Dead Eye (Tiger's Eye Mystery #1) by Alyssa Day

Jack Shepherd, soldier, weretiger, veteran, is returning home to Dead End, a tiny town in isolated rural Florida, to handle his dead uncle’s affairs. And his pawn shop

A shop part owned by Tess, a young woman who is determined to keep the business going, is good at what she does and has little time for him

Whatever conflicts they may have can’t be spared any time though when a body appears on the shop’s doorstep: and it’s not the fist. No-one told Jack how his uncle died.

Looking at this cover I was struck by an overwhelming sense of Sookie Stackhouse Series. Now, normally I shy away from comparisons to other book series as it inevitably tends to cast the books your talking about in a shadow: but I’m going here because a) I don’t think many authors are going to dispute the dominance of the Sookie Stackhouse series in the genre and b) I’m comparing favourably

Because it has many of the interesting themes of that series - the small town and close community feeling. A character who is very much an every-person without being the specialist-special-person of supreme Sueness. A world that is extremely magically diverse with magic and wereanimals and witches and hints of many things more. It takes a nice small town setting we don’t often see in books (in this case a pawn shop - and doesn’t that have the chance for so many supernatural shinies to show up?)

But it also has many elements that improve the concept: we have characters getting involved in a murder investigation for an actual legitimate reason rather than just randomness (considerable suspicion of the law enforcement and their collusion with the big bad). We have a small town that suggests and actual reason for the supernatural to be there - with it’s own not-defined-but-often mentioned independent history and hidden supernatural community suggests there’s a good reason why the supernatural is here. And a similar reason why outsider authority doesn’t run in

The world is aware of the supernatural- but this has been developed into more than “there are vampires”. There’s suggestion of a broader history, wars, cultural context all from the revelations of the supernatural to the world (which I believe have been covered in different books by the same author). But this book very carefully focuses on the town - we have a wonderful sense of the greater, wider world but this town is what is relevant at the moment.

Tess isn’t a character defined by either super powers or Spunky Agency, she rarely makes decisions that makes me despair and she doesn’t hate all other women! Her best friend, Molly, is clearly a big part of her life, competent, accomplished and fun. She loves her aunt and uncle who she lives with (and despite not living with her parents isn’t overwhelmed by her Tragic Past) and has a fun female co-worker at the pawn shop (despite her lack of gun skills). She seems to respect the other characters around her, her neighbours in general and generally be a pretty decent character rather than use her internal monologue as a way to try and establish why she doesn’t belong or is superior to those around her

The Cursed (The League of the Black Swan #1) by Alyssa Day

Rio (of varying last names) is an inhabitant of the Bordertown, that section of New York that is the doorway to the other lands, to faerie and the demon realm. A part of town where nearly everyone has a quirk of some kind, a part of town where the fae and the demons and who knows what else walk around freely

And a part of town with little in the way of laws, since it’s largely free of mortal authority and no-one has stepped forward to replace the last sheriff. And Luke Oliver won’t accept the role. A powerful wizard and the cursed immortal son of Lucrezia Borgia, he isn’t willing to get dragged into it.

But nor did he wanted to be dragged into loving Rio, especially not with his curse. And there’s a lot to be dragged into as Rio approaches her 25^th birthday and suddenly all the movers and shakers of Bordertown are after her. Whatever’s going to happen is going to be big – and everyone’s determined to have Rio in their hands before it does.

There’s a lot I loved about this book – world, characterisation, world, the story, world, the different side plots and, did I mention the world? Because I really liked the world.

The writing, while generally good, can get severely derailed in places with description. Particularly of each other – which can go on and on and on and on. And you get a scene where they’re doing something else then it’s back to describing how very luscious the other is and how things are becoming wet/turgid and omnomnomnom. It’s distracting and pretty unnecessary and drags out the plot

In fact, the whole book would be so much better if the romance were curtailed, reduced or at least rendered less dramatic. We don’t have a love at first sight – because they already saw each other before the book started and they fell madly in obsession with each other for no apparent reason. He cut her off and drove her away because he has a Curse (*sigh* get me a bottle) which he thinks could hurt her and destroy him so he has to Drive Her Away For Her Own Good. Which is even more odd because when they finally get round to revealing the curse it doesn’t seem to be all that relationship or love interest destroy-y. It's annoying because he decides, after centuries of flings, that She Could Be the One based on... based on? I mean it's not like he gets to know her before making his decision - so based entirely on his lust he decides he'll fall madly in lover with her so must avoid her? As for her, she has a sad past that has left her with abandonment issues which causes her to flounce out in tears at one point – seriously I had to re-read the page 4 or 5 times before I could figure out WHY she was so upset and decided the whole thing was over. And that's asideHe is extremely protective to the point of actually blowing shit up because he’s so angry and frustrated with his need to protect her (of course, he randomly blows stuff up for funsies when he’s in a bad mood anyway, but we most commonly saw it when protecting Rio or being frustrated in his urge to protect her). Then there’s her deciding she needs to leave him for his own good because… REASONS.

When they were actually together and not tripping over convoluted conflict, they actually bounced off each other well. But that conflict was annoying.

It’s a shame because, once you put that bit aside, the book is extremely good. Not perfect by any means – I think Rio makes a lot of dubious decisions (instantly accepting Kitsune for one, when it looked so much like a trap. Trusting the man who appears later claiming to be family is another major one) that only didn’t blow up in her face due to pure luck. I also thinks there are moments in the book which are a bit too… convenient. The Oblong of goblins supporting her, the troll – it seems she does very very little to get such sudden, instant friends. And I’m still unclear at the end exactly what Dalriata wanted and what he hoped to achieve.