Review, Happy Hour of the Damned, Mark Henry

Description
Alive, ad exec Amanda Feral worked hard to wring enjoyment out of her days. Now that she’s a zombie, it’s a different story. Turns out, Seattle is home to glamorous undead of every description, and Amanda – stylish and impeccably groomed even in the afterlife – is swigging cocktails and living large (so to speak) among its elite. But there are downsides. Not being able to stomach anything except alcohol and human flesh, for instance. And the fact that someone is targeting Seattle’s otherworldly inhabitants for their own sinister reasons. Preying on the undead is seriously uncool. The only option is for Amanda and her zombie BFF Wendy and gorgeous gay vampire pal Gil to unearth the culprit among the legions of Seattle’s bloodsuckers, shapeshifters, reapers, succubi, and demons – before they all meet a fate a lot worse than death…

Review
This wonderfully irreverent book combines Sex in the City, but for Seattle-ites (Seattlians?), with Night of the Living Dead. Amanda Feral is a successful ad exec, complete with corner office and a hot boyfriend, when she is turned into a zombie. Not one to let a little thing like being undead stop her, Amanda adapts to her new afterlife with style; quickly picking up a cadre of close friends (of the zombie, succubus and vampire variety), learning the necessities of mortuary makeup, hanging at only the in-est of otherworld ‘in crowd’ hot spots, and quickly becoming Seattle’s Supernatural ‘it’ girl.

When one of her gal pals leaves a cryptic message asking for help and then disappears, newbie flesh-eating zombie Amanda is off to the rescue, determined to find out who (or what) is trying to turn Seattle – both the living and the undead sides of it – into a place of true terror.

This is a wildly unique take on the modern fashionista zombie, which will have you both cringing with the gore and laughing uproariously at, well, the gore. Mark Henry has created a heroine who you can admire whether she is spouting snappy, snarky bon mots or chowing down on a guy she picked up in an alley. His world is well-developed, his characters pop off the page and the storyline is twisted, weird and wonderfully original.

Slip into your favorite designer pajamas, pour yourself a vodkatini and do yourself a favour: read this book! This is grisly chick-lit at its finest and will leave you salivating for more. (Of course it will also make you a little nervous about being breathed on in elevators).

You are in luck: Happy Hour Of The Damned has just come out in mass market paperback! Sure you can still pick it up in its original trade size – but why?

Find out more about Mark Henry at his site or by following him on Twitter

Rating

New Author Challenge and February mini-Challenge

One of the Fantasy review sites I have in my blogroll, Literary Escapism has issued a challenge to all comers: read as many new authors as you can in 2010. There are no restrictions on which books to read (novels greatly preferred), but the authors themselves must be new to you. But wait! There’s more! Once you have read them, you have to review them.

For me that is going to be the hard part: usually when I finish a book, I take a couple hours to let it percolate in my brain but then I start jonesing for a book in my hand and I have to grab something new from my TBR pile (bookaholism: it is not just a figment of my imagination).

Still, I have signed up and by golly I am going to do it! I challenge myself: 25 books. That’s right 25 books read – and more importantly 25 books reviewed. I can do it. I know I can. I just have to concentrate…

Literary Escapism takes on The League of Reluctant Adults in February
As a second part to this challenge, Literary Escapism is, for the month of February, doing a mini-challenge, asking folks to read new authors from the League of Reluctant Adults (another of my blogroll gang and the group I most want to join when I get published).

I personally think this is great because the League is full of amazing authors whose books kick UF/PR butt while also make you snicker at all their character’s wonderful snarkiness. I have read works by most of the Leaguers and discovered that, of those I hadn’t read yet – their books were already in my TBR pile just waiting for me to crack ‘em open. Literary Escapism’s challenge to read up to 5 different authors from the list of Leaguers should be a piece of cake! (Yeah, yeah, again, it’s going to be the review writing part that’ll get me).

I am going to do my darnedest to meet this mini-challenge too, though I hope you’ll forgive me if I end up reading a new-to-me book by a known-to-me member of the League. Not strictly kosher, I admit, but at least I am making the effort.

Here is the list of Leaguers:
Mario Acevedo Stacia Kane Kat Richardson Michele Bardsley Caitlin Kittredge Michelle Rowen Dakota Cassidy	Kelly Meding Diana Rowland Carolyn Crane Richelle Mead Jeanne Stein Molly Harper Nicole Peeler	Anton Strout Mark Henry Cherie Priest Jaye Wells Jackie Kessler Jennifer Rardin

TBR pile

I am slowly starting to master my To Be Read pile. And will be doing more reviews as a result. Yes, most of those books will have been out for a year or so, but better late than never. And as I am not well known enough to start getting ARCs, I can only review the books I purchase myself.

See? This is what happens when you get busy with other things IRL and neglect your blog. Bad Kat! Do better!

Books I have read recently that I cannot say enough good things about:

• Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
• Frostbitten, Kelley Armstrong
• The Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff
• Unleashed, John Levitt
• Three Days to Dead, Kelly Meding
• Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld
• How To Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
• Traitor to the Crown: The Patriot Witch, C.C. Finlay

I will try and get reviews out about them, but I hope the ‘good recommendation’ will hold you for now.

Newest Simon Canderous book out on Feb 23!

This series, by Anton Strout, rocks (a multi-dragon winner on this site!).

The new book, Dead Matter, comes out on February 23, 2010. Don’t forget to preorder it at:
Amazon.com

Amazon.ca

Review, The Better Part of Darkness, Kelly Gay

Book Blurb:
Atlanta: it’s the promised city for the off-worlders, foreigners from the alternate dimensions of heaven-like Elysia and hell-like Charbydon. Some bring good works and miracles. And some bring unimaginable evil….

Charlie Madigan is a divorced mother of one, and a kick-ass cop trained to take down the toughest human and off-world criminals. She’s recently returned from the dead after a brutal attack, an unexplained revival that has left her plagued by ruthless nightmares and random outbursts of strength that make doing her job for Atlanta P.D.’s Integration Task Force even harder. Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim — but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined?

Review
Charlie Madigan is a police officer in an Atlanta that is working hard to integrate the radically different off-worlders who are starting to make Earth their home. She’s tough, has a great partner and a supportive police Chief, but a little overworked as she struggles to balance a recent return from death, unruly off-worlders, being a single mom, and an ex who desparately wants back into her life. It is a precarious juggling act, one made harder by someone determined to stop her from solving her current investigation into an off-world drug. Someone who is more than willing to threaten her family, friends, partner and Charlie herself.

Kelly Gay has created a creative and detailed world full of diverse characters. I found her portrayal of Charlie’s rich family life both realistic and also something you don’t see often in urban fantasy, particularly a situation where the heroine is not only a mother but also the principal caregiver – in addition to being able to kick serious paranormal ass. The story moves at a brisk and exciting pace and Charlie’s challenging life leaves readers gasping for breath but definitely wanting more.

I am eagerly looking forward to the next in the Charlie Madigan series.

Find out more about Kelly Gay at her site or by following her on Twitter.

Rating

Wow! Been a very bad blogger…

It’s been over a month since I posted something, and more than that since I posted something of consequence (why, yes, I DO suffer from delusions of grandeur. How did you know?).

I wish I could say that I have been busy doing lots of fantastically wonderful things, but really, most of my time has been spent trying to wrestle my To Be Read pile into something more akin to a hill than the mountain. Was actually making headway… and then all the books I had asked the library to hold for me came in at once. Augh! On the one hand my wallet heaved a sigh of relief, on the other I had a big pile of books with a definite ‘must be read by’ sign hanging over them. I managed most of them; some had to go back unread as they had other holds on them, and some I just wasn’t in the mood for any more. I have only one and a half library books left to read now and while a few more are, according to the library site, ‘in transit’ they haven’t gotten here yet so the pressure is down to a dull roar.

Though the already purchased TBR pile is still there… And there are a few books that just came out that I am desparate to get…

My name is Kat and I am a bookaholic.

October is a month of Dark Delights at Bitten by Books!

Belly up to the bar…

And start watching the goings-on at The Odd Shots. It is the place to be if you want to follow some great urban fantasy and paranormal romance writers, namely: Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brooks, Nalini Singh, Patrice Michelle, and Jill Myles.

They are having a giveaway as part of the site launch: a copy of Must Love HellHounds. But back off… that puppy’s mine! (Kidding… or am I?)

Review, Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs

Review
The werewolves are coming.

Bran, leader (Marrok) of the North American werewolves has decided that, much like the Fae had done several years before, it was time for werewolves to announce their existence to the world. To ensure that this goes smoothly he arranges for an international conference with the werewolf leaders from around the world to discuss how it should be done and sends his son and pack enforcer, Charles, and Charles’ mate, Omega werewolf Anna, as representatives at the summit.

While a conference may not sound all that interesting keep in mind we are talking about lychanthropes here and Briggs weaves an intricate tale of warring supernaturals with enough twists and subplots to keep the reader on the edge of their seats.

Here we are introduced to the leader of the British wolves, who is convinced he is Arthur reincarnated, as well as the mad French leader, the legendary Beast of Gévaudan, Jean Chastel. There is a neophyte Omega werewolf who is the source of conflict between the Italian and German delegates. Also a Fae, whose powers are shaded in secrecy, who will be acting as mediator for the conference. Did I mention that she and Charles has a romantic past? Roll all that together with a gang of vampires using werewolf magic and tactics to try and kidnap Anna and the couple really have their hands full.

In Briggs’ deft hands we also get to see how the couple are adjusting to their new mating. Charles with his violent background may not seem to be the best match for the traumatized Anna but with her he can show all the gentleness and caring that he has been forced to keep hidden. Anna experiences continued growth here as she slowly becomes more at ease with her relationship with Charles and gains more confidence in her intuition and ability to reason as well as her darker nature.

With vivid characters, intricate plotlines and beautiful writing this book is sure to please and can be read alone, though you would be better off reading the first book, Cry Wolf.

P.S. Look for the reappearance of Tom and Moira, first introduced in Briggs’ short story ‘Seeing Eye’ in Strange Brew

Rating

Review: Already Dead, Charlie Huston

Review
Vampires in NYC. Heck, vampires controlling NYC. Very gangland.

In Huston’s take on popular vampire myths, Manhattan has been divided up by the vampire clans and our hero, Joe Pitt, is a well-connected ‘rogue’ just trying to find his way in the world that really doesn’t like rogues.

Joe is also a PI, who is hired by Marilee Horde, a prominent New York socialite, to locate her runaway teenage daughter, Amanda, who may be slumming with homeless goth kids in the East Village. Meanwhile, a “carrier” is on the loose, infecting its victims with a bacterium that turns them into brain-eating zombies and the group of uptown corporate-type vamps, The Coalition, want Pitt to find and destroy the carrier. After all, an influx of zombies does kind of bring unwanted attention to the undead community.

And what a fucked-up world this is! This story will suck you in, turn your stomach, and yet leave you wanting more. I loved the diversity of the type of vampire groups: corporate uptown-ers; 60s radicals, motorcycle gang-ers, tai chi higher being-seeking vamps, gangstah vamps, etc. Huston takes the usual vampire conventions, mixes in social commentary and adds enough violence to keep the most bloodthirtsy horror fan happy.

Rating