Books and Ladders: urban fantasy

Showing posts with label urban fantasy. Show all posts

15 Apr 2022

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: REBELLION by C.J. Listro

Jamie @ Books and Ladders 15 April 0 Comments

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

More of a visual person? Check out Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays on Instagram!

REBELLION

Author: C.J. Listro

Series: Rebellion Chronicles #1

Source: N/A

Publisher: Self-Published by the Author

Publication Date: February 15, 2022

Summary:

Chloe is well aware that she’s ordinary. So, when bad-boy Tyler starts talking to her, she’s convinced he must have an ulterior motive. What she doesn’t suspect is that he’s actually a demon escaped from Hell to live out his college-age dreams of going to concerts and playing in a punk metal band. And that he actually likes her. Soon, swoons and romantic dates replace Chloe’s trepidation.

But as Chloe and her new friend Alicia are dragged deeper in Tyler’s world, they realize that many less-friendly demons roam the Earth too. And one of them is murdering girls—girls who look a lot like Chloe.

With the help of Tyler and a contingent of angels, Chloe and Alicia take the paranormal investigation into their own hands. Because if they don’t find out which demon is murdering girls soon, Chloe will be next.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters

Describe REBELLION in 10 words or less.

C.J. Listro: An old-school tongue-in-cheek paranormal romance with angels, demons, and murder. Was that less than 10?

What are the hardest scenes for you to write?

C.J. Listro: Planning scenes. Like, when the group is together and they're making the plan to take down the baddie. I always find them boring and always wonder if they're necessary or if I should just skip it, go ahead with the plot, and let the reader figure out the plan as they go.

Which of your characters did you find it easiest to write?

C.J. Listro: Tyler for sure. He's so snarky, just like me, and although he and I do not share his blinding confidence, it was easy for me to pull it off on paper. His jokes and puns and silliness just flew out of my fingertips.

What has been the best book you've read in the past six months?

C.J. Listro: Not gonna lie, I had to check Goodreads to remember what the heck I've read. But definitely MASK OF MIRRORS by M.A. Carrick. There's a deep, lustrous sense of worldbuilding in this book that immediately sucks you in, and the plot itself is multilayered and shocking. Carrick also does NOT pull punches, which I both appreciate and cry about.

How do you hope readers react to the romance between Chloe and Tyler?

C.J. Listro: I hope a reader will see their relationship as mutual and egalitarian. I want them to see how they balance and grow with each other. How Chloe pulls out Tyler's honesty and Tyler pulls out Chloe's confidence. How they better each other.

Have you read this one? Are you going to pick it up?

16 Oct 2020

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: IRON AND MAGIC by Ilona Andrews

Jamie @ Books and Ladders 16 October 6 Comments

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

More of a visual person? Check out Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays on Instagram!

IRON AND MAGIC

Author: Ilona Andrews

Series: The Iron Convenant #1

Source: Purchased from Audible

Publisher: Nancy Yost Literary Agency, Inc

Publication Date: June 22, 2018

Summary:

No day is ordinary in a world where Technology and Magic compete for supremacy…But no matter which force is winning, in the apocalypse, a sword will always work.

Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming. Fast.

Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she's trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself—and Hugh d’Ambray might qualify.

Hugh needs a base, Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?

As the prophet says: “It is better to marry than to burn.”

Hugh and Elara may do both.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

In this rare edition of Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays, you get.... a negative review!

I really wanted to like this one. I wanted some good Urban Fantasy and wanted to be blown away. All of my Goodreads friends LOVED this one, so when it came up as an Audible Daily Deal, I was sold. Except... I wasn't. It was really disappointing and I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

Mostly, my pain comes from not being sure what time period it was until much later in the book because the cover, the castle, and the way the characters act make it seem like it was many moons ago when in reality it is present day. Which blew my mind. I had to go back to some of the beginning chapters to see why I thought it would be the past and then remembered most of the plot was around building a moat to defend a castle. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But really, I didn't like so much about this. Even though it is the start to this series, it is a spin-off of another. And I am getting pretty bored of authors and publishers who say you can start series when they are clearly in the middle of something else. To truly understand the backstory and the intricacies, I needed the other aspects of this. And that's on me, truly, for not reading the rest.

What isn't on me is that the characters were just terrible. I can't tell you much more about Hugh except that he is moody and Elara is white. That's pretty much all I know about them. And their "romance" was just meh to me. I wanted to know more about the world and truly I would have rather watched them build the moat a thousand times than have to listen to those sex scenes again.

TLDR: This was not my favourite read this year. I did not really enjoy it and thought the romance parts of this took over the rest of the plot rather than supplement it. Also the cover is bad and made me think this was like a historical urban fantasy rather than contemporary.

Have you read this one? What was your favourite part?

17 Apr 2020

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Jamie @ Books and Ladders 17 April 0 Comments

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays

introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!

NINTH HOUSE

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Series: Alex Stern #1

Source: Audible

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Publication Date: October 8, 2019

Summary:

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

This felt like it wanted to be a mix of The Magicians and Harry Potter but edgier and it was mostly just a tedious novel that ended up being a huge disappointment. I love Leigh Bardugo's work and was super excited for this one and it was just so meh.

It took me SO long to listen to this and I have my audiobooks read to me at 3x the speed! This should not have taken me half as long as it did. But I found myself not caring and not wanting to go back. There was a cliffhanger ending to set up the series and I just don't care.

The setting itself should have been enough for me: Ivy league setting with a switch between Winter and Spring that has dark secrets and societies. Throw in a murder mystery and ghosts and you've got me hooked. But nothing was ever fully done, fully there, and I never felt like I was brought into the magic of it all.

I thought the characters were plain and not as well developed as I would have liked. They felt like caricatures rather than actual human beings to me. Their actions were also formulaic - based on their position in the book, as well as the timeline for the book, they had to do certain things to push the plot along. Which I did not enjoy.

On top of that, there were extremely triggering scenes: there are graphic rape scenes, sexual assault on vdeio, suicide, PTSD, grief, self-hom, drug use, murder, and so many more that I am probably forgetting. Because it was basically a mixing pot of all the dark things Bardugo could think of pushed into one book.

I feel like this was basically just an "edgy" version of The Magicians that missed all the points, didn't have strong characters, and made me put down the book multiple times, almost causing me to go into a reading slump in the middle of a quarantine. I definitely don't know that I recommend it.

What are some of your favourite Adult SFF books?

6 Sept 2019

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays: Fantasy Starter Packs

Jamie @ Books and Ladders 06 September 3 Comments

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays

introduces readers who are unfamiliar with the Adult SF/F genre to books, authors, and discussions all about the vast expanse of the world of Adult SF/F!