Tag Archives: #Witches

Autism / Aspergers, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Mawson, L.C.: Hunt (Freya Snow 1) (2015)

2017-08-05 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

There was nothing for Amber to fear in this fight; the ghost was already dead.

Amber is essential to the story of Freya Snow, a girl who was born right before her mother died. Lily bound Amber to Freya as a protector and teacher.

Freya awoke the familiar sound of her sister screaming.

Although not sisters in a biological sense, Freya and Alice have been sisters in the foster system in England. Alice is the only of the two diagnosed as autistic. Alice’s autism is so obvious that mental health professionals are unable to deny it. Freya is another matter. She falls into my category, and, therefore, it was obvious to me that her suspicion that she is also autistic is true. They are the only people who take each other’s hang-ups seriously and know that meltdowns are not tantrums.

She was quiet, bright, and didn’t cause trouble for those looking after her. That was enough for everyone to overlook her trouble making friends, her obsessive nature, and her feeling faint in crowded spaces as “quirks”. It was only because of Alice that Freya recognized a lot of her behaviour as stemming from autistic traits.

Freya also happens to be the Hero of Hunt. In typical Hero style, Freya is an orphan, at the cusp of discovering her magic and acts as a magnet for powerful people. Apparently, she has little say over her life.

“I don’t know, getting fostered kind of loses its “special day” status once you get past the tenth time.”

Alice and Freya are about to be parted from each other. Alice has been found by her aunt and Freya will be going to the Big city. Well, larger than the town she is currently living in. She does not expect much of the new family or of the new school. Her expectations will be met but they will also prove invalid. Past experiences do not have to predict the future. She will get a friend. One who is not put off by her behaviour and that friendship sets all sorts of things into motion.

Hunt was well-written. Not great, but fun. I liked it enough to get the next book in line, and White‘s writing was much better. Again, it was freaking amazing to read about a supernatural Aspie girl. Talk about breaking stereotypes. Thank you L.C. Mawson.

Reviews:

Hunt is available at Instafreebie

Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Cheek, Kater; Parasitic Souls (2016)

2016-09-17 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Cover art by: Fiona Jayde Media and Kater Cheek

About five years before the beginning of Parasitic Souls, the Earth experienced a magic apocalypse. As a result of the apocalypse, some people became magical. The strangest form of magic is SL (spontaneous lycanthropy), in this case to coyote . More common is magical talent. Those who had practiced magic before the apocalypse, like brujas/brujos and witches/wizards, had a head-start. The magically talented are able to use their energy to set wards, make charms or influence people. Scientists study magic in hopes of understanding its underlying principles.

One of the magics discovered is a fountain of youth. Not a particularly ethical magic, but one that might potentially earn the inventor loads of money. Many people would be willing to use this highly questionable form of magic and pay almost anything. However, before this fountain of youth could be sold to the wealthy and unscrupulous, it needs testing. Which is how we meet Lenny.

The apartment was dark except for the streetlight shining rudely through the curtains. Since she had a raging thirst and an urgent need to pee, Fiona got up. She managed to find the bathroom without shinning herself too badly on the birch Ektorp coffee table, and she only had to open four cabinets before finding a cup to drink out of. As she was downing her third glass of water, she heard a non-human voice creak at her through the kitchen window.

“Let me in!”

She dropped the glass on the floor. It bounced and rolled under the table, spilling water everywhere.

Fiona gets called to Clementine, California, by her step-mom’s assistant, Sophie. Fiona’s step-mom, Carlotta, had done a disappearing act. There was little the two girls could do to find her, except wait and hoped that the only thing wrong is a severe hangover. Turns out, Carlotta’s problem is a bit more serious. In fact, her whole demeanor changed from warm and kind to cold and mean. At least towards Fiona and Sophie. Something is up, and the two of them know it has to be bad.

Fiona is 24-years old and born to a messed up mother and father. One of her father’s marriages had been to Carlotta. Carlotta was everything Fiona needed, and she was there for Fiona even after she divorced Fiona’s father. So Fiona has reason to expect Carlotta to, at least, let her sleep on the couch. Instead, Fiona has to shack up with Sophie.

Sophie is 18-years old and the adopted child of adoring and overprotective parents. Because Carlotta is related to her mother, Sophie was able to move to Clementine and apprentice with Carlotta. Up until the personality change, Carlotta had treated Sophie kindly. Now neither Fiona or Sophie has a job, and they certainly have no idea what to do about Carlotta. Should they go back or stay and try to fix things?

Parasitic Souls would be a terrible, and probably realistic, story if they chose to give up. However, the two do not. Things happen, and through them we meet Marcello and Xavier. Marcello teaches magic theory at Clementine Preparatory Academy for Magic and Technology. Xavier is apprenticed to his grandmother, the bruja, Luna. Luna is a woman you do not want as an enemy. The two men are in their early twenties and both of them are interested in the two women. So. Some romance.

Parasitic Souls is a Young Adult story with three types of stories in it. Coming-of-age, romance and “what if”. There is plenty of action, some of it rather unusual. Kater Cheek also manages to thrown in her odd, but cool, sense of humor. I liked it and recommend Parasitic Souls.

Parasitic Souls is available at Smashwords

Kater Cheek gave me a copy of Parasitic Souls in exchange for a review

Mystery

Edghill, Rosemary: Speak Daggers to Her (Bast Mysteries 1) (1994)

2016-09-03 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Image is a “Ten of Swords” Tarot card

Image is a “Ten of Swords” Tarot card

I will speak daggers to her, but use none. (Hamlet: III,ii)

More than twenty years ago Rosemary Edghill was caught by the mystery of the sudden death of a healthy young woman in her 20’s. Add to that the ethical violations within the New Age Community that were not taken seriously and Speak Daggers to Her was born. (FM Writers)

“Miriam’s dead.”

It was Lace on the phone, which meant that Miriam was Miriam Seabrook, and Miriam was my age. People in their middle thirties don’t just up and die.

“Bast?” Lace sounded half-a-step away from hysteria. “We were going out to dinner and I used my key and she was lying there on the bed and I thought she was asleep–” Lace took a deep breath and started to cry in high weepy yelps.

“Did you call the police?”

I thought I was fine — after all, I wasn’t the one who’d walked in and found my lover dead — but my jaw muscles ached when I pushed the words out. Not Miriam. Not dead. I didn’t even know her very well, I plea-bargained.

“I can’t. You know I can’t. You know what they’ll do to me — oh, please, please, can’t you come over?” Lace started to cry in earnest, a real Irish peening for the healins.

New York City, like many large cities, is a place people go when they seek others like themselves. Sometimes “The Establishment/ Society” frowns upon the existence of certain alternative lifestyles. Bast, Miriam and Lace belong to the 1990’s neopagans and Witch community in New York. Or as Bast describes themselves:

“overeducated ex-hippies trying to unscrew the inscrutable, trying to make sense of life through ritual and gnosis.”

When Bast arrived at Miriam’s apartment and saw that, yes, she was definitely dead and Lace was gone, Bast called the police. Before they arrived she removed an occult necklace from Miriam’s body.

“a mummified bird claw of some kind, with the stump wrapped in silver wire so she could string it on the chain. The nails were painted red.“

That claw freaked Bast out, as did Miriam’s message on her answering machine:

“… There’s this weird stuff, and I’ve got to see you. … It’s too weird. I’m scared. I think they’re going to – ” The voice stopped abruptly, …

Miriam had been the kind of person who wanted desperately to be part of the occult society. She wanted “The Truth” yet never found it. Each failure brought her into contact with stranger and stranger pagan traditions. She and Bast had eventually become semi-friends, so there was no real reason for Bast to involve herself. Except for that claw and the message from Miriam. Those factors worried Bast and would not leave her alone. Then Bast finds a book of spells with a picture of Miriam being torn in two. Add to that a mysterious phone call and Bast wants to find out if there was anything suspicious about Miriam’s death. Because nothing about the body indicated there would be. But guilt has its own way of gnawing at us, and guilt was Bast’s entry into the world of detection.

Speak Daggers to Her is not about magic, although we do learn a great deal about what being a modern witch entails. We also get a look at coercive groups within Neo-paganism. Groups that use the tools that abusive partners and leaders have always used, grooming and secrecy, and regular people doing things they thought they never would.

I bought the omnibus Bell, Book, and Murder and liked the stories so much I gave a friend of mine a paperback copy. Definitely recommended.

Reviews:

You may buy Bell, Book and Murder at Amazon

Fantasy, Thriller

Wolfe, Anna: Liar’s Game (The One Rises V) (2015)

2016-01-20 humanitysdarkerside 2 Comments

Liar's Game; 2016 — Illustration by Kip Ayers

After reviewing books for four years (April), I have come to realize that great stories (regardless of category) come about through bloody hard work and zing. Any one of us can get to a point of writing good books. Only some of us manage zing. Anna Wolfe is one of them. I have had the privilege following Wolfe’s journey through The One Rises and have watched her mastery and self-confidence grow. By now you must realize that I am going to say that Liar’s Game is the best of the lot.

In her preface Wolfe makes certain no technical difficulties will arise in reading her story. She then gives a brief intro of the previous books. It is, as she states, possible to read Liar’s Game without having read the earlier four stories, but your enjoyment will be much higher if you have gotten to know the main characters Carrie, Silas, Mark, Edie and the Hatter ahead of time. In Liar’s Game we get to know more about Jiye, Mimi, Hyacinth and the Seer.

Up til now, the Seer has been shown as hated and implacable. Liar’s Game demonstrates that life is too complicated for such simplistic interpretations of the Seer:

“We care only about guiding our little globe down the right path. We care about the many, more than the one. And the two of you are necessary to preserve the best futures. But you must find the truth for yourselves or important possibilities become nothing more than frozen darkness.” They do not understand. How can they? They are both so young.

Finally, Dokuz asked a question he should have asked a hundred years ago. “How far can you See?”

At last. “Millenia.” And we won’t be able to help you surf the challenges that are coming. Not if you won’t let us help you.

Imagine what it must be like to see into the future for millennia and to know that quite a few of those paths lead to the annihilation of your species, humans. I know I would go crazy, and my guess is that the Seer most likely was insane during her early incarnations. At least until she became we. Wolfe does not explain the Seer’s we, but she has let us see how Carrie communicates with her memory sets. Once again, I am guessing and believe that the Seer chose at some time in the past to magically retain the memories of every incarnation. That would take courage, resilience and a whole lot of stubborn. Mark, Callie and Silas learn this side of her, and that changes them. How could it not?

Mark is frustrated. His demon-infection demands anger to sate its hunger, and Mark is a master at making people angry. Somehow, his ability recognizes what will hurt the most and tries to force words to bring hurt and anger out in all he meets. Being able to sense lies also aids his ability a great deal. Liar’s Game shows us how painful controlling his ability is.

The sensation in his mouth morphed into a ball of needles that was trying to escape his skull in every direction.

For some reason Callie can feed him without anger, but Callie is an extremely dangerous person to feed from. She has almost killed him once, and neither of them wishes to repeat that experience. So Mark starves rather than inflect unnecessary anger on people.

Silas winced and then a sick ball of dread opened up in his stomach. And now she dies. I’ll have to pass it off as a suicide, but after the events in San Fran, Edie and Mark will be at risk. They will both have to leave. And soon. Only Callie didn’t die. One moment turned into ten and still Callie stood there glaring at him. Shock rippled through him, and for a moment, he couldn’t hear anything. The room wavered under his feet, and he stumbled forward until he could sit on the end of the bed.

Why does Callie not die? Wolfe has hinted at the truth in the previous books. This should knock the final nail into your chest of understanding. No worries, though. All is revealed in Liar’s Game. Fair is fair, so Callie finds out about Silas. Gaining knowledge about each other tears down preconceptions and barriers and matures Silas and Callie for the Seer.

Anna Wolfe states that The One Rises series is intended for adults. Most likely that is because of the sex. It is certainly explicit but no more than the violence in many Young Adult stories. There is plenty of ACTION and some violence.

Highly recommended.

Liar’s Game was given to me by the author.

Liar’s Game is available at Smashwords from Feb 1, 2016

My review of: 1) Bitten, 2) Addicted, 3) Ensnared by magic, 4) Poisoned by deceit

Fantasy, Short story/novella, Thriller

McCoskey, Scott: Bad Mojo Blues (2014)

2015-09-21 humanitysdarkerside 1 Comment

Merriam-Webster defines mojo as: “a power that may seem magical and that allows someone to be very effective, successful, etc.” Bad Mojo is certainly something Marcus suffers from during the three days that we walk with him.

“The cards were screaming at him to hop a plane to anywhere else … Right now they told him to change his fucking direction and fast.”

But Marcus’ father is dying. If not for that, he would have stayed away from his dysfunctional family another ten years. His mom and dad are conservative Christians, his cousin is a blood-bag to a vampire and his sister (who begged him to come home) keeps away from Marcus. He is thought, by his family, to be dirty and evil because he practices magic.

Marcus’ relatives aren’t the only dysfunctional people we meet. Old friends try to mess with him, and some of their requests are pretty unfriendly. All, in all, the tarot cards seem to have been correct, this time, in their predictions.

Scott McCoskey has written about a mess of a person and done it in a manner that I enjoyed. This is a self-published book and there were flaws, but McCoskey’s style makes up for that. Bad Mojo Blues is a fun crime-filled novella set in an unnamed small town in South-West New Mexico.

Fantasy, Mystery

Teasdale, Niall: Thaumatology 101 (2011)

2015-05-27 humanitysdarkerside 2 Comments

thaumatology-101-Niall Teasdale

Thaumatology 101 is a mystery. Ceridwyn (Ceri) Brent has been hired as a research assistant to Dr. Tennant at the Metropolitan University in London at the High-energy Thaumatology Building. Thaumatology is the magic of Teasdale’s world. Dr. Tennant has been working for a couple of years on finding a solution for the containment of T-Null. It turns out her other assistant, Shane Walters, has hampered her work. After an accident occurs that almost kills Ceri, Ceri and Lily begin searching for an answer to why Shane is out to stop Ceri.

I like the way Teasdale introduces us to the world (and the house) both Ceri and Lily are part of. Thaumatology 101 is very much about the friendship between Lily and Ceri. Ceri experiences major changes in her life during the story and Lily is there to both support and hamper her. Thaumatology 101 celebrates sexuality without being preachy or crude. I found that refreshing. Not being a romance was also great. Violence in the story was toned down. Because of the toned down violence and joyful sexuality, I would call this an older Young Adult urban fantasy tale. The story is somewhere between a novella and a novel in length (137 pgs).

Recommended.

Reviews:

Thaumatology 101 available at Smashwords, Amazon.com, Amazon.uk

Adventure, Fantasy, Young Adult

Sullivan, Samuel and Justin: Darkroot (Rhyme of the Willow II) page 179

Quote 2015-01-17 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

“The Blood Demon rushed at him, pure bloodlust in her eyes. Axton held out his scarred hand and envisioned the Green Witch’s vines.

To his astonishment, emerald vines sprouted from his palm, fast as the Darkblades from the skin of a Crow. The vines wrapped around the Blood Demon’s arm, and as Axton stumbled onto his back they flung her overhead. Aniva spun and whirled through the air until she ricocheted off a wall and came toppling behind the fleeing advisors.

Axton cursed while Aniva roused more violent than ever. The Blood Demon caught sight of him and roared, her lips curled back to reveal dozens of sharp yellow teeth.”

Fantasy

Good Omens quote from page 87

Quote 2014-12-21 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. That is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.

Fantasy, Thriller

Harrison, Kim: The Witch with No Name (Hollows XIII) (2014)

2014-12-07 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

For the insider, The Witch With No Name brings Hollows to an end with loads of action, death, betrayal, idiocy and heroism.

Master vampires have no sense of other people’s boundaries. They take psychopathy to its extreme. Seriously scary people. Anyone in their right mind would be afraid of them. Perhaps even seasoned demons. Young ones, like Rachel (the only young demon around), need to keep master vampires away from themselves altogether. Often fictional lives do not work out that way.

When a master vampire, like Cormel, wants something, he does not care at all about anything but what he wants. He utilizes anything he thinks will work to get Rachel to do his bidding. Hell, he’ll even use the tools at his disposal even if he doesn’t think they will be effective.

By now Rachel has come to love such an amount of people that Cormel can pick and choose who he wishes to hurt Rachel with. He wants the souls of the undead re-united with their bodies. Whether that is a good thing or not for the vampires, himself even, he cares not. My will be done! So be it! Lord and emperor in one is how he sees himself.

Psychopaths are seriously frightening people and noone wants them in their lives. But at least they are consistent in not caring, in abusing and in being bad for you. The rest of us though. All of us who deal in shades of grey. Man, we are the ones to be worried about. Some of us try to be half-way decent, while others of us tend to lean more towards deviousness and anarchy, but we are all unpredictable. These are the people who will do the most harm to Rachel and her loved ones.

Perhaps people can help it, but I haven’t seen signs of it yet. We do what we think will benefit ourselves and those we care for. It may be detrimental to all the involved parties, but somehow we find ways to justify godawful choices. Some of Trent and Rachel’s enemies are like that. They want what they think is best for themselves and those they wish on their side, even if part of them has to know (it just has to) that they are doing something stupid. Boy is their choice dumb, idiotic, beyond comprehension, yet oh, such a normal thing.

How does a person fight such people? Sometimes you can’t and sometimes you just have to do your best. In Rachel’s case her best can be pretty impressive. While Kim Harrison manages to convince me that Rachel is afraid and all of that, Rachel is way beyond my abilities – not thinking about the magic stuff now. She is simply brave. Brave and loving and dangerous and stupid. But she tries her best to make life better for her loved ones. Since this story is about her and her coterie, she is the one that matters to me. Forget the rest. LET THEM BURN. Or not. Fortunately it just so happens that what is good for Rachel and her people is also good for the rest of the magical population.

And so it ends. Definitely recommended.

The Witch With No Name available at

My review of:

Fantasy, Young Adult

Jackson, Ros: Diabolical Taste (Kenssie II) (2014)

2014-09-20 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Cover art: Laura Hollingsworth (really like this cover)

Diabolical Taste is funny, sad and exciting. Satire often seems to bring out those feelings in me. The relationship between Rak and Kenssie is definitely an abusive one. Kenssie is the only one who can walk the painful journey of accepting that her illusions are just that. The whole demonic thrall system reeks of abuse.

Rak and Kenssie perfectly illustrate the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves and the people we have chosen to love. Coming to realize that one’s relationship is a destructive one must be excruciatingly difficult. As with all addictions, the first and most difficult step has to be acknowledgement.

Kenssie’s power to “eat secrets” seems to be an incredibly powerful tool. She is only 16 years old and still trying to figure out the powers she began fully utilizing in The Secret Eater. This eating of emotions and thoughts to nourish themselves is a great way of getting across the importance of our inner lives.

We meet some cool and dangerous characters in Diabolical Taste. Otis the human is particularly interesting. Toward the end of the story we discover something funny about him. Seneb, the love demon, is another character I enjoyed. Feeding on love as a demonic power is fascinating yet perhaps strange. Grief, on the other hand, is a perfectly understandable demonic meal. We also have a fear eater in our story. Both made me take a closer look at myself.

I loved reading Diabolical Taste. It left me with a sense of sadness and pride for the demon Kenssie had become.

Ros Jackson provided me with a copy of Diabolical Taste in return for a review.

My review of The Secret Eater

Fantasy

Harkness, Deborah: Book of Life (All Souls III) (2014)

2014-09-17 humanitysdarkerside 1 Comment

http://deborahharkness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CoverGermanTranslationofTBOL.jpg

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http://www.pinterest.com/pin/238479742743968151/

http://deborahharkness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/all-souls-trilogy-notes-by-stephanie-pichot-gault-v2.jpg

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I cannot help but love a novel written as intelligently as The Book of Life. Not only does Deborah Harkness demand that I use what little wits are left to me, but she also keeps herself in the river of words through the entire story. In addition, my autism bug sends itself off on missions of discovery and I have had a blast looking into genetics, history and Yale University Campus and surrounding areas.

These are NOT stand-alone books. If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Deborah Harkness, you will have to start at the beginning: A Discovery of Witches. You can read an excerpt of that story here.

At some point in our lives most of us will make at least one astoundingly stupid choice. Matthew Clairmont’s choice involved revenge and abandonment. Sometimes our idiotic choices come back to haunt us well into the future. In Matthew’s case it would be safe to say that the devastating consequences of his choice could be felt for centuries. He is being bitten about as hard in his ass as a person could be. Time also has a way of sorting things out and vampires have plenty of time (if they manage to stay alive).

The Congregation is all about racial purity. Matthew, Miriam, Chris and his assistants’ research will help to shove the Congregation’s ideas of racial purity right where they belong. I hate the idea of racial purity (shudder). Every time I hear the words I become anxious, and I am one of the majority. I cannot imagine what those who supremacists consider “less than” must feel. Thankfully, both the Claremont DNA research and modern DNA research shows us how much such ideas are worth. It would now be appropriate for me to show my middle finger to those who entertain such ideas, but alas …

Friendship is such a strange phenomenon. I have people I love dearly and hardly ever meet or speak with. But they continue to hold a strong place in my feelings. When we meet, our friendship usually seems to have survived. People I meet often do not necessarily resonate with me. There seems no rhyme or reason to how these relationships come about. Several of the characters in The Book of Life experience the same thing. For some of them friendship comes in the most unlikely places. In other cases people who seemed like stinkers turn out to be strong friends. Then we have those who discover that their love has survived all the challenges thrown their way.

Political scheming, assassinations, power-struggles and betrayal are definitely a part of this last book in the All Souls trilogy. You will find plenty of near-death and death experiences in it, none of them of the peaceful kind.

I must not forget that a large chunk of the All Souls trilogy is about the love story between Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont. The two of them fight for their lives and their right to be together across the lines of their genetic variations. Some of their story is together and some of it is apart from each other.

Highly recommended.

Reviews:

The Book of Life on Amazon • B&N • Books-a-Million • iBooks
IndieBound • Kindle • Nook – Barnes & Noble online

My review of:

Sources:

Scientists Identify Neanderthal Genes in Modern Human DNA (2014), Sci-News.com
What Does It Mean to be Human?, Smithsonian Institute
Yale University Campus Map

Fantasy

Winchester, C.S.: Past Life (Past III) (2012)

2014-09-06 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Past Life - CS Winchester - white background

Past Life - CS Winchester - black background

I like Dante. He is the kind of guy that would make me laugh. I wouldn’t want to mess with him, but I think I would like to hang with him (no, not the deadly kind of hanging!). He was appointed Frankie’s guardian during Josh’s negotiations with the Council in Half Past. I really hated that ending, because Josh was seriously cool. But that is the power of The Author: to mess with their readers’ emotions.

I wonder how much of a mess I am making of the lives of my sons. Parents seem to be good at handing work to therapists. Frankie’s mother is a good example of messy parenting. She has never accepted Frankie and all of her sides, while Frankie has worked harder and harder at getting that acceptance. In the end something had to break, and break it does. Sometimes fractured relationships end up being exactly what was needed to finally move forward and together towards the same goal. And sometimes not. Reading the story will let you know which is the case in Past Life.

Will is giving me a hard time. Do I like him or not? Hmmmm? Yes and no. Figuring out where Winchester is going with him is difficult. We’ll just have to see if another story is forthcoming.

Past Life is a mystery, and the crimes committed turn out to be against one of the people Frankie knows well. She is extra motivated to solve the bizarre killings and is learning to accept help to find her answers.

Answers is something Winchester has left us with in each of the stories in the Past series. Choices and their unintended consequences were an important issue of Past Life, and CS hands us her gift in a fun wrapping.

Past Life available on Amazon US

My review of:

Past Due
Half Past

Adventure, Fantasy, Young Adult

Halstead, Jason: Dark Earth (Dark Earth I) (2011)

2014-08-29 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Cover art by Willsin Rowe

In my opinion Dark Earth seems aimed at a younger Young Adult audience.

Jason Halstead starts off the story in modern US and then takes us to a parallel world set to a pre-industrial age. He describes this Dark Earth as meaner and greedier than our own. Perhaps that is due to the younger audience he is writing for and possibly a need to create a good and a bad world. I certainly know of plenty of people who are as mean and greedy on our side of the gates. Places that are more or less pre-industrial are in existence although these are becoming fewer by the decade.

Our heroes are Eric, who lost his wife 13 years ago, and his 13-year-old daughter Jessica. Eric is still caught in the grief of his wife being killed while in her 8th month of pregnancy. When a guy turns up at his house attempting to murder his daughter, Eric is understandably frustrated, angry, afraid and reminded of his previous loss. Then Eric and Jessica discover that they are part of a 2000-year-old legacy that reaches across to parallel world. Now the two will also have to deal with Jessica being kidnapped and Eric being bitten by a strange wolf.

I read Dark Earth a long time ago but had forgotten to write a review for it. That meant I had to read it again. Jason Halstead certainly writes well enough for me to also enjoy the second reading. Although Jessica was the person of interest to the various parties, Eric was the character that I saw the most of. He was the one that showed growth and development.

There was plenty of action and some violence. Only one short bit might be considered by some parents as too much for the youngest children. Other than that, Dark Earth must be one of the safer stories out there for a Young adult audience. There was no swearing, very little violence, some sadness and no romance (except in the memory of Eric and his late wife).

Reviews:

Dark Earth on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Smashwords

Fantasy

Wolfe, Anna: Poisoned by Deceit (The One Rises IV) (2014)

2014-08-15 humanitysdarkerside 1 Comment

Cover Art by Jonathan Burkhardt and Kip Ayers; http://mmogrinder.net/author/mmogrinder/ http://www.kipayersillustration.com/ Editorial Work by Tara Schlagenhauf — Cover Art by Jonathan Burkhardt and Kip Ayers; http://mmogrinder.net/author/mmogrinder/
http://www.kipayersillustration.com/
Editorial Work by Tara Schlagenhauf

Anna Wolfe‘s stories aren’t particularly long. Poisoned by Deceit was 121 pages according to the PDF file I read. I was given a copy of Poisoned by Deceit by Anna Wolfe – no strings attached. But you know me. I love to read and I have come to love working on this blog.

Edith Carter, or Edie as she prefers, is one of Silas’ trainees. In reality she is probably at the stage where it is time for her to move on. She and Silas work so well together that Edie isn’t all that comfortable about letting him go. Silas was the one she ended up with as a trainer when she lost control of her powers and almost killed her husband.

To say that Edie is bothered by this near-killing is an understatement. While it wasn’t really her fault, she still blames herself for what nearly happened. This is an interesting trait I have noticed in people I know and people I read about. Every once in a while I also find myself dipping my toes into the “what-if” pool of regrets. Regretting her past actions and anguishing about her “what-ifs” definitely rules part of Edie’s life.

Regretting past actions is partly what The One Rises is about. Logically, it is silly to feel bad about what cannot be changed. At the same time we need to have an understanding of the effects of our previous actions. Balancing the two is awfully hard. I know I haven’t managed it yet and Edie has an even longer way to go before she is able to let go of her past.

She is getting better. Better at controlling her powers and better at seeing the past for what it was. Being bitten by a demon-ridden isn’t something most people long for. It just seems to happen once a demon has taken over a body turning it into a demonridden. That is the way it happened for Edie as well. Now she and the group will have to save her ex-husband’s nephew and a bunch of other teens who seem to have been kidnapped by the Chosen (demonbitten with a superiority complex).

I continue to love Anna Wolfe’s writing. Her book was devoured once I found the time to sit down with it. There is plenty of action, plenty of tension (sexual as well as violent) as well as a look into the gray of human psyche. Definitely recommended.

Interview with Anna Wolfe by Pembroke Sinclair

Poisoned by Deceit on Smashwords

My review of:

Fantasy, Mystery, Young Adult

McLeod, Suzanne: The Bitter Seed of Magic (Spellcrackers III) (2011)

2014-08-04 humanitysdarkerside 1 Comment

http://worldoffroud.smugmug.com/Books

http://gatherer.wizards.com

Morrigan: https://journeyingtothegoddess.files.wordpress.com

“Bean Sidhe” by Alessandro Cristiano at elfwood.com

Danu: http://www.thesilverbranch.org/goddess/power/danu.html

Detective Inspector Helen Crane of the Metropolitan Police’s Magic and Murder Squad embodies the law of unintended consequences to me. As we saw in The Sweet Scent of Blood and The Cold Kiss of Death DI Crane is out to get Genvieve Taylor. Helen is a Witch. Genvieve a Sidhe. Crane’s hatred is not due to their two races, or rather not directly. In her youth Helen Crane went through a traumatic experience that has caused her hatred for both the Sidhe fae and for Vampires. Poor Genny hasn’t a clue why DI Crane is out to destroy her, but Genvieve Taylor is the one who has to live with the consequences of that long-ago experience.

Spellcrackers.com is both serial and series. If you want to understand the overarching story of the whys and whereofs of the search for a solution to the fae sterility problem you will need to read the preceding novels. But if all you want is a fun mystery then you can read The Bitter Seed of Magic on its own. That also goes for The Sweet Scent of Blood and for The Cold Kiss of Death.

Our mystery in The Bitter Seed of Magic has to do with the strange circumstances around the deaths of fae women. They turn up glamoured to look like human girls. At the very least all magic should have been washed away by the River Thames from which they were pulled. But this is not the case. Obviously magic is involved and because of its nature Genvieve becomes involved. At first only to remove the spells on their bodies. Then it becomes personal – due to the matter of the feud DI Crane has instigated.

Genny’s own past comes to haunt her. She meets long-lost relatives. Her nickname for one of them is Mad Max (no irony intended) and that should tell you what you need to know about him. Others of her relatives also make an appearance in Genvieve’s life, but I will leave you to find out just who they are on your own. Lets just say that Mad Max is not the only crazy family Genny has. Perhaps crazy is the wrong word for their personalities. Amoral might be a better one or maybe just ethically different seeing as none of them are human.

One thing our experiences with Genvieve Taylor shows is that curses are a whole lot simpler to cast than to undo. In fact that goes for all of our experiences in life. In general it seems to be easier to prevent than to fix. Poor Genny. Left having to fix the idiocy and thoughtlessness of others. She is not on her own though and that could help. Having friends does seem to make my troubles easier to bear. New friends turn up in Genny’s life making her troubles a little less complicated as well. She will need those friends considering just who is pushing Genvieve around. Phew. I am so glad I am not her. Boring is good is my motto when it comes to my own life.

But excitement in the form of stories and excellent authors is another matter. Suzanne McLeod not only makes Genvieve Nataliya Zakharinova Taylor come alive for me but also very much makes me care what happens to her and her life and her friends.

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