Dirty Magic (The Prospero’s War #1) by Jaye Wells
Synopsis: The last thing patrol cop Kate Prospero expected to find on her nightly rounds was a werewolf covered in the blood of his latest victim. But then, she also didn’t expect that shooting him would land her in the crosshairs of a Magic Enforcement Agency task force, who wants to know why she killed their lead snitch.
The more Prospero learns about the dangerous new potion the MEA is investigating, the more she’s convinced that earning a spot on their task force is the career break she’s been wanting. But getting the assignment proves much easier than solving the case. Especially once the investigation reveals their lead suspect is the man she walked away from ten years earlier—on the same day she swore she’d never use dirty magic again. Kate Prospero’s about to learn the hard way that crossing a wizard will always get you burned, and that when it comes to magic, you should be never say never.
Review: Let’s start with the quotes!
“I pinned him with pitying glare. ‘That the best you got?”
His eye flares at the challenge. ‘No, this is.’ His hand cupped his balls.
‘According to Alice in Dispatch’-I lowered my gaze to his crotch and winced-’there ain’t much magical about that wand.”“How do I know where you’re really taking me? Maybe you got a plan to kidnap me and make me your sex slave.”
I scanned a dubious gaze over the man’s ratty gray hair, serious dental hygiene crimes, and the dirt caked back under his nails. “It’s tempting, but I think I can control myself today.”“I leaned against the counter and eyed the back of Danny’s head. His hair was in the style his peers favored—meticulous messiness. I swear the kid took half an hour applying goo to his hair so it could look exactly like it had when he rolled out of bed.”
Well this was a fun one! Does the cover model remind anyone else of Olivia Munn? I should know!
I think this series is off to a great start. I don’t really read too many police procedurals, but Dirty Magic makes it more interesting through incorporating paranormal elements in a traditional urban fantasy setting. The magic is really unique and I liked that it isn’t totally flashy. It comes off as more scientific which makes the parallels between magic in this world and drugs in ours very believable.
Kate can be very funny and I think she’s a good heroine so far. Though she has a tragic past, the series doesn’t come off as too dark. I found myself quoting several hilarious lines though the latter half isn’t quite as quotable as the first one. A few of the supporting characters should develop pretty nicely in the sequels, but I wasn’t quite attached to them right away. I do sense a potential love triangle brewing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this series doesn’t put a lot of focus on romance.
I’m very happy to have given Jaye Wells another shot. I tried a novel in her Sabina Kane series and it didn’t really grip me, but Dirty Magic’s witty dialogue, solid worth building, and character development put this series on track to become a potential favorite.
*ARC Provided by the Publisher.
GIVEAWAY! TWO copies of The Undead Pool (The Hollows #12) by Kim Harrison
Soooo what are YOU most looking forward to in this new entry? I am SUPER excited about this one! I’ve been eager to announce this since I finished the book! And even more eager since I posted my review! You know I loves to spread the Hollows loves and feels! And you will have many with this one, the BEST Hollows entry to date. So this time I plan to giveaway TWO copies, not one, but TWO! One of them will be an autographed edition! The other, an ebook!
How to Enter (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY): My giveaways are only open to followers of Your Urban Fantasy who are 18 years of age or older. In order to enter YOU MUST COMMENT ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT POST AND INDICATE YOU HAVE DONE SO ON THE RAFFLECOPTER WIDGET! If you’re a new member, sign up on the right panel to follow my blog via email. (Make sure to check your email to confirm your subscription. You should receive a notification immediately, so check your spam folder if you don’t see it right away). Current followers can just say so in their post. The next three opportunities are for bonus entries. Overall, there are up to 4 chances to enter:
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The more entries the better your chance to win! Good luck! And don’t forget to tell me what you’re most looking forward to in this book!
The giveaway will run from 1/20/14 - 2/24/14. Yes, I am shamelessly milking the anticipation for all it’s worth. Let’s get this road on the show!
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Loading ...Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #1) by Ilona Andrews
Synopsis: On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is…different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, “normal” is a bit of a stretch for Dina.
And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night….Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans—an alpha-strain werewolf—and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.
Review: I’ve only ever read the Kate Daniels series when it comes to the Ilona Andrews crew, and since that’s one of my favorite series I was looking forward to giving this one a try. They posted this story chapter by chapter as a serial series on their blog but I wanted to hold out until they had a finished product. It’s not a very long read but it’s full of magic and imagination on par with what we’ve come to expect when it comes to them. At the same time it’s totally distinct from Kate Daniels which is good. The only part that I didn’t really care for was the relationship with Sean, the alpha werewolf. I think the story was a little too short to work in developing a truly compelling romance angle there, and it’s hard to determine where it can go. He’s not Dina’s only admirer either as Arland’s intentions make me curious as well, so while I wouldn’t call it a triangle per se, it’s a little more complicated than I think it necessary for a 175 page read. The main characters themselves are plenty interesting though.
All in all I think this was a successful exercise for them and I’d like to see what they can do writing the sequels how they normally do. It’s an easy recommend if you enjoy the writing of Ilona Andrews and the artwork is totally gorgeous. I would love to see new ones in the sequel.
Fractured (Guards of the Shadowlands #2) by Sarah Fine
Synopsis: In the week since Lela returned to Rhode Island as Captain of the Guard with Malachi as her second in command, local news has been dominated by chilling sightings of human-like creatures running on all fours. Lela knows there’s only one explanation: the Mazikin have arrived in the land of the living.
Needing to maintain the appearance of a normal life for her foster mother, her probation officer, and her classmates, Lela returns to Warwick High along with Malachi. At night they secretly hunt for the Mazikin nest. To assist, two new Guards from very different parts of the Shadowlands are assigned to Lela’s unit, including the bad boy Jim, who repeatedly challenges Lela’s authority. Lela struggles to keep all her Guards on the right side of the law, but their mistakes come at a terrible cost.
As one painful revelation follows another and the Mazikin start targeting those closest to her, Lela finds herself more vulnerable than she’s ever been, wanting a future more than she ever has. With an enemy determined to separate soul from body, one question remains: how much is she willing to sacrifice to protect those she loves?
Review: I enjoyed the first novel in this series, Sanctum, and jumped right into Fractured as soon as I could. There’s not much of a time-lapse at all so you won’t feel like you’ve missed much. While the supernatural big bads have come over to the human world, that leaves less time to explore the Shadowlands. I enjoyed the story overall, but I found myself wanting Lela and the gang to head back into Shadowlands pretty often since I found the world building and development there pretty interesting. This one focused more on high school life and came across as a more traditional paranormal YA read.
Malachi and Lela run into trouble in paradise which didn’t totally surprise me. One of the highlights of the book included several fish out of water moments for Malachi. You can’t expect someone who existed during the Holocaust to easily grasp how things are today. There are some interesting twists with the character as well that will leave you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next book.
We meet new side characters as well, but I didn’t find myself as invested in their storyline as I was with characters from the first book. I guess I might be a little afraid to get too attached.
Based on the ending of this book, I think book 3 will be closer to the same vein as book one which is a little more of what I’m looking for in this type of series. I look forward to its release and definitely recommend this series! And as an added bonus I really like the covers!
*ARC Provided by Publisher
Happy New Year! The Undead Pool (Hollows #12) by Kim Harrison - E.P.I.C.
The new year wouldn’t feel quite right without posting my review of my favorite series first! I’ve been sitting on this since October.
Let’s kick this off with a few of my favorite quotes!
“And the kiss…A tingle raced through me. Slowly my smile faded. Ellasbeth didn’t know what she had.”
“You’ve had that elf as your familiar for over a year, and he’s not put the sparkle in your scrying mirror even once?”
“Trent leaned back, eyeing us over his scribbled legal pad. ’You have amazing friends.’
‘I need them to stay alive through my amazing life,’ I said, and Ivy became almost sultry as she pulled herself together in her chair and smiled at Trent.”
So this is the book! It’s the moment of truth for quite a few readers. Do I really need to explain why at this point? Okay, I’ll tell you a story about a witch and an elf…
With pressure building for literally a decade now, that’s a LOT for a book to live up to. With 11 books under its belt, Rachel Morgan has gone through quite a bit. Her ties to the Ever After and its never-ending problems in her life continue. In Ever After she had to save the parallel universe from shrinking due to her faulty ley line. Now her home town has to deal with dangerous magic causing routine spells to backfire, leading to countless accidents, injuries, and pure chaos all over the city. With magic in shambles, the race relations among all species-human and Inderlander alike-soon follow.
Undead vampires are down but not quite out, so Rachel has to figure out what’s wrong with the magic in order for them to restore balance before this madness leads to a point of no return. To do this will require her to tap into wild elven magic. It’s as unpredictable as it is ancient, so I think it’s safe to say our favorite itchy witch has her work cut out for her (the story of her life). Thankfully she has her friends and her favorite elf, Trent Kalamack, who will do all they can to help her.
So how is it? Well, it isn’t just epic, it really is
E.P.I.C.
Emotional
I’m sure readers will finish this book with lots of feels. I pretty much went through the emotional wringer with this one, but I found myself satisfied with the outcome of the book even though things aren’t perfect. That’s the beauty of The Hollows. Rachel and her friends have to earn everything and it’s a constant fight to keep it together. We’d be in for a truly boring journey if things were too easy. Trent is not featured on the cover of this book for the hell of it. If you like him you can look forward to seeing a lot of him and his life. If you don’t…you’ll still see a lot of him and his life. Either way, we get a sense of how Rachel can and can’t quite fit into it and he into hers. Since they are both adrenaline junkies in their own right the results are fairly interesting, but any long-term prospects will lead to a few roadblocks.
Obstacle #1: Ellasbeth, ooh Ellasbeth. Talk about baby mama drama! Kim Harrison knows how to make this character grate on a reader’s nerves, THIS reader in particular.
Her cute little nickname from Trent doesn’t help matters. Though even I will admit that reading about Ellasbeth isn’t all bad. For someone with so much dignity (supposedly), even she gets pretty desperate and her subtle attempts to one-up Rachel expose her own glaring insecurities. At the heart of it, all I could think to myself is that Trent’s been there, done that and bought the t-shirt, so why does she still try so hard? There are times when you really want to try to like her for the sake of the children, but she does not make it easy. She is here until the end of the series though, so be ready.
Obstacles #2 and #3: The demons and the elves. Elves and demons don’t have the best history and our favorite demon, Big Al, loves to remind Rachel of this. On the other side of the lines, Trent’s elven community is less than thrilled as well. I honestly feel for Al quite a bit here. He is not featured as heavily in this book as he was in Ever After (sorry Al fans, I love him too), but his scenes were really profound and important, further driving home the suffering demons have endured partly due to their past with the elves. I have a feeling this is necessary to help tie up loose ends in the big picture.
But even with those obstacles and that star-crossed lovers element, the chemistry between Rachel and Trent is as strong as ever and it’s high time for a definitive move one way or the other. Rachel still tries to fight it with good reason, but she’s not the only one. Trent understands his responsibilities too, which should be elsewhere. But as the great Phoebe Buffay once said:
Progressive
There’s real movement here in the overall plot and the potential future of The Hollows and Inderlanders in general. Elves are starting to make their move, for better or worse. Vampires seem to be taking a stand against their undead masters, the I.S. and the F.I.B. both have to get their heads out of their rear ends to work together, and even the werewolves get some time to shine. Fans of David will enjoy his involvement with the storyline, though I found it somewhat bittersweet. Either way, change is on the horizon for the Inderlander community and it all goes back to Rachel in one way or another. I love how it all ties in together.
Intriguing
If you thought we learned enough about the world of The Hollows, think again. The use of the magic here was really interesting and the results turn everything on its head. Wild magic is really its own beast and it is a little refreshing to see Rachel try to manage something other than earth and ley line magic. It’s less tangible making the possibilities feel pretty endless. In this book the state of The Hollows in reality is not far removed from the Ever After with the fabric of civilization crumbling. It’s quite a good character study to see how people react in desperate times.
More layers of characters we thought we knew very well are pulled back, proving once again that Harrison is a master at what she does. You don’t come to the Hollows for cookie-cutter one-note characters. The world and its characters are complicated and ever-evolving. It’s one of the reasons I can’t quite get enough.
Comedic
Jenks is in top form here. I don’t think he’s been this quotable since the earlier books before Matalina’s passing. Clearly time heals all wounds even for pixies because he provides some of the best laugh out loud dialogue that I’ve read in a quite while from him. Of course he’s not only a source of comic relief. He lives up to the pixy name by being a good judge of character and the all around voice of reason, especially when it comes to Trent and Rachel’s beating around the bush with each other. He says what we’re all thinking. There’s more of the Trent/Jenks bromance that readers of Million Dollar Baby will enjoy too.
So all in all for me this book was indeed epic. I continue to be impressed with its high quality going into the home stretch. There are some truly amazing moments and chapters in this book that will be talked about for a long long time ESPECIALLY a certain chapter that I’m not going to mention here…chapter 22. Anyway, practically every new book is my favorite since Pale Demon and this one is the BEST yet for sure! Normally I like to dog-ear certain parts to re-read again, but I literally wanted to do that for the whole book. I am grateful for my kindle and it’s lovely highlighting and bookmarking features, or else my tree version of this book would be a mess!
With just one book to go before The Hollows closes up shop I cannot WAIT to see how this all ends now!! I just know that I am so so happy that this is my favorite series. Kim Harrison hasn’t let me down at all and though I’m going to miss this dearly when it’s done, I am 100% confident she will give this series the ending it deserves.
So, uh, should I tell you how I really feel?
*ARC Provided by the Publisher.
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