 | Title: Lies & Omens Author: Lyn Benedict Series: Shadows Inquiries #4 Cover Art: Shane Rebenschied Genre: Urban Fantasy Excerpt: No Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Julia
 
Sexual Content: A sex scene.
Rating:
  Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list. |
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Description:
No other love has burned so bright. Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced that she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves...even if that means betraying her own heart.
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Julia’s Thoughts
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Abigail’s Thoughts
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| Click on the Fictitious Delicious link to read Smith-Ready’s reaction to the cover redesign, I like her breakdown of how Aura grows throughout the series and the “mood” Smith-Ready would like for each cover. | I was never a fan of the original covers, so I’m thrilled that this amazing series is finally getting a design overhaul. Love the bright yellow colors & just the overall smoky effect. |
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 | Title: Gods & Monsters
Sexual Content: Threat of sexual violence. Rating:
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While the Urban Fantasy genre is no stranger to dark and twisty heroines (think Dante Valentine and Anita Blake), Sylvie Lightner’s inner engine of anger isn’t powered by horrific abuse or childhood trauma, but rather the preternatural legacy of her bloodline. Of all the magical “super powers” to grow into, Sylvie’s is an unyielding will that just will not give in to some magics. I love how Benedict juxtaposes glimpses Sylvie’s happy childhood and family with the Magicus Mundi. The Magicus Mundi is our world’s magical underbelly, where defeating bad guys sometimes means hiding a body from the cops, you're usually better off if the gods don't hear your prayers, and no fight is won without a cost.
GODS & MONSTERS reminded me afresh that Lyn Benedict has a gift for intertwining the fantastic with the mundane and creating a story that stops me in my tracks. Sylvie’s world is dark, dangerous, and as magically treacherous as it is realistic. Though I enjoyed the first two books in the series, GODS & MONSTERS is definitely my hands down favorite thus far.
Given the growing pains and events Sylvie has muscled her way through in books one and two, I would not recommend trying to jump right into the series with GODS & MONSTERS. New readers should not be put off of the series by the losses Sylvie suffers in prior books, however. Benedict certainly puts her readers through the emotional wringer, but that makes the victories all the sweeter when they arrive.
Case in point would be Sylvie’s love life, one of the most complex I’ve ever encountered. While she and Demalion are separated by distance (and a lot of heartbreaking emotional baggage) for this entire book, I finished the last page eager to pick up where they left off. I finished GODS & MONSTERS with a victorious smile on my face and hope in my breast. Sylvie's world doesn’t get any gentler, but her indomitable will makes it easier and easier to believe in some hard brand of happy endings.
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Lyn Benedict (aka Lane Robins) is the author of Shadows Inquiries urban fantasy series ( which includes Sins and Shadows & the upcoming Ghosts and Echoes) about a world “much like our own, with one twist. The things that go bump in the night are real. Werewolves stalk the Everglades, legends hide in modern form, and even the old gods may occasionally make an appearance.” That world is known as the Magicus Mundi, and I’m thrilled that Lyn could lend us one of her characters to give us ‘Alex's quick and dirty guide to the Magicus Mundi.’
Alex's Quick and Dirty Guide to the Magicus Mundi.
My name is Alexandra Figueroa-Smith and the two things you need to know right off the bat? I'm not crazy, and I'm not a liar.
See, there's this. . . thing. . . this other world, the Magicus Mundi. It's not a place, exactly, more a collection of residents living among us and around us, above and below. Very exotic residents.
Most people—regular people—don't even know these other residents exist outside of movies or books. I didn't and I was the kind of girl who nosed into everything. Then I went to work for Shadows Inquiries, for Sylvie Shadows, and I learned better.
My boss tends to be smart-mouthed but tight-lipped—explain how that works to me, huh?—so it's taken me nearly two years to drag the need-to-know out of her. Lucky for you, I think information should be shared. So, here it is.
Alex's quick and dirty guide to the Magicus Mundi.
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And it's surprisingly uncool. It doesn't make things better. I guess that shouldn't surprise me; people can be real jerks on their own—hurtful, selfish, and sometimes dangerous. Make them witches and sorcerers and well. . . there can be a whole lot of hurt happening. At least, that's what Sylvie says. But she's a cynic.
So witches and sorcerers and shamans and curanderas and necromancers and voudons are walking around magically tweaking the world to suit themselves. If you think about it that way, Sylvie's fears make sense. The world's tricky enough to navigate without playing push-me, pull-you with reality. Two magic-users with power and widely different ideas on what to do with it can really screw a city up.
Sylvie works with magic-users; sometimes it's unavoidable, but she doesn't like it. Watch them like hawks, she says. And if you even think they're turning on you, put them down before they finish their spell. As far as I know, she only really trusts one witch that she's known since grade school and they act like they're mortal enemies most of the time.
But the supernatural ones don't like us much. We run screaming from them when we see them. Werewolves, succubi, pretty much any monster we've made legends out of—they're real. Sylvie says they're real enough to shoot and that's what counts.
Which reminds me, I need to make a trip to the store; she's running low on ammo.
I think she visits the firing range the way I visit coffee shops. She says it's not paranoia, just good precaution. She's going up against things that use magic, so making sure a bullet doesn't miss its mark is vital. I get creeped out at the idea that she's facing monsters with only a gun; a scrap of metal doesn't seem like much of a tool, but she keeps coming back. Bloody sometimes, but unbeaten.
Sylvie says that you can shoot the magic-users, you can shoot the monsters, but if it's a god—best just to tuck tail and run. Shooting them only gets their attention.
Not that she takes her own advice. But then, advice is something that happens to other people, not her. Cedo Nulli. I yield to none.
Yeah, that attitude carries over to everything she deems worth having an opinion on. Including how to take her coffee. One caramel mocha with whipped cream and jimmies and you'd think I'd poisoned her, instead of giving her a tastebud changeup from her usual black coffee, no cream, no sugar. I thought she'd like something sweet and slurpworthy, but no. . . .
I met a god once. He was seriously lickable. Dark red hair, skin like gold velvet, amazing cheekbones and eyes like honey. He healed me with a kiss, and don't tell Sylvie, but . . .where his lips touched my skin? There's a mark that never fades. A perfect rosy X just the size of my fingertip.
A smidge of concealer hides it perfectly. Sylvie'd be furious if she knew. She says we're not the gods' playthings, not their possessions. I mostly agree with her, but in the mornings, before I cover it, I remember that Eros, the god of love, kissed me and I get warm from my skull to my toes.
It's weird but true that Sylvie can get more cranked up about police and federal agents than she can about gods, but that's Sylvie for you. She says they have to have some idea that there's more out there than criminally inclined humans, but either they refuse to acknowledge it or they're just plain stupid. Neither option makes Sylvie a happy camper.
There's the ISI, a new agency geared toward studying the Magicus Mundi, but Sylvie doesn't like them. Doesn't trust them. She says that they want to see the world in easy slices of black and white. But it's not a black and white world. It's full of shadows and there's no such thing as one size fits all.
Besides, the ISI knows just enough to get in her way.
Mostly, I think she hates the paperwork. You should have seen the office when I first came. There was one filing cabinet, empty, and right next to it, a stack of files nearly as tall. At the bottom of the pile? A laptop, still in the box. I ask you.
But that's what she has me for, to wade through the crap. To put the pieces together. To dig out scraps of information that she doesn't have the time for. Here's the first thing I've learned all on my own.
Sylvie has her rules for dealing with the Magicus Mundi.
The Magicus Mundi has one rule for dealing with her: Don't piss Shadows off.
Thanks Lane (aka Lyn) for stopping by. Come back anytime.
Visit Lane online at LaneRobins.com
Interested in guest blogging on All Things Urban Fantasy? CONTACT ME
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