Charming charms, because John Charming isn't

Charming by Elliott James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's like the country song says, "Maybe I'm a real bad boy, but baby, I'm a real good man."

He comes from a long line of Charmings -- an illustrious family of evil-fighters dating back to before Rome. He was trained by the Knights Templar--vicious upholders of the Pax Arcana, established by the powerful Fae when they left this plane. The Pax prevents normal from recognizing the presence of the supernatural beings left behind. Sometimes there’s a lot of collateral damage in the Knights’ enforcement: the deaths of innocents.

John Charming is on the run from the Templars, but not from his geas to protect the innocent and fight evil, so he’s a goner in more ways than one when Sig the Valkyrie walks into the bar, followed by a vampire.

Charming hits all the notes I like in urban fantasy: snarky hero (female or male) with a heart of gold, check. Superpowers, check. Nasty villains, check. Disparate characters joining together to fight evil, check. Love interest secondary or tertiary plot element, check. We read in our genres and subgenres because we do want some common elements—yes, we do want to hear the same story over and over again, but different!

What draws us to urban fantasy, I believe, is that the lines are blurred—between this world and others, between right and wrong. Sometimes the only difference between the bad guys and the good guys is that the good guys have a conscience. So like real life. We all want superpowers, we all have a taste for violence, we all live in a world that discourages and condemns violence at the same time, and we all want to just hit something or blow something up sometimes! And boy, do we want that sarcastic comeback when we need it! Hence, fantasy.

Finding a new author, a voice with some originality, is one of a reader’s greatest pleasures, and for avid readers, a promise of more books from the same author, heaven. Recommended!

(Got a temporary e-galley from the publisher through Netgalley. Netgalley reviewers are not paid.)



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Parallel Parking

Pile of Bones by Bailey Cunningham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm going to start out by saying I hope to read the sequels, and I've ordered the author's other series, all 5 books. That said, it's hard to get into. It's like Stravaganza for adults, with way less explanation of the alternate world, which is more like a multiplayer real world role playing game. The main characters are Canadian graduate students who live in the city of Regina. By day they grade papers and teach classes while wondering what they will do to graduate, what they will do after they graduate, and why they exist--just like grad students everywhere. By night, they go to the city park and transfer to another world, where artificers (techies) soldiers (saggitarii and miles) musicians (trovadores) and (auditores) people who can hear/feel/see elementals, try to better their lives by risking  greatness (throwing the dice to fate).  By about halfway through, I had acclimated, and the story heated up. By the end I was appreciative of librarians and wishing the sequel was already out. If you don't mind working for your story and you are a proud geek or nerd, you will enjoy it too.


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This Case Is Gonna Kill Me

This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even though Linnet does not realize how creepily lucky she is and we, of course, do, the sheer enjoyment of the lawyerly and werewolf/vampire/urban fantasy sendup is just too good! I ordered number two in hardcover. Linnet is a human lawyer, fostered by vampires, who is getting caught up in supernatural business and politics. We don't know why people are trying to kill her, and they don't know why it never works! I am content for her to be dim in this first book and trust that she'll wise up.

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Sins & Shadows

Sins & Shadows by Lyn Benedict

My rating: 5 of 5 stars Loved it, solid entry in the kick-ass urban fantasy genre, but feel as if I read book 2, not book 1! I would have read a longer book! I want to know more of the back story! I want a prequel! I am one of those people who hates the idea of starting in the middle of a series. I say I hate the idea because I've never done it, and I don't like the publisher making me do it. I blame the publisher not the author because the hints of the past, throwaway facts, feel uprooted from a grounded, detailed backstory, not merely dropped in to add intrigue. If that story does not exist, it sure should... View all my reviews >>