*This title will be released on August 31, 2010*

 

Book Description

WITHOUT A TRACE

Anya Kalinczyk is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern, who holds down a day job as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department—while working 24/7 to exterminate malicious spirits haunting a city plagued by unemployment and despair. Along with her inseparable salamander familiar, Sparky, Anya has seen, and even survived, all manner of fiery hell—but her newest case sparks suspicions of a bizarre phenomenon that no one but her eccentric team of ghost hunters might believe: spontaneous human combustion.

After fire consumes the home of elderly Jasper Bernard, Anya is stunned to discover his remains—or, more precisely, a lack of them; even the fiercest fires leave some trace of their victims—and she is sure this was no naturally occurring blaze. Soon she's unearthed a connection to a celebrity psychic who preys on Detroit's poor, promising miracles for money. But Hope Solomon wants more—she's collecting spirits, and in a frantic race against time, Anya will face down an evil adversary who threatens her fragile relationship with her lover, her beloved Sparky's freshly hatched newts, and the wandering souls of the entire city.

 Review

Book 2 in The Anya Kalinczyk Series

~Reviewed by Julia~

SPARKS is many things: a funny tale of a girl and her salamander, an ode to the city of Detroit, a startlingly unique romance, and a gritty, noir mystery.  These first qualities worked much better for me than the last.  I found the villain tepid and uninteresting when juxtaposed with Anya’s dark past, an impending newt hatching, or the romantic antics of the Detroit Museum of Arts ghost population.  This flaw ultimately made me unmotivated to finish the book, despite the aspects that I enjoyed.

As in Bickle’s previous book, I thought the relationships in SPARKS were nuanced and well written.  In Embers Anya has a brief fling with a man she knows to be an arsonist.  Drake Ferrer was a bit too creepy for me to understand Anya’s attraction to him (think Batman if Bruce Wayne had chosen the dark side), though I applauded Bickle’s willingness to deviate from the normal proscribed relationships a heroine can explore.  Similarly, in SPARKS, I found myself more impressed with the unusual realism of Anya’s relationship with Brian than with Brian himself.   Anya is allowed to have both positive and negative feelings for Brian, and as a reader, I never felt that great sex was meant to signal Anya finding her soul-mate.  In breaking common romance clichés, Bickle writes a more noteworthy relationship.  Not since Charlaine Harris or Kim Harrison have I found an author who so deftly keeps you wondering about a romantic “happily ever after.”

There are some shades of HEA in this book, just not where you might expect it.  Anya may date Brian, but the true love of her life is her salamander.  Sparky was a bright spot in Embers, and he truly shines in SPARKS.  His hi-jinx are utter entertainment, leavened with real-world consequences.  As odd as it might sound, the large, invisible salamander was portrayed with both realism and charm.  Bickle takes every child’s imaginary friend and gives it depth by adding the joys (and difficulties) of owning a real pet.  The scenes with Sparky are what I laughed at and read out to my husband.

Despite all of the individual aspects of this book that I admired, I still found their combination to be missing some essential spark.  I am interested in reading more about Anya in the future, but will look for the next book at the library.

Sexual Content: Brief sensuality and a non-graphic sex scene.

My Rating (out of 5):
Okay – Somewhat disappointing with significant flaws.  Library/swap/borrow if you want.

Click HERE to read an excerpt from SPARKS

Books in this series:

1. Embers

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (August 31, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439167680
• ISBN-13: 978-1439167687
• Cover Art: Chris McGrath

*Disclosure: I received this book courtesy of Laura Bickle

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Book Description

Truth burns. Unemployment, despair, anger—visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit’s unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.

Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya—who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern—suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil’s Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya—with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team—can stop it.

Anya’s accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she’s risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she’s ever faced.

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Book 1 in The Anya Kalinczyk Series 

Review:
EMBERS has a fantastically gritty cover from the talented Chris McGrath, a paranormally enhanced version of Detroit, and a unique supernatural concept for its main character.  With so much going for it, I feel like I should have liked this book more. The blurb sounded exactly like the kind of urban fantasy stories I love…but I struggled almost from the beginning to connect with both the characters and plot.

By day, Anya is an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department. After hours, she's a member of the Detroit Area Ghost Researchers. As a Lantern, Anya has the ability to consume ghosts like a supernatural vacuum cleaner.  Her formidable skill comes with a nasty side effect: acid like burns left on her chest after each ghost she “eats.” She and the hodgepodge crew of D.A.G.R members (including a wedding cake designer/witch and an elderly demonologist that reminded me of Professor Xavier from X-Men) bust ghosts, exorcise demons, and keep the city safe from the seedy supernatural elements that lurk in the shadows.

I had a big problem with Anya’s two love interests in EMBERS: Brian the ‘nice’ tech guy from D.A.G.R who has been interested in her for ages.  And then there’s Drake, the serial arsonist who is plotting to incinerate Detroit.  Neither the ‘nice’ guy or the psycho appealed to me as romantic leads. Brian was fairly innocuous and about as romantically compelling as cardboard, but Drake was a mass murderer with major creep factor.  There are other factors in the story that propelled Anya’s relationship with Drake which I won’t divulge, but I still found the attraction between them to be very forced and unrealistic.

I did like Anya's familiar, a fire elemental salamander named Sparky. He’s more like an invisible magical Saint Bernard who gets jealous when guys hit on Anya, sleeps with a glowworm, and has a mischievous addiction to electricity. The writing itself is also good, I just didn’t find the story to be especially interesting. Every chapter started off with a great opening sentence that devolved into a generic chapter plot wise.

Plenty of other reviewers loved this book.  I envy them for it, but I just couldn’t get into it.  I did like Laura’s writing style, which is why I’m looking forward to her other series debut Dark Oracle written as Alayna Williams later this summer. I’ll probably pass on the next Anya Kalinczyk book, Sparks when it comes out August 31, 2010.

Sexual Content: References to sex. A brief, mildly graphic sex scene.

My Rating (out of 5):
Okay – Somewhat disappointing with significant flaws.  Library/swap/borrow if you want.

Click HERE to read an excerpt of EMBERS

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; 1 edition (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439167656
• ISBN-13: 978-1439167656
• Cover art: Chris McGrath

*Disclosure: I received this book courtesy of Laura Bickle

Disagree with my review?  Contact me your review for this or any other book I’ve reviewed and I might use it for 2nd Opinion Review

I’m very happy to have author Laura Bickle here today. Laura’s debut novel Embers (available on March 30, 2010) follows a ghost hunter and her familiar, Sparky (a jealous fire salamander with an addiction to electricity).   My curiosity was peeked, so I asked Laura to give us the scoop on all things Sparky.

 

Laura Bickle has worked in the unholy trinity of politics, criminology, and technology for several years. She and her chief muse live in the Midwest, owned by four mostly-reformed feral cats. Her short fiction has appeared here and there. Embers, her debut novel, is first in an exciting new urban fantasy series that continues with her forthcoming second novel, Sparks. Laura also writes as Alayna Williams. Alayna's "debut" will be Dark Oracle, Pocket Juno's June 2010 release. 

 

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Familiar Spirits
By
Laura Bickle

No one ever successfully controls a familiar.

Historically, familiars were said to be magical helpers of witches. They had the ability to shift shape, often appearing as cats, bats, or other creatures in their service to the witch. It was assumed by inquisitors that familiars, as a type of imp or evil spirit, served the witch willingly.

At other times, they were summoned by a magician, then trapped in a stone or piece of jewelry. The familiar spirit was trapped, coerced into service, like genies in bottles.

In the world of EMBERS, Anya has a familiar, Sparky. He’s a five-foot long speckled hellbender with eyes like marbles--a fire salamander elemental, a creature that’s the embodiment of fire. The German magician, Paracelsus, called fire spirits “salamanders” in the sixteenth century.  Salamanders were long associated with fire, despite their amphibious nature, because they crawled out of forest logs cast on fires. The salamander was assumed to dwell in fire, and embodied the impetuosity, power, and destructive changeability of the flickering flame.

Anya’s had Sparky since she was a child. He’s tied to a necklace her mother gave her, which suggests that, like the familiars trapped in jewelry, he was coerced into service at some point in the past. But Sparky seems to serve Anya willingly, protecting her from malicious spirits (not to mention jealously guarding her against any potential lovers).

Life with a salamander isn’t easy. Sparky is only able to be seen by Anya and ghosts. When he’s not chasing ghosts, he’s busily getting into trouble. Aside from Anya and the ghosts, he’s only able to affect electrical fields. And electricity is delicious. He’s blown up every microwave that Anya’s ever owned. He chews cell phones and drains their batteries. He likes to lick electrical outlets, with disastrous results. In EMBERS, Anya takes him to a hospital, and he manages to wreak havoc with vital sign monitors.

But Sparky has his lovable moments. His favorite toy is a Gloworm. When he pats it, its cherubic little face lights up, much to his delight. Late at night, he curls up with his toy at the foot of Anya’s bed like any other pet, purring and chortling happily in the amber light of the Gloworm tucked between his paws.

At times like these, Anya rubs his speckled belly and imagines that he’s under control.

And Sparky opens one eye and snorts.

He knows better.  

• Visit Laura’s website HERE
• Visit Laura’s blog HERE

Thanks so much Laura!  Come back anytime.

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 Embers (The Lantern, book 1) by Laura Bickle

Truth burns.Unemployment, despair, anger—visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit’s unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya—who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern—suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil’s Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya—with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team—can stop it.Anya’s accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she’s risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she’s ever faced.

Want more from Laura Bickle?  Check out her upcoming book written as ‘Alayna Williams,’ Dark Oracle, due out June 2010

Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams

TARA SHERIDAN HAS A GIFT . . . AND IT ALMOST KILLED HER.

As a criminal profiler, Tara used science and her intuitive skill at Tarot card divination to track down the dangerous and depraved, including the serial killer who left her scarred from head to toe. Since that savage attack, Tara has been a recluse. But now an ancient secret society known as Delphi’s Daughters has asked for her help in locating missing scientist Lowell Magnusson. And Tara, armed with her Tarot deck, her .38, and a stack of misgivings, agrees to try.

Tara immediately senses there is far more at stake than one man’s life. At his government lab in the New Mexico desert, Magnusson had developed groundbreaking technology with terrifying potential. Working alongside the brusque but charismatic agent Harry Li, Tara discovers that Magnusson’s daughter, Cassie, has knowledge that makes her a target too. The more Tara sees into the future, the more there is to fear. She knows she has to protect Cassie. But there may be no way to protect herself—from the enemies circling around her, or from the long-buried powers.

Interested in guest blogging on All Things Urban Fantasy?  CONTACT ME

Laura Bickle revealed the cover for the next Anya Kalinczyk novel, Sparks, due out in August 31st.  The first Anya book, Embers, is due out March 30th.  Chris McGrath is the artist for this series.

Did I mention Laura will be stopping by on March 29th with more info about her debut UF series?