The Curse of Tenth Grave (Charley Davidson, #10)

The Curse of Tenth GraveThe Curse of Tenth Grave
by Darynda Jones
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9781250078193
Series: Charlie Davidson #10
Publication Date: June 4, 2016
Pages: 342
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

If one door closes and another one opens,
your house is probably haunted.
—Bumper Sticker

As a Part-time PI and fulltime grim reaper, Charley Davidson has asked a lot of questions throughout her life: Why can I see dead people? Who is the hot supernatural entity following me? How do I get gum out of my sister’s hair before she wakes up? But, “How do I trap not one malevolent god, but three?” was never among them. Until now. And since those gods are on earth to kill her daughter, she has little choice but to track them down, trap them, and cast them from this dimension.

Those are just a few of the questions Charley must answer, and quick. Add to that a homeless girl running for her life, an innocent man who’s been charged with murdering the daughter of a degenerate gambler, and a pendant made from god glass that has the entire supernatural world in an uproar, and Charley has her hands full. If she can manage to take care of the whole world-destroying-gods thing, we’re saved. If not, well…


Ah, this is much better.  We’re back in New Mexico, Charley’s home and she has more than a couple of very cool cases.  She’s owning who she is in a rather fabulous way; neither all good nor all bad and only either when it’s necessary.

The only bee in my bonnet was the whole relationship let’s-not-talk-about-what’s-bothering-us trope, and it was followed up by what should have been a fabulous scene consisting of several pages of Charley and Reyes talking everything out and uh…other stuff.  In fairness, it was a good scene, but at that point I was itching to move the mythological story line along, so it was definitely my impatience, not Jones’ failure.  On a side note, I’m totally going to use the Twister idea the next time my nieces are fighting (read the book; it’s not as weird as it sounds).

Jones kept me waiting for the mythology, but when she delivered, she delivered big.  Fascinating stuff, tons of reveals, although it seems she’s going further than just stretching classical biblical mythology, using it instead as a springboard for a much larger polytheistic mythology of her own.  I think she’s missed the point of Jehovah’s true nature, but I’m still on board – I want to see if she’ll take forgiveness as far as it actually goes.  Lots of good theological conversation starters here.

Can’t wait for 11!

The Dirt on Ninth Grave (Charley Davidson, #9)

The Dirt on Ninth GraveThe Dirt on Ninth Grave
by Darynda Jones
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781250074485
Series: Charlie Davidson #9
Publication Date: January 16, 2016
Pages: 326
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Charley Davidson is living in New York City as Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she begins to realize she can see dead people, she’s more than a bit taken aback. Strangers who enter the diner where she works seem to know things about her…Then she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. An enemy that will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. And the diner’s devastatingly handsome fry cook, who vows to protect her even though he seems to be lying with every breath he takes. But in the face of such grave danger, who can Jane/Charley/whoever she is trust? She will find the truth even if it kills her…or the fry cook. Either way…


My personal health reality includes sleeping medications, so I rarely suffer from anything that could be called insomnia.  Except on very rare occasions when they fail, and last night they failed spectacularly – I never went to sleep.  I finally started to nod off when MT’s alarm went off and I briefly contemplated instigating a domestic disturbance.

The good news – I guess – is that I finished The Dirt on Ninth Grave in one sitting.  I was engrossed enough in the story to not want to put it down, but I’d have preferred not feeling like a zombie on toast today.

I definitely, thoroughly, enjoyed this book but I liked it the least of the nine books so far.  It was the amnesia thing.  We finally got to a place in the story arc where we had answers and a clear goal in site and then this book comes along and we’re temporarily rebooted to Charley not knowing anything.  I thought this would only last a few chapters… maybe half the book at the outside, but nope: Charley doesn’t snap out of it until the end.

I saved this book until The Curse of Tenth Grave was released because I’d read from several places that Ninth Grave ended on a cliffhanger.  I’ll argue this ending isn’t a cliffhanger though, because the action comes to an end; the story is paused.  A major story-arc plot twist is revealed, but it’s more a ‘how will this affect the arc’ twist, rather than ‘ohmigod is someone gonna die in chapter 1 of book 10?!?’.

…I think.  Thankfully, I have the next book sitting here waiting, so I can find out.  After I take a nap.

(I might use this book as the Book with a terrible cover Summer Book Bingo square.  It’s not objectively terrible, but I don’t like it.)

On the Edge

On the EdgeOn the Edge
by Ilona Andrews
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9780441017805
Series: Novel of the Edge #1
Publication Date: September 29, 2009
Pages: 336
Genre: Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace

 

I love the Kate Daniels series and the synopsis for this one sounded pretty good; a place where two worlds overlapped – an in-between space only certain people could live.  Intriguing.

But… no.  The writing is solid, descriptive, evocative.  But this is much more a paranormal romance than an urban fantasy and animal cruelty is just treated too casually for me; it’s not graphic, but it’s prevalent.

This is also a book that would lose a lot of readers in the first half, especially those with low tolerance for male posturing and non-consent (no rape, to be clear, just the whole ‘I will have you! crap).  Andrews’ here is a bit too clever for their own good (what is the proper pronoun usage for 2 people writing under 1 name?!?):  a lot of readers won’t have the tolerance to stick around and discover just how wrong perceptions are in the first half of the book.

Overall, I’m not sorry I read it, but I won’t read it again and I won’t read the second book (I think there’s a second book…).  I’ll stick with Kate and Curran.

Marked in Flesh (The Others, #4)

Marked in FleshMarked in Flesh
by Anne Bishop
Rating: ★★★★½
Series: The Others #4
Publication Date: March 1, 2016
Pages: 416
Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: ROC Hardcover

 

Well, obviously I loved this one. I almost went the whole 5 stars, but I was able to put it down when I finished and not just start re-reading it, so I figured it must be lacking something.  Let’s call it ‘not enough Tess’.

But honestly, I had some fears over this one because surely the author couldn’t keep on writing books this consistently good; surely there had to be a weakling among the litter?  If there is, it hasn’t yet been written.  Once I started it, I didn’t want to put it down.

That’s all I’m going to say, because I don’t want to spoil it for those that haven’t read it yet.  But yes, it is well worth the read.

Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson #9)

Fire TouchedFire Touched
by Patricia Briggs
Rating: ★★★★½
Series: Mercy Thompson #9
Publication Date: March 4, 2016
Pages: 342
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace

Tensions between the fae and humans are coming to a head. And when coyote shapeshifter Mercy and her Alpha werewolf mate, Adam, are called upon to stop a rampaging troll, they find themselves with something that could be used to make the fae back down and forestall out-and-out war: a human child stolen long ago by the fae.

Defying the most powerful werewolf in the country, the humans, and the fae, Mercy, Adam, and their pack choose to protect the boy no matter what the cost. But who will protect them from a boy who is fire touched?


Maybe my favourite of the nine books so far.  It was fast-paced, a little bit breathless and everybody pulled their heads out of their… and started acting like a unit instead of a roomful of kids hyped up on too much birthday cake.

Fire Touched took a page of out Zee’s book of philosophy and played no games; there weren’t any sly plots on the side, no melodramatic angst, no misapprehensions or misunderstandings.  It was a welcome change to have a story where Mercy and Adam worked together from beginning to end.  I loved that Zee got a lot more page-time and I think it might be a little wrong how much I liked Baba Yaga’s character.  These two and Margaret’s cameo made up for the absence of Samuel and the small bit with Bran (although I loved this scene, with Charles playing invisible chorus).

I’d have liked to have known more about Aiden’s power (how it works) and his past, although I did enjoy learning a bit more about Underhill and, I don’t know if the author intended this or not, I liked the allegory of mankind’s treatment of Earth.

At the end of the book, I had a feeling it lacked a very small something, but on thinking about it, I think that’s more about my expectation of side plots and melodrama (because let’s face it, that’s pretty much SOP in most books) going unfulfilled than anything of substance actually missing.  I went 4.5 stars because as much as I really enjoyed the plotting, the writing and the characters, fae politics just aren’t that fascinating to me, and that’s purely personal taste.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Briggs does next.

Eighth Grave After Dark (Charley Davidson, #8)

Eighth Grave After DarkEighth Grave After Dark
by Darynda Jones
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9781250045652
Series: Charlie Davidson #8
Publication Date: May 5, 2015
Pages: 293
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Charley Davidson has enough going on without having to worry about twelve hellhounds hot on her trail. She is, after all, incredibly pregnant and feeling like she could pop at any moment. But, just her luck, twelve deadly beasts from hell have chosen this time to escape onto our plane, and they've made Charley their target. And so she takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can't get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. Of course, if hellhounds aren't enough, Charley also has a new case to hold her attention: the decades-old murder of a newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows of the convent.

Add to that the still unsolved murder of her father, the strange behavior of her husband, and Charley's tendency to attract the, shall we say, undead, and she has her hands full...but also tied.


I knew (sort of) how this one ended and had put off starting it until the release of the ninth book was closer, but actually it’s not quite as cliff-hanging an ending as I was expecting.

I love this series; I love the humour, the snark, and the inclusion of a lot of old Christian mythology.  I like the way the author conveys the horror of bad things happening without making the reader wallow in it.

Eighth Grave After Dark is both the culmination and the deepening of the overall story arc.  We have the ultimate family reunion in addition to the cold and hot cases Charley is trying to solve.  Reyes becomes a bit more human too, if you’ll excuse the expression.  The author’s depiction of hell brought to mind scenes from Constantine and were incredibly effective.

The ending is … ok.  It’s a neat and tidy way of getting around what might have proven problematic in future plots, but it works for me.  I’m very much looking forward to the ninth book.

End of Days (Penryn and the End of Days, #3)

End of DaysEnd of Days
by Susan Ee
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 1444778552
Series: Penryn End of Days #3
Publication Date: May 26, 2015
Pages: 336
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Hodder Paperback

I don’t actually care for dystopian/post-apocolyptic settings and this trilogy reminded me of that and ultimately reinforced my belief that my tastes haven’t changed over time.  If my tastes had changed, or if I’d always been a fan, I’d have probably stuck with my original instinct to rate this more of a 3/3.5.  As it is, I’m compensating for taste.

I enjoyed Angelfall, although it started to fall apart for me at the end when the science fiction angle started to show itself.  In spite of the dystopian/P.A. theme, I could totally get on board with Penryn and Raphael and their search for his wings and her family.  But from book 2, things just got too weird for me; the experiments, the creations, the politics.  I was committed to continuing though because I cared about the characters.

So while quite a few others I know are disappointed by End of Days it pretty much met my expectations – I continued to be bored by the science fiction/frankensteinian aspects and was really just in it for the HEA it seemed was inevitable; I mean what else was the author going to realistically do that wouldn’t get her lynched by a teen mob?  I also enjoyed the scenes in the pit (perhaps ‘enjoyed’ isn’t the right word; I liked meeting the Watchers and seeing Baliel before his corruption was complete).

I’m satisfied with the trilogy; it didn’t wow me, but I feel like I got what I paid for, more or less.

Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega, #4)

Dead HeatDead Heat
by Patricia Briggs
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 0425256758
Series: Alpha and Omega #4
Publication Date: September 27, 2020
Pages: 304
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace

I was late to the party for both the Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series; the upside of this being I got to binge read all of them to get caught up.  At the end of it, I was a fan of both series, but the Alpha and Omega series squeaked past Mercy by a hair.  Less pack dynamics/politics in the A&O series.

What I loved about both was the strong ties to Native American cultures their respective MC’s have but was frustrated about how little the Native American cultures actually played a part until River Marked gave us more about Mercy’s heritage.  Now we’re starting to get a bit more about Charles’ in Dead Heat.

Like others, I enjoyed Fair Game less than the first two books in the A&O series so I was a little hesitant about cracking this one open, worried it might have that same dark tone overlaid with heavy tension between the two MC’s.  But we’re back to a great plot and MC’s that work together.  Once that was clear, I didn’t want to put the book down; after the scene in the classroom with Amethyst, I was riveted.

I knocked off half a star because I knew who Anna and Charles were looking for from the first scene they had together, but truly, it did not matter one whit to my enjoyment of the story overall.

View Spoiler »

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading it again almost as much as I am looking forward to reading the next one.

 

The scene when Anna and Charles met Ms. Edison was very well written, but Ms. Briggs used that moment to explain in detail why Opium, more than most other perfumes, masked scents so well that Charles couldn’t smell anything else.  The only reason for that detail to be explained was that it was going to have significant repercussions later on.  (Ms. Edison is wearing Opium / Opium masks scents.  Ergo, Ms. Edison has something to hide.)

INSERT SPOILER TAG HERE

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading it again almost as much as I am looking forward to reading the next one.

Vision in Silver (The Others, #3)

Vision in SilverVision in Silver
by Anne Bishop
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780451465276
Series: The Others #3
Publication Date: March 3, 2015
Pages: 400
Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: NAL Hardcover

 

This book wasn’t quite as engrossing as the first two, which is both bad and good.  There’s nothing like getting sucked into a book so thoroughly you lose all sense of time and place as it pertains to reality.  But books like that can be exhausting, and I wasn’t disappointed that I was able to put Vision in Silver down long enough to eat and sleep.  That’s not to stay my husband didn’t get an ‘I will hurt you’ glare whenever he attempted to interrupt my reading.

In each of the first two books, the stories each centered on one big, mounting crisis that resulted in a showdown towards the end between humans and others.  This book felt more like a bridge used to setup a much larger conflict that will carry through into future books.  We get a lot of information (sometimes repetitively – a first for this series), a lot of background and learn more about how the hierarchy of the others works.  We find out what the HFL’s larger purpose is, although I don’t understand how any human with a brain in their heads thought they would accomplish it.  We’re also given reason to think that perhaps not all the cassandra sangue are doomed to a life of cutting.

I frankly missed seeing the Elementals bring down their wrath, although Fire was impressive as a character.  The final conflict in this book sneaks up on you; there’s not really any build up to it at all, and the results of that conflict are rather anticlimactic compared to the first two books, but the result of the others finding out what humans have been doing to each other in order to defeat the others leaves a curious tension for future books:  no pressure on the Lakeside community or anything.  Nope, no pressure at all.

Anybody hear anything about the fourth one yet?  😉

[PopSugar 2015 Challenge: A Book with a color in the title.]

Seventh Grave and No Body (Charlie Davidson, #7)

Seventh Grave and No BodySeventh Grave and No Body
by Darynda Jones
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9781250045645
Series: Charlie Davidson #7
Publication Date: October 4, 2014
Pages: 322
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Disclaimer:  This review will be biased and unbalanced.  I have love for this series and my objectivity suffers proportionally.  I truly left off 1/2 star just because I’m certain there are probably flaws (all books have them) but my love for Charlie and the gang have blinded me to whatever they might be.

So a couple of days ago I was feeling rather sorry for myself.  I injured my back – nothing serious, truly; just enough to put a hitch in my gitalong and make me feel mopey and old.  My husband came home and put a book package on the coffee table.  After I pointed out the cruelty of putting a new book on a surface that was just out of my reach (can’t bend down, of course), he handed it to me and upon opening it discovered my copy of Seventh Grave and No Body.  Proof that God takes pity on me, because I NEVER get my pre-ordered books on release day; living on the tail end of the world means everything always takes days later to arrive than it does for the U.S./Europe.

Suddenly my back injury was a spend-all-day-reading free card, and boy howdy did I use it.

So in the last book prophesies about Charlie’s existence and her role in the final battle became clearer.  In this one, Charlie starts finding out what she’s truly capable of.  Reyes always told her she was more powerful than any other being, but Charlie always seemed to view it as rhetoric.  Now she finds out it isn’t, but that she can still get her ass handed to her when she leasts expects it.  Circumstances are also forcing her to confront her immaturity too; big changes are coming and she can’t keep living in the shallow end of the maturity pool.  I always loved Charlie – even when her sass and snark were obvious coping mechanisms – but I quite like the (only slightly) more mature version too.  She still hides behind sarcasm and smart-ass banter, but she’s also utterly selfless and has a firm grip on what’s important.

As with all the books, there are several story lines running simultaneously; human mysteries as well as mythical ones.  I like this style – it keeps things moving and avoids that mid-book bogging down that sometimes happens.  My only complaint: one of the story lines (a small one that has no meaning to the overall plot of this book) doesn’t get wrapped up and I wanted to know what happened.  The sub-plot setting reminded me of the X-Files episode ‘Closure’ and I was sorry not to find out how it ends.

I’m not going to say more – although I could babble ad naseum – because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone.  Things happen.  Big things.  Suffice it to say that I loved reading it, I’m sorry it’s over, and how many days until book 8?