This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

I finished Jeri Smith-Ready's Wicked Game yesterday. It was one of the best urban fantasy novels I'd read in a long while. For those who read Carrie Vaughn's Kitty series, there were similarities to that - setting at a radio station, smartmouthed heroine - but also a lot of good things that were all its own.

The heroine, Ciara, is the daughter of jailed con artists, and is using small cons to work her way through college so she can go straight. She gets a summer internship at a small radio station where the DJs are all vampires.

The cool part is that vampires in this world become stuck in their "life times" and find it really difficult to cope with change and the passage of time. So being DJs helps them cope, in that they are immersed in the music of their life, but also have to read the news reports, which helps tie them to the present day. Smith-Ready also links in vampiric obsessive-compulsive behaviors in a way I really liked, so that it was a way the vampires could control small things while the world went quickly past them.

The other thing I really liked is that the heroine enters a relationship with the vampire - if you read this subgenre, that isn't a spoiler - but it's not glowingly, instantly perfect. She doesn't like the idea of being bitten, she has to come to terms with the disadvantages of his condition, and she worries about herself as much as she worries about him. The reality of the relationship really involved me in the story.

There's plot, too. *heh* There's a Secret Government Agency, there's a Vampire Commune/Enclave, there's an evil corporate radio monopoly. That's all good, too.

So, I'm going to read the sequel. And add this one to my recs when people ask about paranormal romance/urban fantasy.


Wicked Game

I finished Anna Katherine's Salt and Silver last night, and really enjoyed the breezy, funny first-person voice. It's a new urban fantasy/paranormal romance from Tor, and actually reads more like fantasy from the fantasy-genre than romance, which is part of why I liked it so much.

There were some slow spots in the middle, when the characters are traveling through series of underworlds, and I think the entire book should have been a little longer, but overall the voice made it for me, and I had a great time reading it.

Also, you can't go wrong referencing the Hand of Franklin.

I blogged over at the pro blog about not liking vampires and why, but currently am reading a vampire book, Marta Acosta's Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, which is awesome.

I don't think it really is a vampire romance, though I got my copy at the Romance Writers of America conference. I mean, it has some, but it treats them completely differently from other vampire romances. The book is really about the first-person narrator, Milagro De Los Santos, her voice and her life; the vampires are secondary. Also, her voice is strongly Latina, which is a nice change.

I'm not even done reading it yet and I already think everyone else should read this book and tell me what you think.

I read the new Eileen Wilks novel, Mortal Sins (World of the Lupi, Book 5) over the weekend, and really enjoyed it. I think it's one of the best in the series so far.

For those coming in late, her series has a species of werewolves, all male, called Lupi. The first book introduces detective Lily Yu, who ends up psychically mate-bonded to a Lupi. And for once, I didn't mind a psychic mate bond! The books are set in a roughly contemporary US where magic works, and lately has begun to work much better, with accompanying problems. Lily can detect magical gifts in humans, and goes to work for the FBI in a special unit that deals with magical and related issues. There's also been some travel to other dimensions, but I like the "magic is awake right here!" plots best.

Mortal Sins has a number of conflicts going. First, Lily's Lupus mate Rule is dealing with being temporarily appointed as heir to a Lupus clan other than his own, which has a psychic component, at the same time as he has to go to court with an estranged partner to gain custody of his son. (As all Lupi are male, they breed with regular humans. They breed true, if I remember right, always having male children who are Lupi.) There's the relationship with his son's grandmother, who's raised the child, as well. Then he finds murdered bodies.

Wilks continues to address issues of race, sometimes explicitly. A local cop is black, and is angry when Lily calls him on prejudice against Lupi; in another scene, Lily reminds someone that she is not white. There are several places where racial prejudice is mentioned in conjunction with prejudice against people who have magic. When Lily speaks of going public with her magical ability, however, she likens it to a gay person coming out.

I am really interested in seeing where Wilks goes with this next.

See? Very calm now, that my book is out. Calm. Yes, indeed. Very calm.

For travel reading, I decided on by Sherry Thomas, which I no longer have to hoard now that I know she'll have another book [Not Quite a Husband]; Demon Angel (The Guardians, Book 2) by Meljean Brook, for which I've received many recs; and a ringer thrown in at the last minute, Snowbound, a Harlequin Superromance by Janice Kay Johnson, who can be very soothing and undemanding.

I am especially curious about how I'll like the Brook. I read the initial short story in this series (it was in an anthology with an Emma Holly story), and was basically unmoved, though it was by no means a bad story. I suspect I was overwhelmed at the time with reading a lot of paranormal romances in a row. We shall see. It would be nice to have another series I like and can glom. As a side note, I wonder if people go nuts that the novel is listed as "#2" when there is no novel #1, only that short story?

Jessica Anderson, Nightkeepers: It's neat that the author used Mayan mythology as her source, but I was annoyed that the keeper of the Mayan gods is blonde and the Nightkeeper (Mayan magician) king has blue eyes; the next Nightkeeper we meet is blond, while his adoptive sister, who is magically bound to protect him, almost like a servant because she is meant to take care of him before herself, is darker. I stopped right there. "What this book needs is a honkey." *sigh*

Sure, almost all Native Americans share DNA with Europeans, and many show the physical traits of Europeans, but I would think the hereditary king of the Mayan magicians might be, well, more Mayan.

I couldn't finish the book, so I have no idea if it gets better in this respect. If anyone else finishes it, please let me know what you think.

Rachel Vincent, Stray: paranormal featuring werecats, with a powerful, rebellious first person narrator. I was annoyed with the heroine for a while, but grew to admire her, and was very pleased the author did the brave thing on some important plot elements. I'd be interested to know how other readers of paranormals and urban fantasy think this heroine matches up. I found it amusing that she has a whole crew of hunky brothers and friends who, in any other series, would scream sequel-bait, but not from the heroine's point of view!

There are some bits that are a bit horrific, so if you don't like bloody scenes, this book is not for you. I don't think it's worse than anything on television, though.

( Spoiler. )

Marjorie Liu, The Wild Road: I loved this. It follows characters I'd met previously in other Liu work, but that didn't matter, because they had big problems that kept getting worse, and they were sad and needed each other, and I was totally sucked into their lives. I liked best the sections with just the hero and heroine; once a couple more Dirk & Steele characters showed up, so did an overarching plot, and it was good, but not as emotionally intense as the earlier sections. I still loved it, and think it's one of her best novels.

This one will definitely be a reread later.

Cynthia Eden, Hotter After Midnight: a paranormal romance, featuring a shapeshifter cop (what kind is revealed gradually, but is not that surprising) and a doctor with psychic powers who sees "Other" patients, such as a newly-made vampire who has a blood phobia. I was hoping to have more of the doctor and her patients and how she dealt with them, the psychologist version of Kitty in Kitty and the Midnight Hour; every time a client came up, it was really interesting. But there's a serial killer. Again.

If I never see another serial killer in a romance novel again, it will be too soon.

In short, liked the writing, was bored with the plot.

Sandra Schwab, Bewitched: The ending of this is not unexpected, but it didn't matter--it's sweet and funny and dramatic and I liked it. There's a great feeling of time and place to it, except for a few small slips in tone (words that felt too modern, which always throws me out).

Historical pararnormal romance with a powerful heroine, who temporarily is without power.

Shana Abé, The Smoke Thief: This was interesting--I liked the repressive nature of the shapeshifter community; they feel it is necessary to stay in one area, Darkfrith, to maintain their safety, while at the same time within that community they are flying free all over the place in the form of smoke or gorgeous dragons. So it's total control over freedom. I sympathized heavily with the "runners" who fled the community, and was thus conflicted when the romance was between the community's leader and a runner; the issue was complicated by the runner being the first female shapeshifter in generations, thus alpha female, and the physical compulsion she and the alpha male had with each other, and the tensions between desire, duty, and emotions. I loved the historical setting, with all the wigs and panniers and London grime.

That said, I wasn't enthralled enough to go on and read The Dream Thief, second in this series; I have another Abé to read instead.

Kresley Cole, Dark Needs at Night's Edge (The Immortals After Dark, Book 4): I am still loving this series. The heroine of this one is the ghost of a self-made woman of the 1920s, which I adore. The hero is a vampire who is, at the start of the novel, insane with bloodlust. So their path to romance is a rocky one, beginning with the hero chained to a bed in the house haunted by the heroine; and of course the hero's brothers, who are trying to cure him, think he's hallucinating when he asks them about the pretty woman he sees.

Also, I love the wild, funny, unashamed world of females of the Lore, and there were more glimpses in this book.

The resolution of the story was a little too easy, but I realized I would have been annoyed if it hadn't been resolved, and couldn't think of a better solution myself, so there you go.

Cole continues to spear many of the tropes of other paranormal romances and the Alpha Hero, and to do so in a most amusing manner.

Lori Devoti, Unbound: I liked this a lot and wish it was longer, because I wanted more time for the relationship to develop, always a difficult line to walk in series length romances. Devoti uses Nordic mythology as a basis for her worldbuilding; the hero is a Hellhound, enslaved to an evil witch; her heroine a woman in a world essentially like our contemporary one, who doesn't yet know that she is a witch, as well. There are lots of little details about the Hellhounds that I liked a lot because they made them seem more real, particularly their trouble seeing colors; I'm interested in learning more about them. I'm particularly wondering if there are female hellhounds; there was one mention of what might have been one, but I wasn't quite sure.

The heroine is a twin, and has always been the timider of the pair; her arc has to do with her learning her own strength.

I'm definitely reading the others in this series.

( Spoiler. )

Jennifer Stevenson, The Brass Bed: Oh, this was fun as well as funny and involving. The paranormal plot involves a Regency lord whose magician mistress punished him for being a crappy lover by turning him into a sex demon and imprisoning him within a brass bed until he'd satisfied one hundred women. His name is Randall; his nickname is of course Randy. [I adored the little meta-digs at Regency romances as his character is revealed.] By our time, the bed has fallen into the possession of Clay, who's a second-generation con man, and believes his persuasive powers make women see sleeping in the bed as sex therapy. Cue Jewel, who works for the city of Chicago, and is trying to bust Clay for fraud. Oh, and there are a lot of magical things happening, seemingly at random, in Chicago, which official policy says aren't really happening, but which Jewel keeps getting stuck with. As part of her investigation, she tries sleeping in the brass bed. And we're off! The next two in this series are due out this summer, following the adventures of the same characters.

Jewel is great fun: sarcastic, a softy, and with giant intimacy issues. Her friend Nina is a trip, too.

( A few spoilers. )

I completely recommend this.

I read the second and third of Colleen Gleason's Gardella books while vacationing. Both Rises the Night and The Bleeding Dusk are more cinematic than the first one. I particularly thought the comic relief, in the form of Victoria's maid bantering with her driver, and Victoria's mother and her two silly friends, was like scenes you'd see in a movie. They were cute, but I didn't enjoy those scenes as much, because I was reading for the dificult decisions and angst.

I am still liking that Victoria, while a venator (vampire slayer), is still only twenty years old, and her choices seem age-appropriate to me. Also, we can see her growing and learning.

( Spoilers. )

I mentioned Colleen Gleason's The Rest Falls Away briefly when I first started reading it; I've now finished and moved on to the second book in the series. It's about vampire slayers in the Regency--the back cover of volume one even uses the phrase "in every generation"! Somebody has a sense of humor. The Venators (vampire killers) pass through trials and are given a vis bulla, a silver device that magically gives them protection, strength, and healing abilities to help them in their battles.

I am really liking these. There're romantic elements, but I wouldn't call them romance; like so many other paranormals I've been reading, there's no "happily ever after," and romantic relationships carry over several books. It's more Regency Noir than anything, if these plus Madeleine Robins' Sarah Tolerance books together can make their own genre. (I suspect there are some mystery series out there that might fit with these, as well. Ideas?)

The heroine, Victoria Gardella, is strong and snarky without being too modern for the period; her role as Venator wars constantly with her desire for a normal life, even when she's realized she does not want to and cannot give up her Venator role. She's a Venator by inheritance; another Venator, Max, is one through training and dedication, and he offers a constant foil and commentary on the role.

( I can't discuss this well without spoilers. )

I want other people to read these and comment on them.

There's a review here at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. They've also reviewed the later books in the series.

I continue on my quest to find good paranormal romance. So far, the best of the genre, IMHO, are the ones that don't follow a strict Romance one couple-happily-ever-after pattern, possibly because series give the writers more opportunity to worldbuild and continue character relationships over a period of time. This one is of that type.

Keri Arthur's Full Moon Rising is set in Melbourne, in a world where vampires and shapeshifters are known to regular humans. Being paranormal does not automatically make one good or bad in this world, which I like. Riley Jensen, the heroine, is half-werewolf and half-vampire, but the half-vampire part is a secret from almost everybody, as it seems to give her advantages but not many disadvantages. She works for the agency that protects the world against paranormals gone bad; her twin brother is a Guardian, but she is not. Yet.

Werewolves in this world are only forced to change form at the full moon, but in the week before that, they essentially go into heat and have a lot of sex. When the book opens, Riley has two steady partners. Her brother, who is gay, also has two main ones and many subsidiaries; one of the two main ones is much closer to him than the other, and plays a larger part in the plot. Riley's partners at first seem to be part of the background, but in fact they're very important to the plot.

Incidentally, the book takes place during Moon Week, so Riley keeps having to juggle her urges toward sex with the exigencies of the suspense plot.

( Some spoilers. )

I've already bought the next couple in the series.

Marjorie Liu, The Last Twilight: Woo-hoo, Amiri gets a book! Amiri is the cheetah-shapechanger who first appeared in Shadow Touch, a former schoolteacher who was abducted from his home in Africa and transported to a Secret Evil Research Facility.

When this book opens, he's now living in America and working as an agent of the Dirk & Steele agency. He and two other agents are sent to Africa to protect a doctor who specializes in epidemics; she's tough and damaged and can take care of herself, but not when mysterious evil people are trying to kidnap and/or kill her.

There are tantalizing glimpses of detail about contemporary Africa, at least a country in the midst of political upheaval, before the exigencies of the plot--escaping into the forest--take over. I love the worldwide feel of Liu's novels. The plot is complex, and the characters often ambiguous; Amiri and Rikki (the doctor) have to make some hard decisions.

Also, the love story is hot. I thought Amiri was hot the first time he showed up--teaches kids! Can turn into cheetah and eat you!--and he is still hot in that mannerly, intellectual way, only more so because now we get inside his head. Both he and Rikki have Issues that obstruct their relationship, but I didn't care as much about those as about the external suspense plot, because people on the run? Having to take care of each other? Is hot.

The world of Dirk & Steele grows ever more complex; there are a lot of plots going on underneath the romances, so I don't think the series will ever lack in that department. This one reminded me most of Shadow Touch, because of revelations about the opponents of Dirk & Steele and their ultimate plans.

I've started reading Colleen Gleason's Regency vampire slayer novel, Rises the Night. So far, rather than reminding me of other paranormals, it reminds me of Madeleine Robins' Sarah Tolerance books. I think it's tone; neither author over-glamorizes the period, and of course both are alternate universes. And although set in a period usually used for romances, aren't romance novels, even though the heroines' journeys have romantic/erotic aspects.

I'm not very far into the Gleason, so I can't comment farther yet.