strange and random happenstance

The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar by Seana Kelly
Published by: NYLA
Publication Date: October 13th, 2020
Format: Kindle, 296 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Despite her past Sam Quinn has made a pretty decent life for herself. She owns and operates The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar in San Francisco, because everyone needs a good book and a stiff drink. Her establishment welcomes all, vampires, wicches, demons, selkies, dwarves, fae, what have you. But Sam is the only werewolf allowed. No exceptions. See traumatic past. Situated magically beneath Land's End nestled into the cliff face at the waterline the killer views of the bay, both above and below the waterline during high tide, are about to get even deadlier as a body slams into the glass. Female, naked, torn up. The body is slashed. That could have easily happened because of the rocks in the bay. Who knows how long she was in the water. But the scars match Sam's own. What's more, the victim was a werewolf. Which means Sam needs to call her Uncle Marcus. Someone she does not want to talk to. See traumatic past. She is literally feels she is a lone wolf and has no one to turn to. But someone has to know who this woman was. Which becomes a secondary concern once Sam's very survival is at risk. After closing she's attacked. She barely escapes with her life. And she can't even catch a break in her subconscious which is the next stop on Sam's Repressed Horrors Roundup. And then her brain turns against her while awake with a deadly vision. Seven years of hiding and learning has led her to this moment and she's rescued by a vampire. Clive. She was a sitting duck but thankfully he sensed her danger. He used his blood to save her from the waking nightmare. Now if only he can save her from whatever she's gotten into, seeing as he's appointed himself her personal bodyguard. But Sam is used to danger. She spent her life with her mother moving from place to place, looking over their shoulders. She never understood their situation until her mother died and the unthinkable happened. All Sam has left of her mother is a necklace that was broken in the recent attack. As the visions keep ensnaring her she doesn't know where the threat is coming from; be it the past or the present, she is in danger from someone. In fact, given her luck, it's probably more than one person gunning for her. Luckily she surprisingly has a bunch of friends and a sexy vampire at her side. Here's hoping it's enough.

The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar is a solid start to Seana Kelly's Sam Quinn series that is wonderfully more inclusive than most urban fantasy series. As in we've got gorgons, we've got demons, we've got selkies, it's not just werewolves, vampires, and witches. Though don't worry, they all make an appearance as well. The problem I had was why does every poor female shifter have to have a tragic backstory? After her mother's death when Sam went to visit her Uncle Marcus, whom she didn't know was a werewolf, she'd been attacked, tortured, raped, and turned. Thankfully not by her Uncle, but given the backstory of most urban fantasy heroines, that was a strong possibility. I just have an unease with this connection between trauma and change. Can't you be a supernatural badass without the baggage? Is sexual assault a prerequisite to be the protagonist of an urban fantasy series? I mean Sookie Stackhouse and Mercy Thompson are probably the biggest survivors out there, but they are not alone. And yes, the statistics bear that so so many women are victims of sexual assault, it's just so uncommonly high within the supernatural community that I feel like we need to stage an intervention. If you're an author thinking of writing an urban fantasy book how much does your book need a traumatized protagonist? Because, if you said it totally has to, well, I'd think again. At least there's redemption in that Sam saves herself, but, did she have to battle her own demons as well as the actual ones? It seems like overkill. But that's just one trope in The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar. The other is a very particular pet peeve of mine. So, you know when a book or a show or a movie has a bookish character they just love books. All books. They are indiscriminate about their love of books. Well. I'm bookish and that's just not how we role. It's not realistic. The worst example of this trope is Rory Gilmore. Rory loves books. She loves all books. Sure, I agree, books are great. But for all bookish people in the world can I say that the only authors in the world aren't Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien. Rory is endemic of bookish characters. She is not discerning. She loves books. Books, books, books. Here's a thing, I love books too. And yes, I love Austen and Tolkien, but I also have specific authors and subgenres I love. Historical fantasy? That's catnip to me. I don't think Rory or Sam know about subgenres. It's not their fault. It's the role that they play. They are there to be the nerdy girl with her head buried in a good book. The problem is, it's rarely been thought out beyond that. Yes, Rory shows some interest in Russian literature and Sam knows I Am Legend. But whether it's the Richard Matheson book or the movie is up for debate. I just want my bookish buds to embrace all the books out there and find their joy. And have the answer be more than "I like books."

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: An Urban Development, Bookish, Bookstore, Clive Fitzwilliam, Female Trauma, Inclusive, Rape, Rory Gilmore, Sam Quinn, San Francisco, Seana Kelly, The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar, Tropes, Urban Fantasy, Vampire, Werewolf

The Midnight Pack by Jasmine Kuliasha
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: May 27th, 2025
Format: eBook, 352 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Jericho James has made a name for herself. Not the name she'd have necessarily chosen when she became a P.I. but when you become the foremost investigator in debunking cryptids, you embrace that rep. Also, it's never Cthulhu, it's almost always snakes. Occasionally an octopus. She should know, she's from Florida. Only once before has she investigated a case with a fatality. A case she'll never forget. Which is why when she's called to Stillbridge, Maine, to investigate the death of a college graduate who was hiking the Appalachian Trail who met a gruesome end she takes her job seriously. The locals assume it's a bear attack but the sheriff isn't quite so certain. Neither is the young boy Mikey who approaches Jericho to ask if she's there to kill the monster. In fact Mikey is soon her best source for information in the small town. Though she should have listened to him and never gone into the woods. But she needed to see the scene of the crime. And, according to the sheriff, the local hermit, Kermit, lives out in the depths of the forest, miles beyond the scene of the crime, and might be able to help. So she's off to find Kermit the hermit. Only Jericho has miscalculated the number of hours of daylight needed for her trek and only gets as far as the scene of the crime when she realizes she'll need to turn back. Of course that's exactly when she's attacked. Chased from the clearing she falls into a ravine and twists her ankle before she succumbs to darkness. She awakes the next day to sunlight streaming in through a window under a veritable mountain of blankets. Soon her rescuer makes an appearance. It turns out Kermit isn't such a hermit after all. He lives with his three sons, Benjamin, Theo, and Seth. It's Benjamin that Jericho is instantly drawn to. Neither of them can deny their chemistry. She is reluctantly, by some, welcomed into the Grey family compound. This isn't just a shack in the woods; there's terraces and gardens, patios and a gym, and a state of the art laboratory. Because these four men, who have been living in secret without any female presence since Kermit's wife and the boys' mother died five years earlier, are scientists. They are looking to fully eradicate a bloodborne pathogen. Not just keep it controlled like scientists can now do with HIV, but eliminate it completely. Their work is well funded and secret. Which is fine by Jericho. She can heal, do some research in their vast library, and ogle Benjamin. That is until it's brought home to her by some otherworldly forces that her hosts might be more dangerous than she thought. She really should have listened to Mikey.

This book had such a solid start; Jericho James arrives in Maine and befriends a child who knows all about the monsters in the woods and I literally had goosebumps. The Midnight Pack had all the hallmarks of Stephen King with a hint of Something is Killing the Children and then Jericho went into the woods and it became Twilight. Only somehow not even as good as Twilight if you dare to imagine that. Oh, and if you're wondering, Jericho knows all about Twilight and apparently learned nothing from Stephenie Meyer. Longing looks and losing her brain were what followed for the next couple hundred pages. I literally just couldn't with this book. It's like her desire overrode all capacity for rational thinking. How are they doing research without a computer? Do you think maybe they lied about not having one? Or about not having a phone? Or about exactly how you ended up injured? But then again, she debunks cryptids for a living and didn't even know what a wendigo is. A wendigo! If you Google cryptid it's literally the eleventh cryptid listed. AND might I add, this is with Google totally not working right anymore because of AI. Yes yes, we can argue that technically a wendigo isn't a cryptid, but the fact she'd never heard of one beggars belief. In fact I was hoping the killer would be like a wendigo/werewolf hybrid called a wendiwoof, but no, I did not get my wish, and while other people have done this type of hybrid they didn't name it the wendiwoof so I am claiming copyright. The ignorance of our heroine time and time again is just infuriating. Jasmine Kuliasha could of at least had some fun with Jericho being the personification of a dumb blonde, but she was just wanting to turn this into a romance, cue the heavy petting. And no. This book isn't sophisticated enough for this joke. I mean, it literally took over half the book for werewolf to even be uttered when it's on the freaking cover. And yes, I know that characters aren't self-aware, this isn't Thursday Next, but come on. Then again Jericho isn't even properly kitted out for a walk in the woods, always wearing just exercise tights and a tank top, maybe a light flannel. This is fall. In MAINE! Ugh, she is just too dumb to live. Let Benjamin's brothers have at her. But Jericho is only as ignorant as her creator. I didn't keep track of each and every infraction, it would have ended up longer than the book especially with how the house didn't seem to abide by the blueprints or the laws of physics. So let's go with the biggest one. A werewolf pack has a one out one in rule. So if they lose a member of the pack they have to be replaced. When Jericho kills the villainous brother the pack is worried she will be forced into becoming a werewolf to replace him. But hang on a minute. Five years earlier Kermit's wife, a werewolf, died. No one replaced her. So, um, what's with that? In fact what's with all of this. I just want to forget I ever read it. Sadly the worse the book the longer it remains.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: An Urban Development, Appalachian Trail, Cryptids, Cthulhu, Jasmine Kuliasha, Jericho James, Maine, Mikey, Plot Hole, Something is Killing the Children, Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, The Midnight Pack, Twilight, Wendigo, Werewolf

Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: March 17th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★ 
To Buy

Things have been rough since the witches, but that's nothing new. Things are always rough for Mercy. Yet Adam has always been there to share the load. Now he's remote and has shut down their mating bond. Mercy needs to find out why but at the same time she's scared as to what this could mean. Perhaps he doesn't want her anymore as his mate what with trouble always showing up on her doorstep. The newest trouble being their neighbors. They have died of an apparent murder-suicide. Only Mercy knows this couldn't be the case, especially once she sees a bite on the husband's arm. A bite that looks like it could be from a jackrabbit. When Mercy and Adam go out in search of this jackrabbit they come across two additional unsettling discoveries; there are unknown werewolves in their territory and the vampire Wulfe has taken to stalking Mercy as his new hobby. Though Wulfe turns out to be the least of their concerns, which in itself is concerning, because he saves Mercy from the effects of the jackrabbit's bite. She has no doubt that Wulfe's quick actions combined with her weird reactions to magic are the only things that saved her. And her survival has pissed off her attacker. So the pack congregate and formulate a plan. A plan that is having to constantly be reformulated and intensified as the threats and the imminent danger get closer and closer. If only Mercy was sure everything would be all right with Adam at the end of the day this fight would be so much easier; but Mercy's life isn't easy.   

At this point it's getting hard to write reviews about Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series because I feel like there's nothing more to say about how much I love them without repeating myself. This series is hands down the best female driven urban fantasy series out there. Period. Every March I can't wait to get my hands on the newest book in Briggs' universe always wondering what creature will be the big band this time around. Because Briggs does tend to concentrate on a specific threat, Vampire, Fae, Werewolf, Witch, they rotate as the ultimate evil with occasional surprises thrown in. What makes Smoke Bitten so different is that instead of addressing just one big bad Mercy is addressing them all, showing not just the depth and range of Briggs' storytelling abilities to juggle many plot points but also underlining how complicated Mercy's life has become as protector of her plot of land. This makes Smoke Bitten feel not just a more ambitious book, but a more fully rounded book. You can't just pick and choose one crisis to deal with at a time, life isn't that accommodating. Therefore it feels like Mercy has grown up, she's able to handle it all, and in the end she saves the day as she always does, but never without sacrifice and never without her friends by her side. Friends, from Bran to Zee to Wulfe, who be they enemy or throne in the side, feel like my family.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adam, Big Bad, Bran, Evolution, Fae, Magic, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Smoke Bitten, Urban Fantasy, Vampire, Werewolf, Witch, Wulfe, Zee

In Charm's Way by Madelyn Alt
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A brand new Bewitching mystery that will leave readers spellbound. When a real corpse is discovered among the props of a Halloween haunted house, Maggie O'Neill- resident witch of Stony Mill, Indiana- must use her charms to prove her friend innocent of the crime and get to the bottom of the mystery. "

So, I'm a huge fan of this series. It's fun, it's like, it's a perfect fall read... I mean what goes better together than witches and October I ask you?

India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol Carr
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Black is back-Her Majesty's favorite spy is off to Scotland in this new adventure to ensure the Queen doesn't end up getting killed.

When Queen Victoria attends a séance, the spirit of her departed husband, Prince Albert, insists she spend Christmas at their Scottish home in Balmoral. Prime Minister Disraeli suspects the Scottish nationalists plan to assassinate the Queen-and sends the ever resourceful India and the handsome British spy, French, to the Scottish highlands.

French will take the high road, looking for a traitor among the guests-and India will take the low road, disguised as a servant in case an assassin is hiding among the household staff. India is certain that someone at Balmoral is determined to make this Her Majesty's last Christmas..."

Queen Victoria and a séance? You really need to know nothing more, expect perhaps my love of the Doctor Who episode where Queen Victoria becomes, how shall I say... a werewolf. Yeah Victoria and Scotland!

Wolf at the Door by Mary Janice Davidson
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The howlingly good spin-off of the Undead series from the New York Times bestselling author.

Rachel, a werewolf/accountant, is asked to keep one eye on Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor and the other peeled for a rogue werewolf who's itching to start a war. But her attention is mostly on a sexy, mysterious stranger she wishes she could trust."

Ok, so maybe the start of October means I just recommend things with wicthes and werewolves... I love a good werewolf story done right!

Down These Strange Streets by Charlaine Harris et al.
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 496 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"All new strange cases of death and magic in the city by some of the biggest names in urban fantasy.

In this all-new collection of urban fantasy stories, editors George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois explore the places where mystery waits at the end of every alley and where the things that go bump in the night have something to fear...

Includes stories by New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Diana Gabaldon, Simon R. Green, S. M. Stirling, and Carrie Vaughn, as well as tales by Glen Cook, Bradley Denton, M.L.N. Hanover, Conn Iggulden, Laurie R. King, Joe R. Lansdale, John Maddox Roberts, Steven Saylor, Melinda Snodgrass, and Lisa Tuttle."

Look at all the writers I love! Many of which have written about werewolves... hmm, this is a disturbing trend. I must be lupine-centric of something.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Published by: Hyperion
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
" In The Lost Hero, three demigods named Jason, Piper, and Leo made their first visit to Camp Half-Blood, where they inherited a blood-chilling quest:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

Who are the other four mentioned in the prophesy? The answer may lie in another camp thousands of miles away, where a new camper has shown up and appears to be the son of Neptune, god of the sea. . .

With an ever-expanding cast of brave-hearted heroes and formidable foes, this second book in The Heroes of Olympus series offers all of the action, pathos, and humor that Rick Riordan fans crave."

No werewolves here! (That I know of). Sure to be an instant hit...

Gossip Girl Psycho Killer by Cecily von Zeigesar
Published by: Poppy
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep-sometimes with each other. It's a luxe life, but someone's got to live it . . . until they die.

So begins Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer, a re-imagined and expanded slasher edition of the first groundbreaking Gossip Girl novel, featuring all new grisly scenes and over-the-top gore by #1 New York Times bestselling author Cecily von Ziegesar.

Just as in the original story, Serena returns from boarding school hoping to make amends with her BFF Blair Waldorf--things just haven't been the same since Nate Archibald came between them. But here's where our dark tale takes a turn: Serena decides that the only way for her to make things right with Blair is to eliminate Nate. If that means killing him, well, c'est la vie. Her attempted murder doesn't go unnoticed by Blair, however, who isn't about to let Serena kill whoever she wants-not when there's Cyrus Rose and Chuck Bass and Titi Coates and everyone else who's ever irritated Blair to get rid of first . . . .

American Psycho's Patrick Bateman has met his match in Manhattan's newest, most fabulous trendsetting serial killers, Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen."

Ok, so, changing a novel like Pride and Prejudice to add Zombies, stupid really... unless Jane did it herself, maybe it would work. But Gossip Girl where they're all killers, that just sounds a) plausible and b) full of win. Then have the actual author write it, totally full of win!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Carol Carr, Cecily von Ziegesar, Down These Strange Streets, Gossip Girl, In Charm's Way, India Black, Madelyn Alt, Mary Janice Davidson, Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune, Werewolf, Wolf at the Door

Yes you can! Great News for Paranormal Fans! Being Human has been renewed for a third season! Piers Wenger, the lovely producer of Doctor Who and Sarah Jane, as well as the current head of Drama at BBC Wales announced yesterday that Being Human will be back. This is good news for fans, who in a few short weeks, will be going through withdrawal as the second season comes to a close. Being a huge fan of the show, this is good news and comes just at the right time, mainly after the second season's third and best episode. This season got off to a rocky start with our favorite werewolf, vampire and ghost involved in their own little dramas of girlfriends, vampire coup repercussions and gainful employment for the deceased, without realising the threat of some unknown scientific institution that was brought to their existence by Owen at the end of the first season. But thankfully, by episode three, it was back on track. It wasn't anything major, just a subtle shift wherein the characters acknowledged their growing separation and called a house meeting. This also resulted in the funniest scene ever in the show. I can't do it justice, so here it is in it's entirety thanks to YouTube (don't worry, no spoilers).

Posted by Miss Eliza at 3:57 PM 5 comments  

Labels: BBC Wales, Being Human, Doctor Who, Ghost, Piers Wegner, Sarah Jane Adventures, Vampire, Werewolf, YouTube