one where magic seemingly works, […]