Title: Lustlocked: A Sin du Jour Affair
Author: Matt Wallace
Rating: So Freaking Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Urban Fantasy, Fae & Faries
Release Date: January 26, 2016

Publisher: Tor

Order Here: AMAZON | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE

It’s officially tradition for me to be tipsy when I review the awesome Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour stories. I started that tradition back in October when I picked up Envy of Angels during a half-drunken stress-shopping run. It was so worth it.

Fast forward to last Tuesday when my kindle sent me a notification letting me know that Lustlocked was ready for me to read on my kindle. I started making high pitched noises then and I haven’t stopped yet. Yes, I am making high pitched noises in between swigs from my delicious Strongbow cider and somehow I haven’t choked yet.

Lustlocked is amazing from the opening pages where we’re reintroduced to Moon and the other members of Sin du Jour’s stocking and receiving department. I really love how Matt sets the stage with this part of the crew.

Back in Envy of Angels, he introduced us to Moon, Cindy, and Ritter in a similarly amazing fashion. Last time, it was Ritter against a giant praying mantis with intense maternal instincts. This time, it’s the team against a group of soldiers who think that they can take what they want, whenever they want.

Obviously, that doesn’t go well for them.

I really love the mood of the opening chapter. Like… It’s my thing.

But then we see my wife Lena and Darren and they’re just precious and perfect. I loved Lena to bits last book. She was 100% the kind of actually strong female character that I love (although Matt really has created some of the best female characters I’ve seen in urban fantasy in recent years so I love all of his characters omg). But yes, Lena and Darren are adorable and I love them.

I love how broke they are, how Lena kind of moms Darren the way that only a dedicated bestie can and will. I love that she wants to protect him. Their relatiosnship is so beautiful that I want to hug them. I love that Darren wakes up a hot ass mess and it’s endearing to the reader and (obviously) to Lena. Gosh.

So yeah, okay. The plot of the novella revolves around the marriage of a gobin prince (the son of the goblin king) gone wrong and sort of lizardy. The Sin du Jour crew is tasked with catering the wedding of these goblins. What’s cool is that Matt takes the common perception of goblins (as ugly creatures that eat babies and are generally awful) and flips it on its side.

His goblins?

Are pretty.

Super pretty.

And The Goblin King? Well he’s someone that played him in a movie.

I’m talking about David Bowie.

Yes, that David Bowie.

For real.

I have mixed feelings about David Bowie as a human being, but David Bowie as a character in my favorite book series that also happens to be a real life Goblin King? I like him. I like him a lot. I also like the idea of using him as a character and I think that it’s going to be great for people who were fans of David Bowie and are still mourning him in their own way.

And okay –

The idea that he and Iman have essentially been rendered immortal by this book just gives me a good feeling.

Okay and um –

I ship a lot of things. I’m a shipper. It’s what I do. But I really really ship Lena and Ritter. It’s intense, yo. I just wanted to mention that. Regardless of what actually happens in Lustlocked, I ship the hell out of them still.

I also want to mention how much I just love the characters in this freaking series. I have never felt so much for characters so soon. Like, I pre-ordered this book from back in October because the characters were amazing. I mean, I liked almost all of them immediately and intensely. Even the ones I could probably push down a hill without guilt are still amazing. I love them.

Okay

Also –

The ending

What the fucking fuck.

Seriously, I almost screamed while reading those last two words. That was not how I was expecting things to go. I’m like… a mess right now.

Lustlocked is a good book. More than that, it’s a GREAT book. I didn’t spoil as much as I wanted to because I need you all to read this book. I need you all to go and read Envy of Angels and then Lustlocked, and then fall in love with Matt Wallace’s characters. They’re so human even when they’re not human. I love every aspect of this book. Even the ending that has me screaming. The wedding is amazing. The lustful lizards are… weird. And all of my favorite characters come out swinging.

The book also comes with the short Small Wars which was up on Tor.com for people to read a week or two ago and sold as an individual ebook. This explains what lengths the crew went to in order to get their hands on Welsh gold for the goblins’ wedding party and shows us the history of several of the characters and what led them to Sin du Jour.

It’s also good.

Really good.

Even though at one point I put my kindle down, looked up at the sky, and asked, “What the fuck is wrong with Moon?” after one particular moment. Because after that, I got way more insight into Moon and I actually found myself sad on his behalf. Actually, if you don’t feel something by the end of Small Wars, I don’t know what to say to you. Because it gets you right in the gut and it’s a seriously thinky short story.

Now —

How am I going to survive the time until the next Sin du Jour novella or short story comes out?