Under Witch Moon

Rating:

Title: Under Witch Moon

Genre: urban fantasy

Author: Maria Schneider

Publisher: Bear Mountain Books
Price: $2.99

Formats: The book is available at the Kindle Store and on the Smashwords website.

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Maria Schneider's urban fantasy novel, Under Witch Moon, is one of those rare, wonderful books that transports the reader into an entirely different reality.

Adriel knows that being a witch is hard.  It's not only the difficulty in finding just the right spell for just the right job, it's also the troubling clientele.  The humans demand perfection, the weres are hunting for a good time, and don't even get her started on the vamps.  Add a smoking-hot man, a murder mystery, and a truly evil witch into the mixture, and it's no wonder why being a witch is nothing but trouble.


One of the biggest reasons I enjoyed this story so much is that the author makes magic appear so realistic.  After reading the book, I swear that I could work magic providing I had the right herbs and enough silver.  The supernatural beings are also very real, especially the weres.  Their human sides take on some of their animal characteristics, and their animals sides are, well, very animal.  After dealing with idealized versions of these creatures in other stories, it was a relief to read something so grounded.

I also loved the southwest setting.  Having visited Sante Fe, NM, myself a few years ago, I could really relate to the book.  But even if I had never been to the American southwest, the author describes the places so wonderfully that the reader would feel as if she's been there before.  The mix of Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo-American characters was also a nice reprieve from the typical vanilla cast in so many urban fantasy novels.


The book centers on a mystery, and it was that mystery that kept me turning the pages.  There aren't any detailed subplots, but there are enough distinct threads running through the story to give it depth and make it interesting.


One thing that I wanted to read more of, however, was the interplay between characters.  I love reading about emotional entanglements, and while there was some of this, I wanted more.  Adriel, a rather paranoid young lady, has maternal feelings towards a stray teen named Lynx, and mixed feelings for her yuppie sister.  I found these relationships very interesting and wanted to read more about them.  Also, at times, the descriptions of the magic become too detailed so that the world-building overshadowed what I would consider the more interesting parts of the story.


Overall, Under Witch Moon, is a fun urban fantasy populated with interesting characters.

Thief

Rating:

Title: Thief
Genre: fantasy

Author: Sarah-Jane Lehoux

Publisher: Mundania Press, LLC
Price: $4.99

Formats: The book is available at the Kindle Store and on the Mundania Press website.

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 Sevy is a streetwise seventeen-year-old girl struggling to survive in the slums of a violent city.  When she meets Jarro, the charming leader of a street gang, she is determined to win his heart by being the best thief he's ever seen.  But unfortunately for Sevy, Jarro's jealous mistress isn't so pleased to have the young girl join the gang, and is determined to use the darkest magic imaginable to stop her.


I know when I'm enjoying a book when I get to the last page and wish that the story would continue on.  This book grabbed me from the very first page and held me until the very last.  Thief has all the elements of a captivating fantasy: truly dark magic, noble characters, a sinister villain, and an unpredictable plot.  And even though I don't generally like romances, the relationship between Sevy and her beloved Jarro captivated me.


The book is grim and, especially at the end, quite graphic.  However, the violence and gore were germane to the plot and setting.  And although I  admit that, at times, I was put off by the language (I'm never a fan of the c-word), but at the same time, it too reflected the grittiness of the city and its characters.

Thief is one of the best books I've read all year, and I look forward to reading the squeal.

Lastborn

 

 

Rating:

Title: Lastborn

Author: Rachel Forde

Price:  $2.99

Formats: The book is available in various e-formats on Smashwords.

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The book, Lastborn, chronicles the lives of two very different people: Black Wolf (aka Donovan Banning) who strongly believes in both justice and non-violent protest, and Nara-Ya (aka Ayuma), a young woman whose murderous temper provokes her into acts of cold-blooded aggression.  In a very complex series of events, these two meet and band together to save their land from an evil witch and a despotic king.

The writing in Lastborn is some of the best I've seen in an indie novel.  Not only is the language very smooth, but the descriptions are wonderful and detailed.  Not detailed as in endlessly long, but detailed as in precise.  Forde excels at painting pictures in the reader's mind.  I also appreciated the characters of Black Wolf and Nara-Ya.  They are complex individuals who are each trying in their own ways to right injustices.  I loved how they grew as individuals and as a pair.

Unfortunately, there were a quite a few things that I didn't like as well.  The biggest issue I had was with the book itself.  I couldn't tell what it was.  When it began, it seemed like a story of indigenous people fighting against colonists.  Then a unicorn showed up.  Then the story shifted yet again to an urban setting in which Donovan was struggling to unionize workers from the iron works, giving things a quasi-steampunk feel.  Finally, midway through the novel, the native peoples theme came back into play.  These diverse sub-genres did not make for a good mix.  A steampunk unicorn might be a unique story element, but that doesn't mean it's a good one.

The book also contained so many different peoples, countries, villains, and secondary characters that it was very difficult to keep everyone straight.  Admittedly, this was written as an epic novel; however,there was only one major plot.  Without significant subplots, all those characters were superfluous.  The pacing was also very slow.  Months would pass with the characters doing nothing but waiting.

Lastborn has potential.  I'd love to see the author edit it by tightening up the plot, losing a number of minor characters, and focusing on one sub-genre.  Although I didn't care for this book, I do think that the author's talent shows.

The Cadaver Client

Rating:

Title: The Cadaver Client
Genre: urban fantasy

Author: Frank Tuttle

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Price: $2.66

Formats: The book is available at the Kindle Store


Review by Maria Schneider


Frank Tuttle is one of those authors I turn to when I need a book I can count on. The twists and turns of his plots always delight and The Cadaver Client was no exception.  Even the title intrigued me.  With a title like that, you know this is not going to be an ordinary walk down pulp fiction lane.

Even though The Cadaver Client is labeled book four, Frank Tuttle's author page advises starting with it.  I'd already read "Dead Man's Rain" (a novella) and enjoyed it, so even though I was reading out of order, I happily forged ahead. 

Good stuff, five star all the way.  Tuttle builds atmosphere, plot and characters in layers--you don't know what will be in the middle: a gotcha, humor or a twist.  Markhat, the detective, needs work like any PI, but he tends to get his cases from Mama Hog; a witch down the way.  This isn't always the healthiest place to pick up jobs.

The Markhat books are pulp fiction with a lot of humor, a touch of noir and a lot of adventure.  The pacing is quick.  The setting is somewhere between medieval and urban fantasy; it's a world not that far from our own with magic and not a lot of modern.  The Cadaver Client starts out as a sad tale; a ghost wanting to leave his wife some money, money he never bothered to give her while alive.  So why not when he was alive?  Well, Markhat has a devil of a time figuring it out--he gets beaten up, chased and even ends up in a casket over this one.  He has the ever-strange Mama-Hog to help get him into trouble and a woman who speaks to the dead to make matters even more complicated. 

It's a fun ride; a great afternoon read.  Highly recommended for fantasy or urban fantasy readers.  If you like ghost stories, spooks and odd characters, you'll love Markhat and his friends.

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Maria Schneider is the author of Under Witch Moon, an urban fantasy novel. The sequel, Under Witch Aura is due out by the end of the year (2011). 

Maria's Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002M3FL16

Xenofreak Nation

Rating:

Title: Xenofreak Nation
Genre: YA sci-fi with a touch of romance

Author: Melissa Conway

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Price: $.99

Formats: The book is available at the Kindle Store in on Smashwords.

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 Brynn Vega, a sheltered eighteen-year-old girl, understands two things very well. The first is that genetically modified humans (xenofreaks) are a blight on society.  The second is that her father, a xenofreak-hating fanatic is always right.


Brynn is a dutiful daughter, doing whatever her father orders her to do.  But when she's kidnapped by the XBestias, a ruthless gang of xenofreaks, she must learn to survive on her own.  Even if that means earning the trust of a man who seems determined to put her in harm's way.


I found this book when it was highlighted on an indie book website, and I was immediately hooked by the premise: that the science of bioengineering had advanced enough to where humans could use animal features such as horns and skin to enhance their appearances.  What I wasn't prepared for was the tense plot, the strong character of Brynn, and the wonderful love story.

The plot had a wonderful ability to keep the reader guessing.  Yet, at the same time, it was never confusing or contrived.  The main character, Brynn, may have led a sheltered life, but she was no pushover.  Although she sometimes made foolish choices, most of the time she was clever and could find her way out of a tight situation.  Also, she never lost her sweetness.  Even at the end of the story, when she had to face up to some harsh realities, she didn't harden completely.


The love story, too, was sweet.  Scott Harding, the XBestia gang member who was ordered to guard Brynn, had a good guy lurking underneath his hard exterior.  The scenes between Scott and Brynn are filled with plenty of emotional and sexual tension (although the story remains a very mild PG-13).


Xenofreak Nation is an outstanding book.  The plot moves swiftly, the character are well-rounded and interesting, the tension is marvelous, and the setting is interesting.  I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

Legacies of Talimura: War of the Witch

Rating:

Title: Legacies of Talimura: War of the Witch

Author: Angel Haze

Cost: $.99

Formats: This book is available in all e-formats at the Kindle Store and at Smashwords

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When sixteen-year-old Astanyx and his friends return home from a hunting expedition, they horrified to discover their entire village in ruin. Astanyx's dying father gives them a clue as to what befell their families and friends and begs the boys to take a message to the king. Now, it is up to Astanyx to convince the king of the danger which is about to unleash a terrible power upon the land.

The strongest thing about Legacies of Talimura is its plotting. The book moves swiftly, taking the reader from one exciting episode to the next. There is some 'info-dumping' from time to time; however, the pace is not bogged down by the back story.

For the most part, the book is well-written; however, there are some things keeping it from being a truly great novel. One is the dialogue. There are many places that suffer from the "Deerslayer Syndrome" - a condition in which characters speak slang in one paragraph and then switch to high-flown speech in another.

Another problem is way the sixteen-year-old, peasant Astanyx is treated by his adult companions. Throughout the book, Astanyx's ideas are given equal consideration to those of the high-ranking officers in the army. He's also left alone with the king's daughter a number of times, sent on an extremely important mission that should have been undertaken by a seasoned soldier, and allowed into a meeting among heads of state. I would have liked to read an explanation of why this common-born teenager was given so much respect.

Finally, there were some problems with naming. Astanyx's god, for example, was named 'Shiva'. However, because this god was not the famous Hindu deity, it was jarring to see her name used. The witch's name, Debonair, was also a strange choice since the witch in the book was anything but suave and carefree.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, but I think that with a little more experience, the author's work will improve.

Vibrational Passage

Rating:

Title: Vibrational Passage

Authors: Kimberly Miyasaki Lee, Jennifer Dustow

Price: $2.99

Formats: The book is available in the Amazon Kindle Store and on Smashwords

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For just a minute, I'll set aside the confusing plot, poor grammar and punctuation, and clunky writing style and merely comment on what really bothered me about this novel: the exploitation of the 9/11 tragedy.

Although the September 11, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers happened almost ten years ago, I think it is far too soon to be using the event as a plot point for a conspiracy theory novel. Especially a conspiracy theory which involves such diverse elements as Nazi experimentation on human beings during the Holocaust, a strange pseudo-religious element linking the 9/11 event to the Christian holiday, Pentecost, and an even odder thread involving autistic children.

All I can hope for is that the authors didn't intentionally mean to be disrespectful to those people affected by 9/11, survivors of the Holocaust, or parents of autistic children.