[ARCHIVE] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Serpentine

Laurell Kaye Hamilton (born February 19, 1963) is an American multi-genre writer. She is best known as the author of two series of stories, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter and Merry Gentry.

Her New York Times-bestselling Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series centers on Anita Blake, a professional zombie raiser, vampire executioner and supernatural consultant for the police, which includes novels, short story collections, and comic books. Six million copies of Anita Blake novels are in print. Her New York Times-bestselling Merry Gentry series centers on Meredith Gentry, Princess of the Unseelie court of Faerie, a private detective facing repeated assassination attempts.

Both fantasy series follow their protagonists as they gain in power and deal with the dangerous “realities” of worlds in which creatures of legend live.

Laurell was born in rural Arkansas but grew up in northern Indiana with her grandmother. Her education includes degrees in English and biology from Marion College (now called Indiana Wesleyan University).

Keep up with Laurell at her Website, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on GoodReads.

SERPENTINE

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, #26

Release date 8/7/18

ISBN: 978-0425255681 (Berkley)

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Vampire hunter Anita Blake has managed to overcome anything that faces her. But this time, there’s a monster that even she doesn’t know how to fight . . .

A remote Florida Island is a perfect wedding destination for fellow US marshal and best friend Edward’s upcoming nuptials. For Anita, the vacation is a much welcomed break as it’s the first trip she gets to take with just wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel. But it’s not all fun and games and bachelor parties…

In that tropical paradise, Micah has discovered a horrific new form of lycanthropy, one that has afflicted a single family for generations. Believed to be the result of an ancient Greek curse, it turns human bodies into a mass of snakes.

When long-simmering resentment leads to a big blow-out within the wedding party, the last thing Anita needs is more drama. But it finds her anyway when women start disappearing from the hotel and worse–her own friends and lovers are considered the prime suspects. There’s a strange power afoot that Anita has never confronted before, a force that’s rendering those around her helpless in its thrall. Unable to face it on her own, Anita is willing to accept help from even the deadliest places—help that she will most certainly regret—if she survives at all, that is…

Our Review (eBook) by LITERAL ADDICTION's Scholastic Siren - Sara:

I think Ms. Hamilton is trying to bring the series back to its roots. This installment, and the last couple of books, have certainly seemed to head that way.

SERPENTINE is reminiscent of Obsidian Butterfly, possibly my favorite book in the series.

First, it has a very similar cast: Edward/Ted, Bernardo Spotted-Horse, a few shifters including Nathaniel and Micah, but no Jean-Claude. There’s a (not-so-well-kept) secret cast member, too that made me very happy. You can Google, but we don’t do spoilers here.

Secondly, there is a real mystery--a missing woman from the hotel. Anita and crew really want to help because one of Anita's people is accused of the kidnapping. Soon, one missing women becomes missing people. And the police are stuck on the wrong suspect.

Thirdly, there is new magic, something none of the characters are familiar with.

The storylines come together really well. In fact, the second half of the book reads so quickly, it’s nearly impossible to put down.

Full disclosure: I have been a fan since GUILTY PLEASURES. I stuck it out through some not-so-story-driven books so I would have read this anyway, but it was great fun! And definitely recommended.

SERPENTINE

[ARCHIVE] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Dancing on the Grave

Zoë Sharp was born in Nottinghamshire, but spent most of her formative years living on a catamaran on the northwest coast of England. After a promising start at a private girls' school, she opted out of mainstream education at the age of twelve in favour of correspondence courses at home.

Zoë went through a variety of jobs in her teenage years. In 1988, on the strength of one accepted article and a fascination with cars, she gave up her regular job to become a freelance motoring writer. She quickly picked up on the photography side of things and her photo-journalism took her as far afield as the United States and Japan, as well as Europe, Ireland and the UK. She is now a full-time fiction author and creator of the Charlie Fox series of crime thrillers.

Zoë wrote her first novel when she was fifteen, but success came in 2001 with the publication of KILLER INSTINCT − the first book to feature her ex-Special Forces heroine, Charlotte 'Charlie' Fox. The character evolved after Zoë received death-threat letters in the course of her photo-journalism work.

Later Charlie Fox novels − FIRST DROP and FOURTH DAY − were finalists for the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel. The Charlie Fox series has also been optioned for TV.

As well as the Charlie Fox novels, Zoë's short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, and have been shortlisted for the Short Story Dagger by the UK Crime Writers' Association. Her other writing has been nominated for the coveted Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the Anthony Award presented by the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the Macavity Award, and the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers' Association.

A keen library supporter and public speaker, Zoë blogs regularly on her Blog page. She also witters on Twitter (@AuthorZoeSharp) and fools about on Facebook (ZoeSharpAuthor). She was formerly a long-term contributor to the acclaimed Murderati blog—alas, now defunct. She's a regular blogger at MURDER IS EVERYWHERE and also has a presence on Goodreads.

Zoë lives in the English Lake District. Her hobbies are sailing, fast cars (and faster motorbikes), target shooting, travel, films, music and reading just about anything she can get her hands on.

DANCING ON THE GRAVE

Release Date 6/30/18

ISBN-13: 978-1909344402

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Add to your GoodReads shelf.

For newly qualified crime-scene investigator, Grace McColl, it’s both the start of a nightmare and the chance to prove herself after a mistake that cost a life.

For Detective Constable Nick Weston, recently transferred from London, it’s an opportunity to recover his nerve after a disastrous undercover operation that left him for dead.

And for a lonely, loveless teenage girl, Edith, it’s the start of a twisted fantasy—one she never dreamed might come true.

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Scholastic Siren - Sara:
The author wrote an interesting blog the other day about where to start with reading her books because of how her characters have grown. Here’s a link if you are interested in the discussion. https://www.zoesharp.com/why-im-going-to-tell-people-not-to-read-my-books/ The reason I mention it, is because this book is the perfect place to start if Ms. Sharp is a new author to you.

DANCING ON THE GRAVE is a standalone police procedural set in the English countryside. The setting is lovely and well described but not overly done so as to be distracting. The story changes POV, and all of the characters are fully developed and interesting people. This is not a thriller in the typical action-packed way; however, I think it is billed that way because of the Charlie Fox series, which is also penned by Zoë Sharp.

The first chapter grabs you immediately, and you suddenly find yourself hooked. I have to put in a warning, however. The first murder victim is a dog that had been killing a flock of sheep. So...I guess the sheep were actually the first victims. Once the dog died, I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep reading, I am a serious animal lover! But the book is worth continuing--well worth it. The dog is treated as a serious case, and the killing is not grisly or gratuitous. On the scene, the crime scene investigator, Grace McColl, calls in a detective because the animal is owned by someone of influence. Here, we meet Detective Constable Nick Weston, new to small-town life and rife with baggage. Grace is not impressed by Nick, nor he with her. Through the course of the investigation, they become good partners, and the story unfolds beautifully.

I was given a review copy of the book early, but I also purchased a copy to keep.

DANCING ON THE GRAVE

[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of SMOKE AND IRON

Rachel Caine is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of more than fifty novels in a diverse range of genres and categories. She's been honored with multiple awards from RT Booklovers Association and the Texas Library Association, and was honored with two spots on the 2012 "Most Favorite Books of UK Schoolchildren" list.

She started writing at 14, and wrote steadily (but privately) until the age of 28, when she got her first novel deal for Stormriders(as Roxanne Longstreet). She published several horror novels under that name, and switched to romantic suspense as Roxanne Conrad. In 2003 she launched into the urban fantasy genre under the name Rachel Caine. In 2006, she created the Morganville Vampires series in young adult, and premiered the TLA-listed novel Prince of Shadows in 2015, and the new Great Library series with Ink and Bone in 2016.

In 2017, she began writing thrillers with the smash bestsellers Stillhouse Lake and Killman Creek.

Rachel also has written many short stories in a wide variety of anthologies and collections, and screenplays for both feature film and television. She wrote all scripts for the 2014 production of Morganville, a web series adaptation of her bestselling young adult series (now available streaming on Amazon Prime and Vimeo).

Rachel and her husband R. Cat Conrad live and work in Fort Worth, Texas.

Keep up with her on her Website, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, and on GoodReads.

SMOKE AND IRON

The Great Library #4

Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo / BAM / Indiebound / Googleplay

Release: 7/3/18

ISBN: 978-0749022013

To save the Great Library, the unforgettable characters from Ink and Bone, Paper and Fire, and Ash and Quill put themselves in danger in the next thrilling adventure in the New York Times bestselling series.

The opening moves of a deadly game have begun. Jess Brightwell has put himself in direct peril, with only his wits and skill to aid him in a game of cat and mouse with the Archivist Magister of the Great Library. With the world catching fire, and words printed on paper the spark that lights rebellion, it falls to smugglers, thieves, and scholars to save a library thousands of years in the making...if they can stay alive long enough to outwit their enemies.

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Scholastic Siren - Sara:

**This review may contain minor spoilers from previous books. 

SMOKE AND IRON starts right where we left off with ASH AND QUILL and the rest of the Great Library series. 

Because the group is scattered, we get different POV chapters in this book, but the author pulls it off beautifully. While I am not always a fan of this storytelling method, it seems necessary for all the moving pieces here and was wonderfully done. 

The plotting is exquisite and gets better with each new entry to the series. The characters have grown and changed as the series progresses, and they feel like real people. Each book is like a novel-length chapter to the overall arc. You want to start at the beginning [and we suggest you do!], but you will never want them to end. 

I think this idea started as a five-book series, but I’m hoping for many more. 

SMOKE AND IRON

[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of SPARROW HILL ROAD

Seanan McGuire was born in Martinez, California, and raised in a wide variety of locations, most of which boasted some sort of dangerous native wildlife. Despite her almost magnetic attraction to anything venomous, she somehow managed to survive long enough to acquire a typewriter, a reasonable grasp of the English language, and the desire to combine the two. The fact that she wasn't killed for using her typewriter at three o'clock in the morning is probably more impressive than her lack of death by spider-bite.

Often described as a vortex of the surreal, many of Seanan's anecdotes end with things like "and then we got the anti-venom" or "but it's okay, because it turned out the water wasn't that deep." She has yet to be defeated in a game of "Who here was bitten by the strangest thing?," and can be amused for hours by almost anything. "Almost anything" includes swamps, long walks, long walks in swamps, things that live in swamps, horror movies, strange noises, musical theater, reality TV, comic books, finding pennies on the street, and venomous reptiles. Seanan may be the only person on the planet who admits to using Kenneth Muir's Horror Films of the 1980s as a checklist.

Seanan is the author of the October Daye urban fantasies, the InCryptid urban fantasies, and several other works both stand-alone and in trilogies or duologies. In case that wasn't enough, she also writes under the pseudonym "Mira Grant." For details on her work as Mira, check out MiraGrant.com.

In her spare time, Seanan records CDs of her original filk music (see the Albums page for details). She is also a cartoonist, and draws an irregularly posted autobiographical web comic, "With Friends Like These...", as well as generating a truly ridiculous number of art cards. Surprisingly enough, she finds time to take multi-hour walks, blog regularly, watch a sickening amount of television, maintain her website, and go to pretty much any movie with the words "blood," "night," "terror," or "attack" in the title. Most people believe she doesn't sleep.

Seanan lives in an idiosyncratically designed labyrinth in the Pacific Northwest, which she shares with her cats, Alice and Thomas, a vast collection of creepy dolls and horror movies, and sufficient books to qualify her as a fire hazard. She has strongly-held and oft-expressed beliefs about the origins of the Black Death, the X-Men, and the need for chainsaws in daily life.

Years of writing blurbs for convention program books have fixed Seanan in the habit of writing all her bios in the third person, so as to sound marginally less dorky. Stress is on the "marginally." It probably doesn't help that she has so many hobbies.

Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her novel Feed (as Mira Grant) was named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2010. In 2013 she became the first person ever to appear five times on the same Hugo Ballot.

Keep up with Seanan online at her Website, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and on GoodReads.

TODAY'S FEATURE:

SPARROW HILL ROAD

Ghost Roads Book #1

Original Release Date: 5/7/14 

Re-Release Date: 6/5/18

ISBN: 0756409616

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Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross—a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea.

It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running.

They have names for her all over the country: the Girl in the Diner. The Phantom Prom Date. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Mostly she just goes by “Rose,” a hitchhiking ghost girl with her thumb out and her eyes fixed on the horizon, trying to outrace a man who never sleeps, never stops, and never gives up on the idea of claiming what’s his. She’s the angel of the overpass, she’s the darling of the truck stops, and she’s going to figure out a way to win her freedom. After all, it’s not like it can kill her. 

You can’t kill what’s already dead. 

Our Review by LITERAL ADDICTION's Pack Alpha - Chelle:
If you're a fan of ghost stories, creative worldbuilding, and fun, quirky heroines, you'll want to check out SPARROW HILL ROAD. 

Rose Marshall is a sixteen-year-old from the 50s, killed nonsensically on prom night and taken from her one true love. For over 60 years, she has performed the job given to her by the Lady upon death, and has traveled the roads as a hitcher, helping other ghosts that die on the road get home--one way or the other. But she has one other driving purpose: find and eliminate the jerk who killed her. Bobby Cross. 

Told as a series of interconnected snippets jumping from past to present in her encounters with other ghosts and witches and the living, SPARROW HILL ROAD is a very creative tale that engages and entertains. It can get a little confusing at times if you're not thoroughly invested, as McGuire uses small chapter flashbacks to help drive the tale and there is lots of random character interaction for different purposes depending on the ghost story she is attempting to tell, but the creativity that went into the creation of this world and its characters was a breath of fresh air.

SPARROW HILL ROAD

[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of The Hills Have Spies

Mercedes Lackey entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70’s she worked as an artist’s model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.

“I’m a storyteller; that’s what I see as ‘my job.’ My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that’s why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of ‘story pill’ — they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief news bringers. When I write the ‘folk music’ of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.

“I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can’t ‘not’ write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a ‘high-tech’ science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL [‘There ain’t no such thing as free lunch’, credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the ‘evil magicians,’ something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.

Keep up with Mercedes online at her Website, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on GoodReads.

TODAY'S FEATURE:

THE HILLS HAVE SPIES

Valdemar: Family Spies Book #1

Release Date 6/5/18

ISBN: 0756413176

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In this new series, set in the bestselling world of Valdemar, Heralds Mags and Amily must continue to protect the realm of Valdemar while raising their children and preparing them to follow in their footsteps.

Mags, Herald Spy of Valdemar, and his wife Amily are happily married with three kids. The oldest, Justyn, has the Gift of animal Mindspeech--he can talk to animals and persuade them to act as he wishes. Justyn's dream is to follow in his father's footsteps as a Herald Spy, but has yet to be Chosen by his horse companion.

Mags is more than happy to teach Justyn all he knows. He regularly trains his children, including Justyn, with tests and exercises, preparing them for the complicated and dangerous lives they will likely lead. Justyn has already held positions in the Royal Palace as a runner and in the kitchen, useful places from which he can learn to listen. As the next stage of Justyn's training, Mags proposes that Justyn joins a group of traveling players and musicians, to get experience away from home and out in the world. Justyn joins the troupe, and he starts collecting information for his father. And the patterns he finds are unsettling....

During the troupe's travels, Justyn witnesses growing rural unrest about an indigenous community of Valdemar, known as Hawkbrothers. When the troupe settles for a season at a fortified manor of a local lord, Justyn watches the unrest grow increasingly hostile. The manor lord dismisses Hawkbrothers as inhuman--and has a local militia to back up his hatred. When a child goes missing, the locals immediately blame Hawkbrothers, and Justyn finds himself in a dangerous position.

He enlists the help of a local stray dog, who knows a lot about the town's goings-on, despite being a bit...odd. Justyn must find the missing child and warn the Hawkbrothers community of the trouble headed their way--before tensions turn deadly.

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Scholastic Siren: Sara: 

This is the start of a new mini-series set in Valdemar and its surrounds. Whether you are familiar with Valdemar or not, this is a great story. Feel free to start here.

This story takes place around fifteen years after the last series. Mags and Amily have three kids, the oldest of whom--Peregrine--is the main player in this book. Perry is training in the family business: espionage. He’s quite good at it, even though he is just thirteen years old. His training gets accelerated on a father-son trip/mission for the crown. Perry learns to hold his own and that adults aren’t always perfect. The mission is interesting, the characters are well developed, and the story wraps up nicely. I’m not big on cliffhangers in YA.

I never think of Valdemar as young adult, but it is. The main characters are usually in their teens, although not always. I started reading Valdemar and Ms. Lackey when I was a teen and continue to auto-buy the hardcovers on release date. I highly recommended this one!

THE HILLS HAVE SPIES

[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Twisted Prey

John Sandford was born John Camp on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the public schools in Cedar Rapids, graduating from Washington High School in 1962. He then spent four years at the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in American Studies in 1966. In 1966, he married Susan Lee Jones of Cedar Rapids, a fellow student at the University of Iowa. He was in the U.S. Army from 1966-68, worked as a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian from 1968-1970, and went back to the University of Iowa from 1970-1971, where he received a master's degree in journalism. He was a reporter for The Miami Herald from 1971-78, and then a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press from 1978-1990; in 1980, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and he won the Pulitzer in 1986 for a series of stories about a midwestern farm crisis. From 1990 to the present he has written thriller novels. He's also the author of two non-fiction books, one on plastic surgery and one on art. He is the principal financial backer of a major archeological project in the Jordan Valley of Israel, with a website at www.rehov.org In addition to archaeology, he is deeply interested in art (painting) and photography. He both hunts and fishes. He has two children, Roswell and Emily, and one grandson, Benjamin. His wife, Susan, died of metastasized breast cancer in May, 2007, and is greatly missed.

Goodreads / Website / Facebook / Twitter

Twisted Prey

LUCAS DAVENPORT #28

Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo

Release Date 4/24/18

ISBN-13: 978-0525593782

Lucas Davenport confronts an old nemesis, now more powerful than ever as a U.S. senator, in the thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Prey series

Lucas Davenport had crossed paths with her before.

A rich psychopath, Taryn Grant had run successfully for the U.S. Senate, where Lucas had predicted she’d fit right in. He was also convinced that she’d been responsible for three murders, though he’d never been able to prove it. Once a psychopath had gotten that kind of rush, though, he or she often needed another fix, so he figured he might be seeing her again.

He was right. A federal marshal now, with a very wide scope of investigation, he’s heard rumors that Grant has found her seat on the Senate intelligence committee, and the contacts she’s made from it, to be very…useful. Pinning those rumors down was likely to be just as difficult as before, and considerably more dangerous.

But they had unfinished business, he and Grant. One way or the other, he was going to see it through to the end.

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Scholastic Siren - Sara:

In Twisted Prey, Lucas Davenport is still working for the Marshall service when Senator Porter Smalls is run off the road and nearly dies. Smalls is sure it’s an assassination attempt and pulls some strings to get Lucas to investigate. 

This is a solid entry in the series. Most of the books are stand-alones with common history; this one is not. This is a more like a sequel to Silken Prey, book #13, that was released in 2013. If you already love the series, by all means, buy this book. If it’s new to you, I would suggest that you pick up an earlier installment--they are all fantastic. 

Some of my favorite newer characters come back in this book; we get to see Bob and Rae again. I hope they are becoming permanent fixtures... This book takes place in DC because Lucas is a Marshall now, and I think we might get a new city in every upcoming book. No matter where they take place, the books are both thought-provoking and full of action.