VANISHED: Greywalker #4 - Kat Richardson, narr Mia Baron

From the back of the BOCD: Kat Richardson's enormously popular Greywalker series is now a fixture on the New York Times best-seller list. In Seattle PI Harper Blaine's fourth adventure, she delves into her own past and makes some shocking revelations.

After receivinga chilling warning about things lying in wait for her from her long-dead boyfriend, Harper travels to her childhood home in California. While sorting through old effects, she makes a startling discovery. It seems that before her father committed suicide, he had journalled about witnessing bizarre, unearthly events. With barely any time to process this new info, Harper is pressured by a group of vampires into taking a case in London, pitting her against a group of old foes. And as her work continues, she becomes privy to more secrets about her past----and her future.

Supernatural suspense blends seamlessly with urban action as Harper continues developing her Greywalker talents. Narrator Mia Barron never skips a beat performing this high-octane thriller.

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Holey crap-a-duck! This is the BEST of the series! I got to meet Harper's piece-of-work mother and learn more about Harper's background. She traveled outside of Seattle and thar be scary things in California and London (go figure).

She has to leave Seattle and loved one behind to go figure out what is going on in London, part of which are her vivid dreams of her ex, Will.

Action packed, excellent character driven urban fantasy. I wish I could say more, but I fear I will spoiler the heck out of it and I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

Mia Baron has mellowed her narration or voice or something, not sure what, but Harper sounds better this go around.

Five sparkly goin' to London and see what's happenin' diamonds....

Books in the House Monday - 23 Aug 2010

Big ol' box of books arrived on my doorstep last week from my buddy Jenna over at Imzadi Dragonfly. She's been going to some superb book signings at Powells in Cedar Hills and has hooked me up with some signed books as well as some extra goodies.
The signed books:
BITTEN: Women of the Otherworld #1 - Kelley Armstrong, MPB
SUCCUBUS BLUES - Richelle Mead, MPB
KITTY AND THE MIDNIGHT HOUR - Carrie Vaughn, MPB
KUSHIEL'S DART - Jacqueline Carey
GREYWALKER - Kat Richardson
POLTERGEIST - Kat Richardson
UNDERGROUND - Kat Richardson
VANISHED - Kat Richardson
LABYRINTH - Kat Richardson

The goodies:
Sanctuary Season 2 DVD

MEAN STREETS - Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, Simon R Green, Thomas E Sniegoski
MIND GAMES - Carolyn Crane

Ursula K LeGuin
THE OTHER WIND
THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS
TEHANU
THE FARTHEST SHORE
A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA
THE TOMBS OF ATUAN

And some cool schwag:
Labyrinth puzzle, bookmarks, postcards, keychain, scented erasers, Hello Kitty lip balm, stickers...some of this I'm sure I'm to share with Lady K

UNDERGROUND: 3rd in Greywalker Series - Kat Richardson, narr Mia Barron

From the back of the BOCD: The third book in Kat Richardson's best-selling Greywalker series, UNDERGROUND features heroine Harper Blaine, a private investigator who walks the shadowy line between the living and the dead.

It's winter in Seattle, and the homeless on Pioneer Square are being found dead and mutilated. Rumors abound that they're rising as zombies to stalk the Underground--the city buried beneath modern-day Seattle. When Harper's friend Quinton suspects he might be blamed for the killings, Harper agrees to help him locate the real source. Using the city's past as a guide, they soon trace a path back to an ancient killer--a horror even Seattle's dangerous vampires rightly fear.

Through her richly imagined world enhanced with historical detail, Richardson provides a unique experience that willhave fans clamoring for more Harper Blaine. Mia Barron provides a razor-sharp narration that only magnifies this harrowing dose of urban fantasy.

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This is one of my favorite series, especially in the urban fantasy genre. I loved learning more about Quinton, a character the reader meets in the first book of the series and gets to know a little bit about to be supremely intrigued (I know I was). I was pleased to see a lot more of Quinton this time around and a lot less of Will, the boyfriend in book one and two.

Richardson uses folklore to create the monster that is attacking Seattle's homeless and what a monster it is. Freaked me right the hell out, but Lady K thought it was scary with a funny name. She named it Sissy-Doodle and that is the name that has stuck in my cranium (sorry Kat). Helped to take the ick out of the attacker's leftovers.

Zombies, vampires, ghosts, all that good stuff makes for a superb outing in this one, my favorite in the series so far.

Five ancient monsters named Sissy-Doodle beans......

Amberkatze with Kat Richardson

Amberkatze is interviewing Kat Richardson, author of one of my favorite series, GREYWALKER. There's a good interview with Kat and a chance to win a signed copy of the first book in the series, GREYWALKER.

Bitten by Books and Kat Richardson

BittenByBooks is interviewing author Kat Richardson of GREYWALKER series fame. Good interview and a chance to win some prezzies! Kat's newest, VANISHED, is coming out in August.
Contest is good through 29 May @ 2359/11:59pm PDT....go on over!

GREYWALKER - Kat Richardson, narr Mia Barron

Once again, an awesome read. I say once again because I read (review) this as a handheld after my buddy, Jenna, loaned it and the second in series, POLTERGEIST, a while back. Then I saw it on RecordedBooks and added it to my wishlist. Some books are enhanced as an audiobook, given the right narrator. This was definitely one of them. Mia Barron is pitch perfect as all of the characters, my favorite had to be Mara, the Irish witch.

I look forward to when POLTERGEIST becomes available.


Five paranormal into the Grey beans.....

MEAN STREETS - Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, Thomas E. Sniegoski

I have not always had the best luck with anthologies. The editors or publishers or whoever bunch up some authors and sell the book with a beguiling title. The stories inside are not so intriguing as a rule. One superb story, a few ehhhhh...and one really awful tale...at least to me.

So, even though I adore Jim Butcher and Kat Richardson, it was with some trepidation that I decided to add MEAN STREETS to my shopping list, let alone actually buy it. It was the first purchase of 2009 thanks to a sweetie pie husband who asked if I'd like to see if I could use my DSW gift card I'd received in my stocking. That was a silly question. And dontcha know that there is a B&N right next door? Practically nirvana.

Frolicked in DSW for a nice long while and then we made our way over to B&N. It was crowded and I didn't have my list and MEAN STREETS was staring me in the face and was the only title I could remember. Into my hands it leaped and it became my next up read.

Jim Butcher's tale is THE WARRIOR, with Harry Dresden, wizard and mystery solver, protecting a friend and his family from evil.

I haven't read Simon R. Green before, but after reading THE DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES and seeing the title of one of his series would make a great addition to my What's in a Name Challenge, it won't be the last. Once I started understanding the Nightside, the secret heart of London, where John Taylor, PI, lives and works...I enjoyed the ride. John Taylor can find anything and is hired by a woman who has lost her husband and her memory. She would like both returned, please.

Kat Richardson was the third story and Harper Blaine, Greywalker, has been sent to Oaxaca Mexico to return a dog to his master. The master has been dead for some time and it is up to Harper to find the grave and return the dog. There is more to the job than meets the eye. The dog is a ghost. There's mystery, revenge, and deep dark secrets to be discovered, too.

The other new to me author, Thomas E Sniegoski, was the fourth and last novella in the book. Boston is the setting for fallen angel - turned - private detective Remy Chandler is tasked to find the murderer of Noah. Yep, that 'build me an Ark, Noah' guy. When you are touched and tasked by God, you get longevity. And someone has murdered him.

All four novellas in MEAN STREETS are worth five ghost dog, dead guy, who killed the ark builder, wizard beans.....and the bookmark

POLTERGEIST - Kat Richardson

I haven't read many books by the same author back to back lately. I made an exception here for two reasons. One because I want to get the first two of the series back to their rightful sweet owner, Jenna. Two because I just knew this would be just as FREAKIN' GOOD! And I was right!
I really liked the first one best. It laid the groundwork for the series in a truly wonderfully written way. POLTERGEIST continues with Harper Blaine, PI, in a continuous learning mode, but semi-acquiescent with her Greywalker status.
She is hired by a college professor to find the 'mole' in his group of poltergeist seekers. He feels that someone is faking the results, it can't possibly be that there is a real poltergeist in their midst as they simply do not exist. Yeah, right....
Harper goes back to the friends she made in the beginning of her Greywalker status, Ben and Mara, magic theorist and his wife the witch and some vampires that still scare the bejeezus out of her. They all teach her how to walk in the Grey world and take care of the ghost business that needs taken care of.
Honkin' five beans!

GREYWALKER - Kat Richardson

DUDES!! I keep hearing so much about Stephanie Meyer's series. Everyone is reading and anxiously waiting for each installment. I read the first one (you know its title, I don't have to post it here). I liked it fine for the mellow vampire loves a high school girl story it was.
But why more people aren't going on and on and waiting just as anxiously, if not more so, for Kat Richardson's GREYWALKER series, having honkin' cool midnight release parties in front of the bookshops with Greywalkers, vampires, necromancers....and all that hellah cool schtuff, is beyond my comprehension.
GREYWALKER starts with a headbang and almost squished cranium in the elevator and it never lets up.
Harper Blaine is my kind of main character. She's a PI, strong, smart, fast on her feet. All of this stands her in good stead once she dies for two minutes, just long enough to become a Greywalker. Greywalkers, she learns, can walk in the real world as well as the other world of the ghosts and all things that we know haunt the closets and under the beds. Harper resists this 'gift' of walking among the undead, but people she meets along the way make her realize she doesn't have much choice.
Along the way, she meets a witch, a fascinating jack of all trades, a newly turned vampire, many oldly turned vampires, a necromancer, a freaky pipe organ....
This is such a good book on so many levels! I was graciously loaned the first two of the series by my bookbud, Jenna. They are from her keeper shelf. I am going out to get my own copies for my keeper shelf. I don't do this for many books or authors.
Five spooky beans!!!