Tag: urban fantasy

[Book Review] Idle Ingredients by Matt Wallace

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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 »

[Book Review] Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw

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hammers-on-bone-coverTitle: Hammers on Bone
Author: Cassandra Khaw (Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Urban Fantasy, Noir, Detective, Lovecraftian Horror
Release Date: October 11, 2016
Publisher: Tor.com
Order Here: AMAZON | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE

Note: I received a free copy of this novella from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of the views in review are my own.

I’ve been a huge Cassandra Khaw fan since reading her novella “Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef” last year. From the second that I saw the announcement back in May that Tor.com acquired two novellas from her, I was on the edge of my seat with excitement because her writing is so freaking good that my expectations were sky high.

And then I read the first novella “Hammers on Bone” and I felt as if my entire world had changed.

“Hammers on Bone” is a dark and twisted detective story with definite notes of Lovecraftian Horror that are turned inside out across the pages of the novella.Read More »

The Great Big Anita Blake Reread – Guilty Pleasures

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Content Warnings: This review of Guilty Pleasures talks about the following content that readers may find disturbing, upsetting, or triggering: racism, internalized misogyny, victim blaming with regard to childhood abuse and sexual trauma, sex worker shaming, connecting sex work with trauma or marginalization (as in the only people in this series who do sex work are people who are broken and/or marginalized and they all need rescuing), gender essentialism.

guilty-pleasures-1993-cover

 

“Vampires are People, too.”

– The button that Monica Vespucci is wearing when she and Anita first meet echoes a repeated message in this series about how vampires are people too. But people you know… suck. So vampires do too, and not just because it’s how they get nourishment.

Despite it being the first book in author Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, Guilty Pleasures was probably the fourth or fifth book in the series that I read. It is um… a doozy of a book.Read More »

Urban Fantasy 101 – It’s A Heteronormative World Out There

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Heteronormative World.png

Notes: Content warnings for brief (but nondescriptive) mentions of sexual assault, mentions of homophobia in the text and a linked article), and just general heterocentrism/heterosexism.

One of the recurring tropes common to the urban fantasy genre is the idea that certain species have one “opposite sex” soulmate that is absolutely perfect for them and when they meet (or, more commonly, bang) for the first time, all of the pieces slot into place and their biology shifts so that they can have babies.

This focus on soulmates (often just “mates”) in urban fantasy has so much wasted potential behind it.

Instead of opening the concept of “mating” up to queer characters or characters in polyamorous relationships, these universes typically center mating and relationships on heterosexual and monogamous couples (with the occasional “these two werebears are my mates and also brothers as not to squick bigots who want to read polyamory but not that kind of polyamory” thrown in just to be frustrating).

I’m going to use specific examples here with Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series (of course) and Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Mist and Fury (which is just regular fantasy, but still more recent than most of the stuff I usually reference). I’ll also be talking about some other book series and author examples (both positive and negative).Read More »

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

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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 »

Urban Fantasy 101: Single White Vampire

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This month in Urban Fantasy 101, we talk about the single white vampire myth and how urban fantasy authors (erroneously) equate vampires with whiteness.

Urban Fantasy 101 - Single White Vampire.jpg

Why are so many vampires in Urban Fantasy fiction French (and white)?

I have issues with the way that popular vampire mythology and fiction remains singularly focused on white, European, male vampires.

I know that Anne Rice popularized the notion with her white French vampires back in the day, but that’s not an excuse or an explanation for the lingering trend or the genre’s reliance on putting French vampires all over the place – especially where no French vampire has ever belonged.Read More »

[Book Review] Lustlocked: A Sin du Jour Affair

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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 »

Urban Fantasy 101 – Issues of Immortal Morality-

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Welcome to Urban Fantasy 101, where we look at Dos and Donts along with discussions about good and tropes when writing Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance stories. Later on there’ll be themed book reclists (AKA – Required Reading) and eventually we’ll even include guest posts from/interviews with published authors writing diversity into these genres.

Urban Fantasy 101 - Issues of Immortal Mortality.png

It’s been a couple of years since I read the last Southern Vampire Mysteries book from Charlaine Harris or watched the show, but one thing that really made the series difficult to consume (aside from well… a lot of other stuff with regard to sexual content) was how the vampire Bill Compton was originally a soldier in the side of the Confederate Army.

I don’t know about you, but I find it extremely difficult to sympathize with or even like a character that fought on the side of the Confederacy. It doesn’t matter what he does in the present day story or even if they’re a current crusader for justice. They were a part of something horrible in history and chances are, that they weren’t forced into it.

I still remember watching those first few episodes of True Blood and just frowning at the way that the townspeople in Bon Temps were fawning all over Bill. I felt so uncomfortable. It wasn’t only the fact that he was a vampire in their tiny town that had them losing their minds, but that he was old enough to have fought in the Civil War – on the side of the Confederacy.Read More »

The Insomniac – Flash Fiction

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The Insomniac - Title Card

Malik wishes for sleep. Instead, he receives company and a command from his most confusing housemate.

Malik can’t bring himself to go back to bed – back to the place where dark thoughts and waking nightmares burst into reality in the less than pleasant darkness of his room. Instead, the djinn walks the short distance from his room to the common area that he shares with his housemates.Read More »

Snippet – Saw Palmetto Sacrifice Chapter 1

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With all the Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance I read, I think it makes sense for me to tackle the genre and try to put my own spin on it. Saw Palmetto Sacrifice is what happens when I look at what I don’t like about the two genres (ceaseless heteronormativity, skimpy representation of characters of color, and cultural appropriation as the main offenders) and try to subvert the genres’ most frustrating tropes and themes.

It’s kind of on a break for now as the Gothic Romance project and my freelance writing take the front seat, but I’m so very fond of it. So this snippet comes from the first chapter and gets us into Alex’s head.

Enjoy!

Read More »

[Book Review] Archangel’s Enigma by Nalini Singh

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arch angel's enigma

Rating: Highly Recommended
Release Date: September 2015

At this point in my life, I’d read just about anything from Nalini Singh. Archangel’s Enigma, the eighth full book in her Guild Hunter series, simply solidifies that desire.

This book is just a good book.

Straight up.

For seven books we’ve seen the evolution of these different characters. We’ve watched Elena and Raphael battle their figurative demons as well as go head to head against the intensely overpowered archangel Lijuan. At this point, these characters are pretty well set up and you’re strapped in for the ride because you need to know what happens next. After Archangel’s Shadows, the book that gave us Ashwini and Janvier’s intense and emotional story, we were all like “how is she going to top this?”

And then she gives us a book about Naasir.Read More »