#Review - A Fate of Wrath & Flame by K.A. Tucker #Fantasy #Romance

Series: Fate & Flame # 1
Format: Kindle, 547 pages
Release Date: May 25, 2021
Publisher: K.A. Tucker
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Fantasy / Romance

She would know the world of vengeful gods and monsters, and the lengths one would go for love. And nothing would ever be the same for her again.

Gifted thief Romeria has flourished from her days as a street kid pilfering wallets to survive. Now she thrives, stealing jewels from the rich under the involuntary employ of New York City’s most notorious crime boss. But when an enigmatic woman secures her services at swordpoint, Romeria is plunged into a startling realm of opposing thrones, warring elven, and elemental magic she cannot begin to fathom.

Her quest is straightforward: Steal a stone from Islor’s sacred garden without anyone discovering her true identity, which would earn her certain death. But the identity she has inexplicably assumed is that of the captured Ybarisan princess—an enemy to Islor after she poisoned their beloved king and queen on the day she was to marry the prince.

Her betrothed, the newly crowned King Zander, detests her with every grain of his handsome being. Fortunately for Romeria, she is more valuable to him alive than dead. Zander gives her a choice: life in a cell, or an acquittal of all charges in exchange for her help in exposing the growing plot against him.

Romeria sees no other option and embraces the tricky role of smitten queen-to-be until she can escape, a ruse that brings her far closer to the king than she anticipated and threatens more than her safety. As she digs deeper into this sacred garden and the ancient feud between Ybaris and Islor, she discovers monstrous truths that could spell ruin for all.

A Fate of Wrath & Flame is the first installment in author K.A. Tucker's Fate & Flame trilogy. First, this story starts in 1739 with a key character named Sofie and her husband Elijah being separated thanks to a God named Malachi and trapped in a place called Nulling. Flash forward to the year 2020, where we find a woman named Romeria. As a Gifted thief, Romeria has flourished from her days as a street kid pilfering wallets to survive. Her father, who is basically homeless, warns her of a Demon with Flaming Hair and warns that her mother is searching for her after she was abandoned for monsters.

She normally thrives, stealing jewels from the rich under the involuntary employ of New York City’s most notorious crime boss. But when an enigmatic woman (Sofie) secures her services at swordpoint, she finds herself in a pickle with no way out. Sofie claims she needs Romy to save her husband Elijah who has been not quite dead for 300 years. Her quest is straightforward: Steal a stone from Islor’s sacred garden without anyone discovering her true identity, which would earn her certain death. 

But the identity she has inexplicably assumed is that of the captured Ybarisan princess Romeria; an enemy to Islor after she poisoned their beloved king and queen on the day she was to marry the prince. Romeria is plunged into a startling realm of opposing thrones, warring elven, and elemental magic she cannot begin to fathom. Her betrothed, the newly crowned King Zander, detests her with every grain of his handsome being. Fortunately for Romeria, she is more valuable to him alive than dead. 

Declared a killer and a traitor, she is thrown into prison, but her claims of innocence are helped by the fact that she remembers absolutely nothing of her life before waking up from what was most definitely a fatal wound, and she is clearly very different from the woman she once was. Romeria sees no other option and embraces the tricky role of smitten queen-to-be until she can escape, a ruse that brings her far closer to the king than she anticipated and threatens more than her safety. 

As she digs deeper into this sacred garden and the ancient feud between Ybaris and Islor, she discovers monstrous truths that could spell ruin for all and she becomes closer with people like Elisaf. There is a conspiracy and an army is raising to take the Islorian throne and Zander has plenty of enemies that don't see eye to eye. Being thrown in a completely different world where Romy's lack of finesse and unusual colloquialisms was frowned upon, you can imagine it also was quite funny at times.  

A Fate of Wrath & Flame is a slow burn, enemies to lovers fantasy romance with a riveting storyline, filled with politics and intrigues, and a stunning cliffhanger ending. As I would love to see what happens next, I'll hope that the sequel drops in price so that I can buy it, or request it from my library.

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#Review - First Strike: Keepers of the Universe by Angela Haas #Fiction #Science

Series: Keepers of the Universe # 1
Format: Kindle, 362 pages
Release Date: June 12, 2022
Publisher: Spotted Owl Publishing
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Space Opera

Stella Jayne Walsh, New York City's top-rated trauma surgeon, holds an astounding record. She's never lost a patient—until the day she does. In that moment, her world shatters, and she's swept into an adventure that launches her from Manhattan into alien worlds in the far reaches of space.

John "Ryder" Alexander is a handsome rogue and one of the most decorated soldiers in the galaxy—until he turns unwilling mercenary, blackmailed into committing heinous crimes.

Stella is targeted by a woman hell-bent on creating a universe where other women don't exist and all men bend to her will. Stella and her crew of misfits must stop this villain before she helps awaken a slumbering force of evil.

Can Stella let go of the life she knew and learn to trust her unlikely new team to save everyone—and everything—she loves?

First Strike, by author Angela Haas, is the first installment in the authors Keepers of the Universe series. As the story opens, readers are introduced to Dr. Stella Jayne Walsh, a trauma surgeon who works for New York City's Mercy General. She's not had a death in 5 years, but that is all about to change. On that same day, Walsh is drugged, kidnapped, and spirited away, along with former reality contestant Elliot Driver, to another universe where they are supposed to be the newest residents of a fledgling new planet led by Captain Stallworth.

John "Ryder" Alexander and his Kaygun team, which included both his sister, and brother, found themselves being betrayed by their alleged backup. When he woke, he found out that he was put back together by a evil scientist named Kandice Marie who blackmailed him into doing things that he would not have though of before his life changed in order to save his sister. One of those jobs is finding and bringing back so called Keepers of Health so that she can assist her new allies who were defeated long ago by the Keepers of the Universe.

Stella, who finds out that she is a Healer with remarkable abilities that need to be discovered, soon finds herself targeted by Kandice who is hell-bent on creating a universe where other women don't exist and all men bend to her will. Stella and her crew of misfits, including Elliot, and Sentinel's who protect the innocent, must stop this villain before she helps awaken a slumbering force of evil. That includes discovering who she really is, and running into two women who were best friends with her mother and are now living in retirement not caring what has happened in the universe since they disappeared into obscurity. 

Although this book could be read as a standalone, I think that this is actually going to need a sequel to find out what happens next now that Stella has found her groove, and Alexander has his own goals of reclaiming his status as one of the best soldiers in the universe. There are plenty of laughs, as well as action to keep even the most unsatisfied reader happy.

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#Review - Junk Magic by Karen Chance #Fantasy

Series: Lia de Croissets # 1
Format: Kindle, 439 pages
Release Date: October 19, 2022
Publisher: Karen Chance
Source: Amazon
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Half werewolf Lia de Croissets is a member of the War Mage Corps, the police branch of the world’s leading magical organization, the Silver Circle. She’s an instructor assigned to train new recruits, a job considered to be significantly tougher than combat—especially right now. There is a war going on in the supernatural world, and the other side has discovered a deadly new tactic.

Popular street drugs have been laced with a potent narcotic known as “fey wine”. An import from Faerie, the wine has been known to bring out latent magical abilities in humans, but this version does much more than that. It is so strong that it is drawing forth dangerous talents that were long ago deliberately weeded out of the magical gene pool.

Someone is making monsters out of regular people and turning them loose on an unsuspecting and very unprepared world. The Corps cannot afford to fight on two fronts at once, so Lia gets a new class: one made up of the only people who might be able to counter these latest threats. It remains to be seen if a group of sullen, disaffected magical outlaws can come together to contain an ancient plague before the whole world gets sick.

Karen Chance's Junk Magic is the first installment in the authors newest series featuring Lia de Croissets. The story takes place in the same world as the authors Cassie Palmer series which I presume that you folks have some sort of knowledge of, especially the war with the Gods. Acalia "Lia" de Croissets, last seen in 2019's Skin Deep, is a daughter of a war mage and a werewolf. She carries a disease called Neuri Syndrome that prevents her from shifting. 

Because of it, she’s at odds with the were world. She has a bounty on her head from her mother Laurentia of Lubizon's werewolf clan who see her as an abomination. Thanks to her father, Lia is a member of the War Mage Corps, the police branch of the world’s leading magical organization, the Silver Circle. She’s an instructor assigned to train new recruits, a job considered to be significantly tougher than combat—especially right now. There is a war going on in the supernatural world, and the other side has discovered a deadly new tactic. 

A popular street drug have been laced with a potent narcotic known as “fey wine”which is an import from Faerie, the wine has been known to bring out latent magical abilities in humans, but this version does much more than that. Her boyfriend, Cyrus Arnou, has begun to rescue other outcasts, mostly teenage boys. When one of them suddenly transform to a monster of nightmares, Lia sets out to investigate. It leads her to a doctored drug that triggers old supernatural genes. And then she is dosed with it herself. 

It is so strong that it is drawing forth dangerous talents that were long ago deliberately weeded out of the magical gene pool. Someone is making monsters out of regular people and turning them loose on an unsuspecting and very unprepared world. The Corps cannot afford to fight on two fronts at once, so Lia gets a new class: one made up of the only people who might be able to counter these latest threats. It remains to be seen if a group of sullen, disaffected magical outlaws can come together to contain an ancient plague before the whole world gets sick.

The plot of this particular novel takes a story element we have seen before, and expands upon it. Readers of the Dorina's series about how "fey wine" enhances dormant magical powers in humans. This dovetails into the ongoing war plot that has been going on in Cassie's series for years. Lia is tasked with supervising a group of problem teenage mages. The kind with powers that aren't considered acceptable in this universe's supernatural society. I haven't yet finished catching up on Cassie's series, but will one day. 

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#Review - Raven Unveiled by Grace Draven #Fantasy #Romance

Series: The Fallen Empire (#3)
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
Release Date: November 8, 2022
Publisher: Ace
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Romance

A woman with the gift to speak to the dead—and the assassin pursuing her—may be the only chance a crumbling empire has of holding back true evil, in this electrifying fantasy romance from the USA Today bestselling author of Radiance.

Siora has been on the run for longer than she cares to remember, from her past and her gift. Born with the ability to see and speak to ghosts, she has heard their desperate pleas as an otherworldly predator stalks the dead amid the fertile killing fields of the collapsing Krael Empire. The creature’s power and reach are growing with every soul it consumes, but Siora is preoccupied with her own troubles: namely an assassin who has sworn an oath of vengeance against her.

Gharek of Cabast was once the right-hand man of the reviled empress but is now a wanted fugitive. Although his reasons for hunting Siora are viscerally personal, what Gharek can’t anticipate is that when he finally does find her, she will hold the key to saving his world, or what’s left of it. To make good on old debts and protect the vulnerable dead from a malevolent force, Gharek and Siora will both need to make an ally out of an enemy—and trust that will be enough to save each other.

Raven Unveiled, by author Grace Draven, is the third installment in the authors The Fallen Empires series. The fall of Domora and the death of evil Empress Dalvila by the draga Malachus in Dragon Unleashed has left the world leaderless and in the midst of revolution. This book features Gharek of Cabast, who was once Dalvila's feared cat paw/assassin who is now a wanted man, and Siora, a shade speaker who has the ability  to see and to communicate with ghosts. The woman who was once nursemaid to Gharek's disabled daughter.

Siora has been hearing desperate pleas of the departed, as well as her own father, as an otherworldly predator stalks the dead amid the fertile killing fields of the collapsing Krael Empire. The creature’s power and reach are growing with every soul it consumes and no one is safe. Not the departed, not the living. Siora betrayed her employer (Gharek) and the child (Estred) she had become nursemaid to. She helped save the Dragon in the previous book knowing what it would cost her and has been on the run ever since.

Gharek is prepared to hunt Siora to the end of the world and back again because she didn’t just leave him, but also left his child who mourned her leaving like a child losing a parent. He will make sure he bring Siora in front of his daughter to apologize. Gharek's plans are thwarted when he is captured by a General named Zaredis who demands that Gharek find a way into the palace he knows like the back of his hand. He wants Gharek to retrieve a powerful artifact called Windcry that the former Empress put under a powerful protection.

With the Windcry, Zaredis hopes to become the next Emperor.  Gharek and Siora are forced to team up which ends up with meeting characters from the second book in this series: Malachus, Asil, and Halani. Needless to say, the 3 are not exactly jumping for joy at meeting Gharek. Although his reasons for hunting Siora are viscerally personal, what Gharek can’t anticipate is that when he finally does find her, she will hold the key to saving his world, or what’s left of it. 

Once you read Gharek's backstory, he's not really the monster that most people think he is. His backstory also begs the question what would you do for your child? What horrible lengths would you go to to protect them? This book considers what an extreme answer to this question might look like. Meanwhile, Siora has to learn quickly that she's more than just a person who speaks and hears the departed. She's much, much more, and she will have to learn quickly so that both she and Gharek survive the dark taking over the land.

This book ends on a what happens next note. I am not sure who will be focus on any sequel to this story. This is an author who knows how to write interesting characters, twisted stories, and fantastic world building. I would encourage readers to read books in order as they were released so that you understand this world.

CHAPTER ONE

After two months of relentless tracking, the once feared empress's cat's-paw had finally run his prey to ground outside the haunted ruin of Midrigar. If Siora thought to hide from him here in the hopes the stories of the trapped and restless dead might scare him away, she knew him not at all.

He'd once been the lackey of a demon dressed in a beautiful woman's body and survived the employment. Nothing so insipid as a ghost would stop him from hunting down his treacherous servant.

She probably thought he meant to kill her. He'd been an assassin after all, and his fury over her betrayal had nearly consumed him once. The anger still simmered inside him, but he hunted her not to kill her but to make her apologize-on her knees if necessary-to a small child. That, more than vengeance meted out through death, was what drove him across the Empire.

The moon played coy behind tattered clouds and spilled argent light over the shattered city, casting the broken bones of its towers in stark relief against a star-salted sky. An unquiet tomb under an indifferent heaven.

Gharek growled, the sound making his horse's ears swivel back. He patted her neck, wishing he was comfortably ensconced in one of the better inns' finer rooms, with a sweet-smelling whore to keep him company. Or better yet, out of Kraelian territory altogether, safe with his daughter and the people he'd paid a fortune to see to her care while he roamed a collapsing empire in search of the beggar bitch who'd turned on him and ruined his and his daughter's lives.

Instead of a posh room shared with an accommodating woman, he rode through a woodland devoid of sound, its silence absolute, as if it dared not flutter a leaf or creak a branch for fear of attracting the attention of what might lay behind Midrigar's tumbled walls. Despite the strangeness that sent a crawling feeling over his skin, Gharek didn't waver in his tracking.

A trek through the forest was as good as any for avoiding Kraelian troops on patrol. Despite the raids from Nunari clans, the main trade route remained a busy one, serving Guild and free traders as well as battalions of Kraelian soldiers sent to fight the rebellious Nunari. He stayed off the road for those reasons and others, as much a fugitive as his quarry, as fiercely hunted by those he'd once wronged.

Gharek's search for Siora had finally proven fruitful in the last week. The right questions asked of the right people in the villages where he'd stopped had yielded reliable information. A woman, not much bigger than a child but with the knowing gaze of a crone, had offered to act as liaison between the grieving living and their beloved dead for the fee of a belsha or two. She'd managed to swindle coin out of their families before others drove her away. Shade speakers were barely tolerated even when many believed in their talent.

He'd set off for Wellspring Holt, a bustling trader's town that had so far managed to escape the worst of the raids. Siora would find it easier to hide there than in the smaller towns and villages. Hiring a tracker might prove a faster method for finding her, but Gharek preferred working alone, especially since he had his own secrets to keep. As the empress's cat's-paw, experience had taught him that his skills weren't suited for teamwork. The mad empress might be draga spittle splattered on Domora's battlements now, but it didn't change the way he hunted quarry-always alone.

While he'd altered his appearance with a new beard and shorter hair to avoid being recognized, he wasn't taking any chances by keeping company with anyone for any length of time. Bounties for the cat's-paw, alive or dead, were generous, and those hoping to claim such rewards numerous.

He'd crossed a sea of fields-some plowed and seeded, waiting for harvest, others left fallow-and came upon a stone circle in the middle of a pasture. No sheep or cattle grazed nearby, and Gharek's mare balked when he tried to steer her closer. He gave in to her protest and rode past the monument erected to some long-forgotten deity. These ancient places held on to their power long after their supplicants had turned to dust. Whatever lingered here, his mare wanted nothing to do with it.

If anything hid within the circle, he'd have seen it already, but nothing disturbed the wild flowers growing there, and he disregarded it, turning his attention toward a ramshackle barn nearby. The horse offered no resistance when they stopped in front of the structure. Gharek tied her to one of the few posts still standing from the remnants of a fence and went inside, his instincts practically making his veins hum with the certainty his target had stopped there or was still there.

Sunlight had cascaded through holes in the roof, illuminating a half dozen empty stalls. Mice fled in every direction on a chorus of tiny squeals when he entered, their feet leaving patterns in the powdery dust coating every surface.

But it wasn't their tracks that held his attention. He'd crouched to examine a set of much larger prints-human, those of a woman or child with flat feet who walked lightly. The shoe tread pattern was unique and Gharek instantly recognized Siora's distinctive footprints. Nothing else in the barn so far gave him a clue to her presence, and the prints might well belong to someone else, but his gut had yet to fail him. This was Siora's marker.

The prints tracked in two directions, and he'd followed the pair leading farther into the barn's depths to what was once a provender room. He paused in the doorway, letting his eyes adjust to the greater darkness there. Patterns on the floor's disturbed dirt told him she'd slept here, at least for a short time, likely taking what shelter she could find during the night away from other predators, besides himself, that hunted during the small hours.

He'd pivoted, noting the walls with their cracked plaster and bowed framing, the slope of the roof on the verge of collapse. A stiff wind would bring the place down in a rotting heap. Best not to linger and end up entombed beneath the wreckage.

The sight of one of the room's walls as he turned to leave had made him recoil.

As Dalvila's erstwhile cat's-paw, he'd witnessed levels of depravity and cruelty that defied description and decayed a part of his soul every time. The empress had more than earned her reputation as a mad and murderous ruler. Her subjects didn't know the half of it. Gharek remembered every person he'd dispatched on her orders, though unlike her, he meted out death in a manner efficient and quick. Time had made every memory sharper, made his spirit ever more numb to his actions, but even he sat up some nights and brought in the dawn with a flagon or two of wine, afraid to close his eyes and subject himself to the nightmares of remembrance and the empress's monstrous indulgences upon her victims.

He'd sometimes wondered if she was even human and had decided that in the end it didn't matter. She was vile, and he served her will, thus making him as vile as her. He was as beyond redemption as she was, holding on to his last scrap of humanity for his daughter's sake. Estred would never know the depths to which he had plunged in order to keep her safe and cared for. If she did, she'd hate him. Rightfully so.

People didn't turn the labor of their creativity toward provender rooms where the only witnesses to works of art were field mice and farmhands, and yet laid across one wall was a display of horror in shades of black and rust executed by a gleeful hand. Gharek had studied the repulsive mural. If Dalvila had seen it, she would have commissioned the artist to paint something similar on one of her bedchamber's walls or maybe the ceiling, a visual feast to look upon while she raped her latest plaything. The work half revealed in the room's shadow displayed pleasure in torture, a lust for another's fear. A multitude of faces crushed together, their mouths stretched wide in silent screams, their eyes bulging with terror as they stared at some horror he couldn't see. Why such an abomination was displayed on a derelict barn's wall was a mystery, one he had no desire to solve.

He hadn't gone closer for a better look, and the longer he had stared at the grotesque images, the more certain he became it wasn't paint that rendered them on the wall.

While he hadn't run from the room, his strides were long ones, and he'd released a grateful breath when he was outside once more under the sweltering blaze of a summer sun with the song of insects serenading him.

Had Siora seen the wall when she camped in the barn? A true shade speaker might not fear ghosts, but there was more to that hideous mural than a callous mockery of the dead. Surely even she would be horrified at the sight.

He'd ridden away, following more of Siora's tracks while doing his best to shrug off the feeling of being watched that skittered down his back on spider legs. No wonder the fields surrounding the barn were abandoned and the building left to decay.

Experience and weeks of fruitless searching had taught him that to rush toward Siora's latest hiding place did him no good and often worked against him. It was uncanny how she'd managed to outsmart and outmaneuver him without ever truly outrunning him.

Were she a wealthy noblewoman with numerous connections and friends, he'd assume she made use of a vast network of helpers who would render aid either in the service of friendship or for profit. But this was a beggar without a belsha to her name beyond what she might scrape together for a meal. She was also a shade speaker, a fact she'd failed to mention when he suffered a moment's weakness and offered her a place in his household as thanks for saving Estred from a stone-throwing mob. He'd paid a heavy price for that foolish kindness.

He'd tracked her through the day and into evening, not toward Wellspring Holt, but here to an eerie expanse of woodland whose perimeters stretched for leagues in a gentle curve that hugged the trade route and clung to the remains of Midrigar. The forest offered a possible hiding place for brigands and fugitives. And shade speakers on the run.

Moonlight lit the treetops but most of the woodland slumbered in full dark. It was slow going as his horse picked her way through the underbrush. Gharek held a small lamp aloft to illuminate the path ahead. He didn't worry that the fragile light might be seen in the distance and alert someone. His mount's hooves crushing sticks and brittle deadfall would accomplish the task long before the light did.

The music of insects and bird calls had been loud just before he crossed the tree line, a cacophony of whistles, rustles, and chirps. Those sounds died away the closer he rode to the ruins of the dead city until the silence itself held its breath and only the gloom shrouding the trees breathed. His amiable mare stopped suddenly then pranced backward, tossing her head and snorting. Gharek tapped his heels against her sides to coax her forward. She'd have none of it, fighting the bit in her mouth as she pivoted on her hooves to trot back the way they'd come.

Gharek reined her to a halt, considering whether it was wise to continue his scouting in another direction or make camp nearby and wait until morning to resume his hunt. He'd lose time with camping but trying to find anyone in this darkness while riding a spooked horse was an exercise in futility. Besides, he could make up the time in daylight. Siora was on foot, he on horseback. He'd cover far more ground in less time than she would, and the chance she'd outrun him if he spotted her was nonexistent.

He guided the mare to retrace her steps, and this time she readily obeyed the command, eager to put distance between them and the city that squatted like a pustule on the landscape. But she'd taken no more than a pair of steps when something wrapped icy fingers around Gharek's spine and wrenched him backward. He flew off the saddle as if lassoed from behind and landed on his back. The ground beneath him vibrated from the beat of his mare's hooves as she bolted past him into the labyrinth of trees.

He lay there for a moment, stunned and winded. The ice shard wedged against his backbone remained, though whatever had ripped him from horseback didn't press him into the dirt. A few more breaths and he lurched to his feet, unsettled by his unusual clumsiness, alarmed by the violence of an invisible force that had so thoroughly unhorsed him. There'd been no trip rope to clothesline him, nor had he been riding fast when he fell. The lamp he held had fallen when he did, lost somewhere in the underbrush when its flickering light had guttered. Darkness hung thick enough to scoop with a spoon.

His muttered curses sounded loud to his ears as he peered into the sepulchral black, hoping he might spot the mare standing nearby or at least find a partially cleared path that led back to open pasture. He took a step only to suffer a hard clamp on his backbone, as if the icicle there had suddenly transformed into a shackle locked around his middle. Invisible tethers seized his arms and legs and he was jerked to one side and then the other as if by a drunken puppeteer with their hands on the strings.

Gharek staggered, struggling to keep his feet, struggling to free himself from the bonds that held him in an unbreakable grip that both dragged and yanked him in the direction of Midrigar's walls. He careened through the dark, along a jagged path that propelled him into tree trunks before spinning him away to tear through the underbrush. He tried planting his feet in the dirt to no avail, his boots carving skid marks as he was pulled along like a cur on a leash. His palms left bloody smears on the bark of those trees he tried to grip for purchase and was wrenched away with little effort.

The iciness slithering down his spine spread in creeper tendrils throughout his body, wrapping around his lungs and heart, his liver, even his tongue so that his curses and snarls slowly ebbed away and his struggles waned. Speaking was an impossibility, breathing a challenge, and he was reduced to nothing more than a grunting, shambling mute driven inexorably toward an ancient city of the damned and a fate he could not know but feared with every part of his soul.

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#Review - The Q by Amy Tintera #YA #Dystopian #SyFy

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: November 8, 2022
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Dystopian / SyFy

In this action-packed adventure from a New York Times bestselling author, two teenagers from opposite worlds must fight their way through a vast walled quarantine zone in a dystopian America toward their only chance for survival.

Seventeen-year-old Maisie Rojas has spent her entire life in the Q—a post-pandemic quarantine zone that was once Austin, Texas. Born and raised behind the high security walls that sealed their fate, she's now a trusted lieutenant for one of the territory's controlling families.
 
Lennon Pierce, the charismatic son of a US presidential candidate, has just been kidnapped by his father's enemies and dropped out of a plane into the Q with nothing but a parachute strapped to his back. Lennon is given a temporary antidote to the disease and crucial intel for his father, but Maisie must get him out of the zone within forty-eight hours--or he will be permanently infected and forced to remain.
 
With unrest brewing both inside and outside the Q, reaching the exit is a daunting and dangerous task. But if Maisie and Lennon fail, it could mean disaster for the entire quarantine zone and its inhabitants—and could cost Lennon his life.
 
Strap in for breakneck action and compelling characters in this timely, nonstop thriller.

The Q, by author Amy Tintera, is a story that the author created because of the pandemic. Texas is a quarantine zone  after a deadly international pandemic almost two decades ago. The virus, which had a 40% mortality rate, caused the government to build a massive quarantine zone around Austin and stuck all the sick people within the walls. Some people who were not sick, tried to escape, so, the government build walls around Austin. The virus did not provide long-term immunity to people who got infected with it. 

 

So basically, all these people in the quarantine zone kept repetitively getting sick. And of course, the virus kept mutating and no real vaccine has been created to stop the spread. Because of the animosity between Q and the US government, they basically created their own laws governed by two gang families: the Spencer family in the north which is split into 4 parts and the Lopez family in the south. The animosity between the families created a "neutral zone" between the north and south.

 

The story alternates between 18-year old Maisie Royas, who was born in The Q, and 19-year old Lennon Pierce, a teen who has been kidnapped numerous times over the course of his life. Some people, like Maisie, who was born in the Q, have had to have numerous organs replaced with artificial organs. But, she has a secret which only a few know about. Meanwhile, Lennon, the son of a Presidential candidate who wants to tear down the walls, is one again being kidnapped in Georgia, the State, not the country, and dumped off in the middle of the quarantine zone in the middle of Texas. 

 

The worst part is that there are certain people in the DC swamp who want to bomb the Q, and wipe out everyone who lives there. Which makes Lennon's presence all that more interesting. He's also given 48 hours to get out of the zone, or he won't be able to leave. Lennon may be a target for one political party, or the answer to saving the Q and everyone who lives there. Maisie and Lennon end up teaming up to not only try to find a way to get their supplies to the south which has been stopped, but to also stop a brewing war between members of the Spencer's and disgruntled members of the South. 

 

I think the best thing I can say about Lennon is that he doesn't take himself seriously which is likely why he gets into so much trouble. He's a literal trouble magnet. Meanwhile, Maisie has been trained most of her life to become the next leader. She's a strong voice about a disturbing faction that believes war is the only way to survive in this world. I also loved Hadley Lopez who is the voice of Q's Radio Quarantine as well as Val Spencer who sees that she's the voice of reason when it comes to her family, and helping Maisie help Lennon leave the Q. I was also pleasantly surprised at who the mysterious Queso is. 

Two things: The majority of Latino's do not like being called Latinx, so stop it! There is only a small minority of people who created this word. Try going to little Havana in Miami and calling the people Latinx. The Q is apparently not a standalone if you read what's posted on the publishers web page via Edelweiss. It also says the next installment is planning to be released later in 2023.

 

Radio Quarantine with Hadley Lopez

Special Joint US/Quarantine Zone Broadcast

Hi, kids, this is Maisie Rojas, coming to you live from the Q.

That’s right, I’m inside the quarantine zone right now. I was born here, actually, eighteen years ago, when all of you were just a twinkle in your parents’ eyes.

Hadley Lopez was kind enough to let me jump on her program today, so don’t worry, all you Q listeners. Your girl will be back shortly.

I’m here today because schools in the good ol’ US of A are trying a new thing this year, letting some of us inside the Q record a segment for you guys as part of your history lessons. Which is cool, I guess. I mean, I always thought school was boring as hell, but maybe I can spice things up a bit for you. And for those of you in the Q, we thought we’d broadcast this to you live, just for fun. If you don’t like it, turn it off! I don’t care.

So! They want me to tell you a little about the history of the Q, from my perspective. I told them it was probably a bad idea to let me do this, but here we are. No one can say I didn’t warn you.

All right, they told me to start at the beginning, which I think you all already know, but whatever. They said they want to hear my version of events. So here we go.

There was a virus, and it was bad. Death, sadness, et cetera.

I’m probably supposed to tell you some science stuff here, but I slept through those classes. You have the internet out there, don’t you? You can look it up.

Anyway, this virus started in Austin, Texas, which I hear was a pretty nice place back in the day. It quickly spread to Houston and Dallas and some other places I forgot. The US government, which had dealt with two major pandemics in the past twenty years, was like, “Yo, we got this, we got this.”

They built a massive quarantine zone around Austin and started shuttling all the sick people over there. Everyone without symptoms went to a separate quarantine zone.

Problem was, a lot of people couldn’t get out of the Austin quarantine zone, even if they weren’t sick yet. Some people, like my parents, didn’t have a car and couldn’t catch one of the buses because there weren’t nearly enough. You had to, like, fight to the death to get on one of those buses, and my parents weren’t about that life.

Your history classes will probably teach you that it was just the unlucky people or the stupid ones who stuck around and caught the virus, but that’s a load of shit. It was mostly just the poor people.

Wait, Hadley is holding up a piece of paper telling me I can’t say “shit.” Well, fu . . . dge. I’ll try to clean up the ­language, kids.

Right, so we have this quarantine zone with all the sick people, and it’s a real bummer in there, because it turns out that the virus has a 40 percent mortality rate.

On the upside, the president of the United States has become a damn hero for containing the virus before it spread outside of Texas and killed half the world’s population. Good for him, I guess.

Meanwhile, the 60 percent who lived and were still in the Q were like, “Hey, are we getting out of here or what?”

Spoiler alert: they did not get out.

Because, bad news—­this virus does not provide long-­term immunity to people who get infected with it. Which meant everyone inside the Q kept getting sick, over and over, and no one could develop an effective vaccine because the virus kept mutating. On the plus side, the mortality rate kept getting better, so people weren’t dropping dead left and right anymore.

People started to try to escape the Q, which did not go great for them. President Howard was like, “Yo, that’s not cool,” and built a huge-­ass wall around the whole Q to keep us all in.

He said it made people feel safer while they worked on a vaccine. Dude had to do something—­it was an election year!

He won, by the way.

Inside, everything went to hell. Laws didn’t apply anymore. All the military and law enforcement we had in here peaced out and stopped showing up for work. Which, fair enough, considering they hadn’t been paid for like a year.

Eventually, the Q seceded from the US and we figured things out ourselves. Now the Q is ruled by two gangs—­or families, as we usually refer to ourselves—­the Spencers up north and the Lopez family down south. The Spencers are jerks and the Lopezes are geniuses who figured out the artificial organs that are keeping all our asses alive.

Oh wait, now Hadley is telling me to stop because she thinks I’ve broken too many of their arbitrary rules.

Well, for all of you still listening up here in the Q, I will end this history lesson because history is boring as shit.

Let’s get to the good stuff.

Lennon

This was not the first time Lennon Pierce had been kidnapped.

The first time was fifteen years earlier. He had no memory of it, but when he was four years old, he apparently wandered away from his parents at the farmers market. A woman had given him a cookie, scooped him up, and made a beeline for the parking lot.

His mom saw the kidnapper just in time, started screaming, and chased the woman down. According to his parents, he’d been completely unfazed by the whole thing. He was happily eating his cookie when his mom snatched him back from the stranger.

Later, the would-­be kidnapper claimed she didn’t know that the young boy was the son of a congressman. She’d just thought he was cute.

She never gave much more of an explanation than that, which had always baffled Lennon. Impulse-­kidnapping a small child just because you liked his chubby cheeks didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

This was not an impulse kidnapping. He’d glimpsed the bodies of his two secret service agents before they’d tied a blindfold over his eyes.

He was in some deep shit this time.

He’d lost track of how long he’d been in the van. For a while, he’d been able to see hints of sun from the bottom edge of his blindfold, if he tilted his head up. It had been a relief, because there’d been nothing but darkness since they grabbed him from a gas station.

But now it was dark again, and he could have sworn he’d been on this bumpy ride for at least two days. But that couldn’t be right.

His hands were cuffed behind his back. Everything ached. His wrists, where the cuffs dug in; his back; his ass, from sitting on the hard floor. They could have at least let him sit on a seat. Maybe this vehicle didn’t have them.

His stomach rumbled. They’d given him a few sips of water but no food, and he felt weak. He’d considered running, the first day. Or fighting back, when he got the chance. Now he was pretty sure that would not go so well.

The vehicle screeched to a stop so suddenly that he toppled over onto his side. He stayed there, listening to the sounds of two doors slamming shut.

Another door opened. Someone grabbed his ankle. He heard a snap as they cut off the plastic tie.

“Get out,” a male voice said. Southern accent. They’d taken him from Georgia, but Lennon had no way to know if the accent was local to the area. He was from Los Angeles. Everyone down here sounded the same to him.

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#Review - The Last Raven by Steve McHugh #Fantasy

Series: Riftborn # 1
Format: E-Book, 281 pages
Release Date: November 8, 2022
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Lucas is a riftborn fighter bent on vengeance in this thrilling urban fantasy/detective noir series from the bestselling author of the Hellequin Chronicles.

The peace between the rift and humanity has always been tenuous. It’s up to the Guilds to protect it, removing whomever—or whatever—poses a threat, whether human or rift-fused. Lucas Rurik used to be part of the Raven Guild. That is, until someone murdered all of its members—except for him.

That was seven years ago. Now, Lucas keeps to himself, avoiding getting too close to anyone lest they become targets themselves. But when one of his oldest friends at the Rift-Crime Unit calls upon him for help with a case that’s already taken down people who mean a lot to him, Lucas can’t resist stepping back into the fray.

Something is killing FBI and RCU agents alike—something unlike anything Lucas has ever seen before, on Earth or in the Rift. Even more concerning, the gruesome assaults seem to be linked to Dr. Callie Mitchell, a depraved and disturbed individual who treats the rift-fused like her own personal lab rats.

And when someone Lucas thought he could trust turns on him, he realizes these killings aren’t just the random attacks of some terrifying new kind of fiend. They’re connected to whoever killed off his Guild all those years ago—and that’s something Lucas just can’t let lie 

The Last Raven is the first installment in author Steve McHugh's Riftborn series. Once upon a time, a dimensional tear opened and poured energy from the rift which changed people forever. This rift has power/magic that can bring both human and animals back from the dead if the timing is right, but they come back different. The peace between the rift and humanity has always been tenuous. It’s up to the Guilds to protect it, removing whomever—or whatever—poses a threat, whether human or rift-fused.  

There were once (7) Guilds: Falcon, Owl, Eagle, Hawk, Vulture, Kik, and Ravens which Lucas Rurik belonged to. Lucas used to be part of the Raven Guild, that is until someone murdered all of its members—except for him and stole the Raven medallions of his guild. The story tends to alternate between 5 years ago, and the present to fill in some blanks. 5 years ago, Lucas entered Netley Asylum hoping to get information on what happened to his Guild by Dr. Callie Mitchell and ended up becoming human.

In this world, Fiends are animals touched by the energy from the rift while Riftborn are humans that died and were transported into the rift, healed, and given exceptional powers. One of the more curious aspects of this story is the existence of an actual city in the Rift called Inaxia which is where part of the story takes place after Lucas tries to regain his powers lost after he temporarily becomes human. Lucas spends just enough time in Inaxia to be told to get his priorities in order and stop wallowing in self pity.

For most of the past 7 years, Lucas has kept to himself in Brooklyn, New York, avoiding getting too close to anyone lest they become targets themselves. But when one of his oldest friends at the Rift-Crime Unit, Isaac Gordon, calls upon him for help with a case that’s already taken down people who mean a lot to him, Lucas can’t resist stepping back into the fray. Something is killing FBI and RCU agents alike—something unlike anything Lucas has ever seen before, on Earth or in the Rift. 

When Lucas is betrayed, and ends up back in the Rift, he realizes these killings aren’t just the random attacks of some terrifying new kind of fiend. They’re connected to whoever killed off his Guild all those years ago—and that’s something Lucas just can’t let lie. Even more concerning, the gruesome assaults seem to be linked to Dr. Callie Mitchell, a depraved and disturbed individual who treats the rift-fused like her own personal lab rats. 

One of the things this author does very well is write action scenes. A friend of mine said that this story reads like a Harry Dresden novel. That, I think, is high praise. Lucas, once he gets his powers up, and grows a set of balls, is an interesting character. Do you have to have read any of the authors previous series to enjoy this book? Nope. You'll be just fine since the world is pretty much explained in great detail.    

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#Review - The Quarrygate Gambit by Marshall Ryan Maresca

Series: The Streets of Maradaine # 4
Format: E-Book, 390 pages
Release Date: November 8th 2022
Publisher: DAW
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Mixing urban and high fantasy, the fourth Streets of Maradaine novel follows the crew of outlaws led by the Rynax brothers as they struggle to protect the city they love.

After having thwarted some of the forces responsible for ruining their lives, reformed thieves Asti and Verci Rynax and the rest of the Holver Alley Crew had mostly settled back into sedate lives as upright citizens of Maradaine.  But when they are suddenly arrested in mysterious circumstances, they find themselves in Quarrygate Prison, which tests the limits of their cunning and skill.  While Verci struggles to keep their friends alive and safe in the prison, Asti gets pulled into a mysterious scheme in the underbelly of the prison, teaming him up with some of the most dangerous people in Maradaine.  The cracks in Asti’s tenuous sanity get torn open as he is thrown into a cat-and-mouse game with one of the city’s most infamous killers.
 
Meanwhile back in their neighborhood, Verci’s wife Raych is desperate to help him and Asti and get them home. When her attempts to go through proper channels fail, she accepts a ludicrous deal from the local crime boss: Verci and Asti’s freedom in exchange for her pulling off a daring, nigh-impossible heist that would challenge even seasoned thieves. Raych doesn’t know how a simple baker like her could hope to succeed at such a task, but she will use every trick and wild idea she has to help her family.  None of the Rynaxes will rest until they are free from Quarrygate and together at home again, no matter the risk, no matter the cost. 

The Quarrygate Gambit is the fourth installment in author Marshall Ryan Maresca's The Streets of Maradaine series. After having thwarted some of the forces responsible for ruining their lives, reformed thieves Asti and Verci Rynax and the rest of the Holver Alley Crew had mostly settled back into sedate lives as upright citizens of Maradaine. But on the day they are ready to celebrate dual engagements of friends, they are suddenly arrested, and charged with numerous charges.

Someone, whether it be new enemies, or old, have plans for the Holver Alley Crew and it will take a miracle to survive. The Crew soon finds themselves in Quarrygate Prison, which tests the limits of their cunning and skill. While Verci struggles to keep their friends alive and safe in the prison, Asti gets pulled into a mysterious scheme in the underbelly of the prison, teaming him up with some of the most dangerous people in Maradaine, including a Colonel he once reported to in Druth Intelligence. 

The cracks in Asti’s tenuous sanity get torn open as he is thrown into a cat-and-mouse game with one of the city’s most infamous killers. Meanwhile, back in their neighborhood, Verci’s wife Raychelle is desperate to help him and Asti and get them home. She gets assistance from Helene, Lian (her sister), Jhoquil, Mila Kendish, who has been attending Maradaine university along with Kaiana Nell. When her attempts to go through proper channels fail, she accepts a ludicrous deal from the local crime boss Josie Holt. 

All she and her crew have to do is steal five priceless paintings, and they would find a way to save Verci, Asti, Almer, Pilson, and Vullun. Raych doesn’t know how a simple baker like her could hope to succeed at such a task, but she will use every trick and wild idea she has to help her family. None of the Rynaxes will rest until they are free from Quarrygate and together at home again, no matter the risk, no matter the cost. Even if it means taking on the entirety of the Maradaine Brotherhood and everyone else trying to ruin their lives.

If you have read this series, then you know all the enemies that the Holver Crew has faced from the beginning of the series. What's interesting about this story is that the author breaks the story into 4 different parts. Two of the parts are about Asti and Verci, while the other half of this story features just the women of this world.  As I was finishing this book, there was a ginormous cliffhanger ending. The author has said that yes, there will be another book in this series. 

If you follow this author on Twitter, you will note that the author has posted about what happens next. I won't bore you with repeating what was posted. I just wish the author best of luck, and can't wait to see what he does when it comes to writing the next installment.  

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#Review - Honor & Shadows by Jessie Milhalik / Betwixt by Darynda Jones #SyFy #Paranormal

Series: Starlight's Shadow # 0.5
Format: E-Book, 64 pages
Release Date: November 1, 2022
Publisher: NYLA
Source: Amazon
Genre: Space Opera

Captain Octavia Zarola needs an infusion of credits—fast—if she’s going to keep her close-knit bounty hunting crew paid and fed. Tracking down an escaped embezzler on a backwater planet should be a piece of cake, but bounties are rarely as easy as they seem.

As the crew closes in on their quarry, the hunt becomes entangled with a local criminal overlord, and Tavi will have to decide what’s more important: money or honor, and how much she’s willing to risk for either one.

Jessie Milhalik's Honor and Shadows is a 10,000 prequel to the authors Starlight's Shadow series. The crew of the Starlight Shadow is down to basically supplies and looking for a bounty to collect to keep the ship running, and stocked with food. So, Captain Octavia (Tavi) Zarola, 1st Officer Elias Bruck, and engineer, Kee Ildez, set their sights on a man named Alan Hudson who has eluded capture for 2 years. When Tavi and crew arrive, Megan Gail knows that Tavi is after Alan, and agrees to help as long as the crew helps them get off planet, and away from her father who runs the town, and the mines, and has used Hudson to get rich. Even though this is a fairly short story, it is entertaining, especially when it leads directly into the first installment called Hunt the Stars. If you've read Hunt the Stars, read this novella! You won't be disappointed!

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Series: Betwixt & Between # 1
Format: EBook, 256 pages
Release Date:  February 18th 2020
Publisher: Feather & Leaf, LLC
Source: Amazon
Genre: Paranormal

Divorced, desperate, and destitute, former restaurateur Defiance "Dephne" Dayne finds out she has been bequeathed a house by a complete stranger. She is surprised, to say the least, and her curiosity gets the better of her. She leaves her beloved Phoenix and heads to one of the most infamous towns in America: Salem, Massachusetts.

She’s only there to find out why a woman she’s never met would leave her a house. A veritable castle that has seen better days. She couldn’t possibly accept it, but the lawyer assigned to the case practically begs her to take it off her hands, mostly because she’s scared of it. The house. The inanimate structure that, as far as Dephne can tell, has never hurt a fly.

Though it does come with some baggage. A pesky neighbor who wants her gone. A scruffy cat who’s a bit of a jerk. And a handyman bathed in ink who could moonlight as a supermodel for GQ.

She decides to give it three days, and not because of the model. She feels at home in Salem. Safe. But even that comes to a screeching halt when people begin knocking on her door day and night, begging for her help to locate their lost objects.

Come to find out, they think she’s a witch. And after a few mysterious mishaps, Dephne is beginning to wonder if they’re right.

Darynda Jones' Betwixt is the first installment in the authors Betwixt and Between series. Divorced, desperate, and destitute, former restaurateur Defiance "Dephne" Dayne finds that she's been bequeathed a house by a complete stranger named Ruthie Goode. She leaves her beloved Phoenix and heads to one of the most infamous towns in America: Salem, Massachusetts. She’s only there to find out why a woman she’s never met would leave her a house, and why people are all of a sudden eager to speak to her when barely a minute has passed.

The home is a Victorian that has seen better days. In fact, it needs a lot of work! It comes with a cat named Ink, and a handyman who wears a kilt and calls himself Roane. With barely a dime to her name, how can Defiance keep the home? As a twist, the house, aka Percival, well, it appears to be sentient! and it's not happy that Defiance is thinking about getting rid of the house. She decides to give it three days, and not because of the model. She feels at home in Salem. Safe. But won't stop begging for her help to locate their lost objects or missing persons.

To top things off, she learns several things. 1. Ruthie Goode is her grandmother who has been watching over her for 40 years. 2. She's something of a witch called Charmling. Charmlings were created by original witches thousands of years ago. They were a coven, and they saw the injustice women suffered at the hands of men, even in the witch realm. They sought to balance the power by creating three beings no man can defeat. They pooled their power and the power of their ancestors and funneled it into three witches to be a beacon of light. A balance of power.

Along with her best friend Annette, who decides to pick up her life and be with her friend Dephne, Defiance now has to deal with learning her own powers that have been hidden for decades. She has to deal with new people asking her strange questions. Then there's Roane who is, well, eye candy. One of the thing that Jones is very known for is the snarky commentary of her characters and that doesn't change in this book. Defiance does and says some irritating things, but when all is said and done, I'm good with the overall direction the book went in and will continue with the series. 

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