Beasts, Bites & Books

Review: With a title like this how could you go wrong?

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross. Where to begin, where to begin… With that title? Perfect. With the cover? Divinely beautiful. With the genre? Steampunk fab. With the language? Playful, clever goodness. World building? Amazing. Plot? Tight. Protagonists? Super powered teens take on the world.

I think you get the picture. I was supposed to write this review months ago, but the minute I opened this book I realized I wanted to make it last. So I did, rationing out pages here and there and rereading whole chunks of the book. And I think it spoke to me because of the attention to detail by Ms Cross and, of course, because it is this amazing marriage between urban fantasy and historical romance, two genres I love but so rarely coexist in a satisfying way. All the amazing action combined with sinister class wars, the battle between man and machine, and a fantastic lead in Finley as she struggles with her Mr Hyde.

I think I can safely say this is the ONLY YA book I’ve read that I totally forgot was YA as I was reading it. And that, for me, is high praise. So really, all I have left to say is, my apologies for taking so long to review this because everyone should get their hands on a copy and demand a sequel ASAP.

Disclosure: I received a Advanced Reader’s Copy for review .

Review: Skills like you’ve never seen before In Blood Bound

I love it when fantasy authors create new worlds and idea by appropriating totally benign words and concepts without resorting to making up whole new languages. In Blood Bound, Ms Vincent ensure I’ll never think of ‘Skilled’ in quite the same way again. Or blood. Or tattoos. Or vows. Ok, back to the book…

For a YA writer, the author has created an incredibly dark adult world with the Unbound series debut. It really reminded me of the HBO series The Wire for many reasons, but instead of drugs they’re dealing in people and bodily fluids. Throw in a dash of Romeo and Juliet style star-crossed lovers from different ‘Families’ and you get a heady, veering-on-dark tale (if you like the Stacia Kane Downside books then give this a go).

Ms Vincent excels in keeping a tight pace and throwing a twist in here and there; it kept me nosing through the pages at a incredible rate to find out how on earth Liv and Sam were going to get their happy ending with the amount of strings attached to their lives. Which I’m very glad they got; if this had been a cliffhanger ending this review may have been very different.

Sort-of-Review: Para Ops with Heavy Dose of Paranormal

I like a good romance with my urban fantasy but this crosses over into paranormal romance (by the way, what are the genre boundaries for PR vs UF? Anyone?). Not that that is a minus, but I seriously felt like this book was less strong in that department compared to the potentially amazing story I almost, almost got sucked into 100%. But 80% is pretty damn good too!

Chosen by Blood is definitely the first in a series in that a lot of time is spent prepping us for book two. Again, not necessarily a minus, but I wanted more of the adventure!

So much potential which I hope book two brings out.

3-for-1 Review: The Amazingly Awesome Charlie Madigan Series

I have only praise for Kelly Gay and her books. She is one of my top four authors (including Chloe Neill, Ilona Andrews and Karen Chance). I counted down to book three of this series in a way that bordered on desperate.

I am so grateful that I have never even have had a twinge of ‘sigh. why am I reading this?’ with any of the books and fervently hope this continues in the books to come. She perfectly blends an incredible mystery and story with a nail-biting relationship between hero and heroine in every book and I think I should stop now before I just start fan-girling out and my brain pops.

Hour of Dust and Ashes is no exception. Seriously amazing story and character developments with world-building that is taken to a new level for the series. Insanely good. Period.

But start with Better Part of Darkness and enjoy the fact that you can gulp down three books in a row. Unlike me, who has to wait a whole year for book four.

Review: More Fantasy, Less Urban, and Brilliant!

Quarter Square by David Bridger is going to be a difficult book to review. Not because I’m ambivalent or want to temper my response, but because of the beautiful way this book is crafted. Anything I comment on specifically will only spoil the tale for the reader. It is seriously one of those books, the first twist comes in the first chapter and I really don’t want to give anything away. It’s a slippery slope to stand on in terms of reviewing.

I actually can’t believe how short the book was in relation to how much ground it covered. Amazing pace and tension all the way through and it feels more like an old school fantasy than an urban fantasy book.

Suffice to say, I wholeheartedly recommend this, in many ways it reminds me of the magical English children’s books I grew up but with a gorgeous urban fantasy twist. Worlds piled upon worlds and history so thick you can see it. Joe, our hero, is as clueless as the reader and it makes for a page-turner of a book. A great male lead (right after I was bemoaning the lack of male protagonists in the urban fantasy genre as well!) from Mr Bridger and I’m looking forward to the next in the Wild Times series just to watch him find even more of himself and the world he’s in. 

I will stop being so vague at this point and just let you go get a copy. It’s worth it.And yes, I did get my review copy for free but I honestly wasn’t influenced by that at all. No qualifications in this review.