Month: March 2015

Calling all superheroes!

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Courtesy of Amazon.comOkay, so I came across this book on Amazon called Love for the Cold-Blooded: Or The Part Time Evil Minion’s Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero by Alex Gabriel. I was hooked pretty well immediately but before I go too far in this, I give you fair warning that there is quite a bit of explicit m/m sex in this book. If this squicks you, don’t read even though it was a damn fun book.

This is a world where villains (who call themselves challengers) and superheroes (whom the villains call hoagies. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get that joke too) are a normal part of every day life. So in that way, its kind of like the movie Mystery Men. The book stars young Patrick West (Pat to his friends, Patpat to his family), the youngest child of infamous supervillainess Serpentissima (yes, she is part snake/part woman).

Pat doesn’t want to follow his mother’s footsteps like his sisters do. He loves his mother and he loves being a part time minion to other villains but his love is architecture and urban design and that’s what he’s going to school for god damn it! The children of the challengers/villains are often lent out to other villains as part time minions. They can work themselves up to Trusted Lieutenant and Right Hand, so its sort of like a whole business.

Pat is going to college, is on the swim team and has a part time gig as a night manager for superhero Silver Paladin, rich, genius and eccentric (and hot, let’s not forget that) billionaire Nicholas Anderson. Nicholas Anderson is completely out of touch with societal norms. There was very little of Anderson’s back story so I can only guess that this young genius was home-schooled or was just Doogie Howser-ish because he really doesn’t have any way to connect with people, he’s incredibly insecure and he has absolutely no game.

And by no game I mean, he hires hookers (“companions”) in order to get laid. Well, handling that sort of thing is actually in Pat’s night manager manual…which he neglects to read because he’s got homework.  Naturally, hi-jinks ensue when Anderson asks for a guy to be sent up to his lab. Pat sends himself because he has no idea that Anderson’s looking to get laid.

You can guess what happens. 😉 Pat gets one of his sisters to get him a fake ID complete with fake bank account and he takes the money because text books won’t buy themselves. This continues on for a bit until Anderson comes down to the night manager’s post and discovers Pat at work. Pat freaks and jumps at a chance to minion for the gentlemanly Sir Toby because there’s no way he fell in love with a hoagie. None at all. Honestly, he doesn’t miss Anderson and his cheesy lines and “would you rather” questions.

I found this book cute and hilarious. Its got romance and shenanigans and a happy endings. I would highly recommend this book and I’m really hoping this young author does more in this world because it was really fun. If you don’t mind the sex scenes (or enjoy them, whatevs), I suggest you check this out. I was fun and light-hearted and the world building was pretty darn good. And I loved that it was done from the point of view of the “villains”. You can see what they feel about their position in society and that was refreshing. Rating: A+

Trick of the Light

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I love writer Rob Thurman. She’s got two great series, Cal Leandros and her Trickster series. Her first book in the second, but interconnected, series is Trick of the Light. Starring trickster paien Trixa Iktomi, this series takes place in Las Vegas. Because of course. Where better for a trickster (or two) to pull their tricks.

Trixa owns a dive bar in Las Vegas with her best friend and bartender Leo Rain. Leo looks like a very large Native American man but don’t let that fool you, he’s probably the most infamous trickster in history. I’ll give you a hint: He’s Norse. The two of them take great pleasure in foiling the plans of the city’s demon population. Demons as in fallen-angel type demons. They’re everywhere in Vegas which…duh, really. Makes perfect sense.

At any rate, Trixa and Leo keep their heads moderately down, doing just enough to have their fun and play on whatever Trixa’s long game is, because she does the long con like no-one’s business. They took two young orphans under their tutelage some years before, two now young men named Zeke and Griffin. These two young men are a telepath and an empath, respectively. And they very much enjoy killing demons. They do, in fact, do it professionally.

In this book, Trixa gets herself in a position of having to find an extremely powerful artifact called the Light of Life. In the wrong hands (see: Demons), it could be utterly devastating. In the right hands (hers, naturally), it could be a savior. The paien get hunted by demons and this Light could provide them with an impenetrable safe haven.

I loved this book because it kept me guessing the whole time. And the finale was amazing. I love a book that can surprise me to the end. I highly, highly recommend both this and its follow up Grimrose Path. In fact, I think I will go ahead and re-read these both. 🙂 I hope Rob Thurman writes more of these because I love Trixa. Rating: A+

Steampunk-ish: Red Hot Steele

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Courtesy of goodreads.comSo this book Red Hot Steele by Alex Berg came up when I looked for a new steampunk novel  in Amazon. Only thing is…it isn’t really steampunk. Its more like…an Edwardian pulp mystery. Its a bit more Dashiell Hammet than Gail Carriger.  This is a first person novel told from the perspective of Detective Jake Daggers. Really. That’s his name. And he seems to be every stereotypical gumshoe rolled into one. He’s a large, misogynistic detective in New York that eats poorly, is divorced and not a good dad.

At least I think its New York. The world building in this book is almost non-existent. Magic/the supernatural seems to be known and somewhat accepted in this world, as evidenced by the fact that Detective Daggers’ new partner is a young female half-elf by the name of Shay Steele. Yes, really. Despite her name, she’s actually the most interesting character in the book. She supposedly has some supernatural talent for visions which lands her on the police force. As women are not police in this time/world, her visions are the only way she can gain detective status.

The story itself is a regular old murder/con double-header with a sprinkling of magic. It wasn’t really all that spectacular a story and I figured out the whodunit pretty quickly. It could have been an acceptable book if there were more world building but seriously, the most thought I felt was put into it was the fact that horses weren’t used in the city anymore because of all the droppings so therefore rickshaws were the mode of transportation for those who could afford such things. I thought that was an interesting concept but it was the only thing that put any sort of time-frame on this story.

There was none of the usual steampunk trappings of steam powered everything, gadgets, brass, and general sense of elegance. I was overall disappointed with this book and grateful I got it on sale for about 4 bucks. I don’t see myself getting the next book in the series. If you’re a fan of the old Sam Spade/Big Sleep style mysteries, this might be a good book for you. If you are more a steampunk person or an urban fantasy person, I’d stay away. There just isn’t enough of either genre in this to satisfy.  Rating: C-

Downfall: A Cal Leandros novel

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Courtesy of goodreads.comAh! A day late! My excuse is that I spent the weekend having awesome good outdoor fun with the hubby. 🙂 So anyway, on to Downfall by Rob Thurman. This is the latest book in the Cal Leandros series. At this point, Cal has managed to kill off every Auphe except for himself and his fairly newly discovered half brother Grimm. Grimm is trying to make a new Auphe race out of succubae but that isn’t working so well. Cal and Niko can wipe the floor with those suckers and Niko is one hundred percent human.

Still, Grimm is getting trickier and more persistent. He wants to break Cal, wants to prove he’s the better Auphe. And the way to do that is the get rid of Niko in one way or another. The problem is, Robin Goodfellow knows this. He also knows that if Cal dies, then Niko dies with him. Even if Niko survives physically, he’d soon follow Cal wherever Cal ended up. Robin has been watching it happen over and over again for millenia. He won’t let it happen again.

Rob Thurman does an excellent job of keeping us guessing by throwing Robin’s perspective in this book, as opposed to just Cal and Niko’s. We learn a lot more about my personal favorite character in this series, both in how much he can care and how devious he is. And even then, it isn’t a guarantee that things will turn out well for our favorite underdogs.

I enjoyed the hell out of this book. It was full of sneakiness and deviousness and yet there were warm fuzzies too. And I’m not just talking about the werewolves. 😉 I think it would help to read a book or two of the rest of the series but I came in about half way through and I’ve managed to catch on just fine without reading all the books. Still, a little background reading would not go amiss and I don’t think you’d be disappointed with any of these books. Rating: A