#Review - Stray Moon by Kelly Meding #Urban #Fantasy

Series: Strays # 2
Format: E-Galley, 336 pages
Release Date: February 5, 2019
Publisher: Harper Voyager Impulse
Source: Pulse
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Para-Marshal Shiloh Harrison has always been a great number two for the East Coast unit. But after her boss is found dead (having betrayed the paranormals he was sworn to protect), she’s suddenly thrust into a leadership role she isn’t prepared for. And it doesn’t help that she traded away memories of one of her most important team members to save another’s life during her last mission.

Too, she’s in charge of a unit that is mired in bureaucratic red tape, meaning she’s essentially under house arrest. But a West Coast Para-Marshal has astral-projected a warning: werewolves are going missing, and she needs Shiloh’s help. Last time it was vampires. This time it’s werewolves. Half-djinn herself, she knows she can’t just sit around and do nothing while paranormals are getting snatched. Her old boss may have broken his oath, but Shiloh will do anything to serve and protect.
 

 

Stray Moon is the second installment in author Kelly Meding's Stray series. Para-Marshal Shiloh Harrison's team is in shatters. Two members have been outed as being double agents for a mysterious employer. Their team leader betrayed them, and Shiloh herself bargained away her memories of the person she loves the most in order to save lives. But, there's no time to wallow in self-pity. Not with the US Marshal services keeping an eye out for any more wrong doing on their part.

Shiloh, Jaxon Dearborn (skin-walker), and Novak Smith (Incubus) are approached by a moon witch named Chandra Goodfellows. Chandra is also a Para Marshal from the West Coast. Even with both teams on mandatory leave, Chandra believes that with Shiloh, Jaxon, Novak, plus master vampire Woodrow Tennyson, as well as Shiloh's mother Elspeth help, they will be able to track down the missing 28 werewolves who disappeared from Florida and California packs. 

Shiloh has been a Para-Marshal for 6 years first as second-in-command to Julius Almeida, and now as its de facto squad leader. Shiloh is a half djinni with abilities to grant three wishes and has Quarrel pheromones that are hard for her to control. Her abilities often affect the combative nature of humans. She is tough, snarky, and fun to follow along with. This is a series that has seen vampires, werewolves, necromancers, and Goddesses who live between worlds. Now, we can add something even more brutal and powerful who shakes up Shiloh's world.

The story book brings back Werewolf Will Carson from one of the authors short stories called "Feral House" that is featured in Carniepunk. It was that story that first got Shiloh, Jaxon, and their former squad leader involved in becoming Para-Marshals. I was actually happy that the author brought Will back for this reunion. I hope that he will once again play a role in what happens next. Especially since this story leaves a whopper of a cliffhanger ending that is sure to make readers eager to find out what happens next. 

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#Review - Stray Magic by Kelly Meding #Fantasy

Series: A Strays Novel # 1
Format: E-Galley, 336 pages
Release Date: June 19, 2018
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Shiloh Harrison was hoping for a few days off to recover from a particularly nasty assignment, preferably with the help of the talented hands (and, well, the rest of his body too) of her sexy boyfriend, Vincent. But when a group of vampires takes an entire trailer park hostage, there’s nothing to do but make her apologies and get to the scene.

Such is the life of a Federal Marshal in the Paranormal Investigators Unit.

Yet this isn’t like her typical track-and-nab case: something is going on that has vampires scared, and it takes all her strength not to imagine what could frighten such powerful creatures. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have that option. Her boss is MIA, someone is snatching vampires, and there’s a ticking clock that can only end one way: a bloodbath.

Unless she can stop it.

The first book in a new series, Stray Magic is a dark and sexy mystery, with enough twists and curves to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Stray Magic, by author Kelly Meding, is the first installment in the authors Strays series. Protagonist Shiloh Harrison is a 28-year-old US Marshall in The Paranormal Investigations Unit under the auspices of the DOJ. Shiloh has been with the unit for 6 years and is currently second-in-command. Shiloh is a half djinni with abilities to grant three wishes and has Quarrel pheromones that are hard for her to control. Her abilities often affect the combative nature of humans. She is tough, snarky, and fun to follow along with.

Her team includes Julius Almeida, the only human on the team, Novak (Incubus), Jaxon (Skin Walker), and Kathleen Allard (Dhampir). The story starts out with a bit of a bang. Shiloh is looking forward to a bit of fun and some much-needed downtime with her current lover, Vincent, when her team is called out to a trailer park where a group of vampires, led by Master Vampire Tennyson, is keeping the humans residents hostage & demanding answers to why his vampires, and some werewolves have suddenly disappeared without a trace.

On top of this, Julius, her team leader, has been missing since the day before, and there's no clue where he's gone, or if hanky panky is involved. As the team scrambles to find Julius, Tennyson manages to insert himself fully into the investigation and Shiloh's life. There are plenty of underlying currents just ready to spring up and surprise Shiloh and readers. Shiloh isn't a leader. But, she must become one quickly and without letting her emotions get the best of her. Who is behind Julius's disappearance and why? Is this same person responsible for the missing vampires and werewolves? Does the unit itself have a traitor in its midst, and if so, what is their end game?

Shiloh's group has some remarkable technology available to them that the author kind of skims over. The group can travel from place to place via specific ley lines, and everyone is hooked up to the latest technology called KIM (Knowledge Interface Matrix). This story has its share of vampires, werewolves, necromancers, and a very curious Goddess whose home is between worlds, and where time moves differently. I liked the fact that the author incorporates her mother, Elspeth, who is the daughter of a Romani, and her Earth Djinni father, Gaius, into the mix. For an adult novel, that is almost unheard of these days.

Shiloh is also not afraid of sex. In fact, she has a boyfriend who she has fun with, has had an encounter with one of her fellow teammates and may be falling for the very dangerous and powerful Tennyson. The author has a tendency of playing games with her characters by putting them in life and death struggles that even one slip up will find them in deep trouble. Really a trough way to end things. Even worse is knowing that there's a whole a year between this book, and the sequel called Stray Moon.

If you haven't read Feral House, in the Carniepunk Anthology, you might want to eventually. This the first chance you will get to meet Shiloh, and her father, and a few other characters who appear in this installment. It's also not a bad anthology with plenty of other big-name authors like Allison Pang, Delilah S. Dawson, Jennifer Estep, Kelly Gay, Kevin Hearne, Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, and Seanan McGuire.  

Meding is also the author of series such as Dreg City, which is also Urban Fantasy with some sexy romance, MetaWars, Cornerstone Run, and The Project Files duology.

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#Reviewed by Gizmo - Oracle by Kelly Meding #Science Fiction @KellyMeding

Series: The Project Files # 1
Format: Kindle, 297 pages
Release Date: July 18, 2016
Publisher: Smedge Press
Source: Amazon
Genre: Science Fiction

Dr. Dean Frey is a man of science. His lifelong desire to create a better future for mankind has led him to the prestigious, and highly mysterious, Wilderness Institute of Scientific Research & Technology, as the head of their Robotics Engineering department. Building on the research and designs of others before him, Dean’s own genius culminates in the successful creation of Anthony—the first fully-automated, free-thinking android prototype. And now Wilderness wants to sell Anthony to the military.

Unwilling to allow his achievement to become weaponized, Dean reaches out to a former Wilderness employee with the resources to help him steal Anthony and relocate them both to safety. He’s put into contact with the very secretive Nick and Olivia, who ask for one simple thing in return: trust us, no matter what you see or hear. Blind trust isn’t in Dean’s cautious nature, but he has no other choice.

For telekinetic Olivia, rescuing a fellow Psion from a life of imprisonment and experimentation is one of her favorite things. Being paid is nice, but she’ll do the job for free, if it means giving Wilderness the finger. When Olivia’s reclusive mentor solicits her and her telepathic partner Nick’s help in smuggling a very special Project out of Wilderness, they jump at the chance to infiltrate their former home and do some internal damage to the institute that created them.

With their combined knowledge of the facility, breaking Anthony out of Wilderness should have been easy—but Olivia learned a long time ago to never underestimate her enemies, or the lengths they’ll go to retrieve what’s theirs. And this time, the price for stealing the Project may be more than she’s willing to pay.

Oracle is the first installment in author Kelly Meding's The Project Files duology. The duology features an on-the-run scientist, a telepath/telekinetic duo who fights the good fight against a major power corporation, an android prototype, 

and enough action, adventure and humorous banter to entertain any and all readers. 

Olivia Gellar and Nick Patterson each have axes to grind against the Wilderness Institute of Research & Technology. Years ago, they were brutally taken away from their families and brought to Wilderness as projects. After a bit of help escaping, they've become specialists in retrieving Lost Projects. Olivia is able to manipulate metal and magnetic fields, Nic can sense psychic presences, and manipulate thoughts. Olivia is able to use kinetic energy, while Nick uses telepathy.

They are perfect partners because they have mutual experiences, similar losses, and pure hatred for Wilderness. Nick & Olivia's goals are to find others like them, and help them understand that their powers are a gift, not a curse. Their second goal is to permanently stop Wilderness from breeding a whole new generation of kids that they can use for nefarious intentions. Olivia and Nick have avoided being recaptured by Wilderness, Dr. Ian Wallace, and Gary Mitchell, one of their former classmate, for 18 years. 

18 years of a truce that has held as long as each side stays in their own corners, and one side leaves the only person to be allowed to walk away from Wilderness alone. That truce is about to be broken. Dr. Dean Frey works for Wilderness as Head of their Robotics Engineering Department. Dean does not like the direction his project, named Anthony, is heading. (Anthony is a self-aware, fully functioning intelligent robotic humanoid.) But, when you work for Wilderness, you must give your full loyalty and trust to Wilderness no matter what. There is no leaving, or escaping. There is only death for those who try to leave. 

And yet, Frey remarkably does just that. His goal is to find the one man who was allowed to walk away from Wilderness, and ask him for help in retrieving Anthony. That man is Benjamin Younger, the mentor of Nick & Olivia. When Frey shows up on his doorstep, Ben knows that he can't just sit back and ignore what his former employer has been up to. He must make a choice. That choice is to send Frey to meet with Olivia and Nick, and find a way to retrieve the project known as Anthony and keep it from being used as a weapon.

I loved the Dreg City series, and was sad to see it end, but I really liked Oracle. Oracle is a fun story filled with characters you can connect to, action, adventure, and no vampires, werewolves, fae, or any shifters of any kind. It is Nick & Olivia who own this series, but it is characters like Anthony and Jessica who give it a bit more depth. Anthony is such an interesting character, while Jessica is still a wild card who we haven't uncovered her actual worth yet. I also liked Matthias who is an unknown to Wilderness, but a fantastic character who has an ability that will blow you away. Frey is a character who I hope grows into his role as the only human without abilities in this Scooby Doo group. 

I do know that the second part of this duology, Lazarus, is available on Amazon. Perhaps I shall have to pick it up and see how Meding wraps up her mini-series. There is a whole lot more to look forward to I think.

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