If Texas Gothic is Scooby-Doo meets Nancy Drew, then the companion novel, Spirit and Dust (Ember, 2013), is Harry Dresden: Girl Detective. As I was reading this YA paranormal romance, I began to realize that it was really similar to Dresden Files #3, Grave Peril. Like, really similar. Like, “let’s weaponize the spirits of the dead in Chicago and then unleash Sue the T. Rex during the book’s climax” similar. (This is not a spoiler; like Chekhov’s gun, if you introduce a dinosaur skeleton in […]
A hunter on suicide mission falls in love with an angel of death
Steel’s Edge is the final entry in the Edge series. Once again, two unlikely people are thrust together by violence and fate. Charlotte de Ney is a healer who devoted her life to others in the Weird. Her adoptive mother, Lady Augustine, is a powerful noble and mentor, which makes Charlotte an honorary noble and able to marry well. Sadly, Charlotte is unlucky in love and learns her husband is a complete asshole who married her only to produce an heir to receive his inheritance. Once he learns […]
Thieves in Love
Fate’s Edge is the third book of The Edge series by Ilona Andrews. Kaldar Mar, cousin to Cerise from the previous book, is recruited by Lady Virai to retrieve a magical artifact stolen impossibly stolen from a literal Fort Knox type pyramid. If not retrieved, The Hand (bad guys) would have a devastating tool to wreak havoc in the Weird, Broken and Edge. Kaldar is a con man who loves a dangerous and challenging mission. That is his power – if you bet him to do […]
Romancing the Stone with immortal beings
After a brief respite, I dove back into the Immortals After Dark series with No Rest for the Wicked. Much to my surprise, it had a very realistic (as it could be) romance between the paired supernaturals. Sebastian Wroth has retreated from the world to a dusty Russian castle so disgusted with his vampire existence. He was forcibly turned by his brothers and never forgiven them for it – or himself. He hides in a cave and hungers for death. However, fate issn’t done with him and brings […]