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Henry, Mark

Review: Battle of the Network Zombies by Mark Henry

March 2, 2010 | Author Tiffany

Title: Battle of the Network Zombies (Amanda Feral, book 3 )
Author: Mark Henry
Release: March 1st, 2010
Purchase this book: Amazon | Book Depository | Kindle Version
Goodreads Entry: here
Rating: 4 Stars

In Seattle’s undead circles, Amanda Feral is one of the beautiful zombies. Of course, when you’re socializing with werewolves, devils, and rampaging yetis, there’s not that much competition. Still, Amanda has a stylish rep to maintain, which is getting tricky now that her tanking ad agency is obliterating her finances. The fastest way to make some cash: appear on a new reality show, American Minions, hosted by lecherous wood nymph Johnny Birch. Classy? Maybe not, but a girl’s gotta eat. With zombie gal pal Wendy posing as her bitchy agent, Amanda settles in to ‘Minions Mansion’, crowded with 24-7 video cameras and undead fame whores. When Johnny is found incinerated in a locked room, Amanda decides to channel her inner Miss Marple (minus the ugly cardigans) and find out who’s responsible. Was it Hairy Sue, the white trash stripper yeti? Tanesha, the glamorous trannie werewolf? Angie, the Filipino vampire with a detachable head? Unveiling the culprit in a heart-stopping finale won’t just save the show from cancellation, it might just keep Amanda alive – or as close as a ghoul can get…

In the third installment of the Amanda Feral series Amanda is back, dirtier than ever. Her ad agency is on a downward spiral and her expense budget is in the toilet. In order to keep her condo and pay off her debt to the Reapers Amanda says yes to an opportunity to appear on a new reality show. Yet, things are never simple with Amanda and she finds herself in the middle of her very own murder mystery.

Amanda Feral books always makes me giggle and snort like kids do when they tell fart jokes. Battle of the Network Zombies was no different, it was funny, sarcastic, and disgusting. If you like crass humor with a side of wit, this series is for you.

Amanda and Wendy make a great crime solving duo even if when they seem to be at odds with one another. Gil once again provides comic relief and I found myself looking forward to his bits the most. He is definitely my favorite character of the series. Scott and Amanda’s relationship was a pleasant surprise and I look forward to more of him in the next book (fingers crossed!).

The book started off a bit slow for me, but the plot picked up the pace once wood nymphs started dying and the crazy character parade began. Amanda even shows signs of unexpected personal growth, proving her heart isn’t rotted out after all. Battle of the Network Zombies is another snort out loud story of zombies with killer fashion sense by Mark Henry. Fingers and toes crossed that Amanda Feral’s story doesn’t end here. Oh and the best part? Battle of the Network Zombies is only FREE for your kindle at Amazon right now. Go on, get the rest of the series too, you know you want to.

Other Reviews:

WickedLilPixie – 5

SmexyBooks – 4

Enchanting Reviews – 4.5

FTC Disclaimer: Book recieved from author for review

Posted in 4 Star, Henry, Mark, Reviews, Urban Fantasy | Tags: 100 challenge, Amanda Feral, Mark Henry, thriller-suspense challenge | 5 Comments »

Review: Road Trip of the Living Dead by Mark Henry

January 25, 2010 | Author Tiffany

Title: Road Trip of the Living Dead (Amanda Feral, Book 2)
Author: Mark Henry
Release: March 1st, 2009
Purchase this book: Amazon | Book Depository | Kindle Version
Goodreads Entry: here
Rating: 4.5 Stars

Celebrity party girl Amanda Feral is back from the dead, and hungrier than ever for a good time. With her zombie gal pal Wendy and vampy gay sidekick Gil, this stone cold fox is dressed to kill, on the prowl, and ready to take a big juicy bite out of Seattle’s supernatural nightlife. But what’s a zombie chick to do when her ‘Mommie Dearest’ gets sick? If you’re Amanda Feral, you can either ignore the wicked old witch – or bury the past by visiting Ethel before she kicks it. Amanda’s not thrilled about the idea of crossing three states just to be criticized. But Wendy, who’s always looking for fresh meat, is up for the adventure. And Gil, who just launched his ‘luxury’ resurrection business, needs to disappear because a pissed-off client is out for his blood. First, they pack their stiletto pumps and plasma into a skeevy rattrap on wheels that used to be a Winnebago. Then, with a little help from a Korean-ghost hood ornament, a masochist named Fishhook, and a slew of ‘moderately accurate’ psychics, they hit the highway – their way. Of course, they’ll have to navigate past some neo-Nazi skinheads, a horny dust devil, a hunky werewolf cop (who could pass for an underwear model) and an unsightly horde of supermarket shoppers. But for this glamorous gang of ghouls this trip is about to take a dangerous detour that could give road kill a brand new meaning.

I opened up Road Trip of the Living Dead and prepared myself to be entirely grossed out by Mark Henry’s sick and twisted sense of humor again. He did not disappoint and I quickly found myself gasping and giggling at Amanda Feral and her “pottymouth.” I mean how can one not love her?

I’m a total shoe slut. Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin: this is an open invitation. Feel free to run a train on me. The cost? Stilettos, duh.

In Road Trip of the Living Dead Amanda, Wendy, and Gil find themselves up to their supernatural asses in trouble and are forced out on the run (all because of some really gross ghost urine!). The gang uses the need to leave town as an opportunity to visit Amanda’s deathly ill mother. However, nothing is ever simple for these three and their road trip quickly turns into an adventure filled with action, danger, gold grills, and fleshlights (google if you must, but I warn you… do it when you are completely alone! its errrr interesting).

While I found book 1, Happy Hour of the Damned, to be heavy on the character plotting, book 2 was a nice blend of character and interesting storyline. If anything I think Gil and Wendy took a smaller role about halfway through and I missed them a tiny bit! The mystery and suspense was better and more to the forefront than the previous book. I was engrossed in the oddly developing story and simply did not want to put this one down! Mark Henry brings in some new characters that are sure to make you laugh, including a sexy new werewolf named Scott. We even got a smexy scene that will make you snicker!

I have only one itsy bitsy complaint (or I would have given this 5 stars) ~ I wanted more with Amanda’s mother. We get such a tiny glimpse of her at the end and I was slightly confused as to what happened to/with her. There was quite a bit of setup as to Amanda and her mother and that plot line seemed to take a bit of a backseat in the end. However Amanda did make a few comments that lead me to believe this was intentional and more is coming.

With Road Trip of the Living Dead Mark Henry had me once again laughing hysterically, out loud, causing the hubby to look at me like I had lost a few marbles. If you haven’t yet jumped on the Save Amanda Feral bandwagon, don’t worry, there is still time! Book 1, Happy Hour of the Damned, is being re-released as Mass Market Paperback on January 26th and you can pre-order it from amazon.com here. You can read my review of book 1 here. Book 3, Battle of the Network Zombies is being released on February 23rd.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the author.

Posted in 4.5 Star, Henry, Mark, Kindle Talk, Urban Fantasy | Tags: 100 challenge, 4.5 stars, Amanda Feral, thriller-suspense challenge, urban fantasy, zombies | 10 Comments »

Review: Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry

January 8, 2010 | Author Tiffany

Title: Happy Hour of the Damned (Amanda Feral, Book 1)
Author: Mark Henry
Release: March 1st, 2008
Buy Kindle version: here
Goodreads Entry: here
Rating: 4 Stars

Seattle. One minute you’re drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that’s just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle’s undead scene with style (mortuary-grade makeup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don’t judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.
Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters–not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo–isn’t easy. And the minute one of Amanda’s undead friends disappears after texting the word, “help” (The undead–so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.

Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle’s undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death…

Confession Time: Zombies. Totally not my thing and not sexy. I think this could be the very first zombie book I have read, but it won’t be the last! Contrary to popular belief zombies do not always walk around chanting brains. If they are lucky enough to be “made” zombies, like Amanda Feral, they can continue to function as they did before death, mostly. The exception being the devastating (and totally gross) side effects of eating real food, pale skin even a spray tan won’t fix, and the desire for human flesh. Other than those minor things, they can carry on with their lives as usual. Amanda Feral is trying to do just that, refusing to give up her designer clothes, power career, or warm blooded boyfriend just because she is dead. Unfortunately the afterlife isn’t so easy for her when one of her friends seemingly goes missing and she finds herself in over her head in someone’s attempt to stage a world takeover, one Starbucks at a time.

Amanda Feral and friends are quite possibly the most foul mouthed, snarky, and sarcastic group of characters I have come across yet. They are dirty ~ and I don’t mean “spank me” dirty, I mean “depends” dirty. Their brand of humor is not for the easily offended or light of heart. Living with an experienced master of inappropriate jokes and sarcasm, aka my husband, I figured I was up for the challenge. A few times I found myself cringing because Mark Henry holds nothing back, gore and bowels are not off limits. However, most of the time I found myself silently snickering and snorting along at bad jokes and hilarious storytelling. Mark Henry seems to have the unique ability of making the gory act of zombies eating humans perfectly normal, if not funny.

I have only one itty bitty complaint…footnotes. Happy Hour of the Damned is filled with footnotes, giving you little tidbits of info sure to make you snort out loud. Because I didn’t want to miss any of the funny, I wasn’t about to ignore their existence, but I did find them a tad distracting when reading it on the Kindle. Obviously, this is not the fault of the author, but this may be one of those series that are better off read in paperback where you can flip back and forth easily (*gasp* yes, I did indeed say that… mark your calendars!). Being a diehard Kindle lover who avoids dead tree books if at all possible, I did come up with a method that was workable and figured I would share because I am a generous girl like that.

Step 1. Before you get reading, use the “go to location” function from the kindle menu of the book to go to the back of the book and find the start of the footnotes section. Hit Alt+B to bookmark it.

Step 2. Start reading. When you get to a foot note use the “go to bookmark” function to navigate to your bookmark. (On the K1 all you do is click on the progress bar and then hit the “next” button – I don’t know if this is true for the K2).

Step 3. Read the usually hilarious footnote, then hit the “back” button.

Step 4. Continue reading to next footnote and then repeat procedure. Since there are a lot of footnotes in this book and for some reason each one is on a seperate “page”, I did reset the bookmark location every 3-4 footnotes so I would have less to page through.

Because of Mark Henry’s foul mouthed crew of comediens I give Happy Hour of the Damned 4 stars. It was fun to read an urban fantasy with main characters who were not battling with moral dilemmas and ethical questions. I can’t wait to see what else Amanda Feral can get herself into. Next up, Road Trip of the Living Dead.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was purchased by me.

Posted in 4 Star, Henry, Mark, Kindle Talk, Urban Fantasy | Tags: 100 challenge, 4 stars, Amanda Feral, Mark Henry, thriller-suspense challenge, urban fantasy, zombies | 11 Comments »