An interesting noir take on vampires or the Void City series

Going through my Ebook list I found I have a lot of books I just didn't know I had.  So I decided to try out a random series and see if they were good.  I was both pleasantly surprised and annoyed.   The Surprise is that I found myself wanting a lot more of this series.  The annoyed was really with how well the author managed to write a character into his books that makes me want to smack her hard.

Here is a little bit of the blurb for the first book in this series, Staked by JF Lewis:

Eric's got issues. He has short-term and long-term memory problems; he can't remember who he ate for dinner yesterday, much less how he became a vampire in the first place. His best friend, Roger, is souring on the strip club he and Eric own together. And his girlfriend, Tabitha, keeps pressuring him to turn her so she can join him in undeath. It's almost enough to put a Vlad off his appetite. Almost



Now Eric is an interesting character.  A vampire who didn't ask to be one, woke up as one and seems to have a touch of memory issues.  He is a good guy in the old fashioned kinda way.  Yes he is a blood drinking killer but he takes care of his people.  Running a strip club where his dancers have a salary (a good one at that), insurance, dental and vision care and he helps them with college.  Now that is a boss right?  He won't harm children, well unless they are killers like werewolves or vampires but he does his best to not hurt the harmless.  He loves his 1964 1/2 Mustang (the 1/2 is important to him) but he has real trouble with the women in his life.

The two books I have read so far toss back and forth between his POV and Tabitha's POV.  Tabitha was his human lover who he finally gave in and turned into a vampire.  They have their issues as is to be expected but Tabitha is a dense one for sure.

After years of reading books were you have a with it female vampire, one with a clue, she comes as a bit of a shock.  She is very self centered and sure of herself.  At 22 it is to be expected but damn it makes the 50 year old me want to slap her around.   Thing is she slowly grows on you.

It could be because also in this story there is her 18 year old sister, Rachel.  A typical goth loving girl who really wants to be the thrall of Eric, or so we are led to believe at first.  There is a great twist in that Rachel died long before Eric met her.  Of cancer.  Tabitha doesn't at first recognize her sister when she comes around.  After all her sister is dead and buried right?  Not possible right?

Before I go into more depth and ruin the tale for you I will just say we have a city filled with strippers, high class vampires, werewolves, demons, a ghost of a lawman and who knows what else but it is a fun right.  Eric is a man of his times, fought in WW2 and turned into a vampire before he could marry the woman he loved.  There is lots of sex, blood, intrigue, betrayals and magic. Everything that a good urban paranormal needs.

Book review of Stormcaller by PL Blair

Now I love a good urban fantasy, everyone who knows me knows this.  I was very lucky to win my copy of this book and very pleased that I got to read it.  I desperately want the following two books.  I happen to know the fifth book is in the works and a sixth is planned.  Gotta love long running series right?  Any way here is my review of this book!

Reviewed Stormcaller (Portals)

A fun and fast ride

February 07, 2014

This book picks up cleanly after the first book and takes you on a romping fast ride from Corpus Cristi to the Otherworld. The villain in this story is different enough to make it totally intriguing. I sat down and read this in one afternoon and now I really, really can't wait to read the next one. Kat and Tevis are a great pairing and well worth following. Read this book folks, you will love it!

New little friends or hey we had a family gundum build day

This Monday in Canada it was Family Day.  A national holiday where families are supposed to stay home and do things together.  The Williamson family obviously built gundums.  After all it is something we all like to do.

Now the hubby, being a wee bit more advanced at this (okay MUCH more) did a 1/144 scale suit kit which came out rather nice and then he canalized it for something else!  But this will give you an idea what he did

Really nice don't you think?  Well the daughter on the other hand wanted to do the BearGuy gundum.  Yes it is cute but from what i have seen in the anime it can be pretty tough too!  Here is her take on him.

Yes he is cute but that is a laser coming out of his mouth!

And finally I did two separate SD gundums...yes I am still doing SDs.  There are so many of them that I have not trouble finding new ones.

Okay so the pictures so the other gundums but you have a good view of the two I worked on.  The first one surprised me because I expected the sword to have clear blue plastic bits to snap in but nope.  I will have to go back and paint it I guess.  The second one is called the Command gundum and it is one of the first I have done that had GUNS!  I mean this guy takes the whole armament thing over the top!  But he was fun to build.  The hubby switched his toys up a bit so that the rocket launchers and the rail guns make a major weapon in front of him instead of hanging off his shoulders.  This guys needs some camo I think!

So you can see we are having a lot of fun with the family gundum day.  Pretty soon i have got to do the Dragons against gundums!

Review of a paranormal romance series...yes I do read that stuff

Well with all the snow that seems to never stop I have been reading a lot.  Instead of being the good little writer that I am I have been catching up on new authors and their series.  This weekend since I was having trouble sleeping due to arthritis pain I managed to read all of the current Chicagoland Vampire books by Chloe Neill.

Oh this series was fun.  Starting with the common problem of a lot of heroines of not asking to be made into a vampire this story could have gone so many very ways.  Thankfully it was handled beautifully.  This series, while officially a paranormal romance, doesn't get into the romance part until the middle of the series.  The attraction/repulsion between the heroine and her maker is handled very well.

Like always I find myself enjoying more the secondary characters in this series.  Luc, the guard captian, Lindsey, one of the guards.  Jeff, the shifter computer genius, Chuck, the grandfather/retired cop and currnet head of the Omnibud office.  all this characters give a great depth to the tales being woven.

I looked over the reviews on amazon and I was surprised at the negativity in some of them.  The advantage of sitting down and reading the entire series in one shot you get a chance to see the characters develop and grow, the story unfold and all the interesting threads that are being woven.  Other reviewers seem to think that the sixth and seventh book were not as good as the ones previous and I have no idea why.  I found that the tale slowly evolved just as it should.  There was no stutters, no overworked bits or skinny light bits.  This is a fun series.  Not too dark or too light, a nice mix of good writing, great characterizations and interesting battles.  So I would say get this one for sure.

Now the author has another series.  This second one has not grabbed me the way that Chicagoland Vampires did but then it is a YA paranormal.  As much as I find I like paranormals, I am not so into ones meant for teens.  They tend to be less..everything for me.  While they are the most popular genre out there right now the stories most times just come off too light.  Occasionally you get something amazing but so far Ms Neill's Dark Elite series just doesn't grab me.  I will have to try again and hope it does.

Patricia Briggs

Okay I admit it, I have been a bad, bad blogger and writer.  I have taken time off to just sit back and read a few books.  Now if you know me you will realize that a few books is not two or three but more like ten.  I decided I needed to read and I just sat back and started with Ms Briggs Alpha and Omega books.  I had read her Mercy Thompson books before and this nice little series about Charles and Anna are a great pairing.

She deftly deals with the type of damage that being made into a rape toy would have on a woman.  As a turned werewolf Anna should have been taken care of, taught what she should be.  As an Omega she should have been treasured.  Charles' reaction to her is beautifully handled.

As an author I find I enjoy the well told tale even more.  A lot of writers tell me that they get caught up in structure and grammar or other little things.  I will say yes I found some things bug me more but I also have found I really understand and enjoy the work that goes into these tales.  The research and the understanding of how things should be.

These three books are strong examples of good storytelling.  They were so good and of course I had to go back and re read the Mercy Thompson books that I had all ready read.  thankfully there were three more that I had not read and one more on the way.  Spending a full day and half reading is a way of being recharged as a writer.

So today I honor Patricia Briggs and her amazing characters.  The rich world she has created filled with coyotoes, werewolves and magic is well worth spending time in.

Okay back to work...or how about another review I wrote?

After a month of computer issues, sickness, holidays, birthdays, and book releases I admit I have not been blogging like I should.  I have too many blogs I think at times but I like keeping my various selves separate.  I have put up reviews of some of the amazing indie authors I have had the pleasure of discovering over the past two years but I thought hey you do read other stuff too!

So instead of a review of a bright new star I figured I could put up one of my reviews of an established writer who is part of the traditional publishing world. 

Charlaine Harris is a name that most in the paranormal romance field know.  Many of us have come to adore the show based on her Sookie Stackhouse books, True Blood but she has written many others books.  Most that I have read fall into that paranormal romance category but not all of her work does.  This book is one from outside the field she is so well known for.

A Secret Rage could be considered a woman's book, a mystery or a literary fiction.  Published back in 2007 it is a very different piece of work.  here is my review.

Everything old is new, December 16, 2013

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: A Secret Rage (Kindle Edition)

After becoming a huge fan of Ms Harris' paranormal novels I really had to read everything I could find.

This novel is a simple gothic told in her style. It has little bit of southernisms that you expect from this multitalented author. The characters are crisp and intelligent and strong. The dark theme of rape and its effect on the women who suffer it is handled cleanly and well. Being set in the deep south like most of her novels this tale shows us the different ways that subcultures within our own deal with the victim.

I was actually both surprised and happy at how she dealt with the climax of this story. While the subject matter is dark this novel left me feeling content.

I have two new little friends!

Okay not so much friends as I have built two new gundams.  I am getting better at them and they don't take me as much time as I expect them to anymore.  No they aren't as cool as the ones my hubby builds but they are rather nice and cute.  So here you go

Okay these are of the same two little guys (or not so little on one of them).  I did not take these..these were taken by a combo of my daughter and my hubby...they are fun little guys.  both of them convert to other modes but I generally keep them in the same form all the time but my hubby loves to play with them.  I have another one coming in the mail soon that will be a centaur!  And it can combine with others so I will probably take one photo with legs, horn and wings...just cause I can!