Book Review: Disappearing Nightly - An Esther Diamond Novel by Laura Resnick

 

Disappearing Nightly (Esther Diamond Novel, Book 1)

by Laura Resnick

This is the just the type book I’ve long enjoyed – a paranormal screwball comedy mystery.

From Robert Asprin’s Myth series to Douglas Adams to Darynda Jones’ Charley Davidson series, I adore my books liberally lightened with levity. It’s a particularly important element these days.

As someone who grew up with a deep love for theater, this story also really appealed to me on that level.

“I’m not a heroine; I just play heroines. Also psychotics, orphans, hookers, housewives, and—on one memorable occasion—a singing rutabaga.”

Esther is understudy to Golly Gee in an off-Broadway musical when Golly Gee steps into the vanishing “crystal cage” and . . . actually disappears. Where did she go? Is it foul play or did she just go on the run from her creditors?

Esther is quite certain something bad happened to Golly, but she doesn’t know exactly what. Then Esther begins receiving notes from a mysterious stranger warning her not to step into Golly’s role or she may face the same dire consequences.

There is a certain over the top comedy to this book. I mean, who actually gibbers incoherently? But it’s perfect for this type of book and theatrical people.

When Esther finally realizes Max’s magical abilities are for real, Max says, “A certain agitation overwhelms most people upon being exposed to the multidimensional truths of a complex cosmos.”

Esther’s response?

“I seized his throat and throttled him.”

I highly recommend you seize this book.

Book Review: Motherducking Magic by Michelle Fox

 

Motherducking Magic

by Michelle Fox

I first heard about this series recently in a paranormal reading page on Facebook. Someone raised the question of what tropes in the genre had begun to bother us? I said, the fact that everyone has to be a big badass – a fantastic fighter or awesome magic user. They all have these exceptional skills, they just aren’t recognized.

A couple people chimed in with series that they claimed did not follow this trope and they loved them anyway. I immediately went and bought the first book in each series.

Motherducking Magic (Bad Magic Bounty Hunter Series) was the first book I chose to read. I finished it and promptly bought the next book. I’m halfway through the second.

They are very, very funny.

Now, to be clear, the main witch, Sylvie Orion, is a very, very good bounty hunter. The problem is she’s a very, very bad witch. There’s no juice to her juju. And when you’re a witch without magic, you are an outsider looking in on society. It’s like people think it will catch, like you might drain their magic away. No one wanted to be her friend in school, she didn’t get invited to anything or asked out, ever.

The first case we’re introduced to Sylvie on is trying to bring in one of her former classmates, one of the “mean girls” from high school – Lydia Pettie. She’s one of those people who doesn’t believe the rules apply to her. She’s above them. Well, when we first meet her, she’s sitting on a ten-foot high metal shelving unit in a warehouse. She’s actually filming the situation for social media.

“Hey everyone, remember Sylvie Orion? She sucks just as much as ever. Let’s teach her not to cross her betters.” She pulled a wand out of her cleavage, and sill holding the phone in one hand, she began an incantation.

Sylvia soon finds herself embroiled in an even bigger pile of doggie doo-doo. One of her bounties skipped out on his appointed court time and she has to get him back, or she loses major bucks.

Seems like anything that can go wrong, does go wrong, with Sylvie, but we love her anyway. She has a good sense of humor, and she keeps on trucking.

I enjoyed how the story incorporated magical explanations into everyday items and uses of phrases. (There’s a reason why she says “Motherducking” and those little blue pills we hear about aren’t just pharmaceuticals.)

It reminds me a bit of a cross between Kim Harrison’s Hollows series with its magical urban setting full of witches, vampires, and shifters, and the movie Ella Enchanted, with the mean girls and the sense of humor. A perfect combination to me.

There’s lots of fun sexual tension but no seriously graphic sex scenes.

The bounty who skipped, a shifter named Sheridan, turns out to play a much bigger role in the stories than I would have guessed. I can’t help but wonder if that isn’t because the author didn’t know when she started writing either? She says in some comments at the end of the book that she likes her stories to grow organically. Maybe we can be surprised because she was surprised and didn’t inadvertently telegraph the intent.

Whatever the reason, I’m finding the series surprising, fun, and funny. I hope she’ll be writing more.

Book Review: The Turn by Kim Harrison

The Turn

by Kim Harrison

I loved The Hollows series by Kim Harrison, an urban fantasy set in a future where the population of humans was damaged by a plague and the Inderlanders (pixies, fae, witches, vampires, werewolves, etc.) have come out of the closet in order to keep society running. However, it’s not always an easy mixing of groups.

This is a fantastic prequel to The Hollows series, pulling in fast-paced action with patriarchal office politics of the sixties, paranormal characters, and genetic engineering.

Felecia Eloytrisk, Trisk for short, is an elf. We are introduced to her as she is graduating from college as a geneticist and hoping to get a job with an Elven run facility. Unfortunately, this is the sixties and the good old boys network is alive and well, even in Elven society.

Trisk’s chief nemesis, Trenton Kalamack, has bullied her all through school because she is a dark elf instead of one of the fair-haired elven elite. Then he picks a fight at the college job fair. Of course, Trisk is blamed and runs out of time to execute a contract for employment.

A lot of favorite characters show up here, like a teen musician, Takata, with his crazy drummer driving a beat up van as they try to get away from the plague restrictions.

Trisk goes to work for a human lab where they’ve been working on a virus to use in biological warfare that will make humans sick enough for U.S. forces to take over a building or area without having to actually kill people. Trisk is under a directive from the Elven enclave to make sure the virus won’t affect Inderlanders.

Meanwhile, she is also developing a tomato that will revolutionize crops worldwide, and also a virus to help introduce needed modifications to elves that will allow them to procreate again reliably.

Trenton is working on the same problem from a different angle and he is a self-righteous, entitled sob. He's sent to double check Trisk’s work and ends up causing serious problems.

There’s intrigue and male/female politics at play here but I think the author keeps characters from becoming too one dimensional.

Plus, there’s a pixie, and she’s fantastic! A great ride!

Halfway to the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel by Jeaniene Frost

Halfway to the Grave: The Night Huntress Series

By Jeaniene Frost

I’ve been on an Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance kick lately. This first book in The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost is more the former but there is a heavy dose of romance to it as well.  One description I heard said that if you could take the romance out and the story line still survived intact then it’s an Urban Fantasy. I’d say you could do that here but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

Cat was going out to kill vampires, just a regular Friday night for her. (Most people don’t believe  vampires exist in this world.) Then a vampire named Bones captures her. When she comes to, she expects him to kill her but he wants information. He is quite convinced that she is human and must be working for a vampire to take out rivals.  Once he cottons to the fact that she is half vampire, he decides he’s going to train her and offers her a partnership. The other choice, of course, is death.

This is the beginning of a very interesting partnership. Bones has his own agenda and it is not quite what he tells Cat. (Once I got done with the book I had to go back and re-read the beginning, knowing what I now knew about Bones.) Bones trains her to fight better, toughens her up and they work together to kill the vampires who kill innocent people.

One complication, her mother, Justina, has always told Cat that she was the product of a rape by a vampire.  From the time she is 16 years old, Cat feels she has to atone for that by killing vampires, who must all be evil, as Justina tells her. It’s a good time as Cat unlearns some of her prejudices.

Just plain good old-fashioned vampire fun.

The series continues with several books, the second one “One Foot in the Grave” is another rollicking good time and I am currently reading the third in the series. I don’t want to give too much away but I am thoroughly enjoying them and I hope you will too.