Archive for urban fantasy books

Sins And Shadows by Lyn BenedictShadows and Sins, a great fantasy book by Lyn Benedict, introduces us to Sylvie Lightner, a detective with too many “special” cases for her own peace of mind. It’s the first book in the new Shadow Inquiries series, which starts with Sylvie planning to close her detective agency because she lost a good friend during the commission of a recent case. Sylvie is a tough, no-nonsense woman who lives in a world where magic is real and her specialty is her ability to solve magical cases.

In addition to closing her business she’s trying to avoid a group of government agents that have her marked as someone who’s always involved in magical catastrophes. They follow her everywhere, waiting for her to make a mistake so they can grab her.

With all the magic alive in the world, Sylvie lives in a strange environment where she has to deal with annoying, selfish gods who have some familiar names – Zeus and Lilith being two you might know. The gods control everything and – news flash – it is NEVER good to disagree with the folks who can change you into a turtle at any moment! So, when a god shows up in Sylvie’s office needing her help finding his missing lover, she’s put in an awkward position: should she tell him no and proceed with closing her detective agency? I’ll let you guess what she decides . . .

Put it this way, when a god asks you for a favor, “No” is not an option.

Especially when the god in question is Justice, who has no qualms about threatening her family in order to ensure her cooperation. And don’t forget the Feds: in addition to dealing with a meglomaniacal, family-threatening god, she also has to deal with real-world government agents who want nothing more than to put her under the jail. Even when a handsome government agent emerges from her past she discovers that he’d just as likely shoot her as engage in conversation.

How can a girl win?

This fantasy book immediately drew me in because the writing style is fast and fun. The main character, Sylvie, is not your typical female lead. She has no giant chip on her shoulder. She does not shoot whatever is bothering her at the moment. Outwitting the gods is what keeps Sylvie busy. Doing such a good job with the first book in the Shadow Inquiries fantasy series makes you wonder what new “shadows” can Lyn Benedict shine her light on next? I plan to be there to find out.

Get Sins and Shadows and find out how Sylvie juggles the challenges thrown at her.

Get it now and be ready for the next book in the series, Ghosts and Echoes, which comes out April 27, 2010.

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Blood Bargain is a great sequel in the new Blood Line fantasy book series by Maria Lima. Once again we meet Keira, a half breed in a powerful family clan who is going through her “change” and acquiring new, amazing powers. We originally met her in the first book in this fantasy book series, Matters of the Blood (click the link to read my review – the book was awesome).

In this installment, Keira just wants to be left alone to be with her sexy vampire boyfriend, Adam Walker. But her family keeps butting in. And Adam has his own problems – he’s trying to persuade his fellow vampires to give up drinking human blood. And, to add to the mix, her great grandmother just sent Kiera’s 1,200 year old shape shifter brother, Tucker, to watch over her. Kiera’s feeling just a bit stifled – to say the least.

Now, it would seem that Keira wouldn’t need much “watching over” in a little town like Rio Seco, Texas, but trouble just seems to naturally follow her. She’s finally found a man that she loves more than anything, but something weird is happening to Adam; he seems to sleep all of the time. And strange things are happening in town; teenagers and ranch hands are disappearing. On top of this, Keira has been hearing strange whispers.

As we read the book we start to wonder how Kiera will handle so many problems. People are disappearing, her boyfriend won’t wake up – it’s just too much! This is where Kiera’s “network” helps out. Keira has several good friends who help her along and, for once, her family might actually be a help instead of a hindrance. However Keira keeps hearing pesky little whispers from an unknown source which makes her wonder whether her family is responsible for some of the recent problems.

If you like the vampire fantasy genre, then this book is a definite “Next on Your List”. The storyline is wonderfully unpredictable and Maria Lima introduces several different types of supernatural beings which kept me intrigued and entertained. While Adam, Keira’s boyfriend, did not play as big a role in this book as he did in the first one, it didn’t detract from the romantic aspect of the book. Also, there are plenty of interesting characters in this book to keep you captivated and entertained. Definitely take the opportunity to check out Blood Bargain, an engrossing, well constructed sequel by Maria Lima.

Categories : New Fantasy Books
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Mar
10

Fantasy Books for Men

Posted by: Fantasy Books | Comments (3)

I sometimes get asked to recommend fantasy books for certain age groups, i.e., (which fantasy books are appropriate for teenagers?). Because I read so many fantasy books it’s not difficult to answer those questions – it just takes time to compile the listings.

Yesterday I got 2 inquiries about fantasy books for men. This gave me pause: would guys like to read about Sookie Stackhouse and her adventures? Would they be interested in reading about Bella and Edward’s relationship in the Twilight books? My gut says no. So I decided to provide a listing of fantasy books that have strong male leading characters which I think will appeal to the Y-chromosome readers out there:

Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) by Simon R. Green.
John Taylor has a talent for finding things. When he’s asked to find a missing girl (by the missing girl’s mother) he both reluctantly and optimistically looks forward to descending into the Nightside, the dark and dangerous world beneath the city of London where evil and strange creatures reside. John actually feels somewhat at home there. In the Nightside you know what you’re dealing with – there aren’t too many surprises. However many of the creatures are deadly and live by their own moral code so staying alert (and on their good side) is mandatory for survival.

John is a wise-cracking, tough as nails guy who doesn’t mince words and can see through bullshit from 10 yards away. Simon R. Green’s world building techniques are impressive; the Nightside world is brought to life from the very beginning of this book. If you like books full of adventure and all things magical, these are for you.

Staked (Void City, Book 1) by J.F. Lewis.
Eric is a vampire with memory issues – he sometimes can’t remember the simplest things. He’s also got a business partner with a dark hidden agenda, a girlfriend that wants him to bite her, a homicidal daughter, and a murder on his hands. Actually, he’s got a dead werewolf head in his hands but he can’t remember when or why he killed it.

Eric is a no-holds barred, blood and guts, take no prisoners vampire who lives each day to the fullest and makes no excuses for his supernatural tendencies. If this book was to be taken to the big screen I’d see someone like Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, or Jason Patric in the role. You know, the strong, silent and incredibly gorgeous type that happens to have “issues.”

Mr. Lewis does a fantastic job with character building and keeping the storyline appropriately paced. This is one of those books that you’ll find hard to put down. The second book in the series, ReVamped (Void City, Book 2) is now available in bookstores.

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) by Jim Butcher.
Harry Dresden is a wizard by nature and a detective by trade. He investigates the more, let’s say, “special” cases that the police can’t solve. In this book he’s called in to give his opinion of a gruesome double-murder that points to the use of black magic. Although the pay for this case is significant it comes at a high price: the dark mage responsible for the murders has Harry in his cross hairs.

In my opinion Jim Butcher writes some of the best dialogue you’ll ever find in the fantasy book genre. His words jump off the page. And the character building for Harry is top notch. What I really like about Harry’s character is that he’s smart and a realist. You won’t find him going after a bad guy in a dark alley, with no weapons, and his foot in a cast. No, Harry understands his limitations. Sure, he has a soft spot for children and women-in-need, but he’s no pushover. He’s got street smarts and knows how to survive. I have every one of the Harry Dresden books and love them all. The latest in the fantasy book series,
Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, Book 11)
will be released in April.

If you know of a good fantasy book that would appeal to men please feel free to add it to the comments section below so I can research it and add it to the list.

Categories : New Fantasy Books
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Because of entries by Simon R. Green, Michael Boatman, Charles Stross, Marcus Pelegrimas, Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon, Mark Del Franco, Raven Hart, and Kelley Armstrong, more than half of the contemporary/urban fantasy books released this month contain stories with male lead characters!

     
     
Jan. 2, 2009 image

Ghosts by Randy Cribbs
by Randy Cribbs

In his new novel, multiple award winning author Randy Cribbs, interweaves the fabric of Old St Augustine and its ghost-filled landscape with the sleepy modern town of today, building a mystery that forces three courageous young people on a mission to confront powerful spiritual forces they don’t understand. In a race against time, they discover the secret that can release spirits trapped ‘in between’. Ghosts is a most intriguing brew of apparitions, poltergeists and young romance.

     
     
Jan. 6, 2009 image

Host by Faith Hunter
by Faith Hunter

In a post-apocalyptic ice age, neomage Thorn St. Croix was nearly driven insane by her powers. She lived as a fugitive, disguised as a human, channeling her gifts for war into stone-magery. When she was discovered, her friends and neighbors accepted her, but warily. Not so the mage who arrives from the Council of Seraphs, who could be her greatest ally—or her most dangerous foe. And when her long-gone sister, Rose, is revealed to still be alive, Thorn must make a choice—and risk her own life in the process.

     
     
Jan. 6, 2009 image

Just Another Judgement Day, Nightside Book 9
by Simon R. Green

There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s got the Nightside’s rich and powerful quaking in their boots. He’s The Walking Man, and it’s his mission to exorcise sinners—with extreme prejudice. Problem is, the Nightside was built on sin and corruption, and The Walking Man makes no distinction between evildoers and those simply indulging themselves. He’ll leave the place a wasteland unless someone stops him, and P.I. John Taylor has been handed the job. No known magic or science can affect The Walking Man, and if John can’t discover his weakness, he’ll be facing the very Wrath of God…

     
     
Jan. 6, 2009 image

One More Bite
by Jennifer Rardin

I’ve already smoked the guy who was the pain in the CIA’s you-know-what for the past few years. But now, in the power vacuum left by Edward’s death, a struggle for supremacy has begun between his former allies.

The CIA feels the balance must be maintained. So when an agent planted among the Weres discovers a plot to assassinate the Coven’s leader, I and my vampire hottie (and boss), Vayl, are brought in to take out the woman hired to do the deed, a killer who might be as wily and Gifted as ourselves.

     
     
Jan. 6, 2009 image

Mean Streets
with stories by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, Thomas E. Sniegoski

The best paranormal private investigators have been brought together in a single volume—and cases don’t come any harder than this.  New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher delivers a hard-boiled tale in which Harry Dresden’s latest case may be his last.  Nightside dweller John Taylor is hired by a woman to find something she lost—her memory—in a thrilling noir tale from New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green.
National bestselling author Kat Richardson’s Greywalker finds herself in too deep when a “simple job” goes bad and Harper Blaine is enmeshed in a tangle of dark secrets and revenge from beyond the grave.  For centuries, the being that we know as Noah lived among us. Now he is dead, and fallen-angel-turned-detective Remy Chandler has been hired to find out who killed him in a whodunit by national bestselling author Thomas E. Sniegoski.

     
     
Jan. 15, 2009 image

The Revenant Road
by Michael Boatman

Obadiah Grudge’s father is dead and it’s time for the family funeral. Turns out Obadiah has inherited his father’s monster-killing business, his lunatic of a partner, and his pet Raven. It’s too bad he didn’t inherit his father’s skill. It seems Dad’s death has put Obadiah’s feet on The Revenant Road, and there’s no escape from that.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

The Vampire’s Revenge
by Raven Hart

Tourists are heading to Savannah for St. Patrick’s Day–and Jack is racing through tunnels below the city to the edge of Hell itself to hold off a plot posed by the double-dead and demented. But Jack must also hold off his own desire for Connie Jones, the beautiful cop he turned into a vampire slayer. Connie, her blood running hotter than she can handle, can’t imagine the games that Jack is playing with her body and her mind, or that the other monster she’s falling in love with is all part of his devious plan.  Welcome to the world of Jack McShane, a blue-eyed vampire who knows how crazy things can get–once you get a little taste for blood.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

The Map of Moments
by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

What if you were given a map to a magic that could change the worst moment of your life…for a price?
From two all-stars of dark fantasy, Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, coauthors of Mind the Gap, comes this terrifying new thriller of magic and dangerous passions, where an ordinary man searches the magical landscape of an extraordinary city for the chance of a lifetime.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

Men of the Otherworld
by Kelley Armstrong

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong has captivated readers with her spellbinding Women of the Otherworld series. Now, for the first time, in this collection of four tales she gives center stage to the men who love these sexy, supernatural women—the men who live on the other side of humanity…the wild side.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

Seraph of Sorrow
by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

Slowly coming into her own, Jennifer Scales just may be the bridge to bring the two warring sides of her family together—provided she can survive learning the most ancient skills of dragonkind.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

Blood Blade
by Marcus Pelegrimas

Welcome to the nightmare.  There is a world you don’t know about, inhabited by supernatural creatures of darkness—vampires, werewolves, and all manner of savage, impossible beasts that live for terror and slaughter and blood. They are all around us but you cannot see them, for knowledge of their presence—so close and so hungry—would surely drive any ordinary human insane. But for centuries a special breed of hunter has kept the monsters at bay, preventing them from breaking through the increasingly fragile barriers protecting our mortal realm. These guardians are called skinners. But beware . . . for there are very few of them left.

This one just got added to my Amazon shopping cart.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

Unfallen Dead
by Mark Del Franco

For a century the door between the land of Faerie and modern reality has been closed.  But now signs point to the chance that the veil may lift again.  Boston Police consultant Connor Grey is working to solve a string of murders that seem to point to the occult, in particular, the Fae Guild.  With the return of his old Guild partner Connor is surrounded by events that just may kill him.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

Kitty and The Dead Man’s Hand
by Carrie Vaughan

Already the alpha pair of Denver’s werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping fru-fru drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters. Elsewhere on the Strip an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her very life.

     
     
Jan. 27, 2009 image

Spiral Hunt
by Margaret Ronald

They call her “Hound,” and with her unique supernatural sense Evie can track nearly anything—lost keys, vanished family heirlooms, even missing people. And though she knows to stay out of the magical undercurrent that runs beneath Boston’s historic streets, a midnight phone call from a long-vanished lover will destroy the careful boundaries she has drawn. Now, to pay a years-old debt, Evie must venture into the shadowy world that lies between myth and reality, where she will find betrayal, conspiracies, and revelations that will shatter all she believes about herself and the city she claims as home.  When the Hunt is on, the Hound must run.

     

See also:

New Fantasy Books for December 2008

New Fantasy Books for February 2009

Categories : New Fantasy Books
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Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

Cry Wolf is the first installment in a new urban fantasy book series by Patricia Briggs.

Anna Latham, attacked by a werewolf, spent 3 years barely existing in a male dominated pack led by a cruel and abusive pack leader. Anna was frequently the target of his sadistic treatment; it was only after his death (caused by Anna) that she learned the reason for his cruelty. Turns out Anna is an Omega, a special werewolf possessing the power to heal and calm those around her. Omegas are rare; Anna’s former pack leader mistreated her because he feared her power.

Soon after her pack leader’s demise Anna is approached by Charles Cornick, the son of the North American Marrok, the top dog (sorry) amongst werewolves. Charles met Anna before and is convinced that she is his life mate. Because Anna didn’t feel safe with her remaining pack members she agrees to accompany Charles to his homestead in Montana.

Anna and Charles are soon alerted by Charles’ father Bran about a recent brutal mauling of a human in Bran’s territory. All evidence indicates that the killer is a rogue werewolf. Although Charles is still physically recovering from a recent fight to defend Anna, Bran needs Charles, his best enforcer, to personally handle this problem. Bran also suggests that Anna accompany Charles on this mission because of her special powers.

Patricia Briggs is renowned for her ability to develop believable characterizations; Cry Wolf is no exception. The awkwardness that exists between two people who are attracted to one another but not fully trusting of one another is accurately depicted in Charles and Anna’s relationship. Placing them alone in the harsh snow-ridden wilderness forces them to depend on one another’s strengths.

The suspense leading up to the showdown with the creature responsible for the killings is thoroughly engrossing and unpredictable, making for a great read. This book will cause your emotions to run the gamut from sadness to jubilation and from fear to relief. I was so focused on finishing the book that I almost missed an important doctor’s appointment. This is a well written book which effectively blends adventure, suspense, and romance. It receives a “Best Fantasy Book” recommendation.

See also:

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

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