Book Blast: The Mage Tales Prequels by Ilana Waters

From USA Today bestselling author Ilana Waters:

Vampire. Witch. Hero. Monster.

Titus Aurelius is all of these things. Ever since he rose from the ashes of ancient Pompeii, this former Roman general has fought for survival.

A few millennia later, bloodseeker Titus isn’t looking for trouble—just a quick meal. But when his path crosses the witch Abigail’s, that plan gets shot to Hades. They find out the Paranormal Investigation Agency (PIA) is plotting something monstrous—something that involves exploding gas mains, lethal bird-shifters, and sadistic vampire minions.

Will they uncover the PIA’s murderous secret before every supernatural in its path is destroyed?

And what is Titus and Abigail’s connection to the mage who, almost twenty years later, is exiled to a paranormal boarding school? Can this mage solve a mystery concerning a stolen potion and ghostly figure before students—including him—wind up dead?

Together for the first time, the Mage Tales Prequels: Books 0-II are action-packed, edge-of-your-seat suspense stories shot through with a megadose of snark. If you love authors like Kevin Hearne, Lev Grossman, and Ilona Andrews, give these a try! This box set contains one novella and two full-length novels:

When Darkness Falls
Blood and Magic
Mage Lessons

Goodreads     Amazon

Book Review: Sugar Spells by Lola Dodge

Sugar Spells

Author: Lola Dodge
Series: The Spellwork Syndicate, book 2
Publisher: InkMonster, LLC (October 30, 2018)
Kindle, 270 pages
Goodreads     |     Amazon

Summary
After her run-in with a jealous warlock, apprentice baker Anise Wise can’t wait to get back the kitchen where she belongs. But thanks to her brush with death, the land of the living isn’t all cupcakes and marshmallows.

Anise’s magical mojo is way out of whack and her evolving powers are stirring up trouble. As the town buzzes with news that Anise can bake deathly spells, unsavory characters start lining up for a taste. They’ll stop at nothing for the chance to use Anise and her witchcraft to further their own plots.

She plans to hole up researching magic recipes until the attention dies down, but then she discovers the horrifying terms of her bodyguard’s contract. Wynn has saved her life so many times, she can’t leave him trapped. But doing the right thing will mean risking death or worse—being cast out of her dream job.

For this witch, justice might not be as sweet as advertised.

Book Review: Shoot the Messenger (Messenger Chronicles #1) by Pippa DaCosta

Shoot the Messenger

Author: Pippa DaCosta
Series: Messenger Chronicles, Book 1
Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing
Published: February 22, 2018
Kindle Edition, 285 pages
Rating: 5 Stars
★★★★★
Goodreads  Amazon

Summary: "Lies aren't her only weapons against the fae..."

In the Halow system, one of Earth’s three sister star systems, tek and magic—humans and the fae—are at war.

Kesh Lasota is a ghost in the machine. Invisible to tek, she’s hired by the criminal underworld to carry illegal messages through the Halow system. But when one of those messages kills its recipient, Kesh finds herself on the run with a bounty on her head and a quick-witted marshal on her tail.

Proving her innocence should be straightforward—until a warfae steals the evidence she needs. The fae haven’t been seen in Halow in over a thousand years. And this one—a brutally efficient killer able to wield tek—should not exist. But neither should Kesh.

As Kesh’s carefully crafted lie of a life crumbles around her, she knows remaining invisible is no longer an option. To hunt the fae, to stop him from destroying a thousand-year-long fragile peace, she must resurrect the horrors of her past.

Kesh Lasota was a ghost. Now she’s back, and there’s only one thing she knows for certain. Nobody shoots the messenger and gets away with it.

A new space fantasy reverse harem series where the guys are hot, the perils are many, and one rebel messenger holds the key to the survival of the human race.

REVERSE HAREM INFO: The Messenger Series is a slow burn reverse harem space-fantasy adventure. This series contains sexual encounters with multiple partners. The harem develops during the series.

Review: Upon finishing a book, I like to rate and shelve it on Goodreads, and my usual placeholder review is something alone the lines of "Review coming soon." I think it says a lot about this book that my placeholder review was "My heart. I can’t... words... Review to come later... once I can see again through this sheen of tears. Ack."

I'm still not even sure how to begin reviewing this book. I can't even peg the genre. The blurb touts it as being "a slow-burn reverse harem space fantasy adventure" romance. Apparently the reverse harem develops over the course of the series, as there isn't actually much romance in the book. It's set in this future society where we've advanced our society to space, but also has a sort of alternate reality where the fae are a part of the human history, so it's sci-fi, but it's also fantasy? But also romance. Oh, and with a sort of mystery element too. And adventure. But also paranormal/paranormal romance? But with a sort of steampunk, sort of western feel, sort of urban fantasy. ...Genre party! ALL THE GENRES!

This was my first book by Pippa DaCosta, but now I need to go check out her back catalog. And I also need the next book in this series, preferably injected directly into my veins RIGHT NOW. There is so much to recommend this book. The world building is amazing, the dialogue is witty and sharp, and Kesh is bad ass who doesn't take crap from anybody while walking around in a sweet pocket-filled techno duster that can disguise her and carrying a chain whip charged with magic. Add to that the bad ass warfae out to frame her for murder who has kidnapped her best-friend-slash-droid, a hot marshal (read: old west cop but in space, also with a sexy duster) who is more than he appears, and a caged and exiled (also sexy) fae, and you can see the beginnings of this reverse harem starting to build up. Oh, also, holy plot twists, Batman. I got so emotionally invested in this book and in Kesh and the other characters, and then right at the end it was like Pippa DaCosta reached her hand inside my chest and ripped out my cracked and broken heart. (...Which is fitting, actually). I felt like I needed to go find some tape and try to put my heart back together after finishing this book. That's after resisting the mighty urge to fling my kindle across the room and sob broken heartedly into a pillow.

So yes! Read this book and be forever ruined, like me! I make it sound kind of awful, but it's that really good kind of pain, where you're like "Oh God, I can't take it! ...Give me the next book right now so you can continue sticking pins into my heart, Pippa DaCosta!"

Book Review: Deadly Sweet (The Spellwork Syndicate #1) by Lola Dodge

Rating: 5 Stars

Expected publication: January 16th 2018 by Ink Monster, LLC
Summary: Anise Wise loves three things: baking, potion making, and reading her spell books in blissful silence. She might not be the most powerful witch in the suburbs, but enchantment is a rare skill, and her ability to bake with magic is even rarer. Unfortunately, witches have a bad rep, and Anise’s dream of attending pastry school crumbles with each rejection letter.

Then her great aunt Agatha pops out of the woodwork with a sweet offer. If she signs on as Agatha’s apprentice, Anise can have all the training and ingredients she’s ever imagined, and she’ll inherit the family bakery.

The catch? Studying with Agatha means moving to Sedona—a dangerous otherworldly power center where her aunt is a key player in the magical community’s shady dealings. And the last apprentice? Assassinated.

Now Anise is next on the hit list. If she can’t find and stop whoever wants her dead, she’ll be more toasted than a crème brulee.

Who knew baking cakes could be so life or death?
(from Goodreads)

Review: I have a really hard time rating anything that makes me immediately go looking for the next book (and yelling "NOOOOO!" like I just found out Darth Vader is my dad when I find out it doesn't come out for almost a year) as anything less than 5 stars. So BAM! 5 stars!

I really enjoyed Deadly Sweet. There is an element of romance but I have a hard time calling it a YA Romance. There's an element of fantasy (witches and magic and familiars) but I have a hard time calling it YA Fantasy. Actually, the main character (Anise Wise) is early college age, so I have a hard time calling it YA (but I don't think it's NA because that seems to be YA with sex scenes...) The only thing I don't have a hard time calling this book is AWESOME.

The Goodreads blurb on this book is horrible. Anise is a witch with a talent for baking enchantments in a world where witches exist but aren't terribly common or accepted. I kept thinking of witches kind of like cosplayers while reading this book. If you see someone in full cosplay randomly in public (in your school, working at the bakery at your local grocery store) they're super out of place and they definitely get the side eye. But there are places (ok, conventions mostly, but humor me) where there are LOTS of cosplayers gathered together, and then it's just par for the course. Non-cosplayers still tend to gawk a bit, take photos and things, but there is a community of like-minded people there and you're way less likely to have some jerkwad come up and start harassing you for the way you're dressed.

Except cosplayers are witches and can do magic, which may or may not be scary to people, especially when Anise feels cornered and threatened and burns down her county fair.

Basically Anise and her mom move a lot, while Anise pretends to be "normal" and tries to hide that she's a witch, and when people do find out they move to another town, and Anise starts over at the bottom of the totem pole decorating cakes at the local Grocery-Mart bakery. Oh, and gets repeatedly rejected from community college baking programs because they don't accept witches.

The blurb says Anise loves baking and potion making, but what she actually loves is baking enchantments into her pastries. (There aren't really any potions involved... but there is magic infused vanilla!) It's cute how she adds a pinch of anise to her bakes as her sort of signature. Anyway, after she accidentally burns down the county fair, Anise's great aunt Agatha finally answers an email Anise wrote her a year ago begging for an apprenticeship in her magical bakeshop (creatively called "Agatha's Bakeshop"). Little does Anise know, Agatha's Bakeshop in Taos is located on what is known as a vortex, a super magically charged area around which whole communities of witches spring up.

Suddenly Anise goes from having to hide what she is and fly under the radar as much as possible, to living in a community full of other witches. She starts making some of her first ever real friends, meets people who have known her family for generations, and learns there are all sorts of things about the witchy world she had no clue about. Including the mystery of what happened to Agatha's last apprentice, Hayley. (Seriously, they need to rewrite this blurb. She moved to Taos, not Sedona; Agatha is part of the Spellwork Syndicate, 13 matriarchs who keep the town safe and are not shady at all; Agatha's last apprentice is missing, not assassinated...)

I enjoyed the world building in this series, and appreciate how witches have particular areas of magic in which they excel, like Anise is good with kitchen witchery, Blair's family runs towards necromancy, Paula has a healing/cleansing magic that is apparently very herbal based, etc. I love Agatha's familiar, Fondant, and need to know more about her. I love Anise's Shield, Wynn, and need to know so many things about him, like where is he from? what does his contract involve? why does he sleep so much? The budding friendship between Anise and the daughters of her mom's old friends is great. OH! I need to know all the things about Anise's mom's past! What happened there? I'm really hoping these answers will be in the next book.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WAIT ALMOST A WHOLE YEAR FOR THE NEXT BOOK?!?! I need it NOW!!

This book does NOT end on a cliff hanger, and could be read as a stand alone, but it definitely left me wanting more and I can’t wait to see what develops for Anise in the second book, Sugar Spells.

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Curses, Foiled Again by Sera Trevor

Book Review: Curses, Foiled Again by Sera Trevor

Rating: 4 Stars

!!Happy Book-Birthday!!

 

Expected publication: November 27th 2017 by NineStar Press
Summary: Felix is a vampire—a fierce creature of the night who strikes terror into the hearts of everyone unlucky enough to become his prey. Or at least, that’s what he thought was true, until he met John. John is completely unimpressed with Felix, much to his dismay. Felix becomes fixated on proving his ferocity to John—and when that doesn’t work, he strives to make any impression on him at all.

John is a witch, and as all witches know, vampires are notoriously stupid creatures who only have the power to hurt those who fear them. Besides, he’s under a curse much more frightening than any vampire. Felix’s desperate attempts to impress him annoy John at first, but gradually, they become sort of endearing. Because of his curse, John has pushed everyone in his life away. But Felix can’t be hurt, so there’s no harm in letting him hang around.

Felix is technically dead. John has nothing left to live for. But together, they might have a shot at life.

This dark and witty vampire romance for adults is complete at 100,000 words, with no cliffhanger. Despite some dark twists and turns, it ends with a solid HEA.
(from Goodreads)

Review: The first chapter is such a total train wreck that I almost DNF’d this book, but there was also something compelling enough about it that I kept reading - and I’m so glad I did! Chapter one reads like a goth teen’s unedited NaNoWriMo novel, and then the rest of the book reads like it was written by an entirely different person. I love the evolution of several of the relationships (but won’t say more because spoilers) and was pleasantly surprised by the depth and growth of the main characters - definitely something I was NOT expecting from that first chapter! The name of John’s cat (Astray) was awkward for me (I kept reading it as “Ashtray” and thinking what an awful name that is for a cat). Also kind of bugged by how many characters in this book are gay. Which isn’t to say that I disliked the 80-90% gay cast, but each time another character was revealed to be gay/lesbian/bi I was like what are the odds? Also, I know a guy who is rather John-like and he can’t pick up chicks to save his life - is he playing to the wrong crowd? Because John seems to be man catnip for some reason.

Book Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Book Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Rating: 5 Stars

Published September 3rd 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Summary: Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.
(from Goodreads)

Review: I don't read much YA anymore these days because I just don't have the patience for most of it. Maybe that means I'm old, I don't know.

I really enjoyed The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I listened to it on audiobook as narrated by Christine Lakin, and Ms. Lakin was a joy to listen to. She reads with a depth of feeling that was admirable, and gave each character a distinct voice of their own. I LOVED her accents for several of the characters, and she reads with a sensuality that's thrilling as well.

The vampires in this book are very The Vampire Diaries-esque, which I love. Dark and mysterious and sexy but also disgusting, compelling and at the same time repulsive. Definitely not sparkly with normal looking but somehow poison teeth (WTF, Twilight?)

Definitely left me wanting more!