Tag: matt wallace

Matt Wallace: Grapes, Malt, & Hops: Blended Fantasy [Guest Post and Giveaway]

Stitch19 Comments

I’m returning to my Book Blogger roots for one of my favorite writers in the history of my reading life!

Matt Wallace’s latest book, the epic (in all forms) Savage Legion, is out July 21st and my little site is one of the stops on the book tour. Take a second to pop on over to Amazon or Bookshop to preorder your copy and then dive right into his guest post about two of our shared most-favorite things in the world: worldbuilding and booze!

Warriors drink ale. Nobles drink wine. That’s the way it always was and for twenty-plus years I never questioned it.

I read my first stabby magic novel (or epic fantasy, or swords and sorcery, or whatever the hell you want to call it) when I was eleven, and I never looked back. Throughout my formative years, I read whatever was on the fantasy shelf of the nearest big chain bookstore. For a long time I didn’t know enough to look beyond that shelf, or understand why it was important and incumbent upon me to do that work, especially if I ever hoped to write this stuff myself.

Realizing now how homogenized and whitewashed fantasy, like all genre fiction, has been in mainstream American publishing for so long, I see all the cracks in those piles of books and endless fantasy series I grew up reading. Millions of cracks, an endless spiderweb of them in a mirror reflecting my own faulty hardwiring and false and persistent centering.

Right now I just want to talk about the booze, though.

Read More »

Urban Fantasy 101: My Eight Favorite Urban Fantasy Reads of 2018

Stitch

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2018 was a great year for me for urban fantasy reads and for my Urban Fantasy 101 series overall. I had more hits in the genre than misses and I found books and authors that I’ll always adore. I was able to develop really interesting thoughts on worldbuilding from reading tons of urban fantasy books and I think I’m finally finding a balanced approach between celebration and criticism.

While I read a ton of urban fantasy in 2018, a fair amount of it wasn’t actually published this year. So, I’m going to wrap up the year by talking about the ones that were. Here are eight of what I thought 2018 had to offer as the best urban fantasy reads (that I’ve read all the way through)!Read More »

[Book Review] Gluttony Bay (A Sin du Jour Affair #6) by Matt Wallace

Stitch

Gluttony Bay Cover.jpg

Title: Gluttony Bay (A Sin du Jour Affair #6)
Authors: Matt Wallace (Twitter)
Rating: So Funny I’m Gonna Die, So Highly Freaking Recommended
Genre/Category: Politics, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Food, Cannibalism
Release Date: November 7, 2017

Publisher: Tor.Com Publishing

Order Here: BARNES AND NOBLE | AMAZON (KINDLE)

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I’ve been doing drunk reviews of Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour series from the start because well…

I like drinking.

I also do it because I want to and it’s fun.

I started Gluttony Bay, the penultimate book in the series, while sober. I made it to the end of the first chapter before I straight up needed liquid courage to tackle this book. (If you’re wondering, I went with a rum-vodka-juice mix in my Homecoming glass.)

Matt’s one of my favorite authors and people. He’s writer goals to the nth power. He’s one of like five authors I feel comfortable talking to in my reviews (and then showing them to him afterwards). He’s cool as hell.

But man… Gluttony Bay had me all kinds of fucked up.Read More »

[Book Review] Greedy Pigs (A Sin du Jour Affair #5) by Matt Wallace

Stitch1 Comment

Greedy Pigs Cover

Title: Greedy Pigs (A Sin du Jour Affair #5)
Authors: Matt Wallace (Twitter)
Rating: So Funny I’m Gonna Die, So Highly Freaking Recommended
Genre/Category: Politics, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Food
Release Date: May 16, 2017

Publisher: Tor.Com Publishing

Order Here: BARNES AND NOBLE | AMAZON (KINDLE)

Note: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Me being me, tha’s basically the only kind of review I do. There are so many spoilers. But also… not enough spoilers.

SYNOPSIS

The Sin du Jour crew caters to the Shadow Government in Greedy Pigs, Matt Wallace’s fifth Sin du Jour Affair

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”

Politics is a dirty game. When the team at Sin du Jour accidentally caters a meal for the President of the United States and his entourage, they discover a conspiracy that has been in place since before living memory. Meanwhile, the Shadow Government that oversees the co-existence of the natural and supernatural worlds is under threat from the most unlikely of sources.

It’s up to one member of the Sin du Jour staff to prevent war on an unimaginable scale.

Between courses, naturally.

REVIEW

Holy fucking shit.

That was my reaction to both starting and finishing Greedy Pigs and I’m sure it’ll be yours too!

If you’re new to my semi-sober reviews of Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour series, you should know that he never fails to deliver the big blows and some major WTF moments in every single book of the series. Greedy Pigs isn’t an exception and like the previous four books in the series, it had me all kinds of fucked up at the end.

And at the middle.

Hell, at the start.Read More »

[Book Review] Idle Ingredients by Matt Wallace

Stitch

idle-ingredients-coverTitle: Idle Ingredients: A Sin du Jour Affair
Author: Matt Wallace (Twitter)
Rating: So Freaking Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Urban Fantasy, Demons & Angels, Food, Politics
Release Date: February 7, 2017

Publisher: Tor.com

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

Note: I received an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of this book from the publisher (but I have also preordered the book on my own). All opinions and thoughts expressed, however drunkenly, in this review are my own. There are also some spoilers for the upcoming book so if that’s not your thing, come back after February 7th when you’ve read the book!

When we last left the Sin du Jour crew at the end of June 2016’s Pride’s Spell, everything was coming up roses. Everyone was alive, the crew got to see an angel in action, and my OTP was finally hooking up (I say as if we’re farther along than halfway through the series…).

So why is it that I found myself making ugly noises before I even finished the first chapter of Idle Ingredients?Read More »

Stitch’s Top Fantasy Reads of 2016

Stitch

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Note that this list isn’t in any particular order. They’re all books I either enjoyed a ton or that stuck with me even after I was done reading. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list as I read a lot of amazing books but had to pare this down to ten books so I could actually manage to get the dang thing out before Christmas.

Note also that I was mad tipsy when making the accompanying podcast and so my scatterbrain is at an all time high. If you’re looking for something where I remember character names and heck, even basic plot points, um… please don’t listen to the audio and just read the descriptions instead!

1 The Castle Doctrine – Craig Schaefer

craig-schaefer-the-castle-doctrineKINDLE 

The sixth book in Craig Schaefer’s Daniel Faust series, The Castle Doctrine is one of many urban fantasy novels that legit left me messed up by the time I was done reading them. Schaefer’s writing style is incredible, full of descriptions that left me cringing (but still flipping the pages on my kindle).

The way the man writes violence is like… out of this world. Daniel Faust reminds me a lot of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden only you know… not a misogynist and with a clearly defined moral code of his own (like Deathstroke but with magic and broke all the time). Start out with The Long Way Down and work your way to this book because it’s so worth it.

Read More »

[Book Review] Pride’s Spell – A Sin du Jour Affair

Stitch3 Comments

Pride's Spell CoverTitle: Pride’s Spell: A Sin du Jour Affair
Author: Matt Wallace (Twitter)
Rating: So Freaking Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Urban Fantasy, Demons & Angels, Food, Hollywood
Release Date: June 21, 2016

Publisher: Tor.com

Pre-Order Here: AMAZON (PAPERBACK) | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE (PAPERBACK)

Note: I received an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of this book from the publisher (but I have also preordered ebook and audio versions of the book because I CAN). All opinions and thoughts expressed, however drunkenly or poorly, in this review are my own. There are also a TON of spoilers for the upcoming book so if that’s not your thing, come back after June 21st when you’ve read the book!

Note the Second: There’s an extra spoilery audio review/excited rant posted embedded into this review at the bottom because I realize now that drunk!reviewing lends towards really disjointed reviews because my attention span gets borked. The audio review will hopefully be even more coherent!

I’m halfway through a bottle of Verdi Spumante (a sparkling wine that makes me giggle every time I say its name), I’ve got three fancy butter cookies left, and oh yes, an ARC of the awesome Matt Wallace’s upcoming book Pride’s Spell waiting for me to read and do my usual semi-drunken review.

Life is good. Well… for me at least.

Things don’t look so hot for the staff of Sin du Jour or their head chef for much of the book.Read More »

[Book Review] Lustlocked: A Sin du Jour Affair

Stitch3 Comments

LUSTLOCKEDCOVER

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. Read More »

[Book Review] Envy of Angels: A Sin Du Jour Affair

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Rating: So Freaking Highly RecommendedEnvy of Angels

I am 100% writing this short non-spoilery review while tipsy.

So it’s super honest.

So very honest.

I stress-bought Matt Wallace’s Envy of Angels last night while looking at career sites. It’s like, the thing to do you know? Buy stuff as you wail about not being able to buy stuff. And in this case, it was so breaking worth it.

Matt Wallace is amazing. We became tweeps yesterday (hella!!) and I am excited to see what else he writes. Why? Because Envy of Angels hit all of my buttons. It had amazing characters (Lena is bae and Darren’s not far off), religion but not like religion, and FOOD!Read More »