Magic or Die (Inner Demons #1) by JP Jackson

James is crawling into a booze bottle and trying to forget a lot… especially his ex and his old job working for the Facility. He is not happy to return - but to help his sister he sees no choice

And when he gets there, he’s shocked to see how much this Facility for developing the magically gifted has changed, and not for the better. The new subjects have “sponsors” who expect to take possession of their targets, the deadlines for being up to standard are impossibly short and the penalties for not meeting them are lethal

With five of the greatest magical talents ever known now being trained, it’s James’s job to ensure they meet their potential - and survive.

We have some really excellent concepts with this book -  four distinct schools of magic with so much detail and world building that  is really detailed and excellently written. I really do love the implications of each of the separate branches - especially the terrifying possessing demons and the entities that give power at such a terrible price

I’ve also seen very very few books truly give the sense of magic as dangerous - I mean I think we can really feel how dangerous and terrifying these powerful magic users are and how utterly terrifying they would be if they were out of control, how much there is a very real terror of the power and the entities around these magical young people.

Then you’ve got the practicality of running these facility. The huge expence of the training, the facilities, the staff everything all costs money - and who is paying for that? We can see the need for them to get money from somewhere. Through that lens then maybe, just maybe, the involvement of private companies and the military makes sense.

Together this gives such a real foundation for the facility and the story - yes there’s evil and yes there’s a whole lot of prejudice and Miriam is a terrible terrible person - but we can see why it makes sense to begin with, why a sensible and not totally evil person would make the compromises they do - to create this deeply flawed facility and why decent people would want to get involved. We can even see why people would advocate killing these young people -  because they are terrifyingly dangerous individuals, some of them more than a little suicidal themselves

It also gives us a reason why James Martin wants to get involved - we have the hook of trying to help his sister, the underlying importance of what they’re doing, helping these 5 extremely powerful and dangerous young people learn how to control their powers is a definite need - before fully developing into saving them. I like how these underlying causes form the foundation of the plot and motivation and let James’s motivations develop more naturally. He doesn’t come in with the mentality of “burn it all down” but learns to become invested in all of his students, values them and increasingly sees the flaws in the facility driven by resources, driven by the desire of various organisations to exploit them and driven by Miriam’s prejudice both against magic users and against James as a gay man.

I love the characters here - each individual magic user with their own struggles: whether it’s terror of the demons possessing them, desperately trying to control their emotions which trigger their powers, learning coping mechanisms or just being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of their powers. Some just need to learn routines and draw an accord with the demon inside them while others are having difficult struggles with serious mental health issues that compound the problem, others have also turned to substance misuse. What I like is how the facility really serves as an excellent mirror to our own institutions and their failure to take into account problems people are having when trying to achieve their purpose - or the outright evil manipulation of the facts to railroad these youngsters. Chris has been incarcerated into the Facility with entirely false information about his lack of control in order to use him and, effectively, sell him. Camila is considered to have anger and control issues but they want her to control that without addressing her bipolar disorder: an impossible task and really reflects how often we fail to deal with all the issues that may affect someone’s life and instead just look at one - and how impossible this is.

If there’s one flaw in this book’s excellent depiction of the struggles these people have, it’s with both Isaiah and James’s substance misuse. Isaiah resorted to drugs to try and control his powers while James, after his sister’s issues and the death of his last lover resorted to alcohol. While James undergoes a detox (which is dangerous - alcohol withdrawal is not to be trifled with) both of them come through the struggle relatively easily and with little long term consequences even as we do see the underlying issues continue to cause them difficulty

Shadowmancer (The Circle #1) by Lee Isserow

Jules is a powerful magician… but has spent much of his life avoiding the greater magical community living as normal a life he can with his husband and child

His magical skills are rare - and when a new supernatural threat those are in demand. The Circle needs his magic and his help - the world needs it. But Jules’s grandmother warned him about the Circle and how it was falling to selfish corruption… can Jules work with them even for the sake of humanity?

This book had a really excellent foundation, especially with some really good characters and world. We have Jules, a Black gay man with a strong grounding in social justice and considerable suspicion of authority. At this point it would be easy to create a shell character who exists more as a PSA than a character - but he isn’t; his opinions and vehement beliefs are worked well into the character and his story. We also have some really neatly incorporated world building through children’s stories which does an excellent job of introducing the world, his family - both his son and his infamous grandmother - and giving us some insight into magic. It was really neatly done and is an excellent example of how good the writing is

The actions scenes are fun and excellently written, well paced and nicely knife edged and in even the brief time we have we do get surprisingly amounts of information about the characters. Again with brief words we get a better shape of the world, the circle and the how magic works.

Unfortunately in addition to all that it was also… really short? And kind of undeveloped because of it. Like I love that Jules is gay and has a relationship with Akif and a son. But Akif is a name, I think he has three lines in the whole book. Yes there wasn’t a lot of chance to showcase this relationship but that, again, is part of how short this book was. The actual chance to develop Jules, Akif, his relationship, his history, who he is, who they are are all somewhat missing. We get Jules’s history with his grandmother and a brief reference as to why they’re in London but then we kind of hit the ground running, Akif is forgotten which is a shame because it clearly should be a major part of Jule’s life. It would have been nice to build more of a base line for Jules and Akif et al before the plot got moving, maybe introduced his powers, some concepts of magic etc. Because the author already did a really good job with the stories he tells his child (giving us some magical world building) which makes me think the that more world building would be really well done

Albeit there’s just a little side line of gross-out and obsession with orifices in the magic world we could probably do without.

Apocalypse Nyx (Bel Dame Apocrypha) by Kameron Hurley

Nyx was a soldier. Nyx was a government backed assassin and bounty hunter. Now she works for herself with her own rag-tag team making a living in the grim, war-torn land of Nasheen

Life isn’t good, a centuries long war has turned Nasheen pretty apocalyptic and winning is surviving to see the next day - and maybe earning enough money to drink enough not to remember yesterday

This book with all its short stories is gritty with a capital grit. At many points in the story I expected something - I expected Nyx to soften, I expected her to see her crew as more like family, I expected her to see her to melt towards Rhys especially.

But everything about this is gritty, dark and messy. There’s no love, there’s just the release of casual sex. There’s no companionship - there’s just people Nyx works with (and that grudgingly) and every time we feel like we’re getting closer to something more

I say all this not as a criticism of the book, or even as a warning but as a clear depiction of what the book is. And in some ways it’s unique for it. I’ve read a lot of books that bring in the melodramatic grimdark, usually with lots of rape and torture for the sheer gratuitous purpose. But few pull off the gritty, certainly unrelenting gritty, gritty without some bright sparks, gritty without some sense of a happy ending or a happy moment or something. For unrelenting grimdark, this book works and is just perfect for it

This works because this is the world that Nyx lives in, this world far from Earth but clearly colonised but Earth people, this world where two nations have been at war for generations, a brutal horrific war complete with weapons of mass destruction used with such regularity that they have become a normal part of everyone’s day, with a border where the atrocities have piled up so much that mounds of bodies just don’t even feature. We have a state, Nasheen, where large branches of quasi law enforcement are dedicated to little more than hunting down deserters from the devastating wars, where we have people bred expressly for that war and conscription that consumes entire lives

On top of this we have both the grittiness of the war - chemicals, weapons, violence etc, but also the dangerous nature of the world itself with its multiple suns and high cancer rates which translates into some really strong messages on class divide as the poor obviously can’t spend time inside behind filters so they are susceptible to skin lesions and cancer - while the rich have smooth skin that is saved from the touch of the sun

In this we have Nyx, a deeply unlikeable character… which is perfect. Why should she be likeable? She’s a war veteran from a war that has destroyed her country from before she was even born. She’s been destroyed, remade, suffered immense trauma, watched many people around her die, been on an array of missions most of which have not exactly gone well, worked some rather unsavoury professions. She’s led a terribly traumatic, awful life, in a terrible traumatic, awful world: why would she be nice or pleasant or likable? Why would she even care about these things? It would break this whole theme, world and story if she were a woman with hope and positivity or had somehow managed to come through all of this still shiny would completely change the whole tone of the book. Even as Nyx has regrets and moments of guilt she drowns them in alcohol and so many times I think she’s so close to making the kinder choice…

Apocalypse Alley (Blue Unicorn #2) by Don Allmon

Noah “Comet” Wu is back from a long deployment in a war zone and is looking forwards to some pleasant down-time.

Except his best friend JT has gone missing and he has to track him down. And the best lead he has is Buzz, hacker, possible - likely - criminal.

But he’s not the only one on the trail - violent, dangerous assassins are also following the lead. And there’s nothing like a constant fight for survival to increase sexual tension

This dystopian, high sci-fi, magical world setting all comes together in a Shadowrun-esque series that I have never seen to this degree. The combination of super futuristic technology - facing down a cyborg who is nearly immune to bullets and can control military-level robots and a fleet of cars remotely through the power of wireless networks. But at the same time you have a wizard walking around throwing fireballs around who needs to be fought with metaphors. And a complete wasteland still recovering from the fallout of an apocalyptic war is being healed by druids… but always with that edge. Like those druids? Are not restoring the forests by hugging rocks and playing with herbs. And we have references to things like the “second zombie apocalypse” which I’d love to know about.

I really like how cyberspace is presented here. In this ultra-technological setting cyberspace is an essential realm, a place where you do battle, a place of incredible power and potential that spills over into the real world. I like both the abstract description of things while, at the same time, resisting the urge to turn it into a tron-like alternate dimension which the characters run around in. But at the same time I love how real it is, with technology advanced to such a degree that there are people who never leave it - and there are people who experience everything through simulations on the internet which are not just visual but touch every sense. It’s both alien but grounded and every bit a real battleground. All made more real and poignant with Buzz‘s history and facing the very real choice of humans who have completely checked out of modern society.

Through the technology and the magic - and wizards and orcs and so much else - we also have a very nicely touched on world setting of chaos. The part I like about this is how elegantly it’s presented. We have mentions of different countries (including several which are clearly part of what was once the former United States), but no-one has to sit down and talk us through the disasters that struck or explain how the world works now because we see it. We see it because Comet is a mercenary who has fought in many many wars, telling us the state of the world. We see it because they pass through vast wildernesses where monsters roam which have clearly been abandoned. We see it because of the very limited presence of the police or authorities, especially when major powers clash. We see it because we have these huge quasi-legal and outright criminal organisations with vast powers, influence and the ability to act with impunity. We even see it in little things, like the high end car having a tracker in it so if it’s stolen the company that makes them can respond with over the top violence.

Drawing Dead (Dana McIntyre Must Die #1) by S.M. Reine

Dana McIntyre has always had an issue with vampires, even more than your average vampire hunter. They have history and she holds a grudge

So she does not take being bitten and turning into a vampire well. She fully intends to die before she turns. But not before taking all of Las Vegas’s hundreds of vampires down with her.

There is a possible cure- but is Dana willing to risk that? Can Vegas survive without Dana? And can it survive her vengeance?

I am now becoming ever more intimidated and by S.M. Reine’s world - because she has written about 300 series each of which have eleventy million books in it, all of which are connected and linked to a vast meta plot and world changing activity - and I AM SO BEHIND. So finding this new series my reactions were both lots of glee and a kind of gibbering terror. I will catch up with all her books! I will!

I was going to skip this until I caught up. But the cover. You know I’m not resisting that cover, right?

That said, despite the utter terrifying vastness that is S.M. Reine’s excellent world building and the truly massive amount of events that have passed, this book still works on its own even if you’re unfamiliar with the vastness. It does refer to major events in the larger world - events I’m only vaguely aware of - but this isn’t a vast world changing story. This is the story of Dana, Las Vegas and activities there. This history matters in terms of how the supernatural took over, how people were transformed by the Event and how much changed - but the details of it are not remotely necessary to tell Dana’s story. Ok, the gods thing? The gods thing lost me. I definitely need some severe elaboration on the whole deity thing.

That doesn’t mean the world isn’t amazing and broad and rich and weird. With the very conventional supernatural vampires and wereanimals, but throwing in some truly terrifying and alien fae with a very different take on anything I’ve seen before. And the cutest orc you ever did see

In fact let’s hit Dana and her wife Penny. First of all wife - yes, Dana is a lesbian, yes we have a lesbian protagonist, no she’s not “lesbian for Penny only” she is attracted to women and definitely loves Penny. Their relationship is not in any way fairy tale - there’s a lot of conflict and difficult there: but it’s down to Penny’s previous trauma as a victim of a serial killer, it’s Dana’s obsessive hatred of vampires, it’s her drinking too much - there’s a lot of complexities which make Dana not an easy woman to live with or love but they definitely do love.

The Year of the Knife by G. D. Penman

Oh wow there is such a lot here. So very much here.

We have a completely amazingly different alternate world. A modern day British Empire - with all the issues of Imperialism and Colonialism attached and examined. This isn’t some excuse to just play with the aesthetics - the Empire is not a benevolent force by any means (though there is some fascinating complexity there. I love how while definitely an issue, it also stands out as one of the few nations that don’t brutally persecute vampires). But also with magic and demons equally drastically changing the shape of the world. From the United Nations of Native Americans who most certainly have not been conquered, to mainland Europe badly overrun by demons. On top of this we have a definitely steampunk aesthetic which is always beautiful and fascinating

We have a complex and fascinating magic system with so many possibilities and implications - from how magic is used in the Industrial Revolution to how powerful mages are treated, to the maths and formula talented and skilled magic users perform while at the same time having some excellent takes on how magic is treated in different regions, different talents and how they can certainly match or surpass more formal training.

I can’t stress enough, the breadth and fascination of the world building, the different nations, the different branches of the government and forces, the

To that we have some awesome action scenes, lots of exciting and dramatic magic, a brutal and terrifying police investigation with lots of mystery, lots of battles and some generally excellent, fast paced writing (generally, I’ll get to that) and some really genuine creepiness as well.

And my gods there was a definite twist there. A truly excellent twist that brought all the myriad plot points together truly awesomely.

Our main character, Sully, is powerful, intelligent and capable both as a magic user and as an investigator. She doesn’t have any real respect for authority - but that doesn’t make her a mouthy rebel without purpose. She’s passionate, excellent fun and a definite force to be reckoned with. She’s an excellent protagonist. And she’s a lesbian, and she’s sexual - both casually and with a long term albeit fraught relationship with another woman. And there are definitely issues with their tumultuous relationship it is nothing to do with their sexuality and far more to do with vampirism and commitment issues and previous bad experiences.

The pathologist is a fascinating and eternally curious Indian man, her main conspirator and fellow researcher into the murders is a deeply academic, ferociously intelligent and amazingly well connected, politically astute Black man. One of her fellow cops and one she most relies on is a definite Man of Colour and we have a presence from the United Nations - of Native Americans. It’s a definite diverse book with clear depictions of minorities, all alongside ongoing examinations of persecution, imperialism and even how, for example, Sully can awkwardly fit in the system as an IBI officer and give people a heads up who may be hurt by the system

The Glamour Thieves (Blue Unicorn series #1) by Don Allmon

JT has managed to build a good business and a good life - not and for an orc and former criminal

But his past comes back to haunt him - namely in the hands of the very very sexy elf Austin. His ex and definitely bad news. JT should tell him to leave. JT shouldn’t have anything to do with him. JT should definitely not believe anything he says

But the threat against one of his dearly loved old compatriots is not something to ignore… of course the question then is, just how much has Austin lied this time?

Well that was incredibly different - and extremely fun and exciting to read. I need more of this, so much more of this.

Our main characters are Austin and JT, an orc and an elf, two men and two lovers. They’re joined by Buzz, a human, a man and another leg to their love triangle

And normally I’d cringe because there’s no quicker me to make me run for the hills than a love triangle - but this really works. It isn’t a matter of jealousy (though jealousy is certainly there), so much as different men bringing different things to the relationship. I love that their relationships are complicated and layered, with JT seeing different qualities in Buzz and Austin and valuing both for different reasons. There’s no real spectre of a happily ever after and the conflicts are very reasonable based on the very complicated histories between these characters which casts wide shadows on them.

Their relationships are very real, not overtly romanticised, often very gritty, with very real emotional conflict between the characters. I can really feel the history of these characters, what has past between them and how that makes their current relationships really fraught and difficult. At the same time, despite being an important element of the story, the romance does not completely overwhelm the plot by having confusing romance elements in life-or-death situations, etc.

It’s also blessedly free of the usual tropes and stereotypes we see about gay men and gay relationships - so many tropes that are almost mandatory in any story with men in relationships with each other. One of the more intriguing elements is that JT, the huge huge huge massive, super-huge orc is a bottom while Austin, the elf, is a top. Yes, it’s a simple thing but in a genre where fake gender roles are often imposed on characters in a same-sex relationship, it stands out. Equally the fact that Austin is definitely a more physically dangerous character is noteworthy. These characters are really awesomely deep, nuanced, relationships with each other with no tropy subtexts and no rigid romance paths. And they have some really good hot sex which, yes, I actually find hot (I have very very very very rarely actually found many written sex scenes remotely appealing) while at the same time being appropriate to the plot.

Frankly, if this were the only good thing about this book, I’d honestly still love it because I loved this so very very much. But there’s also so much more

This world is awesome - we have a really excellent Shadowrun/cyberpunk world going on here which I love. We have a world with traditionally fantasy world characters - wizards, orcs, elves in a technological setting - but an almost futuristic technology with cyberspace and networks in everything from minor networks for cars and huge, sweeping networks that can cover entire cities with grafitti’d, crowd sourced hacking. This creates almost a parallel realm that has to be acknowledged and taken into account in most encounters. To use an RPG parallel, your party needs a hacker as much as it needs a wizard or a warrior.

This creates a lot of levels of complexity, especially since orcs and elves are apparent recent additions to society, there’s lots of hints at dystopia and a dystopian event and there’s also an interesting take on the idea of magic and technology not mixing. This is a very old trope and one of those genre rules that has been so long that you do kind of wonder why it has become such a mandatory thing (like werewolves and vampires hating each other). What is intriguing in this case is we have a sci-fi, hyper technological society with those parallel cybernet realms means that a character who has and uses magic is effectively cut off from this. We see JT bonding with his car with his mind, turning his drones into extension of his own consciousness which was really excellently done (and an awesome part of the world) and through the power of this awesome description we realise that Austin, a character with magic, is expressly excluded from this world. This isn’t like, say, Harry Dresden being annoyed because he can’t use a computer or his car is unreliable; there are huge parts of this world that a magic user is expressly denying themselves for the sake of magic. At the same time, when we see the choice Roane made to get technological implants, we also see the implications, even the horror, of this elf expressly turning her back on her innate magic to gain access to this technological world.

All of this complexity and layers and elves and druid and orcs and hints of past events is all really wonderfully portrayed in subtle moments of world building woven excellently within the main plot line. There are no infodumps or convolued offloading of knowledge. Unfortunately. Unfortunately because I NEED MORE. I love this world - love it love it love it. I love the idea of a syndicate with hackers and cybernetic helicopters AND a Necromancer made of ofuda. More world building! More! I need more, I need it!

And all of this is presented with some really awesome writing. The action is exciting as they flee the attention of a major criminal gang. The description of JT’s technological merging is really intriguing and powerful. The relationships are really powerful, emotional and layered. The history and flashbacks are emotional and meaningful. And the book managed to describe cars in a way that made me interested and I don't give a damn about cars. And, yes, the sex is hot. This was a really excellent book

What is sadly missing is gender and racial representation. We have a few women and POC among the bad guys and side characters and we have a very briefly appearing female orc who is JT’s apprentice. Roane, Austin’s sister, is described as a Black woman but she is constantly mentioned and thought of rather than actually being present. Most of the characters here are White or racially non-applicable due to species (i.e. they’re green). It’s a shame because so much about this book is perfect that it’s painful to admit this glaring flaw.

I want this book to be a 200 book series I can just read forever. Make this more.

The Adventure of the Incognita Countess by Cynthia Ward

Lucy is an agent for the crown charged to ensure important plans being delivered to the American government actually arrive and don’t fall into the hands of a hostile foreign power: especially as tensions rise and Britain’s new Martian technology is in high demand.

As a dhampire, a half-vampire, she is uniquely qualified for this role – and for vampire slaying. Which is complicated when a vampire joins her on the HMS Titanic – and a vampire that conflicts so strongly with what she has been taught and tempts her away from both her duty and her mission.

This is one of those books that frustrates me immensely – because it’s only a book. Worse, it’s only a short story. Because, by all that is awesome, why is this not a book series? Why is it not a book series covering many many many books?

Bisexual female dhampire secret agent working for the government in a Steampunk setting that has the feel of both The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and Penny Dreadful pulling in all those Victoriana stories from Martian invasions to vampires and men raised in the wilderness – and so much more. All of it mixed in with real world politics of the time adding some nice intrigue to the story of the supernatural secret agent. All of this world building is nicely hinted at, included briefly but not overwhelming the actual plot and development of this short story.

Of course the bitterness of that is there’s so much of this world building which we could so play with! I want to see it all, the martial technology, the supernaturals incorporated into the world and government agencies and Lucy’s own personal situation and development and growth as a dhampire.

With this world we have a nice plot that does an excellent balance between action and development and world building that really just left me wanting more because there’s so much potential. Lucy’s story and development, lots of intrigue and lots of action which is really well written along with lots of emotional; development and world building all perfectly balanced.

Nice Guys Bite (Elemental Assassin #15.5) by Jennifer Estep

  

The foreward of this book says it’s for Silvio fans. Which was a hook for me because I’ve been desperate for Silvio to be developed in this series for some time.

Silvio is an interesting concept – the admin support for the criminal empire. The PA for the mob boss. A man – well vampire – who lives in a city that is so corrupt and so overtaken by criminal gangs that it needs its own bureaucracy.

And Silvio has been such a blank slate for a long time which is a shame and deeply problematic. He’s a skilled administrator who likes order and values Gin –but that’s not exactly a personality, it’s a series of quirks that just make him useful to Gin. Which is basically what we see of him – an admin assistant who is there to, in Gin’s words “mother her” without actually having anything in the way of his own life.

This was a chance for us to see a lot more of him, his memories, how he feels about working for Gin. Also what it means for him to be a vampire, what blood he drinks, how he gets it, how he feels about that. This series often treats the various creatures that inhabit the world somewhat casually – “Fred is a Giant”, “Latoya is a Dwarf” without much looking through the eyes of them. So seeing Silvio talk about his blood drinking, think about it and relate to it is an interesting expansion not just of him but the entire world.

This story gave Silvio a relationship, opinions, nice quirks like his sweet tooth and generally made the first steps towards turning him from a random extra who existed to serve into an actual character.

I do have issues though. Firstly, my issue is that this is a short story. Silvio has, since his introduction, been a blink-and-you-miss-it LGBT inclusion, as well as a Latino character (though we do have other latino characters as well) There are several books with Silvio in them which you can read and you won’t realise he is a gay character at all. So this definitely needed expanding and developing to actually make his inclusion more than the very thinnest of tokenism – but this doesn’t do that. This is exactly what we talked about in our post of Quite Portrayals of minorities. Rather than having Silvio’s relationships, sexuality and character development happen as part of the main plot line, it’s relegated to a side-book, a short story, a fluff piece that has no real connection to the main plot line. More, the story is even set up so Silvio doesn’t tell Gin, Sophia or anyone else what happened so they will never bring it up again. Sophia, Roslyn, Finn, Owen all had major books devoted to their personal storyline and trauma – and the whole cast were involved in it. They reference it because of that (I am currently reading Snared in which Gin refers to Sophia’s past as a perfect example)

Silvio’s story has been put in a short story aside from the main plot, ensured it’s completely separate from the other characters and generally has the feeling of box ticking; like “damn we’ve only had one LGBT character in 18 books and short stories (just the ones I've read - there are several short stories I haven't. Which is kind of my point, I'm not the only one who doesn't read short stories for series), and single mentions don’t cut it any more” so this book is released and lo, problem is solved. Now Silvio can go back to “mothering” Gin as her gay latino assistant while having no story or life of his own all without a single ripple in the main plot line.

Souljacker (Lily Bound #1) by Yasmine Galenorn

Lily is a succubus, after centuries of dangerous wandering she has finally managed to settle down and set up business in her salon

But when a client is killed by a vampire in her place of business, the life she’s sought to preserve start falling apart. The vengeance driven widow determined to drive her out of business would be bad enough- but the murdering vampire wasn’t just a random act.

The vampire is a serial killer – and he’s targeting customers from his mortal life. Including Lily and her frinds.

And everyone knows the police don’t investigate vampire kills

We have a common Urban Fantasy everything-there world here which Yasmine Galenorn does so long. Honestly these are always my favourite kinds of worlds so long as the author has sufficient restraint not to throw all of it at us all the time, swamping us

I think this book treads a narrow line. Lily is a succubus, we have the fae courts which she’s also related to. We have a magic cat, a witch best friend, a human friend, a chaos demon, several wereanimals and some vampires. It’s a lot

But it works because they’re all tied into the plot in a relevant fashion. We have elements of world building like the politics, opinions and culture of the wereanimals, the vampires and their ongoing plot to gain more power and how different they are from the people they were before. The world building is huge but the focus manages not to get too distracted.

The plot itself has a lot of action, tension and many many dramatic scenes pulling in many characters as the seral killer is made very very personal. A lot of the time it’s very hard to justify why none police characters are actually going to chase a serial killer around – but here the combination of politics tying their hands and the personal nature of the attacks really bring the story home to the characters rather than having random amateur hour.

Lily is a succubus and, I admit, when I first read this I kind of cringed. There are some excellent succubus protagonists out there. And also a substantial amount of books where I have to skim past endless pages of humping to get near the actual plot. Thankfully, this book fell in the former category – Lily being a succubus – and a sex worker is not used as a gratuitous way to have lots of sex scenes. In fact her hunger is used both to create a burden she has to deal with and work around (especially in a society where wandering around in an evening is difficult and dangerous) as well as a tragic and difficult path. Being a succubus is no just about being super hot – far from it.

Stolen Ink (Ink Born #1) by Holly Evans

Davian is a tattoo magician – a man who can sense the magical tattoos under people’s skin and bring them to life. He’s spent most of his life hiding the true extent of his powers, hoping to avoid the attention of the Council and live a quiet life with his friend and business partner Keir and, hopefully, find a cute guy to have some fun with.

Except someone in the city is killing people with tattoos and stealing them – an agonising and terrible way to die. With his power, Dacian is perfectly placed to stop him and people are pressing him to get involved – but can he stop the killer and stay under the Council’s attention?

I really like the world building of this book – it does a really good job of taking a modern world and making it feel like a Dungeons and Dragons town. We have wizards and cars. We have elves and modern technology. It all seems to work – part of that may be not going into too much unnecessary detail at this point: it does an excellent job of hinting and shaping a lot without going into lots of details

Which is good because we can already see many many kind of wizards each of which are clearly very different from each other. We have elementals. We have fae. We have elves. We have wereanimals. We have a lot – and a whole lot of them are repeatedly touched on with excellent little details that are there to give an impression of a wider, different, broad culture (like the social nature of elves, the personalities of elementals etc etc)

This applies to government as well – we have so many hints of how this is worked related to the Council, how they treat powerful magic users and some indications of the way powerful supernatural forces interact with this organisation

Again, no-one sits down and starts expositioning lots of information about the society – because that would make absolutely no sense at all and would really clutter up this beginning book. But it does an absolutely awesome job of portraying an amazing world without dragging down the story

On top of that the actual focus – tattoo magic, the magic that Dacian and Keir have and the very foundation of the plot of this book. This shows how much imagination and detail can actually go into world building when it’s necessary to the plot

Unfortunately the story does kind of drag in the middle. Dacian spends a lot of time not knowing what to do, he’s kind of been tapped by several people as the one who should do something about the serial killing. He’s understandably reluctant since he’d rather keep his magic secret (and pretty much everyone seems to know he’s more than he seems) and he definitely doesn’t know what to do. So I can get that there’s a bit in the middle of the book where Dacian figures out what he can actually do

Softpaw (Smilodon Pride #1) by Beryll Brackhause and Osiris Brackhaus

Connor loves Paris and revels in his beautiful life in the museums of the city and the streets of Le Marais – and he’s always ready to take in waifs and strays who need shelter, good advice and a warm meal

But when these gay sex workers are targeted by a serial killer, Connor’s not going to stand aside and if he catches the serial killer they’ll find there’s another dangerous predator prowling the rooftops of Paris.

While Michel is an undercover cop, ideally placed to infiltrate the killers victims – being a former sex worker himself. But can he lure in the killer without falling into old, destructive habits?

Like many paranormal romances, I find myself a little frustrated by the fact actually hunting down the serial killer takes a very big back step to the romance. I don’t know how much Michel actually spends investigating the murder at all… I mean other than walking the streets looking sexy I can’t really point to anything Michel does to actually hunt down the serial killer. Michel does little more than move in with Connor and then repeatedly fall asleep instead of doing his job and then destroying evidence. Connor does more, but even he gets heavily distracted.

I do actually like the romance, I think it has a lot of positive elements, is nicely based, has reasonable conflicts and is generally something I appreciate – but it’s hard to be that invested in it when there are men being murdered and that’s pushed into the background.

I am somewhat bemused with the idea that the police are under so much pressure from the powers that be to solve this case right now! The dead are sex workers, homeless street walkers, gay men and, at least some of them, immigrants, possibly undocumented. The powers that be being passionately outraged about this does not match up with actual official reaction to the deaths of any of these groups, let alone men who straddle all of them. I think it would have been much better to focus on Judge d’Angers, a clearly deeply involved woman (in what we don’t know yet) who could be driven by her own moral code (or other motives we’re not yet privy to).

I really like Connor and Michel here – they’re fun characters, they have hobbies, histories and depths. I like how they grow together, I like how they come to realise more depth. I like how Michel relates back to his previous life but is happy about how far he has come and is very confident as to risk everything to prove himself. I like Connor, his life his dedication to art, his existence, community and friends.

I like the unique wereanimal, some very original takes on werecreatures in general and a really interesting take on the supernatural depiction of the Council of Paris. I really really wish we could see more of the supernatural here. The hints of the supernatural are too brief, Connor’s history is too brief, his family too brief and what it means to be a weresmilodon was all pretty abruptly passed over. Which is a shame because not only did I want to see more of these unique elements, but I felt the supernatural wasn’t as big a part of this book as I like

But I really did like to see Connor stalking the houses of Paris. And how that isn’t quite as easy for a big cat as we often see depicted

Crimson Veil (Otherworld #15) by Yasmine Galenorn

The war continues to rage in Otherworld with the D’Artigo sisters hearing more and more stressful news as the world hangs in the balance

But the D’Artigo sisters cannot focus on the tragedy and devastation in Otherworld. A Daemon cult is trafficking slaves and attempting to invoke a demigod of vice and corruption capable of unleashing utter devastation across the city. With vampire businesses targeted as well, the D’Artigo sisters have to act – they have no time to mourn; not for their father, not for the dead of Elqaneve and not for those who died in Menolly’s bar.

This book is pretty much a continuation of Autumn Whispers, the last book. So much so that they almost feel like one book especially since Autumn Whispers ended without any real ending

A lot of what I said in the last book pretty much applies to this as well – it feels like a distraction and a frustrating one at that. We have Shadowwing and his demon army trying to invade Earth. His allies are launching a huge invasion cross Otherworld. An alliance is forming to try and push them back and one of the major nations of the Otherworld has fallen. Many of the spirit seals have been lost and now need to be quickly reclaimed for fear of Shadowwing getting his hands on them, ripping over the portals and invading Earth.

And the sisters are focused on… something else entirely. There’s a possible daemon plot (daemons are different from demons), the raising of a demi-god and a kidnapping/trafficking/slavery ring as well as threats against vampire businesses and… this is all unrelated to Shadowwing and I have to ask why it is here and why are the sisters involved?

I’m not saying these events are important but they’re literally in the middle of world destroying invasion against both the Otherworld and Earth. So why is this on the sister’s to handle who already have way too much on their plate? We have Carter, the half-demon, half-titan why doesn’t he step up? Vampire businesses are being targeted, why can’t Roman take this over, since he’s the major vampire authority? Fae and other supernaturals are being kidnapped so can’t the Earthside far queens step forwards? The shapehifters?

Why aren’t the sisters trying to form their alliances against the invasion – or hunting down the spirit seals or calling on the dragonflights to honour their commitment and fly to battle. The sisters have enough on their plate without being the first responders to every single issue everywhere

Braineater Jones by Stephen Kozeniewski

A man wakes up, face down in the pool with a bullet wound in his chest. He doesn’t remember his name, his life or how he got there – or how he died. Or how he’s still walking around.

He is a zombie and he has so much to learn about that – a full list of questions in fact. As he learns how to survive as an alcohol soaked member of the undead he finds his habit of asking questions sets him up to solve many other cases.

Braineater Jones, zombie PI, with many questions, few answers and a whole whacky noir world to navigate.

This book gets definite points for originality. Sentient zombies – but sentient rotting zombies, sentient rotting zombies with a shelf-life, memory issues and a society which semi-acknowledges them but only to put them on the very bottom of the social ladder. It’s definitely an interesting concept

That setting is the late 1920s/early 1930s and has a very film noir setting with shades of Prohibition (prohibition is over but the town is still dry) which is especially difficult for the zombies who need alcohol to keep their mental facilities. Without which they degrade quickly and become braineaters, marauding monsters of movie legend. Which is a fate that awaits them eventually anyway as their bodies and minds rot

This makes Braineater a slur among their community and more than one vampire is outraged by Jones, who doesn’t remember much or anything of his human life, chooses to use it as a name.

The story itself is very very twisty in classic Noir style. We have shocks and surprises. We have twists and turns. There’s lots of double crossing and lots of misdirection and lots of people being the complete opposite of what you expect them to be. The whole idea of what’s being explored and examined changes from chapter to chapter with Jones both desperately trying to drag up some memories of his past life, some indication of who he was and why he died – or who killed him since he has a big bullet hole. Throwing in just learning what it means to be a zombie on tip of that – there’s a lot to get through.

And that’s something of the problem. There’s a lot to get through and the book isn’t that long and we just sprint through it all. Along the way we kind of lose things like motivation, development or exploration. I don’t know why Jones has decided to become a detective. He doesn’t exactly do a lot of work to figure out who he was nor to really try and regain his memories. He becomes super suspicious about people and I’m not quite sure where the suspicion comes from. He develops friendships and positions where I’m not sure where they’ve come from and many of them apparently become passionate and deep very quickly.

It feels like we have an excellent book, or even an excellent series of books, with complete interesting world building and a really twisty complex storyline. But then it felt like an over-eager editor decided to cut huge chunks of development and exploration from the book leaving it all a bit too fast and just a bit hollow and unsupported in places.

Coyote's Creed (Broken Mirrors #1) by Vaughn R. Demont

Spencer Cain is barely making it through high school but it's not for lack of intelligence. With his mother battling mental illness, Spencer as no choice but to run cons to keep food on the table.  This all would have been so much easier if his deadbeat father hadn't decided to walk out one day.  When Spencer gets word that his long absent father has died, he believes that at least the man can do him and his mother no more harm, at least until he finds out the truth about who his father really was.  It seems that Spencer is half human and half Coyote.  This knowledge quickly launches Spencer into a supernatural world that he is scarce prepared to deal with despite the fact that he has spent his eighteen years running cons.

This book is pretty action and plot driven – we hit the ground running. Spencer learns he is supernatural and almost immediate begins charging through the plot at great speed. We quickly get him running head first into this world, pulling of tricks and learning as fast as he can do. We get some decent stories and history from Rourke and some entertaining hints of the nature of the competition between the three races, the sneaky, fun, yet sometimes lethal and serious nature of these prankster races constantly battling for bragging rights against each other.

It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s funny. Did I mention fun? Because that’s the main tone I have from this book, certainly to begin, Spencer is out of his depth but while so many protagonists would mope and despair, Spencer ran with it. I found myself reading this book extremely quickly because it happily pulled me in. It was one of those books where I blink and then see the book has finished.

The downside to this fun rocking charge through the plot is that the story doesn’t get into much depth with the world. Which is a real shame because I really really want to know. I want to know more about the powers of a Bard, the power of stories, I want to know more about the three races of tricksters, their histories, their powers, their natures, I want to know more about the curses

I love the idea that then Kitsune are meticulous planners while the Coyotes wing it and have a lot of luck to various degrees of success and stability. I like the idea that the three races of trickster have very different ways of being tricksters – this is great but I want to know far more about this. We only touch on it in passing and then leap forward to the next part of the plot. It generally works – I can still easily follow the book (though more information about the Sorcerers would have helped) but more would have helped a lot

I find Spencer to be a fun protagonist. He’s a rogue – but he’s not malicious with it. He’s fun, doesn’t take anything too seriously but isn’t so light hearted to be frustrating. His relationship with his mother is also utterly, painfully poignant – having to navigate around his mother’s mental illness, respecting her, loving her but deeply strained trying to support and help her. This really does bring out a part of Spencer’s character that is touching, caring and hurting that adds a lot of humanisation to the character. It’s powerful but there is a problem with mental illness basically being used as character development for another character. But it is extremely powerful – we don’t undermined his mother’s authority as his mother, nor the emotional bond between them and minors having to support parents with mental illnesses. It’s very real, very raw and very powerful

Spencer is bisexual – which is definitely a rare find in this genre. We hardly ever see LGBTQ protagonists in this genre and less bisexual male protagonists, so this definitely interests me

I also really like the way the sex is portrayed, being much more graphic than we often see, but also much less formulaic without unnecessary gender roles or patterns I see a lot

What I’m much less a fan of is Spencer’s sexual partner – Rourke. Rourke is an older bisexual man – and I’m quite happy to see an LGBTQ character be older and be portrayed as sexual and sexy (and not older in an “is thousand years old but looks 20” kind of way). This is definitely a plus. What isn’t so much is that Spencer at least begins the book referring to Rourke as “uncle” and clearly sees him in some level of, if not parental then certainly something close to it. No he’s not family, but he was a close friend of his parents and has clearly watched Spencer grow up. Further, some mojo between them makes Spencer and him especially horny. I’m not saying that it removed his consent but it likely increased the amount of sex they had. Finally Rourke announces his love for Spencer very quickly and tries to pressure Spencer into becoming his consort.