Tag Archives: urban fantasy

Dying for a Living Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Dying for a Living

Author:  Kory Shrum

Published:  2014 by Timberlane Press

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Purchase Dying for a Living from Amazon

 

 

 

 

“This is Ms. Jesse Sullivan.  She will be your agent today.”

He turned his narrowing eyes from her to me.  “She’s the zombie?”

Was it my job to remind him “zombie” is a derogatory term?  Yes.

“Necronite,” I corrected.  I threw the muffin wrapper in the bedside trashcan.  “I’m the Necronite here to die so you can keep on a-livin.” (location 56 on Kindle.)

 

Jesse is a death replacement agent.  Only Necronites can take this position as it requires the agent to die in order to save the client.  Necronites come back to life after a day or a few days, depending on their injuries.  One day on the job, a client tried to cut off Jesse’s head, which would prevent her from coming back to life ever again.  This stirs up a bunch of events that lead to Jesse getting in trouble and investigated by the government.  And to top it off Jesse begins to hallucinate and starts to see an angel named Gabriel.  Or perhaps Gabriel isn’t a hallucination after all…..

I love Jesse; she is a girl of my own heart.  She’s not afraid to assert her opinion, and it’s usually in a sarcastic manner.  She made me smile and laugh out loud.  She likes to dress comfortably, and you can usually find her in mismatched sneakers (she usually loses one when she dies).

There are two possible love interests in Jesse’s life, Ally, her personal assistant, and Lane, who Jesse has a ‘no strings attached’ friends with benefits relationship with.  They both care about Jesse a lot, but she tries to avoid relationships with both of them for her own reasons.

I love learning random facts while reading for fun.   Do you know that feeling when you go to sleep and then it feels like your falling and you jerk awake?  That’s called a myoclonic jerk.  Your brain sends a signal causing the jerk, because it’s mistaking your slow breathing for dying.  The ‘jerk’ makes your muscles and heart contract for the purpose of waking you up.  I bet you’re a little creeped out now after reading this; I know I was!  (This was brought up by Jesse when explaining to others how a Necronite’s body and brain reacts differently than the average human.)

I only have praise for this book.  The editing was good, the characters were awesome.  It was fast moving and interesting.  But also, it was unique.  It wasn’t another vampire or werewolf book that’s already been done.  Dying for a Living is a one of a kind novel, and a really good one at that.  So if you’re into urban fantasy go read it, just don’t call Jesse a zombie; she takes offense.

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 04

~Pam

*****I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.***** 

Close to You Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Close to You

Author:  Stacia Kane

Published:  October 2013 by St. Martin’s Press

Genre:  Novella, Urban Fantasy

Click here to buy Close to You from Amazon

 

 

I’m not usually a fan of novellas, or short stories, unless they are part of a series that I follow.  This one is.  It’s actually part 5.5 of Stacia Kane’s Downside Ghosts series.  So I really don’t think that this one is a stand-alone book.  I think the reason I enjoyed it so much was because I already knew the characters well before going into it.

So Chess and Terrible are at a junkyard trying to get some free car parts when they are approached by a creepy old woman who wants money for the parts.  Although she was never there before, they assume she’s a new inhabitant and decide to follow her to pay for the parts.  Big mistake.  It was a ploy and the woman wants to use them to resurrect her dead husband.

Stacia Kane cracks me up.  I love her style of writing, and her characters personalities.  Chess is a drug addict, but I’m always routing for her and like her none-the-less.  Here’s a little excerpt that I enjoyed.

Just as Chess figured, Vincent’s body – well, it wasn’t much of a body at that point, just a skeleton covered in scraps of fabric and scraps of things Chess didn’t want to think about – lay at Mrs. Hudson’s feet.  A pillow supported its skull.  Around it several items were arranged like afterlife tokens at a Viking funeral:  a wallet, a pair of worn tennis shoes, what looked like baseball cards, a pair of socks and some underwear.  Very personal, so very powerful.  One of the items was a hammer, which was awesome because what they really needed was for Vincent’s ghost to have a deadly bludgeoning tool within easy reach. (Location 395 of 555 on Kindle)

Awesome right?  So if you’re already a Stacia Kane fan, definitely pick it up.  And if you haven’t read anything by her yet, try the first book in the series, Unholy Ghosts.

 

My Rating:  4 ½ out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

 

*****I received this book free from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.*****       

Clean Sweep Review

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Image from Goodreads

Image from Goodreads

Title:  Clean Sweep

Author:  Ilona Andrews

Published:  2013 by Ilona Andrews, Inc.

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Purchase Clean Sweep from Amazon
 

Dina’s not sure whether to intervene or not when her neighbors’ dogs are being killed by what seems to be some sort of paranormal creature.  Being an innkeeper, she is just supposed to take care of the inn and her guests and stay out of other paranormal affairs.  Plus the new werewolf in town, Sean, should be the one taking care of this sort of problem.  After all, werewolves are very territorial.  But when approached, Sean doesn’t seem intent to take care of it.  In fact, he acts like a jerk.  Decision made, Dina decides to find out what is killing these dogs, and it’s more then she expected.  Will werewolf Sean decide to help Dina or just get in her way?

Urban fantasy is a pretty cool genre.  Its fantasy that’s set in the modern day world we all know.  And if the author is good it’s believable because its setting is what we’re used to day in and day out.  And Ilona Andrews is a great author.  Who knows, maybe I have a werewolf and innkeeper as neighbors?

Anyways, Dina is a great protagonist.  She is a bit alone in the world though.  Her parents and their inn were lost (we don’t know what happened).  Dina does still have her siblings but they don’t live nearby and aren’t really in the story.  Although she’s alone she is confident and knows her job as an innkeeper.  She decides she’s had enough of her neighbors’ dogs being murdered and decides to do something about it.  In real life, I’d like to be Dina’s friend.   She’s a take charge kind of girl.

In the mist of finding this horrible creature and solving her neighborhood’s problems, she also gets to know Sean a little more.  And a vampire also makes an appearance.  Sounds like Twilight the way I’m describing it, but it’s not similar at all.  However, the vampire and werewolf are definitely attracted to Dina…

I’m pretty sure Ilona Andrews doesn’t know how to write a bad story.  So if you like urban fantasy, or if it’s something that you’re thinking about, pick up a copy of Clean Sweep.  Plus, I’m pretty sure it will keep you entertained, as would her other books as well.

Happy reading!

 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

~Pam

*****I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.*****