#Review - Book of Night by Holly Black #Fantasy #Contemporary

Series: Book of Night # 1
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Release Date: May 3, 2022
Publisher: Tor Books
Source: Library
Genre: Occult & Supernatural /  Contemporary / Fantasy

Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make.

She's spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie Hall.

Now, she’s trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but getting out isn’t easy. Bartending at a dive, she’s still entirely too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. Not to mention that her sister Posey is desperate for magic, and that Charlie's shadowless, and possibly soulless, boyfriend has been hiding things from her. When a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie descends into a maelstrom of murder and lies.

Determined to survive, she’s up against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, gloamists, and the people she loves best in the world—all trying to steal a secret that will give them vast and terrible power.

Book of Night, by author Holly Black, is the first of a two part duology that was confirmed by the author. From the danger of Blights to the protective properties of onyx and fire, Book of Night transports us to a place where security is a rare commodity (while shadows have become a hot commodity). The world of Book of Night is one much like ours, but where shadow magicians, called gloamists, manipulate shadows. Gloamists can fly on shadow wings, send their shadows to smother enemies in their beds, and even possess the unwary. 

Not only that, but gloamists can alter the shadows of non-gloamists, imbuing them with minor magic as a result. Politicians can appear taller, daredevils can hover a tiny bit, and actors can carry a particularly striking look onto the red carpet. In this world, 28-year old Charlie Hall is a thief of secrets. She’s an expert at stealing the books in which shadow magicians hide their discoveries from one another. But that’s led her to one disaster after another, burning through countless chances to turn her life around. 

She’s finally trying to quit the game by keeping her head down and staying out of trouble by being a bartender at Rapture Bar and Lounge. She's trying to appreciate her shadowless and maybe soulless boyfriend Vince’s ability to pay half the rent by allegedly being a cleaner of murder scenes. She's trying hard not to lose her job a dive bar with a shadow parlor with operating beneath it. Her magic-obsessed sister Posey is interested in something less destructive and follows in the footsteps of their mother with tarot card readings while itching for her own magic. 

Charlie was really good at taking things apart from puzzles to people. For 10 years, she stole from one gloamist after another which the author sets the stage for with flashbacks to the past. 20 years ago after the Boxford massacre in Massachusetts, the world became aware of the gloamists and their abilities. Symbolically, our shadow selves are the unacknowledged parts of us, the parts we want to shove down into the dark. Our anger, our shame, our desire. After Charlies stumbles across a man being torn asunder, she finds that she can no longer look the other way.

The most Charlie digs, the less she knows about her boy friend, and his past, or what he's actually been doing since the first met. Her decision to go for one last grift that would expose the one magic everyone wants to keep a secret lands her in the cross-hairs of the most powerful of those that wield magic. There are those from Balthazar, to The Cabal, to Lionel Salt who are looking for the Liber Noctem, or Book of Blights, or Book of Nights if you will. This story is dark and violent, full of people down on their luck, lots of sinister bad guys, sex against the walls, an evil Cabal, and scary shadows.

While this is the first part of the duology, readers can expect that there will be a cliffhanger ending that will hopefully push readers to read the sequel. This is Holly Black's first adult fantasy novel and I could easily have raised by rating on this to 4 Gizmos just for the darkness of the book, and the fact that pretty much nobody can be trusted to be who you think they are. Charlie’s life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent thanks to curious choices she makes towards the end of the book. If you have read Ninth House and The Night Circus you will enjoy this book.

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#Revew - Gravity (The Taking #1) by Melissa West #YA #SyFy #Dystopian

Series: The Taking # 1
Format: Kindle, 306 pages
Release Date: October 30th 2012
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Amazon
Genre: Dystopian / Science Fiction

In the future, only one rule will matter: Don't. Ever. Peek. Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed -- arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die. Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she's been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she's falling for him. But Ari isn't just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She's a military legacy who's been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know--especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.

Gravity is the first installment in author Melissa West's The Taking trilogy. In a near future, Earth will have destroyed itself and billions of humans will have died thanks to power and greed in what's being called World War IV. The Ancients bailed out Earth and in return humans must enable them to habituate their bodies to Earth so they can cohabit the planet. The aliens would help rebuild the world as well as providing food while humans would give their antibodies to the aliens (otherwise they wouldn't be able to survive on Earth) as well as water. 

Earth was then divided in nations such as Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australian destroyed itself. Each nation has a central president and the presidency is passed down by blood. Ari and her family live in a place called Sydia which is the capital of the Americas. Thanks to the Treaty of 2090 between Zeus and the leaders of Earth, each human is assigned an Ancient arriving from Loge to become hosts. Each night, 17-year-old Ari Alexander must put on a patch that paralyzes them, and allows the Ancient assigned to them to enter their bedroom for The Taking. 

One night Ari loses her patch and opens her eyes to see her classmate Jackson Locket hoovering above her. Ancients are not supposed to be living undercover and she knows she should report him to her father, The Commander, but first she wants to get answers from him. Jackson explains that he needs her help because his people are ready to acclimate and live among the humans, and if earth does not agree, war will ensue. Soon Ari finds herself mired in a treacherous situation. Who does she trust? Jackson the Ancient or her father? Is everything she has been taught her entire life a lie? 

Are the Ancients out to destroy humanity, or will humanity destroy itself? Since Ari is the daughter of the Commander she has had to train in combat and military tactics all her life because she is supposed to be the next Commander. She's top of her class in almost all areas of guns, fist fights, and basic ops. The downside is that Ari is supposed to marry the President's son, Lawrence, to enable a very strong leadership/partnership but how can Ari trust anyone in leadership when she learns what Parliament plans to those Ancients living on Earth?

She finds herself entangled in things that quickly spiral out of control when the leaders of Earth do something really stupid which makes me want to scream. I genuinely hate scientists, and there's literally a million people on this planet that died because of scientists who screwed around and caused the Pandemic we are currently dealing with. Her father was a cold piece of work most of the time, but her mother genuinely cares enough to break rules in order to save her daughter. 

The book does end on a cliffhanger which you should expect since this is the first book in the trilogy. I admit that I took way too long in starting and finishing this book, and now I need the next two books to cross another series off my bucket list.

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#Review - Voodoo and Vampires by Theophilus Monroe #Paranormal

Series: The Blood Witch Saga # 1
Format: Kindle, 210 pages
Release Date: June 30th 2022
Publisher: Theophilus Monroe
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Paranormal

I'm Hailey Bradbury: Hedge Witch and Vampire.

My sire was staked moments after I was turned.

As a youngling, the Voodoo Queen took me in. She taught me her art.

I've been working with the new Mistress of the Vampire Council.

She trained me in the ways of vampirism, the path of the night.

Witchcraft + Voodoo + Vampirism = what I call bloodwitchery.

Most witches won't mess with the power latent in blood.

It's dark. It's dangerous. But if you can master it...

You can harness the power of life itself.

Voodoo and Vampires is the first installment in author Theophilus Monroe's The Blood Witch Saga. When Hailey Bradbury was only fourteen, she found a grimoire that started her down a path to become the most powerful witch in the past 300 years. When she was sixteen, her mentor, Moll Dwyer, an infamous blood witch, told Hailey to expect a change that would mean she had to leave her family behind when she was sixteen. What she didn’t know, was that Moll had set her up to be attacked by a vampire, who wanted the strong blood concoction she and Moll had brewed up in her cauldron. 

It won't be the only time that Moll betrays Hailey for her own machinations. Hailey woke up as a youngling vampire, but she still has her powers as a witch. She was taken in by the new Voodoo Queen, Annabelle, as Mercy Brown, the head of the Vampire Council in New Orleans didn’t want to deal with a youngling and their bad blood decisions! She learned more about magic from Annabelle and eventually ending up working with Mercy, learning all about vampirism and blood. She became the youngest member of the Vampire council, but nobody should take her for granted. 

Especially since she still looks as though she's 16 years old. Her mentor might be the Voodoo Queen, and her adopted sire, the leader of the Vampire council, but no one tells this blood witch what to do. Not even a 500 year old vampire named Corbin who Hailey is supposed to seduce and then kill. He believes vampires should rule the world and use humans as they wish, which won’t be good for mankind. Mercy wants to ensure humans see them as kind beings, that don’t kill to feed, which would turn a lot of humans against them. Then there's Connor McPherson, her fourteen year old crush, who is now a wolf shifter thanks to a spell gone wrong.

For the record, it does appear as though Hailey has turned up in other series before. Readers of Monroe’s Legacy of a Vampire Witch, Voodoo Academy series, or The Legend of Nyx, have encountered Hailey before. To drive home the point, Annabelle Mulledy appeared in The Voodoo Legacy, while Mercy Brown appeared in the Legacy of a Vampire Witch. There is enough action and suspense to keep me coming back for the next sequel which is listed as being called Devils and Dragons. 

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#Review - Orb and Arrow by V. L. Stuart #Fantasy

Series: Exploration # 1
Format: Kindle, 327 pages
Release Date: May 15th 2022
Publisher: Pen It! Publications, LLC
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Magical Realism / Fantasy

Brillar was expected to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a healer but she had other plans. Now a highly skilled archer, she has been forced to kill to release a bound mage. It may have been self-defense, but that is no excuse for a healer.

Releasing such a skilled War mage from bondage could get you killed...or apprenticed. When she chooses the latter, Brillar finds herself on a desperate journey to stop the rising tide of Darkness.

Her decision to apprentice herself to Elden, the man she rescued, sets her further from the healer's calling. Still, her healing spells serve them both well as they face the dangers of a world often torn between the Light and Darkness.

Orb and Arrow, by author V.L. Stuart, is the first installment in the authors Exploration series. Brillar of Laurenfell, a student of life, daughter of Lady Darwallen of Life Sisterhood and Sir Prenda, a trained healer and also who has far sight  that allows her to see ahead of her, has chosen to go on a walk about to explore the world instead of sticking around a stagnant life. She goes nowhere without her trusty Bow, Quiver and Arrows. She also carries a foldbox which doesn't look like much from the outside, but can carry more than her weight in necessities like more arrows, medicine, and herbs.

Brillar has wandered the settled lands for nearly two years. After disposing of an attacker, she finds a man, bruised, and wearing a dimlock collar. The dimlock collar prevents a mage from accessing his magic. A dimlock collar is allegedly only to be used to bind, punish, and transport a mage whose deeds are so horrible that only execution awaits him. One has to say that Brillar is quite exceptional when it comes to doing unexpected things like removing said collar without having the actual key which only the holder of the bounty can remove.

The mage is Garnelden, Mage of the Four Powers, with First Standing in three. It seems as though there was a huge bounty on Elden's head witch lead to a bounty hunter catching him unaware and putting the dimlock collar on Elden. Money Brillar could have taken and left Elden behind. But Brillar has a more straight forward morality compass. Elden knows who placed the bounty on him and why since 14 years ago, he and the lord fought side by side against dangerous Orcs in a place far from here before Elden put his warring ways behind him.

After restoring Elden to health with her skills using herbs and magic spells, he's unable to dissuade Brillar from journeying alone to the Wild where she's heard there's all sorts of wondrous beings and challenges. Brillar agrees to a one year apprentice to increase her arsenal of magical powers. After killing the man who put the bounty on Elden's head, Brillar and Elden in Laurenfell only to learn that she's been poisoned and will likely die if a cure isn't found soon. She also learns that because of the fact that she's killed two men, she's unable to return to the Sisterhood.

Brillar and Elden's journey through the Wilds is filled with dangers from all sorts of life including the dead. In the end, they also find that they are heroes for helping save the life of little boy from a dangerous sect whose poison nearly killed Brillar. I am one of the few reviewers who have posted a review for this book so I am warning you that there will likely be spoilers involved. 

I will also say that it is highly likely I will wait to see what happens next in their journey since there's an entire new world to explore, and Brillar still has months left on her apprenticeship with Elden. This book has zero romance. Even though Brillar is of age, she doesn't see Elden in a romantic light. More like uncle to niece relationship. This book takes place over the course of months since there is a whole lot of traveling.  

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#Review - Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty #YA #Fantasy

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Release Date: June 28, 2022
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Epic

From the author of the Traitor's Kiss trilogy, a YA medieval fantasy thriller about an orphan girl with secret powers of perception who gets caught between a mysterious genius and a serial killer.

Rising above the city of Collis is the holy Sanctum. And watching over its spires is Catrin, an orphan with unique skills—for she alone can spot the building’s flaws in construction before they turn deadly.

But when Catrin witnesses a murderer escaping the scene of his crime, she’s pulled into the web of a dangerous man who will definitely strike again. Assigned to capture the culprit is the mysterious, brilliant, and enigmatic Simon, whose insights into the mind of a killer are frighteningly accurate.

As the grisly crimes continue, Catrin finds herself caught between murderer and detective while hiding her own secret—a supernatural sight granted by the moon, destined to make her an outcast, and the only thing that might save her and those she loves from becoming the next victims.

 

Erin Beaty's Blood and Moonlight is a young adult themed medieval fantasy thriller about an orphan girl named Catrin with secret powers of perception who gets caught between a mysterious genius and a serial killer. Abandoned as a baby by parents she's never known, raised by the Abbey of the Sisters of Light, Catrin has found her calling when she turned 12. Rising above the city of Collis is the Holy Sanctum. And watching over its spires is a girl with unique skills—for she alone can spot the building’s flaws in construction before they turn deadly. 

Catrin is tasked with inspecting the scaffolding following a deadly accident and prefers to do her job at night with the aid of the moon when there are less people around. After she checks the Sanctum for the last time before she turns in, she hears something mysterious. First, a voice tells her she should go home. Second, it appears as though something stops her from falling to her death. But when Catrin witnesses a murderer escaping the scene of his crime, and finds the body of a familiar she recently saw at the Sanctum, she’s pulled into the web of a dangerous man who will definitely strike again. 

Assigned to capture the culprit is the mysterious, brilliant, and enigmatic Simon, whose insights into the mind of a killer are frighteningly accurate. Since she found the body, Cat is asked to be interviewed and later joins the investigation with the venatre (Simon) and his cousins, Juliane and Lambert. As the grisly crimes continue and her mentor Magister Thomas is arrested for murder, Catrin finds herself caught between a serial killer and detective while hiding her own secret—a supernatural sight granted by the moon, destined to make her an outcast like all Selenae, and the only thing that might save her and those she loves from becoming the next victims, is to put herself in the line of fire.

When it becomes a game of cat and mouse, Cat must find out who she can trust and who is hiding beneath the city’s shadows. In this story, almost everyone could be a serial killer. The was actually pretty dark and disturbing when it came to the murders and the horror of what happens to the victims. She starts working with Simon to help solve these murders but has to hide her magic out of fear. The two of them start to form a bond but at the same time no one can be trusted. As things start to unravel and they get closer to the murderer she's forced to reveal her secrets. 

The world is strongly rooted in the religions surrounding the Sun (the Sisters of Light and other followers of the omniscient power that created the sun) and the Moon (the Selenae who possess a magic that causes those who follow the sun to shun and fear them as heretics). The story is also a self-discovery for Cat after she learns about the people who were her father, and the family that she's never knew. I do honestly believe there is room for a sequel since Cat's journey isn't finished. Not after all that happens at the end of the story. 

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#Review - Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert #YA #Contemporary #Fantasy

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: June 28, 2022
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

Secrets. Lies. Super-bad choices. Witchcraft. This is Our Crooked Hearts, a darkly gripping contemporary fantasy from Melissa Albert, the New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood

The suburbs, right now . . .
Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there's more to her mother than meets the eye.

The city, back then . . .
Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.

Years after it began, Ivy and Dana's shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with.

Melissa Albert's Our Crooked Hearts takes place in a town called Woodbine. The story is set in two worlds: modern days from Ivy's perspective and past days from Dana's perspective. While riding with her inebriated boyfriend Nate one night, Ivy has an unsettling run-in with a strange girl. The even more unsettling part is that this stranger somehow knows Ivy's name. This night sets off a bomb in Ivy's life as secrets that have been forming since her closed-off mom was her age finally come to light. 

In order to do that, though, Ivy needs to go down the dark, twisted path laid before her and discover more about herself and her mother than she ever thought possible. This book is also about her mother, Dana. When Dana was sixteen, she met a girl named Marion who taught her and her best friend Felicita (Fee). But this girl isn’t being completely honest about her intentions. This leads the girls into contending with magic that they are not prepared for the severe consequences. 

For years, Dana fully believed that she was protecting Ivy and her family from magic and her own dark past for fear it would destroy them. But her secrets end up destroying the family dynamics. Especially after Ivy ends up confronting Dana's deep dark secret that she's tried so hard to protect. When Dana and Fee go missing, strange things start happening. The girl she has seen in the woods lurking around her house and the boy next door she has complex feelings insists she broke his heart five years ago. Could she forget something important like this?

Especially after Ivy learns that she and Billy had shared things that slowly are revealed until there are no longer secrets between the two of them. And, even though Ivy's discoveries about her mother's past allow her to finally understand her actions, understanding doesn't always lead to forgiveness, and that's perfectly acceptable. Not to be forgotten, the girl that Dana and Fee met all those years ago, has been slowly scheming and making her own path to revenge. Who better to lure to her side than Ivy whose eyes are fully opened to her mothers betrayal.

One could say that this is the perfect coming age story for both Dana and Ivy. I have heard that there are those who compare this book to the Craft, and those reviewers aren't wrong. While it begins with just Dana and Fee, it ends up becoming more like their own twisted coven. 

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#Review - The Lost (Mace Reid K-9 Mystery #3) by Jeffrey B. Burton #Mystery

Series: Mace Reid K-9 Mystery (#3)
Format: Hardcover, 288 apges
Release Date: June 28, 2022
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Mystery

A home invasion turned kidnapping at the mansion of billionaire financier Kenneth J. Druckman brings Mason “Mace” Reid and his cadaver dog, Vira, to this wealthy northern suburb of Chicago. Druckman was assaulted, left behind while his wife and young daughter were taken for ransom.

Brought to the scene by the FBI, Reid specializes in human remains detection, and Vira is the star of his pack of cadaver dogs he’s dubbed The Finders. After Vira finds the dead body of the mother, former supermodel Calley Kurtz, everyone is on high alert to find Druckman’s missing daughter before the five-year-old disappears forever. But the trail Vira finds on the property’s dense woodlands leads right back to Druckman himself.

With the help of Detective Kippy Gimm, Reid and Vira must race against the clock. Nothing is as it appears to be . . . and the red herrings could be lethal. 

The Lost is the third installment in author Jeffrey B. Burton's Mace Reid K-9 Mystery series. Key Characters: Mace Reid, specializes in human remains detection. He trains dogs called the Finders to hunt for the dead. Chicago Police Detective Kippy Gimm who has been involved in recent escapades with Mace and has risen in the ranks of the Chicago Violent Crimes Unit. Special Agent Len Squire has become a friend of Mace's thanks to his Finders and what they've done over the course of this series. Vera, Golden Retriever who seems to have preternatural ability of linking a missing or dead person to the killer.

Mace, Kippy Gimm, and Vira are called out to the estate of billionaire financier Kenneth J. Druckman by Special Agent in Charge Len Squires where a home invasion and robbery has turned into a kidnapping. Druckman claims that several men broke into his home, stole all his valuables, and kidnapped his former supermodel wife Calley Kurtz and their 5 year old daughter Eleanor aka Scarf Druckman. After Vira locates Calley, Mace once again senses that Vera knows what really happened, and Kenneth may not be as innocent as you want to believe.

This time the complex plot involves scheming billionaires, deceit, kidnapping, murder, stolen jewels, and more. There are chapters from other characters as well to fill in the blanks as to what has happened before Mace, Vera and Kippy got involved. One of the things the book does do, is go back in time a few weeks, before bringing all key characters together for a twisted ending. We also get an interesting dynamic in that Vira has found Kippy to be trust worthy, and she also latches on to Scarf (aka Eleanor) when the little girl is found. 

The relationship between Mace and Kippy continue to develop. They are more than comfortable with each other which is a change after Mace's divorce left him discombobulated and looking for something new to liven up his life. Although this is one of those series where reading the others are not required, I highly encourage it so that you can get a better understanding about Mace and his other Finders which includes Delta Dawn, Maggie May, Billie Joe, and Sue.  

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