SOULLESS: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel - Gail Carriger

From the back of the book: Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire--and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and a werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia is responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

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I was intrigued by the reviews I'd read on this one, immediately added it to the WWBL...and it really didn't take long for it to be on Mt Git'r'Read...then not long for it to be in the stack that went with me on the roadtrip to Virginia.

I liked the premise that this was Victorian England and werewolves and vampires were an accepted part of society. Alexia is dryly funny and I could see myself being friends with her, soulless or no.

There was more romance (sex) than I'd anticipated, but it wasn't overwhelming or dismaying. I enjoyed the analytical thoughts of Alexia as she 'explored' her interactions with Lord Maccon. She compared these interactions to the books she'd read in her father's library and found the books lacking.

My favorite character was Alexia's vampire friend, Lord Akeldama. He is smart and witty and perfect friend to Alexia.

Ms Carriger has one of the most inventive alternative past history's built for her characters. This is a Victorian England with the manners, class structure, and behaviors we know and has an added twist of the hives of the vampires and the packs of the werewolves integral to the society.

Four gaslight with a twist beans....

THE HARROWING - Alexandra Sokoloff

From the back of the book: Baird College's Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of students heading home for Thanksgiving break and Robin Stone, who won't be going home, swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. As a massive storm approaches, four other lonely students reveal themselves to Robin: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.

The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of another presence disturbing the building's ominous silence. Are they the victims of an elaborate prank, or is the energy evidence of something genuine--something intent on using them for its own terrifying ends? Together they'll face three long days and dark nights before the world returns to find out what's become of five students nobody wants and one will miss....

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October is my month for trying to read horror and paranormal only. This is the first (and maybe only) for the month. I am glad I read this as my purse book as I know I'd have had wild-ass dreams of the extremely scary kind. I enjoy the horror novels that lets me use my imagination and not have everything spelled out in big bloody letters. That's what makes the movie Psycho remain the flick that keeps my shower curtain open after watching it every time.

Alexandra Sokoloff writes a genuinely creep me the hell out book and I can't wait to read more!

Four scare the piss out of you beans.....

THE UNSCRATCHABLES - Cornelius Kane

On the back of the book: Crusher McNash is the police force's most fearless detective , a barrel-chested bull terrier with a biscuit-thin temper and a barbed-wire tongue.

Cassius Lap is the finest agen in the Feline Bureau of Investigation, an imperturbable Siamese with a midn as sharp as a can opener.

San Bernardo is their territor, a seething metropoliswhere fat-cats prance in the exclusive island enclave of Kathattan while working dogs wallow in the stinking squalor of the Kennels.

When a couple of Rottweiler gangsters are brutally murdered, Crusher McNash tries to convince himself that it's nothing unusual--just another uderworld territorial dispute. But after the sniffer squad identifies a feral-cat killer, McNash is forced to do the unthinkable--team up with a prissy Siamese from the FBI. The trail leads from junkyards to gambling dens, from cat prisons to baronial estates, in the process unraveling an awesome conspiracy involving domination techniques, population control, and the megalomaniacal ambitions of fox media magnate Phineas Reynard.

Both a hard-bitten crime story and a sharp-fanged satire, THE UNSCRATCHABLES is the genre-bending mystery of the year.

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I was intrigued by the premise of the book when I read a review somewhere. The cover definitely caught my eye. I liked the story for the most part, but had a hard time getting through the dog-talk, cat-talk, etc. It started distracting me from the story. I did finish it and if this is a series, I'll likely give the next one a try. Now that the relationship of Crusher and Cassius is established, they can get on with the crime solving....and butt sniffing and sandbox kicking and soy milk drinking and biscuit eatin'....

Three genre-bending beans......

STREET MAGIC: A Black London Novel - Caitlin Kittredge

From the back of the book: Her name is Pete Caldecott. She was just sixteen when she met Jack Winter, a gorgeous, larger-than-life mage who thrilled her with his witchcraft. Then a spirit Jack summoned killed him before Pete's eyes--or so she thought. now a detective, Pete is investigating the kidnapping of a young girl from the streets of London...a case that brings her face to face with Jack.

Strung out on heroin, Jack is a shadow of his former self. But he's able to tell Pete exactly where Bridget's kidnappers are hiding: in the supernatural shadow-world of the fey. Pete follows Jack into the fey underworld, where she hopes to discover the truth about what happened to Bridget--and what happened to Jack on that dark day so long ago....

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Pete and Jack make a reluctant team at first. They work well together, but there's a lot of head-butting and dislike from the past they shared. Pete would be a good friend to have, if only to be at your side in a fight. She rocks and kicks serious ass. Jack has his charm, in a rough and tumble kind of way. He is a powerful mage and there are some people from the Black, the realm of the fey in London, who would like to see him dead.

Caitlin should write a horror novel one day. There are some scenes throughout the book that made my skin crawl.

There are no light moments in this book. It's dark, moody and superb. I read it as my bedside book and it completely took over my dreams. Holy schmokes, what dreams. I read it quickly, so the dreams were only for a few nights.

Five dark moody beans......

GRAVE PERIL: Book 3 Dresden Files - Jim Butcher

From the back of the book: Harry Dresden--Wizard. Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting . Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden's face some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you're the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.

But in all Harry's years of supernatural sleuthing, he's never faced anything like this. The spirit world has gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble--and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone--or some thing -- is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself....

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I have some favorite quotes from the book:

Time to get it. Five white candles surrounded my summoning circle, the points of an invisible pentacle. White for protection. And because they're the cheapest color at Wal-Mart. Hey,being a wizard doesn't make money grow on trees.

I don't remember the spell, or the words I said. But I remember reaching for that pain. I remember reaching for it, and thinking that if we had to go, then so help me God, weakened or not, hopeless or not, I was going to take these murdering, bloodsucking sons of bitches with me.

The above two examples are why I will read everything in this series and hope that Jim Butcher never tires of writing Harry Dresden.

Five kickin' ghost ass in Chicago beans....

DEAD MARCH: A Civil War Mystery - Ann McMillan

From the back of the book: The opening salvo in a series that will delight mystery fans and Civil War buffs alike.

It's the spring of 1861 and the War Between the States is in its infancy. That's not to say Richmond, Virginia is free of vilent death, however, as two astute and courageous women soon discover. Narcissa Powers, a young white widow, and Judah Daniel, a free black herbalist and conjure woman, try to solve the murder of a young slave woman whose body was unearthed by graverobbers along with the mysterious silk scarf that casts suspicion on the circumstances of her death--and leads to more victims. As the War's casualties begin to pour into the city and the "Dead March" echoes through the Richmond streets, Narcissa and Judah, aided by an eager young British war correspondent, must risk their own lives to discover the killer--or killers--and to save the life of an innocent child.

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I expected to enjoy reading this Civil War mystery, but I had no idea how much I'd look forward to the time I could spend with the characters. Narcissa is a strong-willed woman, not in a aggressive way, but in a well-mannered way. Southern women are to be cherished, but she is a widow and hasn't a place in the world until her sister-in-law, Mirrie, asks her to help her with running of the house so that Mirrie can assist her invalid father with his work. This gives Narcissa a purpose in life as well as the opportunity to investigate the cause of what she is sure is the murder of her brother.

Judah Daniel is cautious with her dealings with Narcissa, but they work well together as they can in the South during the time of the Civil War. I liked learning about the plants she chose for her medicines and what she grew in her garden. I enjoyed watching the relationship build between the two women.

This is a very well written mystery story and I was taken aback by the whodunnit. It made sense, but it was startling.

I am very glad that this is a series. I have the third in the series, CIVIL BLOOD, and I am looking for ANGEL TRUMPET, second in the series. Ideally I'll read the series in order. Keep your fingers crossed.

Five shivery Southern beans.....

THEM BONES: A Mystery from the Mississippi Delta - Carolyn Haines

From the back of the book: If only I hadn't kidnapped the dog...but the ransom paid the mortgage....Now I seem to be a private eye....I shouldn't have listened to that ghost....

Meet Sarah Booth Delaney...an unconventional Southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi...if it doesn't make her the deadest.No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state—or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself...and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

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I had so much fun reading this book. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find this series. Sarah Booth Delaney is a Daddy's Girl, a group of privileged young ladies whose only real goal in life was to marry well and live a life of leisure. Sarah Booth jumped that ship and went to New York after college (Catching the male was an entire course of study for Delta girls and Ole Miss was the preferred hunting ground) to become an actress. That didn't pan out so well and she came home to Zinnia Mississippi to save her home, Dahlia House, which she is about to lose to the bank if she can't find the money. She kidnaps her friend Tinkie's dog and 'rescues' it for the reward. Tinkie hires her as a person she can trust to keep a secret and use her intelligence to find out why Garrett Hamilton the Fifth is in town. All kinds of secrets, lies and long ago murders and deaths come to the surface.

I love getting the inside look at the use of feminine wiles, the gallantry of men, how to make an entrance, how to make an exit, conversational skills to include how to cloak an insult with a sweet smile. One of my favorites: "Oh Kincaid, you look lovely tonight. But how do you get your eyeliner so straight when you don't cast a reflection in the mirror?"

The conversations are great fun and I love Sarah Booth's moxie, think Scarlett O'Hara without the bitchy 'tude.

Five Southern moxie beans....

LORD OF MISRULE #5 Morganville Vampires - Rachel Caine

From the back of the book: Morganville, Texas. Just south of normal...

In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans have coexisted in (relatively) bloodless harmony...until the arrival of Bishop, a master vampire wo threatens to put the evil back in evil undead and smash the fragile peace. But Bishop isn't the only threat...

Violent black clouds promise a storm of devastating proportions. As student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against the elements ---both natural and unnatural---the unexpected happens: Morganville's vampires begin to vanish one by one. Discovering why leads Claire to one last choice: Swear allegiance to Bishop....or die.

DAGNAB YOU RACHEL CAINE!!! Dagnab you to heck for being a fab writer and leaving such a hellah dangly cliffhanger!! One saving grace, I can go get #6 CARPE CORPUS sooner since I didn't read LORD OF MISRULE until well after it came out. CARPE is on the shelves as of June so I can get relative immediate satisfaction...just have to get to the bookshop or hit the send button on the book order.
The first in the series, GLASS HOUSES, will remain my favorite, but LORD OF MISRULE is a very close second. There is a lot of suspense, vamp action, bad vamps being good and (relatively) good vamps getting bad. Young love for the peeps who need that little bit of angst. There are good fight scenes and page turning tension all over the place. I finished this in record time and could easily have sat in one place and read it in one sitting..but I have silly things like work, a DH and a 6 year old, chores, etc...so no sitting in one spot for very long. As it was, I stayed up waaay past my bedtime to read "just one more page".

Five swangin' cliffhangah beans......

MAGIC LOST, TROUBLE FOUND - Lisa Shearin

From the back of the book: Raine is a sorceress of moderat powers, from an extended family of smugglers and thieves. With a mix of street smarts and magic spells, she can usually take care of herself. But when her friend Quentin, a not-quite-reformed thief, steals an amulet from the home of a powerful necromancer, Raine finds herself wrapped up in a more trouble than she cares for. She likes attention as much as the next girl, but having an army of militant goblins huntin her down is not her idea of a good time. The amulet they're after holds limitless power, derived from an ancient, soul-stealing stone. And when Raine takes possession of the item, it take possession of her.

Now her moderate powers are increasing beyond anything she could imagine--but is the resume enhancement worth her soul?

It apparently has been a little while since I've read fantasy of such intricate world-building. It took me a little while to get into the story as I first had to get used to the world of Mermeia where Raine and her cohorts and family live. The names of the characters gave me the most difficulty...once I got used to how they sounded out in my cranium, I was fine and the story moved along like gang-busters.

Raine is my type of lead character. She has some flaws, but ultimately she has common sense, street smarts and cares deeply for her family and friends and woe be unto whoever tries to harm them.

There's a new goblin king in town and he has as his evil advisor, Sarad Nukpana, a goblin grand shaman of immense power. These goblins want the Saghred, an ancient stone of unfathomable power.

Now Raine has become the inadvertant contact for the stone and many will do whatever necessary to get her, thereby the power.

Raine has help and the good street smarts and magic she maintains keeps her in good stead.

This is a good set up for the next in the series, ARMED AND MAGICAL . I have the third in the series, THE TROUBLE WITH DEMONS, thanks to Lisa Shearin and BittenByBooks.

Four not all goblins are mean & ugly beans.....

BLOODY GOOD - Georgia Evans

From the back of the book: In the first of a supernatural trilogy, one Dr. Alice Doyle finds that the power to fight evil comes from places she'd never believe...
While the sounds of battle echo through the sky, a lady doctor has more than enough trouble to keep her busy even in a sleepy hamlet outside London. But the threat is nearer home than Alice knows. German agents have infiltrated her beloved countryside—Nazis who can fly, read minds, and live forever. They're not just fascists. They're vampires.
Alice has no time for fantasy, but when the corpses start appearing sucked dry, she'll have to accept help where she can get it. If that includes a lowly Conscientious Objector who says he's no coward though he refuses to fight, and her very own grandmother, a sane, sensible woman who insists that she's a Devonshire Pixie, so be it. Indeed, whatever it takes to defend home and country from an evil both ancient and terrifyingly modern...

I enjoyed this fast moving, multi-character story. I am very glad it's a trilogy and the second one is in the stack to read fairly soon. It would be soonest, but I am not keen on reading any author back to back, so will give something else a go....see what happens when I read a British mystery?

I look forward to seeing what other 'Other' folks live in Brytewood. So far, there are Pixies, a Dragon, a were-fox, and the dread vampires who are working for the Nazis. I liked the implied comparison of the first vampire in this story, Eiche, to Hitler. Eiche lets his arrogance get in the way of his mission...and it doesn't win him any points...

Alice Doyle is intelligent and really has a difficult time admitting to her Pixie bloodline. She also has a time of it realizing how she is falling for Peter Watson, a Conscientious Objector. She considers him a coward, but he has his reasons for not signing up for the fight. And Alice needs him in more ways than one.

Four WWII Other beans....

MONEY SHOT - Christa Faust

From the back cover:

They thought she'd be easy. They thought wrong.

It all began with the phone call asking former porn star Angel Dare to do one more movie. Before she knew it, she'd been shot and left for dead in the turnk of a car. But Angel is a survivor. And that means she'll get to the bottom of what's been done to her even if she has to leave a trail of bodies along the way....

I feel like I should put on some chili red lipstick and shake out a cigarette before I start this review. I left the chili red lipstick at home and I don't smoke, so I'll do the best I can.

MONEY SHOT is a no holds barred, don't get attached to anyone kind of book. Under normal description, this could be a cozy mystery...the main character is not a detective and finds herself having to investigate the hell that her life has become through no fault of her own. Except cozy mystery writers tend to not utilize the porn industry as a backdrop and the main character is rarely (read NEVER) a porn star who now runs her own agency for porn starlets.

Angel Dare, porn star back in the day and still recognized for her work in X rated films, retired from in front of the camera and is now behind the scenes with her high class adult modeling agency Daring Angels.

Angel is having one of those days of feeling her years and finds herself saying yes to a request to get in front of the camera just one more time. She ends up hit in the face and stuffed in the trunk of a car, left for dead.

She wants to find out who did this to her and why and get her life back if she can.

It's grimy, sordid, definitely not a feel good book to read and I read it in practically one sitting. I couldn't sleep nights until at least some aspect of the awfulness that was happening to Angel was rectified. I read until someone got what was coming to them.

The voice over in my head for this book was Linda Fiorentino, all smoky.

Five gritty avenging beans......

BLACK MAGIC WOMAN - Justin Gustainis

From the back of the book:

Supernatural investigator Quincey Morris and his partner, white witch Libby Chastain, are called in to help free a desperate family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem Witch Trials. To release the family from danger they must find the root of the curse, a black witch with a terrible grudge that holds the family in her power.

The pursuit takes them to the mysterious underworld of Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York, stalking a prey that is determined to stay hidden. After surviving a series of terrifying attempts on their lives, the two find themselves drawn inexorably towards Salem itself--and the very heart of darkness.

I can't get over how MUCH I enjoyed reading this book! I had to set it aside for a bit as I'd forgotten I was to have read and reviewed a book, the thankfully fast paced DON'T CALL ME A CROOK - Bob Moore for Online Publicist. I whomped on that one and quickly got back to Quincey and Libby's dark adventure.
Quincey starts the story with his quest to eradicate a nest of vamps from a small town in Texas. He's smart and quick, vamps cleaned out in a concisely excellent manner. Then he gets a visit from Walter LaRue, a man whose house is being attacked by a supernatural being that is progressively getting more violent. Quincey calls upon his friend Libby, a white witch, to help him out. They arrive at the house to find that there is more to the story than meets the eye and both realize they are going to have to move fast or someone, if not all, in the house will die.
There are four different points of view throughout the book, mainly the story is told through Quincey and Libby. The thriller is pushed forward with a pair of serial killers, a pair of detectives, and the black witch all are circling.
I admire Quincey's presence of mind that gets rattled from time to time and the way he knows his life is preordained destiny and he is good with that. Libby is straight forward, gentle and smart. They make a great team.
This is a book where evil is truly awful and good is fighting the good fight against it. I can't wait to read the next in the series, EVIL WAYS. I can only hope that Justin Gustainis has many more stories and adventures for this team to journey.

Five fiendishly haunted beans.....

THE CHATTER OF THE MAIDENS - Alys Clare

From the back of the book:

The serenity of Hawkenlye Abbey has been disturbed by the arrival of a new nun and her two young sisters. Recently orphaned, Alba has had to leave her convent at Ely to take her grieving sister far away from the scene of their sorrow. However Abbess Helewise cannot reconcile the charity and selflessness of this gesture with what she sees and hears of Alba; Sister Alba is everyone agrees, a mean-spirited and turbulent presence.

The Abbess's anxieties grow when her old friend Josse d'Acquin is brought to Hawkenlye, half-dead from blood poisoning. Then a body is discovered and one of the sisters goes missing. In order to discover what reall lies behind Alba's flight to Hawkenlye, Helewise sets off to visit the Fens. She uncovers not only a clever network of lies, but also something more horrific...

I have been a fan of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series forever it seems and when I saw this on the cozy mystery list my favorite homebased bookseller, Our Lady of the Books Pamala, I wanted to try this new to me series.

Abbess Helewise is wise, kind, takes wonderful care of the nuns and people in her charge. I'm not sure of her history yet, but it seems as though she was married at one point and has a history with Josse d'Acquin, the knight brought to Hawkenlye. The abbey is known for its care of the sick and injured and Josse is in good hands with the nuns.

Then the three orphaned sisters arrive on the doorstep of Hawkenlye and the whole abbey is in an uproar. The younger sisters, Berthe and Meriel, are docile and sweet. The eldest, Alba, is completely the opposite with a disruptive arrogant nature. She goes so far as to attack Helewise and getting put in solitary confinement until Helewise can get to the bottom of the fractured story the sisters tell.

Murder and characters who aren't all who they appear..perfect mystery fodder. Set it in medieval times in an abbey, have some herblore, travels across England, forest dwellers, disturbed minds, and Knights Templar...it's a ye olde humdinger!

It will definitely not be my last foray into the world of Abbess Helewise. There are 12 books in the series, this is number 4, and I am going to do my best to find and read each one.

Five ye olde cozy mystery beans....

WICKED GAME - Jeri Smith-Ready

From the back of the book:

LATE NIGHT RADIO YOU CAN SINK YOUR TEETH INTO
Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, '60s psychedelia, '80s goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers just how the DJs maintain their cred: they're vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.
Ciara's first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WVMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station -- and the link it provides to their original Life Times -- the vampires would "fade," becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover is a matter of life and undeath.
To boost ratings and save the lives of her strange new friends, Ciara rebrands the station as "WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll." In the ultimate con, she hides the DJs' vampire nature in plain sight, disguising the bloody truth as a marketing gimmick. WVMP becomes the hottest thing around -- next to Ciara's complicated affair with grunge vamp Shane McAllister. But the "gimmick" enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren't so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher -- and the perils graver -- than any con game Ciara's ever played....

What a SUPERB premise for a book! Excellent music and excellent vamps and humans.
I swear, I could not read this book fast enough. I knew I needed to go to bed and actually sleep. Kept saying, "One more page, oh, one more chapter." Tired as could be the next day, but well worth it. I can't wait to read more of this series and see what happens to Ciara and Shane and the rest of WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock'n'Roll gang. I added a few tunes to the mp3 player and my 'Tunes for the Funeral and Wake' list I keep going as a word doc. You can never be too ready for it to be a party at any time.

I know I will read more of Jeri's series of which she has two and a stand alone (fantasticfiction.co.uk list)

Five bloody rockin' good beans.....

WEBMAGE - Kelly McCullough

From the back of the book: Magic is about to get an upgrade
Ravirn is not your average computer geek. A child of the Fates -- literally -- he’s a hacker extraordinaire who can zero in on the fatal flaw in any program. Now that twenty-first-century magic has gone digital that makes him a very talented sorcerer. But a world of problems is about to be downloaded on Ravirn -- who’s just trying to pass his college midterms.
Great Aunt Atropos, one of the three Fates, decides that humans having free will is really overrated and plans to rid herself of the annoyance -- by coding a spell into the Fate Core, the server that rules destiny. As a hacker, Ravirn is a big believer in free will, and when he not only refuses to debug her spell but actively opposes her, all hell breaks loose.
Even with the help of his familiar Melchior, a sexy sorceress (who’s also a mean programmer), and the webgoblin underground, it’s going to be a close call...

Once I got past the computer geek talk and really got into the mythology aspect of the story, I enjoyed the book. I had to make it my bedside book to make good time with it and that allowed my enjoyment and comprehension increase. It's not really a good book to read in fits and starts which was how it was going as my purse book.

My favorite characters were Cerice, Ravirn's lady love, and Melchior, Ravirn's webgoblin/familiar. Both are strong minded and smart asses...my favorite characterization.

I reckon I'll look for the rest in the series at some point in the future when I am back in the mood for sci-fi/fantasy mix that this was.

Three computer magic beans.....

GRAVEROBBERS WANTED: NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY - Jeff Strand

From the back cover:

When you're desperate for money, searching for a little adventure, and aren't the most responsible person in the world, you can end up doing some outrageous things. Which is how Andrew Mayhem, an extremely married father of two, ends up accepting $20,000 to find a key...a key buried with a body in a shallow grave.
But what he finds in the grave isn't quite what he expected, and what begins as a simple evening of morally questionable manual labor turns into a really good way to die. Andrew finds himself investigating a murder while forced into a bizarre game of wits and courage played by an unseen killer with a twisted sense of humor. It's a game that will involve him with a group of filmmakers known as Ghoulish Delights, who are hiding a secret that will test every last bit of Andrew's nerve to discover.
And it's impossible to find a babysitter.

I bought GRAVEROBBERS...based on the interview that JA Konrath and Jeff Strand did with each other back in March, I think.

This book made me laugh and scared the bejeezus out of me. Andrew is trying to find his niche in life. Some might call him a slacker. I know I'd be hard pressed to be married to a guy like this..maybe could be a friend. He's smart and funny, really a smartass is what he is and I am drawn to funny smart smartasses....

He and his buddy, Roger, find themselves pulled into a way to make $20,000. All they have to do is dig up a coffin carrying the body of the husband of the woman who hired them. Then all hell breaks loose.

Andrew is fairly quick on his feet in a believable way. I really never felt the need to roll my eyes at any time while reading his terror filled adventure. He finds himself in this situation, he continues with the terror filled mystery when others would have just given in. And it felt real.

I imagine this book would be what the never-ending series of 'Saw' flicks could be like. The murder, torture, and the mechanisms used to get there are beyond my normal ick factor, yet I couldn't stop reading the story.

Five terror and funny beans.....

GARDEN SPELLS - Sarah Addison Allen

This is my favorite book so far this year. Enchanted is a start to how I felt while reading this lovely magical book. I could identify with the emotionally encased main character, Claire, needing to keep people out so as not to be hurt as she was sure she would be. I loved watching her bloom as her garden perpetually did once she realized that some things are worth the possibility of heartache.

I enjoyed disliking the wealthy, self-centered characters of Hunter John and his wife, Emma and their clique of like-minded narcissists.

I loved meeting Claire's runaway sister Sydney and Sydney's daughter, Bay. Sydney ran away from Bascom, North Carolina as a teen to escape what she thought of as a prison. Now she realizes it is a safehaven for her and Bay.

Then there are the magical recipes Claire, a successful caterer, creates for her clients from the flowers and plants in her garden. I had to grin at the apple tree at the center of the mystical garden. It had a character all its own, producing apples year round, throwing them at Claire and others to get attention. Claire buries the apples as they fall so that innocents won't eat one and discover the biggest event in their lives, some wonderful, sometimes awful.

I am loaning this to my sister with the proviso that I get it back for my keeper shelf. I will read this again.

Five magically warm beans.....

THE LITTLE SLEEP - Paul Tremblay

I stayed up late (for me) last night so I could finish this book. It's a lot like drinking coffee, a lotta lotta coffee, reading this book. It kind of made me jittery and wide awake. Now why would I read a book at bedtime that would do this? I get more time with books at bedtime, whether going to sleep (or trying to) or reading myself awake. And I wanted time with this one. Becky over at NoMoreGrumpyBookseller reviewed this a while back and it immediately got my attention, made my Wanton Wantin' List and pretty much just as soon went on my order to Cynthia at High Crimes Mystery Bookshop. It arrived in a timely fashion and it sat on the nightstand for a bit. I wanted to be in just the right mood for this funny, dry, suspenseful....

...I hit the right mood and I began the mystery solving with Mark Genevich, narcoleptic PI. Mark was in an car accident and has lived with his narcolepsy, falling asleep at inopportune times, somnabulism (sleepwalking), hallucinations, etc. One of these hallucinations has him taking the case of American Star contestant, Jennifer Times. She is being blackmailed over some photos.

The case takes some highly aberrant twists and turns. The original case fantails into another and Mark finds himself in rather tenuous waters and in danger of losing his life....

Four caffeinated to the nth beans......

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: First in Felix Castor series - Mike Carey

I can't remember if it was on a blog or on Shelfari on the Pararnormal Mystery group....I am very glad to have seen the review for this one. I don't necessarily like comparing one writer or character to another, but if I did, I'd compare this to Jim Butcher and his character, Harry Dresden. Harry is a wizard who helps people in need and Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist who helps people in need of getting rid of ghosts.....comparison over....
Felix has gone on ghostbuster sabbatical after an exorcism has gone wrong. Now he is in need of ready cash and a job falls into his lap to rid the Bonnington Archive in London of a ghost who has gone from passive to rather aggressive and is scaring the clients and worker bees. Felix figures a quick in and out, get the cash and move on with his life. Instead he stirs up a succubus, a white slavery ring, a were-something and a stronger-than-he-thought spirit. What has he gotten himself into this time?
What made me really enjoy reading (and really looking forward to reading more)
Felix Castor's adventures was Mike Carey's turn of phrase. ex: ...Pen doesn't cook much, but when she does, three things happen. The first is that the kitchen becomes a sort of domestic vision of Hell, complete with roiling smoke and acrid smells, in which pans have their bottoms burned out of them, glasses are shattered by casual immersion in boiling water, and gravel-voiced harpies (or Edgar and Arthur, anyway) mock the whole endeavor from the tops of various cupboards while Pen curses them with bitter imprecations. The second is that you get a meal that emerges from this Vulcanic stithy looking like a photo of Good Housekeeping and tasting like something Albert Roux would knock up to impress the neighbors. The third is that Pen herself is purged by the ordeal, refined in the fire, and radiates a Zen-like calm for hours or even days afterward.

Five smokin' ghost beans...

THE GHOST AND THE FEMME FATALE - Alice Kimberly

Penelope Thornton-McClure is part owner of Buy The Book Mystery Bookshop in her little hometown of Quindicott, Rhode Island and is looking forward to all of the book signings that will be going on during the week of the film festival being held to celebrate the opening of the town's renovated retro movie theater. Film noir B movie screen actress, Hedda Geist, will be the headliner and possibly the main murder victim.

Pen is urged to take on the case by her friends, since she and they all know that the police in the town are fairly lucky to be called bumbling and wouldn't know a clue if it caught fire under their butts.

Pen is aided by Jack Shepherd, spectral PI from the 40's supreme.

There are dark secrets, murder, thievery....all good stuff for a cozy mystery lover to enjoy.

I love reading cozy mysteries, especially paranormal type cozies. Combines a lot that I enjoy in a book. Cozies are teensy sorbets between (or during) the heavier textured paranormals or suspense or thrillers I read.

Four ghostly PI beans.....