Title: The Nightmare Garden Author:  Caitlin Kittredge Series: Iron Codex #2 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Paranormal YA Excerpt: Yes Source: Netgalley Reviewed by: Julia Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; February 14, 2012 ISBN-10: 0385738315 ISBN-13: 978-0385738316   Sexual Content: Kissing, references to sex. Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list.

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It’s been awhile since we’ve had a cover show up on both the Best and Worst side of our wrap up, but the vibrant SOUL TRADE cover has divided opinions here at ATUF.  Over all, I’d say this is a darker than average crop of covers.  I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to use the adjective “creepy” so much in one post. 

 

 

*This title will be released on August 2, 2011*

Title: The Wild Side Author: Anthology Mark L. Van Name, Diana Rowland, Tanya Huff,Caitlin Kittredge, Gina Massel-Castater, Toni L.P. Kelner, Sarah A. Hoyt,Ticia Drake Isom , Dana Cameron, John Lambshead Series: Anthology Cover Art: Dan dos Santos Genre: Urban Fantasy Excerpt: Yes Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Abigail Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Baen; Original edition (August 2, 2011) ISBN-10: 1439134561 ISBN-13: 978-1439134566 Sexual Content: See each story Rating: Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.

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Description

Take a walk on the “wild side” of urban fantasy.  When the werewolf cubs are asleep and the baby vamps are tucked into their coffins, the adults come out to play!  Feeling a bit undead and dying to shuffle off your toil and troubles and get it on?  You’ve come to the right place!  Spend some quality time lolling in the moonlight shadows with a love that only comes out at night.  From light-spirited romps to black-hearted noir, from steampunk London to the bleeding edge of the present, tales of love, eros, betrayal and seduction in a beguiling vein.  Best-sellers Tanya Huff, Caitlin Kittredge and Toni L.P. Kelner join Dana Cameron, Sarah A. Hoyt, John Lambshead, Diana Rowland and editor Mark L. Van Name create a dazzling cast of vampires, werewolves, witches and zombies, oh my.  Oh my.

Review

Bite sized urban fantasy stories from some of the masters in the genre and a few new rising stars.  With a couple exceptions, THE WILD SIDE offers solid writing, a wide variety of paranormal creatures, and tasty glimpses of characters and worlds I already want more of.

Here is a mini review of each story:

Songs Sung Red by Tanya Huff (25 pages), a Vicki Nelson story

I’ve read the first four Vicki Nelson books, but apparently there is a HUGE development that takes place between book 5 and this story, so you might want to skip this one if you aren’t caught up.   I won’t spoil it in my review.  The story is about a Siren that manipulates Vicki and her lover Celluci as they investigate a murder in a club. There is actually a nice little romantic tone that shows just how deeply these two care about each other.  In her afterward, Tanya revealed that this story was initially going to be an episode in the TV series before it was cancelled.

Read the full story HERE

Sexual Content: a few non graphic sex scenes Rating: 3/5

Careless of the Night by Gina Massel-Castater (26 pages)

I believe this is the debut story for this author and it shows.  The writing is overly descriptive, the dialog awkward and unnatural, the characters uninteresting, or in the case of the love interest, completely cardboard, and the plot an odd mix of reclaimed sexuality and shifter politics.  The protagonist is a 50 year old cougar—an older woman not an actual cougar—who prowls bars looking for younger men before catching the eye of her younger boss.  I don’t normally mind reading May December romances, but after lengthy passages about Liz’s full head of gray hair and various surgeries to force back the hands of time, I was acutely aware of the age discrepancy during the detailed sex scenes and and I found myself grimacing through them.   Probably the worst short story I’ve ever read.

Read the full story HERE

Sexual Content: a few sex scenes Rating: 1/5

For a Good Time, Call... by Toni L.P. Kelner (28 pages)

A clever and face paced story  that revolves around a charming but unexceptional witch in a family of powerful but patronizing witches who is left behind to mind the shop while her family heads off for a magical retreat.  When a stranger asks for help solving the murder of his niece, Maura reluctantly agrees to try even though her talents are limited to frying telephones. Turns out her talents are ideally suited to this particular case which involves an incubus and an unlimited calling plan.  The character of Maura was extremely well developed and I hope Kelner considers writing more about the hapless witch with more powers than she knows.

Sexual Content: References to masturbation. Phone sex. A brief sex scene Rating: 3/5

Fine Print by Diana Rowland (10 pages)

I flipped ahead to read this story first since I’m a huge fan of Diana Rowland’s Kara Gillian series.  She blends in depth world building with super sexy characters better than just about any other urban fantasy author today and in Fine Print she shows that she is no less adept when it comes to short stories.  This is about a magazine editor who finds out his girlfriend is a demon and gives a whole new meaning to the clichéd ‘casting couch’.  I enjoyed the male POV here and the brief flashbacks that revealed how the couple met.

Sexual Content: Brief oral sex scene Rating: 4/5

Unawares by Sarah A. Hoyt (18 pages)

Taken from the expression ‘Some have entertained angels unawares’ this story follows the survivor of a vampire attack who must rely on her quick thinking and a mysterious rescuer named Uriel Heaven to keep a pack of vampires from slaughtering her neighbors.  When Uriel begins to loose his grasp on the human realm, he needs to indulge in something carnal to keep from ascending (hint: the subtitle of this anthology is urban fantasy with an erotic edge).  Hoyt’s spin on angel mythology was excellent and practically begs for a more in depth story or series which is why I was very happy to read in her afterward that there is a full length novel featuring Uriel in the works.

Sexual Content: a sex scene Rating: 3/5

Of Sex and Zombies by Ticia Drake Isom (28 pages)

This was my favorite story in the bunch.  It’s a wickedly fun tale that begins with an interspecies marriage between a human and a faerie that is interrupted by a zombie attack.  When the groom is bitten, the bride enlists the help of the werewolf bestman, the faerie that loves her, and a Dr. Frankenstein type to find a cure before it’s too late.  The dialog is sharp and playful throughout but especially between the bride and groom, and the worldbuilding much more robust than I would have expected from a short story.  I’m thrilled to learn that the author is working on more stories for these characters.

Sexual Content:a graphic sex scene Rating: 4/5

Love Knot by Dana Cameron (28 pages), a Fangborn story

This was my second Fangborn short story (the first was The Night Things Changed from WOLFSBANE AND MISTLESTOE) about a secret family of vampires and werewolves.  Vampire Claudia is once again the lead as she unwillingly takes custody of a magical artifact that elicits an extreme sexual response from anyone in its proximity.   I didn’t connect quite as much to Claudia this time as in the previous story (I didn’t even realize it was the same character until I reread my review), but the dilemma she found herself in was entertaining especially as she was forced to go about her normal day and control her sudden sexual awareness.  I was hoping for a bit more explanation by the end, but the punny last line had me smiling.

Sexual Content: References to homosexuality. Masturbation. A non graphic orgy.  Rating: 3/5

Beauty is a Witch by John Lambshead (28 pages)

This is the story that made the least impression on me.  I read the whole thing but never quite grasped what was going on.  A witch spends a night running through the streets of London pursued by a wily demon.  There are ghosts and other supernatural creatures that she runs into along the way, some who she learns later betrayed her to the demon.  The writing was fine, but the story felt like the middle book in a series (it’s not) that assumed the reader had read all the previous installments.  I just never connected with any of it.

Sexual Content: a couple sex scenes one of which might be a rape? Rating: 2/5

The Long Dark Night of Diego Chan by Mark L. Van Name (34 pages)

This was my second favorite story in the anthology and it marks the introduction of Diego Chan, a more than human James Bond type (think the Daniel Craig version) tracking down a terminally ill friend who may or may not be in the process of unwillingly becoming a vampire.  The trail leads Diego to a sex club run by an old friend turned enemy.  There is lots of intrigue here and hints at a massive operative network with resources and eyes everywhere.  Diego is a character I won’t be forgetting soon.  Only a few tantalizing details are revealed about his past and what he is, but it was more than enough to make me very, very happy that he’ll be getting his own series.

Sexual Content: A majority of the story takes place in a sex club and various sexual activities are mentioned in passing Rating: 4/5

Born Under a Bad Sign by Caitlin Kittredge (28 pages)

Kittridge’s story is the best of the bunch, but it’s not among my favorites.  The writing is excellent on every level, but the story itself is quite ugly.  It follows a fallen angel turned prostitute living in a whorehouse in Kansas in 1952 when a demon led gang of outlaws breaks in.  The events that follow are savage and graphic.  The sex scenes both before and after the gang arrives are either pitiable hollow encounters or brutal examples of human (and nonhuman) depravity.  This one is not for the faint of heart.

Sexual Content: Various sex scenes. References  to homosexuality. Prostitution. Rape and battery Rating: 3/5

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
N/A	N/A

Once a month, Angela from Dark Faerie Tales and I will each bully each other into reading a book we love that the other hasn’t read.  This month, I’m reading STREET MAGIC by Caitlin Kittredge, and I’ve bullied Angela into reading THE GREYFRIAR by Clay & Susan Griffith.

You can find all the previous Blogger Bully reviews and an explanation of how this featured started HERE

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Title: Street Magic Author: Caitlin Kittredge Series: Black London #1 Cover Art: Chris McGrath Genre: Urban Fantasy Excerpt: Yes Source: Bought Reviewed by: Abigail Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; Original edition (June 2, 2009) ISBN-10: 031294361X ISBN-13: 978-0312943615 Sexual Content: Kissing. Pervasive crude sexual dialogue. Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list.

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Description

Her name is Pete Caldecott. She was just sixteen when she met Jack Winter, a gorgeous, larger-than-life  mage who thrilled her with his witchcraft. Then a spirit Jack summoned killed him before Pete’s eyes—or so she thought. Now a detective, Pete is investigating the case of a young girl kidnapped from the streets of London. A tipster’s chilling prediction has led police directly to the child…but when Pete meets the informant, she’s shocked to learn he is none other than Jack. Strung out on heroin, Jack a shadow of his former self.  But he’s able to tell Pete exactly where Bridget’s kidnappers are hiding: in the supernatural shadow-world of the fey.  Even though she’s spent years disavowing the supernatural, Pete follows Jack into the invisible fey underworld, where she hopes to discover the truth about what happened to Bridget—and what happened to Jack on that dark day so long ago…

Review

STREET MAGIC is one of the best series launches I’ve read in a long time.  It really just scrapes the surface of this world and these characters, and yet Wow does it pack a punch.  The writing is tight and specific.  We don’t ever get bogged down with physical descriptions of people and places, but I still know exactly what everyone looks like and I felt very much like I’d visited all the London locations in STREET MAGIC.  The plot is suitably sinister with a supernatural evil that every fiber of your being will long to destroy, but it’s the relationship between Pete and Jack that really sets this book apart.

Jack Winter is a new favorite character for me, and I say character rather than romantic lead because there is very little romantic about him.  He’s a complete train wreck of a person.  The first time Pete sees him after a dozen years, he’s an emaciated heroin junkie who lets fly a string of hyper crude profanity the moment he sees her.  It’s not exactly a meet-cute.  With a handful of vitally important exceptions, Jack stays pretty much at that level of hostile wretchedness throughout the book.  What does change is how we as readers perceive him as we learn more about him.  No matter how many times he falls, Pete refuses to give up on him.  She sees something worth saving and so do I.

And I can’t forget Pete.  She’s an amazingly tenacious woman.  The realities she has to come face to face with in STREET MAGIC would have destroyed a weaker person, but she keeps getting back up, keeps fighting.  She’s not some Amazon warrior chick either.  She works with her strengths and is aware of her weaknesses, but isn’t afraid to get hurt. 

If the debut is any indication, the Black London series is a must read.  A dark and twisted urban fantasy set in a London filled with truly evil demons, fae and malevolent magic users.  The characters are broken in every possible way and yet they completely resonated with me.  I’m thoroughly invested in them so that it’s not a question of if I’ll be reading the rest of the series, it’s a question of how soon can I get caught up.  The 4th installment, DEVIL’S BUSINESS, will be published on August 30, 2011. 

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
N/A	The Book Smugglers Dear Author SciFiGuy.ca