THE HOUR OF DUST AND ASHES - Kelly Gay

From the back of the book: To save her sister, she must stop a silent killer......

Protecting Atlanta from the off-world criminals of Underground is tough enough, but now Detective Charlie Madigan and her siren partner, Hank, learn that the addicts of the off-world drug 'ash' have begun taking their own lives. 'Ash' makes humans the perfect vessels for possession, and something or someone is leading them to their deaths. Charlie is desperate to save her addicted sister, Bryn, from a similar fate. As New Year's Eve approaches and time runs out, Charlie makes a deadly bargain with an ancient race of beings and embarks on a dangerous journey into hellish Charbydon with Hank and the Revenant Rex to save Bryn and make it back before it's too late. Only, for one of them, coming home means facing a fate worse than death....
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This is one of my favorite UF series. It has grit, action, chemistry between the characters, fae world, Hell and Heaven creatures, just about everything for the perfect story.

THE HOUR OF DUST AND ASHES had me claustrophobic, tense, happy, sad, a super mix of emotions that had me turning the pages in the need to find out what was going to happen next with Kelly Gay's excellent pacing.

I know the story was mostly about Bryn's addiciton to 'ash', the off-world drug, and Charlie trying to get her off of the drug and keeping her safe, but the fascinating aspect of the book for me was learning more about Hank, Charlie's partner. He's always been easy-going, hottie, funny and action-oriented in the first two books and the reader gets more of Hank's background and it is fascinating. And now I can't wait to read book four in the series, whenever it comes out.

Visit Kelly at http://www.kellygay.com/

Five c'mon Kelly write faster please beans.....

DARKEST EDGE OF DAWN: Charlie Madigan Book Two - Kelly Gay

From the back of the book: It takes a strong woman to keep the peace in a city of endless night....

Deep beneath Underground, a cunning bid for power and revenge has begun---one that threatens to make Atlanta the new battleground in the ultimate confrontation between good and evil. The posers of hellish Charbydon have the upper hand after plunging the city into primordial night. And under the cover of darkness, a serial killer targets the most powerful Elysians in the city, the angelic Adonai. For Detective Charlie madigan and her siren partner Hank, tracking deadly predators is all in a day's work.....but this case will test the limits of their strength and friendship as it draws them into a deadly world of power plays, ancient myths, explosive secrets, and a race against time that risks all that Charlie holds dear.

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I admire Charlie Madigan. Career women with a family is hard enought, but Charlie is a single mother with a tough job as an Atlanta Police Homicide Detective. This in a world that has humans and beings from the worlds of Charbydon and Elysian. All living in a city that is in full on darkness. Charlie is smart and has the best stubborn desire to make everything right.

This is urban fantasy at its finest, with fab world building of above and below ground Atlanta, believable creatures and beings, good and evil and all that falls in between.

I absolutely loved the first in the series, THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS, http://iyamvixenbooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/better-part-of-darkness-kelly-gay.html

and cannot wait to read THE HOUR OF DUST AND ASHES that comes out on 30 Aug 2011. My copy is pre-ordered!

Five sparkly UF at its finest diamonds......

THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS - Kelly Gay

From the back of the book: 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 mor powerful than heaven and hell combined?

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I tried to make this my bedside book so that I could give it the reading time it deserved....and I had really whack-a-doo dreams the two times I tried it. I tend to have a rather vivid imagination and the images my brain retained from the Elysians, the hottie sirens, black mages, bigass scary jinn, the effects of ash, all made for some freaked out dreams that made me claw my way out and awake.

I love reading Urban Fantasy since I get to kick ass vicariously through the characters. They get the bruises and I get the virtual rush. And there was a hellah lot of virtual rush in this one. Charlie is smart and tough and has come back from the dead. She is slowly learning to come to grips with her growing abilities after the fact, but she wants answers. And to protect her daughter, her sister and her partner. And the world.

Five kickass beans save the world beans.....