Review of House of Shadows by Rachel Neumeier
Sep
13
2012

Check out Rachel Neumeier’s guest post about writing House of Shadows and enter to win a signed copy (giveaway open internationally)!

House of Shadows
by Rachel Neumeier
342pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.57/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.62/5
 

House of Shadows is the most recent fantasy book by Rachel Neumeier, who has also written the Griffin Mage trilogy and two young adult fantasy books (The Floating Islands and The City in the Lake). While the author has mentioned she has an idea for a sequel, House of Shadows is a story that stands on its own and is wrapped up in the end.

Once there was a merchant with eight daughters ranging in age from 9 to 19. Each one of these daughters fit into the household or managed a portion of the business in some way – except for Nemienne. Nemienne lacks a special talent and is prone to getting distracted from her tasks, leading to burned bread or even no bread when she returns from the market empty-handed.

One day the merchant dies suddenly, leaving his daughters with more debts than they can handle and a business they cannot legally own. After much discussion, they come to the conclusion that they must face the hard truth: in order to pay off their debts and keep their father’s business, some of the sisters must be sold. Since she has no skill that is useful to the household, Nemienne is the first to volunteer to be one of these sisters. Karah, the most beautiful sister, sensibly suggests she attempt to sell herself to a flower house as a keiso, one of the glamorous women who entertain men in social gatherings. The two sisters meet the Mother of the highly reputable Cloisonné House, who pays a sizable sum to make Karah part of her house. Nemienne does not fit in with the sophisticated keiso any more than she did her own household; however, the Mother of Cloisonné House recognizes that Nemienne has a talent for magic and arranges for her to earn her keep as a mage’s apprentice.

While Nemienne learns magic and explores the strange house she’s now living in, Karah becomes a keiso earlier than is normal. At her first social gathering as a keiso, Karah is introduced to Taudde, a bard from Kalches. Due to hostility between the country he is visiting and his own nation, Taudde must keep both his knowledge of sorcery and his homeland a secret. Unfortunately for Taudde, some men involved in a conspiracy against their own kingdom discovered his secret and used it to blackmail him into being part of their plot. When Karah catches the eye of the conspirators’ target, she is nearly killed and is only saved by Nemienne’s magical influence, drawing both sisters into the scheme against their kingdom.

House of Shadows is enchanting with lovely writing and a character-driven story. It reads like an original fairy tale, full of magic, wonder, and beauty. I was utterly charmed by this book and so absorbed in it I could barely manage to put it down before it was finished.

From the very beginning, I was quite taken with the family of eight sisters and their plight. The characters and the immediacy with which I sympathized with them were a large part of what made this novel shine. In particular, I was struck by Nemienne and the way she felt out of place in her family:

 

But sometimes, especially on those evenings, she felt her father’s puzzled gaze resting on her, as though he understood how each of his other daughters fit into his household but did not quite understand where Nemienne might exactly fit. Sometimes Nemienne herself wondered what kind of puzzle it might be, that had a Nemienne-shaped piece missing out of its middle. [pp. 3]

As Nemienne learned magic, I just grew to love her more for her vast inner strength, courage, and sharp mind. She was a refreshing character since she was both one supposed to be intelligent and one who acted like it. Once she was presented with evidence, it didn’t take long for her to figure out what was going on. She did perhaps seem a little too quick to catch on at times, but I didn’t mind that much since I prefer that to a character who struggles with the obvious, dragging out the plot needlessly in the process.

Like her sister, Karah is a bit on the perfect side but in a completely different way. Karah is beautiful, kind, innocent, and prized by the flower house for her sweet naivete. Yet I found her extremely likable and even sympathetic, probably because she did still have uncertainty about her new role and so much innocence that she could be blinded by it. One aspect of Karah that I really enjoyed was that she was more than just an attractive woman – her beauty captured the attention of others yet it was her wit and attentiveness that held their attention.

While important, Karah is actually not a point of view character and much of her time at Cloisonné House is viewed through the eyes of Leilis, a servant who used to have a more prestigious role. Leilis has experienced firsthand just how terrible some of the women in the flower house can be and acts as a guide to Karah, all while slowly revealing the details of her downfall. Since she does have some very understandable bitterness, she nicely balances out the two sisters’ innate goodness and still manages to be a character one can root for at the same time.

Out of all the major characters, it took me the longest time to warm up to Taudde since his point of view was the most removed from the two sisters in the beginning, but by the end he was my favorite of all. He was the most multi-faceted of these characters, and I think that is largely because he was the one who was tested the most. When he was blackmailed, he had to make a decision that had a big impact. While he didn’t always do the right thing, his actions were rational making it easy to continue to empathize with his situation and like him.

Although I feel like I am spending too much time on the characters in this review, I have to discuss the major villain a little before moving on. It’s revealed pretty quickly that he’s not exactly what he first appeared, but depending on whose perspective you were reading from, you saw a different side of him. In the end, he was clearly the bad guy, but I thought there were enough different sides to his personality that it was hard to really view him as extremely evil until then. The way he acted made it seem reasonable that the other characters didn’t see that he was a villain because he wasn’t the cackling bad guy with obvious pure evil intent to many of them.

The prose and descriptions were often quite beautiful, and I also thought they were well balanced. There were descriptive sections, but there was never so much description dumped on the page at once that it seemed excessive. The more detailed passages were spread out so they never lost their loveliness.

In addition to the characters and writing, the magic also stood out. Nemienne’s mage studies showed us one side of the magic that was about light, dark, and sympathy. Taudde’s bardic sorcery showed us a different type of powerful magic that was also fascinating. There’s also the mysterious mage house with its passageways and doorways that suddenly appear, and a dragon who embodies magic in an interesting way.

There’s really very little I didn’t love about House of Shadows, but it did bother me a little that everything worked out very neatly and easily in the end. As mentioned, I also did feel that Karah was almost too perfect and Nemienne almost too smart. Both did have situations that balanced that out a little and made them sympathetic – Nemienne starting as an outcast and Karah beginning her life in the flower house feeling a bit unsure. However, I enjoyed the book enough that these are minor quibbles.

All wordiness aside, I loved House of Shadows. The characters, writing, and magic captivated me, but there was a lot to love in the details as well – the dragon, the cats who are characters in their own right, female characters with different situations and types of inner strength, and just a little bit of romance. It is a simple book in some ways yet it all fits together so effortlessly that it is not, and it has enough beauty and wonder to make it truly memorable.

My Rating: 8.5/10

Where I got my reading copy: I was contacted about reviewing the book by the author and received a copy of the book from her publisher.

Read Preview on Google Books

Other Reviews of House of Shadows:

Guest Post by Rachel Neumeier (with International Book Giveaway!)
Sep
12
2012

Today I am pleased to welcome Rachel Neumeier, author of the Griffin Mage trilogy, The Floating Islands, and The City in the Lake. I recently read her latest fantasy book, House of Shadows and enjoyed it immensely due to the beautiful writing, charming characters, and delightful magics. I’ll tell you more about why I loved it tomorrow in my review, but first I’m going to let Rachel tell you about the book and her writing process. Also, she has a signed copy of House of Shadows to give away!

House of Shadows by Rachel Neumeier

Thanks for inviting me to post on Fantasy Book Café, Kristen!  It’s a pleasure to be here, and I’m delighted you enjoyed HOUSE OF SHADOWS.

HOUSE OF SHADOWS is, of course, my sixth book to hit the shelves.  It’s an unusual book for me, in a way.  Not in having three point-of-view protagonists – all of my books so far have at least two – but in how misleading the back cover copy is.  It’s amazing how difficult it is to write back cover copy that is both intriguing and accurate!  In the past, I’ve literally written the back cover copy before writing the book – and I write without an outline, so this means the back cover copy was written before I had much idea about the plot!

For HOUSE OF SHADOWS, the back cover copy was a team effort, since the folks at Orbit had a lot of input in the final draft – which I think is effective, even if it is misleading.  The back cover strongly implies, of course, that the story is going to be about two sisters.  And it is.  But only one of those sisters is a point-of-view protagonist.  The other is a linchpin around which the story turns, but she’s not actually a protagonist.  Instead, one of the other two protagonists is the “foreign bard” mentioned on the back cover, and the other isn’t mentioned on the back cover at all.

Why did I end up with a story so complicated that writing the back cover copy turned into such a challenge?  Well, because I actually started this book three different times and in three different ways.  Then, of course, I actually found I liked all three different beginnings and wound up braiding all three protagonists together into a single plot.  I think this worked quite well, but it did lead to a complicated structure.

From this, you may gather that, as a writer, I’m about as far from an “outliner” as you can get.  That is so true!  While I may write a brief outline, I usually don’t even do that until I’m halfway through the book – and then only if I’m stuck.  This leads to some predictable issues.  For example, if you suspect I sometimes I have to go back and make pretty substantial changes, you are so right.  In HOUSE OF SHADOWS, I actually wrote about 40 pages leading up to the climactic scene, realized it was all wrong, deleted all those pages, and started over.  The climax worked much better after I realized there was a dragon involved!  Obviously I had to make lots of little changes all through the book after I figured that out.

You may think this is a lot more trouble than outlining would be.  You’d be right!  But for me, and for other “pantsers,” it turns out that forcing an outline kills the story.  I completely lose interest in writing the story if I’ve worked out too much of the plot and world beforehand.  A rough idea is fine, an ending scene to end with is great, but too much detail is deadly.  Just one of those things you have to keep in mind if you’re writing:  you have to do it the way that works for you, even if it doesn’t seem like the sensible way to do it.

I’m pretty pleased with how HOUSE OF SHADOWS turned out, even if I didn’t write it the “sensible” way!

Thank you, Rachel! I enjoyed hearing about your writing process and the creation of the back cover copy, and I am happy you realized there was a dragon involved in House of Shadows as well. I was a big fan of the dragon!

House of Shadows Giveaway

Rachel has a signed copy of House of Shadows to give away! Anyone can enter this giveaway regardless of country.

Giveaway Rules: To be entered in the giveaway, fill out the form below OR send an email to kristen (AT) fantasybookcafe (DOT) com with the subject line “House of Shadows.” One entry per person. This giveaway is open to anyone from any country in the world and a winner will be randomly selected. The giveaway will be open until the end of the day on Saturday, September 22.  The winner has 24 hours to respond once contacted via email, and if I don’t hear from them by then a new winner will be chosen (who will also have 24 hours to respond until someone gets back to me with a place to send the book to).

Please note email addresses will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner. Once the giveaway is over all the emails will be deleted.

Good luck!

Update: Now that the giveaway is over, the form has been removed.

The Leaning Pile of Books
Sep
09
2012

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week – old or new, bought or received for review. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included.

This week brought six review copies, but one was a second copy of a book I just got last week, one was not actually SFF, and one is the finished copy of a book I already discussed so I’m only going to discuss three of these. (And yes, I did buy a book for National Buy a Book Day on Friday, but I ordered it so it’s not here yet. I’ll talk about it after it gets here.)

In case the finished copy was a book any of you were waiting for, Ghost Key by Trish J. MacGregor was released last month.

The Tainted City by Courtney Schafer

The Tainted City (The Shattered Sigil #2) by Courtney Schafer

This sequel to Courtney Schafer’s debut, The Whitefire Crossing, will be released in trade paperback and ebook on October 2. Chapter one and chapter two can both be read on the author’s website. If you haven’t yet read the first book, you can read the first six chapters from The Whitefire Crossing.

I did read and review The Whitefire Crossing and am rather curious about what happens in the second book! The title for the third book sounds pretty exciting, The Labyrinth of Flame.

Dev is a desperate man. After narrowly surviving a smuggling job gone wrong, he’s now a prisoner of the Alathian Council, held hostage to ensure his friend Kiran — former apprentice to one of the most ruthless mages alive — does their bidding.

But Kiran isn’t Dev’s only concern. Back in his home city of Ninavel, the child he once swore to protect faces a terrible fate if he can’t reach her in time, and the days are fast slipping away. So when the Council offers Dev freedom in exchange for his and Kiran’s assistance in a clandestine mission to Ninavel, he can’t refuse, no matter how much he distrusts their motives.

Once in Ninavel the mission proves more treacherous than even Dev could have imagined. Betrayed by allies, forced to aid their enemies, he and Kiran must confront the darkest truths of their pasts if they hope to save those they love and survive their return to the Tainted City.

The Cold Commands by Richard K. Morgan

The Cold Commands (A Land Fit for Heroes #2) by Richard K. Morgan

The Cold Commands has been out in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats since last year. This trade paperback edition will be on sale September 25.  You can read an excerpt on the publisher’s website if you click the image of the book cover. If you missed the first book, The Steel Remains, you can also click the image to see inside the book or read an excerpt on the publisher’s site.

I haven’t read the first book, but I’ve heard good things about the series.

Ringil Eskiath, scarred wielder of the kiriath-forged broadsword Ravensfriend, is a man on the run from his past and the family who have disowned him, from the slave trade magnates of Trelayne who want him dead, and apparently from the dark gods themselves, who are taking an interest but making no more sense than they ever have. Outlawed and exiled from his ancestral home in the north, Ringil has only one place left to turn Yhelteth, city heart of the southern Empire, where perhaps he can seek asylum with the kiriath half-breed Archeth Indamaninarmal, former war comrade and now high-up advisor to the Emperor Jhiral Khimran II. But Archeth Indamaninarmal has problems of her own to contend with, as does her house guest, bodyguard and one time steppe nomad Egar the Dragonbane. And far from gaining the respite he is seeks, Ringil will instead find himself implicated in fresh schemes and doubtful allegiances no safer than those he has left behind. Old enemies are stirring, the old order is rotted through and crumbling, and though no-one yet knows it, the city of Yhelteth is about to explode.

Bad Glass by Richard E. Gropp

Bad Glass by Richard E. Gropp

This debut was the winner of the 2011 Suvudu Writing Contest and will be released in trade paperback and ebook on September 25. You can read an excerpt and browse the book on the publisher’s website.

One of the most hauntingly original dark fantasy debuts in years—perfect for fans of Lost and Mark Danielewski’s cult classic, House of Leaves.

Something has happened in Spokane. The military has evacuated the city and locked it down. Even so, disturbing rumors and images seep out, finding their way onto the Internet, spreading curiosity, skepticism, and panic. For what they show is—or should be—impossible: strange creatures that cannot exist, sudden disappearances that violate the laws of physics, human bodies fused with inanimate objects, trapped yet still half alive. . . .

Dean Walker, an aspiring photographer, sneaks into the quarantined city in search of fame. What he finds will change him in unimaginable ways. Hooking up with a group of outcasts led by a beautiful young woman named Taylor, Dean embarks on a journey into the heart of a mystery whose philosophical implications are as terrifying as its physical manifestations. Even as he falls in love with Taylor—a woman as damaged and seductive as the city itself—his already tenuous hold on reality starts to come loose. Or perhaps it is Spokane’s grip on the world that is coming undone.

Now, caught up in a web of interlacing secrets and betrayals, Dean, Taylor, and their friends must make their way through this ever-shifting maze of a city, a city that is actively hunting them down, herding them toward a shocking destiny.

Review of Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire
Sep
04
2012
Ashes of Honor
by Seanan McGuire
368pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 9/10
Amazon Rating: 5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 5/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.51/5
 

Ashes of Honor is the sixth book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. The first five books in this urban fantasy series are as follows:

  1. Rosemary and Rue
  2. A Local Habitation
  3. An Artificial Night
  4. Late Eclipses
  5. One Salt Sea

All links go to reviews so if you are not caught up on the series, you can read about one of the previous books. I would suggest avoiding this review if you do not want events in any of the previous books to be spoiled.

There are at least four more books planned with one coming out every year in September through 2016. Chimes at Midnight will be the next book.

Toby is having a night full of unlikely surprises. First, she’s shot by a group of kids she’s trying to stop from dealing fae drugs. Next, she’s taken in for questioning by a police officer who heard the gunshots. Yet the biggest surprise of all awaits her at home – a visit from Etienne, who has had some shocking news and needs Toby’s help.

While Sylvester was grief-stricken with the disappearance of his wife and daughter, Etienne had a relationship with Bridget, a human woman. When his duties kept him from being able to get away anymore, Etienne lost touch with her and never heard from her again until now. Bridget called to inform him that their daughter, Chelsea, suddenly vanished on her way home from school. As a folklore professor, Bridget knows exactly what Etienne is and assumes the faeries took her daughter – and she is very insistent that he return her.

Etienne was completely unaware of the existence of his daughter and does not know if she was taken or if she simply discovered her ability to teleport that she inherited from him. He didn’t know who else to turn to other than Toby, finder of missing children and a changeling like his own daughter, and wants to hire her to find Chelsea. As always, Toby agrees to do what she can to bring Chelsea back and immediately begins tracking her down. The more she searches, the more she learns just what a dire situation they may all be in. Chelsea is a rare changeling who has extreme power without the limits a fae should have. She’s been teleporting into parts of Faerie sealed away by Oberon himself and upsetting the very fabric of Faerie. If Chelsea can’t be stopped, all of the faerie realm may suffer for it.

The October Daye series has become on of my favorites, and it just keeps getting better and better. The fourth book in this series was wonderful, particularly as it dealt with revealing the truth about Toby’s heritage. After that, the last book was also incredible with quite the emotional ending when Connor died and Toby’s daughter chose to keep her humanity. It was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I started this sixth installment since I wasn’t sure how it could possibly manage to be as good as the last two books. While I enjoyed the beginning because spending time with these characters is like visiting with old friends, I was also a bit worried that this book wouldn’t have much new to offer. The premise – Toby searching for a missing child – is one that keeps coming up in this series. The way it began with a scenario that ended up having nothing to do with the rest of the book, the trip to enlist help from The Luidaeg, and the convenient magical device from The Luidaeg were also very familiar. It was fun from the start, but I was initially concerned that with this many books in the series the books were going to start getting stale and repetitive.

These concerns of mine were completely silly and unfounded, and Ashes of Honor ended up being my favorite book in the series yet. The second half kept me on the edge of my seat and my husband can attest to the fact that I was quite literally exclaiming about how awesome it was. Yet the fast pace did not mean sacrificing character development or emotionally charged scenes. McGuire managed to keep a finely tuned balance between focus on moving the plot along and developing the characters just right. Much of the appeal of this series for me is the characters and how alive they all are, especially Toby herself with her humorous narrative voice. The banter and dialogue are so natural and hilarious to read, and I love the camaraderie the characters have when they talk to each other. At this point, they really are like old friends and each has his or her own way about them that belongs to them.

On the subject of characters, much of my love for this volume is probably also due to the fact that this is very much a Tybalt book and he gets a lot of page time. Not only is he present a lot, but some is revealed about his past and the Court of Cats is quite important in this particular book. So, fellow Tybalt fans, rejoice!

Toby remains the star, though. She has grown so much and come such a long way since the first book. As much as I enjoyed the second book, I did get irritated with her for her ability with solving the mystery. Since that book, she has been much better and her competence and level-headedness in this book were quite an improvement. I’m glad to see that many of her foibles were a temporary condition and that she’s not stuck in a cycle of repeating the same mistakes. At the beginning of this book, her grief is still fresh from the last book even though it’s been a year, but there’s also not a lot of time spent dwelling on angst. It is very much a book about moving on with your life, but I think starting it with enough time between this and the last book kept it from being too melancholy and heavy. Toby learns about herself and others, and I really liked where she ended up by the end. The ending managed to be as memorable as the one in the previous book, but in a completely different way.

My one complaint about this book is the same one I’ve had about many of the others: there is quite a bit of infodumping about what went on previously and who Toby is, especially toward the beginning. While this does at times slow down the progression of the book, it’s not a major enough problem to dwell on when the rest of the book is as good as it is.

Ashes of Honor is yet another exciting, funny, and emotional installment in the October Daye series. It further develops the world and characters while maintaining the right balance between a a fast-paced story and character development. Furthermore, it makes Toby deal with tough issues without making these tough issues a stumbling block for story progression. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

My Rating: 9/10

Where I got my reading copy: ARC from the author.

Other Reviews:

Giveaway Winners, Hugo Awards, and National Buy a Book Day
Sep
03
2012

The giveaway winners for Containment by Christian Cantrell have been selected and contacted. The winners are:

Elise
Ben
Renee

Congratulations and I hope you each enjoy the book!

The 2012 Hugo Award winners were announced Sunday night. Best Novel went to Among Others by Jo Walton and Game of Thrones took Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. I was especially pleased to see the wonderful blog SF Signal won Best Fanzine. A complete list of the winners along with a few photos can be found on tor.com. Congratulations to all the winners!

September 7 (this Friday) is National Buy a Book Day. Here’s the idea behind it as stated on the foundation’s website:

 

The National Buy a Book Day Foundation’s primary activity is educating the American people on the importance of books to our culture and community by encouraging citizens to go to any bookstore on September 7th of each year, which we hope to establish as National Buy a Book Day, and buy a book. By buying a book, as a community, every year on the same day, we come together in support of books, booksellers, authors, and publishers alike.

This day holds a special spot in my memory since I bought one of my favorites, Elfland by Freda Warringon, on this day. Of course, I can also get behind any day that involves supporting books and those who make reading them possible!

The Leaning Pile of Books
Sep
02
2012

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week – old or new, bought or received for review. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included.

Last week there were no books to discuss, but this week was a VERY good week for books! First of all, I really want to read every single book that showed up in the mail this week. Second of all, I took Thursday and Friday off from work and had a great find at a bookstore on one of those days.

For reviews, I haven’t gotten much writing done with my mini-vacation, but my next reviews will be Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire and House of Shadows by Rachel Neumeier. Both of these were wonderful. I just finished Ashes of Honor before starting this post and think it’s the best book in the October Daye series yet!

One of the books that came in this last week is the finished copy of a book I already talked about in a previous post so I’m not going to include all the info on it again in this one. If you are interested in reading about This Case is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova, you can read about it here. It’s an urban fantasy debut that will be on sale on Tuesday.

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton

This stand alone science fiction novel will be on sale in hardcover and ebook on December 26 in the US. It will be released in the UK later this month (September 27).

I have heard that Peter F. Hamilton writes fantastic books so I’m really excited about this one. As a slow reader, I’m also a bit daunted by the length (my ARC is hardcover size and about 950 pages), but mostly I’m excited to read it!

New York Times bestselling author Peter F. Hamilton’s riveting new thriller combines the nail-biting suspense of a serial-killer investigation with clear-eyed scientific and social extrapolation to create a future that seems not merely plausible but inevitable.

A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family—composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone “brothers” have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies.

Or maybe not so friendly. At least that’s what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who’d like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he’ll make enough enemies to ruin his career.

Yet Sid’s case is about to take an unexpected turn: because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood. The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime.

Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.

Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world’s political and economic elite . . . all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.

The Grass King's Concubine by Kari Sperring

The Grass King’s Concubine by Kari Sperring

I have been curious about both this book and Kari Sperring’s first novel, Living With Ghosts, for awhile now so I picked this one up when I came across it at the bookstore. It’s set in the same world as the first novel but takes place about 150 years later.

The Grass King’s Concubine was released in mass market paperback and ebook last month. There is a giveaway for 10 copies on Goodreads right now that is open to a lot of countries.

The only excerpt from The Grass King’s Concubine I could find is on Amazon.

Kari Sperring’s first novel was a finalist for the Crawford Award, a Tiptree Award Honor Book, a LOCUS Recommended First Novel, and the winner of the Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. Now she returns to the same amazing and atmospheric world with an entirely new story set several hundred years after the earth-shaking events of Living With Ghosts.

When a wealthy young woman, obsessed with a childhood vision of a magical Shining Palace, sets out with her true love to search for a legendary land, she discovers the devastated WorldBelow – the realm of the Grass King – and the terrifying Cadre, who take her prisoner, and demand she either restore the king’s concubine… or replace her.

Clean by Alex Hughes

Clean (Mindspace Investigations #1) by Alex Hughes

This debut will be released in mass market paperback and ebook on September 4. An excerpt is available on the publisher’s website.

I love reading about telepaths and think this sounds like fun so I’m looking forward to reading it. I’ll be reading it pretty soon since I’m participating in the blog tour for Clean later this month.

A RUTHLESS KILLER—OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars. My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it—real scary. Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city—and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die.

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs

Fair Game (Alpha and Omega #3) by Patricia Briggs

This is the great book find I had when I visited a bookstore a couple days ago! Patricia Briggs signed at a bookstore in my state as part of the book tour for Fair Game earlier this year. I didn’t go even though it’s pretty rare for an author to come to my state since it was still 2 – 3 hours away from me and the event was on a weeknight, plus I’m not nearly as big a fan of Alpha and Omega as Mercy Thompson (Alpha and Omega is a spinoff series related to the Mercy Thompson books). On Friday, I was in the same city and decided to check out the bookstore while I was there. While browsing I came across Fair Game. I wasn’t planning to buy it since I still haven’t read the second book in the series, but a sticker that said “Autographed Copy” caught my eye and I decided I just couldn’t pass up a book autographed by Patricia Briggs! I felt lucky to find it since there were only 2 copies on the shelves and the signing was months ago now. I’ve been hearing this particular installment in the series is amazing so I’m pretty excited about finding a signed copy.

Fair Game is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. The first story in the series is actually a novella titled “Alpha and Omega” that is available in an anthology, On the Prowl. The first novel is Cry Wolf and the second is Hunting Ground.

An excerpt from Fair Game is available on the publisher’s website.

Patricia Briggs, the #1 “New York Times” bestselling author of the Mercy Thompson novels, “always enchants her readers.” (Lynn Viehl, “New York Times” bestselling author) Now her Alpha and Omega series-set in a world of shifting shapes, loyalty, and passion- brings werewolves out of the darkness and into a society where fear and prejudice could make the hunters prey…

They say opposites attract. And in the case of werewolves Anna Latham and Charles Cornick, they mate. The son-and enforcer-of the leader of the North American werewolves, Charles is a dominant alpha. While Anna, an omega, has the rare ability to calm others of her kind.

Now that the werewolves have revealed themselves to humans, they can’t afford any bad publicity. Infractions that could have been overlooked in the past must now be punished, and the strain of doing his father’s dirty work is taking a toll on Charles.

Nevertheless, Charles and Anna are sent to Boston, when the FBI requests the pack’s help on a local serial killer case. They quickly realize that not only the last two victims were werewolves-all of them were. Someone is targeting their kind. And now Anna and Charles have put themselves right in the killer’s sights…

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

The Dirty Streets of Heaven (Bobby Dollar #1) by Tad Williams

The first book in a new urban fantasy series by Tad Williams will be released in hardcover and ebook on September 4. I was sent an ebook copy to take a look at. I don’t read a lot of ebooks since I prefer paper books and have a significant number of them around, but I am considering reading it after looking at it. It looks interesting, and I’m kind of ashamed to admit this as a fantasy fan, but I’ve never read a book by Tad Williams before. That’s definitely something that needs to be remedied at some point!

Bobby Dollar is an angel—a real one. He knows a lot about sin, and not just in his professional capacity as an advocate for souls caught between Heaven and Hell. Bobby’s wrestling with a few deadly sins of his own—pride, anger, even lust.

But his problems aren’t all his fault. Bobby can’t entirely trust his heavenly superiors, and he’s not too sure about any of his fellow earthbound angels either, especially the new kid that Heaven has dropped into their midst, a trainee angel who asks too many questions. And he sure as hell doesn’t trust the achingly gorgeous Countess of Cold Hands, a mysterious she-demon who seems to be the only one willing to tell him the truth.

When the souls of the recently departed start disappearing, catching both Heaven and Hell by surprise, things get bad very quickly for Bobby D. End-of-the-world bad. Beast of Revelations bad. Caught between the angry forces of Hell, the dangerous strategies of his own side, and a monstrous undead avenger that wants to rip his head off and suck out his soul, Bobby’s going to need all the friends he can get—in Heaven, on Earth, or anywhere else he can find them.

You’ve never met an angel like Bobby Dollar. And you’ve never read anything like The Dirty Streets of Heaven.

Brace yourself—the afterlife is weirder than you ever believed.