Hunting Ground (2009) Patricia Briggs (Alpha & Omega) This is set only a few months after the previous book (which is set immediately following the novella). Charles and Anna are still setting into their marriage and their mating bond. He wasn’t used to all of this emotion. He’d taken the feelings and desires of his […]
Cry Wolf (2008) Patricia Briggs (Alpha & Omega) Going through this series for comfort reading. Charles and Anna’s wolves have decided they are mated, but the two humans still need to get to know one another, and Anna has a lot of damage to overcome–as does Charles after dealing with the pack that tried to […]
Alpha and Omega: A Companion Novella to Cry Wolf (2007) Patricia Briggs Comfort reading it is right now. So I decided I needed Patricia Brigg’s Alpha & Omega series. Charles wasn’t worried about dying— it was just that cars went too fast. He couldn’t get a feel for the land they passed through. One thing […]
Love, Marriage, and a Baby Carriage (2016) C.S. Poe It’s been a rough couple days. I desperately needed something light and funny so I decided a reread of Love, Marriage, and a Baby Carriage was necessary. This is a short story, and currently you can’t find it anywhere, but OMG it is one of the […]
The Enforcer Enigma (2020) G. L. Carriger (San Andreas Shifters) When Colin’s brother returned from college, to find him completely withdrawn, Kevin decided they would both join the new pack moving out to San Francisco where Colin could be himself without fear of retribution. Judd has been a werewolf since before the Saturation. He may […]
The Omega Objection (2018) G. L. Carriger (San Andreas Shifters) Tank came east with the rest of what eventually eventually came to be the San Andreas Pack. Although he’s big enough to be an enforcer, he’s truly submissive and doesn’t like to fight, even if he does a lot of work as security. Isaac has […]
The Sumage Solution (2017) G. L. Carriger (San Andreas Shifters) Max is a sumage and, as far as his father was concerned, a complete failure. Instead of being a Surge, he’s a Placer, and instead of continuing the family line, he’s gay. So now he works for DURPS and lives in a small cottage. Biff […]
A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking (2020) T. Kingfisher Mona isn’t an impressive wizard. Her power is is with baked goods, which is very specific, and (as far as she can tell) not much good unless you’re a baker. Which she is. But someone is killing wizards, and it seems like Mona isn’t quite as […]
Day Watch (2000/2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield and narrated by Paul Michael (Night Watch) Unauthorized Personnel Permitted, A Stranger Among Others, Another Power The first story in this book is my least favorite in the entire series, however Paul Michael’s narration actually makes it enjoyable for me. The witch Alisa Donnikova is trying […]
The Engineer (2020) C.S. Poe (Magic & Steam) Set in the American West in 1881. Gillian Hamilton is a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Magic and Steam–and a powerful magic user. He is sent out west to catch a renegade magic user, but runs into a completely different wanted man while on the […]
The Fifth Elephant (1999) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) A new Low King is about to be coronated in Uberwald, and for some reason, Vetinari has decided to send Vimes (the Duke of Ankh-Morpork) to the coronation. “Let me see if I’ve got this right,” said Vimes. “Uberwald is like this big suet pudding that everyone’s suddenly […]
Lady Mechanika: La Dama de la Muerte (2017) Joe Benitez, M. M. Chen, Peter Steigerwald, Beth Sotelo Set in Mexico in 1869 This is set outside of the regular series, and was published the same year as the third volume, The Lost Boys of West Abbey. I actually don’t know what year (in steampunk time) […]
Jingo (1997) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) An island has arisen from the sea–and island that is claimed by both Klatch and Ankh-Morpork. As every student of exploration knows, the prize goes not to the explorer who first sets foot upon the virgin soil but to the one who gets that foot home first. If it is […]
Feet of Clay (1996) Terry Pratchett (Discworld, #19, Watch #3) Commander Vimes needs to figure out who has been murdering citizens of Ankh-Morpork. And also who is poisoning Lord Vetinari, since the Assassins’ Guild swears it’s not one of them. People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they’re standing […]
Men at Arms (1993) Terry Pratchett (Discworld, #15, Watch, #2) Someone has stolen something from the Assassins Guild. No one knows what it is, but they’re pretty sure it isn’t a good thing. And this was right. And it was fate that had let Edward recognize this just when he’d got his Plan. And it […]
Guards! Guards! (1989) Terry Pratchett (Discworld, #8; City Watch #1) This is the first book with Captain Vimes, and Carrot, yes, but we also get lots of THE LIBRARIAN! (OOK!) Very senior librarians, however, once they have proved themselves worthy by performing some valiant act of librarianship, are accepted into a secret order and are […]
The Story of the Stone (1988) Barry Hughart (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox) Year of the Serpent 3,339 (A.D. 650). I’ve been re-reading The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox before bed for a really long time now. I’d read a page or two, then switch to something else, […]
Turning Darkness Into Light (2019) Marie Brennan Audrey Camherst, grand-daughter of the famous Lady Trent, is a scholar in her own right. But it’s so hard when I can feel everyone looking at me, waiting to see what I’ll do. Not my family, of course; if I decided I wanted to retire to a country […]
The Night Watch, Audiobook (1998/2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield, narrated by Paul Michael (Night Watch) “The common good and the individual good rarely coincide . . .” Sure, I know. It’s true. But some truths are probably worse than lies. When I ran out of podcasts I wanted to listen to for the […]
The Grimrose Path (2010) Rob Thurman (Trickster) Trixa has avenged her brother, and now she has to live as a human until she regains her powers. But now I was human, and had discovered living off diner food. . . . It was less than a block away; what could I do? I packed on […]
The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) TJ Klune I’ve read several TJ Klune books, and I am not always sure how I feel about them when I am done. That was not a problem here. Linus works for the agency in charge of monitoring the welfare of magical children. He is a caseworker who […]
NPCs (2014) Drew Hayes (Spells, Swords, & Stealth) What happens when the haggling is done and the shops are closed? When the quest has been given, the steeds saddled, and the adventurers are off to their next encounter? They keep the world running, the food cooked, and the horses shoed, yet what adventurer has ever […]
The Immortal Conquistador (2020) Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville) Set in the Americans, 1500s to present. This has four stories and a surrounding tale. “Conquistador de la Noche” (2009) Subterranean Online “El Hidalgo de la Noche” (2015) First time in print “El Conquistador del Tiempo” (2019) Original appearance “Dead Men in Central City” (2017) Asimov’s Science […]
Starcrossed (2020) Allie Therin (Magic in Manhattan) Set in New York in 1925. This is set immediately after the events of the first book. Rory and Arthur are in Hyde Park where Rory is helping to authenticate some of Arthur’s brother’s supposedly antique compasses, and Arthur is visiting his family. “Speaking of children,” Arthur said […]
Spellbound (2019) Allie Therin (Magic in Manhattan) Set in New York in 1924. Rory Brodigan works for a woman he calls his aunt, helping assess the authenticity of antiques. But there is no science–only magic–behind his abilities. Arthur Kenzie needs someone who can read the history of objects, and he thinks Mrs Brodigan is the […]
Master Wolf (2020) Joanna Chambers (Capital Wolves Duet) Set in Europe in 1820 with flashbacks. Gentleman Wolf ended with Lindsay all but being sent away from Drew. Master Wolf picks up thirty years later, as Lindsay has tried to stay away from Drew, and Drew has tried to come to terms with his wolf, and […]
Gentleman Wolf (2019) Joanna Chambers (Capital Wolves Duet) Set in Scotland & Europe in 1682 and 1788. Lindsay Somerville spent years as the prisoner of a man who turned and then tortured him solely because Lindsay looked like the man who turned him–a man he cannot disobey any more than Lindsay can disobey him. The […]
Smoke Bitten (2020) Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson) Bizarrely, I had forgotten about the previous book–the one with the zombies–which threw me initially, since those events were not foremost in my mind. I’d disemboweled a zombie werewolf on the old carpet, and one of the results of that was that I’d finally discovered a mess that […]
Shattered Bonds (2019) Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock) This book came out last October. I started it, and immediately realized I just wasn’t up to reading a book that was all action and bad stuff from the get go. At the end of the last book, Leo is dead, the vampire world is in chaos, and […]
Heathen: Volume 2 (2019) Natasha Alterici, Rachel Deering The second volume picks up where the first volume left off. Brynhild and her lover have separated from Aydis who has been sent on a quest by Freyja. Aydis needs to reach Heimdall, but the sea is cursed, and filled with mermaids who see humans as delicious. […]
Murder in G Major (2016) Alexia Gordon (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries) Gethsemane Brown is stuck in Ireland. The assistant conductor job she was promised fell through, her luggage was stolen, and she’s out of money. If she doesn’t want to return to her family with her tail between her legs, she has get a job until […]
Lady Mechanika, Vol. 5: La Belle Dame Sans Merci (2019) Joe Benitez, M. M. Chen, Martin Montiel This… did not end particularly well. It wasn’t a cliff-hanger, but it also wasn’t clean. Also, the next volume doesn’t exist right now, which doesn’t help. So Mr. Archibald Lewis, Lady Mechanicka’s friend and Fred’s uncle, is a […]
P.S. I Spook You (2019) S.E. Harmon (The Spectral Files) Couple of things to note, start with the fact this is self published, so parts of it are a little rough. Not typos or anything, but there story could have been tightened up in a few places where I got confused or felt like I […]
Family Matters (2018) Angel Martinez (Brandywine Investigations) This is two books and a short story. The first story is about Dionysus and Leander (the Minotaur of the cover. (with a KILT. Which is PERFECT.)) The second story is a short story about a young woman stumbling upon Artemis and the muses in the forest. “That’s […]
Open for Business (2016) Angel Martinez (Brandywine Investigations) This is three interrelated stories, of gods and men and angels and monsters. The first book is about Hades, who has been surprised by divorce papers from Persephone. He comes to the world (things aren’t that busy for him after all) and opens a private investigation business. […]
Gumption & Gumshoes (2013) Alex Kidwell August Mendez moved to the city in the hopes of following his dreams, and when he gets the opportunity he decides to try. A sense of freedom surged through me, that euphoric realization that I was staring at a whole weekend of nothing but cheese curls and old movies, […]
Heathen Volume 1 (2017) Natasha Alterici Aydis was sentenced to death or marriage for kissing another girl, but her father secretly saved her life and sent her into exile. Aldis has decided to that as a warrior she will go on a quest, and free the Valkyrie Brynhild. But the goddess Freyja has other ideas, […]
Lady Mechanika, Vol. 4: Clockwork Assassin (2018) Joe Benitez, Peter Steigerwald, Mike Garcia The longer this series goes on the better I like it. Although I think some of the outfits she wears are ridiculous, I have accepted the, because she does use the more ridiculous outfits to fight and generally kick ass. A man […]
Lady Mechanika Vol 03: The Lost Boys of West Abbey (2017) Marcia Chen, Joe Benitez, Peter Steigerwald, Marcia Chen When she learns of the murders of young orphan boys in a strange warehouse found mechanical toys, Lady Mechanika decides to investigate, in case this is related to her own (forgotten past). This volume was extremely […]
Jessica Jones Vol. 1: Uncaged! (2017) Brian Michael Bendis, David W. Mack, Michael Gaydos Several notes here: 1. I know nothing about Jessica Jones. I never watched Alias. I don’t follow the Avengers. I picked this up because Jessica Jones is a female private investigator and that piqued my curiosity. 2. I have the digital […]
Rivers of London: The Fey and the Furious (2020) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan I find the comics for this series frustrating. I found the story interesting, but the execution wasn’t all I wanted it to be, I mean, why precisely, were the fey doing all this? It didn’t make a lot of sense […]
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (2020) Charlie Adhara (Big Bad Wolf) Cooper Dayton and Oliver Park are trying to buy a house. Well, Oliver is looking at houses and Cooper is horrified at how much money Oliver wants to spend. So what do you think of this place?” Park asked. Cooper bit his lip. “What do […]
Lady Mechanika Volume 2: Tablet of Destinies (2016) Joe Benitez, Marcia Chen, Martin Montiel I am very much enjoying these books. Lady Mechanika has mechanical appendages, but has no memories of how she got them, or of her life before that time. So she lives as best she can, often accompanying adventurers (because her limbs […]
Mating the Huntress (2018) Talia Hibbert Luke Anthony is a werewolf. Chastity Adofo comes from a family of Huntresses, although she herself is forbidden to hunt. twenty-five years ago, on the day of Chastity’s birth, some batty old oracle had rocked up to the delivery room and told her parents— in typically dramatic fashion— that […]
False Value (2020) Ben Aaronovitch (Rivers of London) The 8th Rivers of London book. It’s been two years since the last book about Peter (although there have been comics) and although I was impatient, I didn’t mind, because my assumption was it was taking a long time so he could get it right (rather than […]
Trick of the Light (2009) Rob Thurman (Trickster) I had not read this book in years. It’s been on my list of books to purchase as ebooks (since I only had the paper book) but it never went on sale,so I finally broke down and bought it. Then I worried it wouldn’t be as good […]
Lady Mechanika Volume 1: Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse (2015) Joe Benitez, Peter Steigerwald Lady Mechanika has spent a great deal of time trying to discover where she came from–who replaced her arms and legs with mechanical appendages–and why? Every time she things she’s found a clue as to her past, the person (or creature) […]
Mooncakes (2019) Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu Nova Huang lives with her grandmothers and helps out at their store. She’s also an apprentice witch who hasn’t yet left home for an apprenticeship. Tam Lang was Nova’s childhood friend whose family never stayed in once place for long, but she’s back now because there’s something unpleasant in […]
Known Devil (2014) Justin Gustainis (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) Alas, the end of the Occult Crimes Unit Investigation series. Just three books, but they’re fun ones. Stan and Karl are taking their coffee break when a pair of elves attempt to hold up the diner where they are having their coffee. What makes no sense […]
Thrown to the Wolves (2019) Charlie Adhara (Big Bad Wolf) Cooper has spent the past several months recuperating, and being taken care of by Oliver, who has been on suspension (both the result of Cooper’s visit home to see his father and brother). Every official communication was carefully uninterested about the private lives of their […]