Plagued by a war between magic and technology, Atlanta has never been so deadly. Good thing Kate Daniels is on the job.

So when Atlanta’s premier Master of the Dead calls to ask for help with a vampire on the loose, Kate leaps at the chance of some paying work. Turns out this is not an isolated incident, and Kate needs to get to the bottom of it—fast, or the city and everyone dear to her might pay the ultimate price . . .

I’ve talked about how much I absolutely love Kate Daniels before. This series started out rough, but has grown into one of my absolute favorites. It is easily ranked in the top 5 of my OH MY GOD YOU MUST READ THIS SERIES list, if I were keeping one (I am). I don’t simply love this series because Kate is a BAMF, she is, but also because the series itself is continuously growing and changing. Every book has been better than the last and Magic Slays is no different.

Things are different for Kate in Magic Slays. She is no longer living on her own fighting bad guys, fighting Curran, fighting herself. Instead she has accepted her role as Curran’s Mate and lover and finally moved into the Pack’s Keep. There is a certain level of security that comes with being mated to the Beast Lord and living in a fortified castle, however Kate has never been one to sit back on her laurels in style and comfort. Having quit the Order and working for her own agency, a seemingly simple case of a loose vampire and missing person quickly turn into a situation that threatens Kate, her family, and the Pack.

There were so many things I liked about this installment in Kate’s story. Magic Slays is more than just scary monsters being tossed at our heroine left and right, at parts it even has a slight ‘crime novel” feel to it. The romantic tension between Kate and Curran is lessoned slightly, as we are no longer wondering will they or won’t they, and there is an honesty and ease between them that is hard to put words around. They laugh, they argue, they fight (literally), and there are moment’s of doubt, but it is somehow all very natural. Their spats are some of my favorite scenes in the book because the sarcasm and dialogue are delivered so well, yet I was never once distracted from the overall plot. Additionally, I felt the side characters were utilized in a way to fully enrich the ongoing story and lay the groundwork for future novels in a way that I hadn’t noticed before. Kate really is no longer alone and she finally seems willing to accept that.

Kate and Curran’s relationship is a perfect foundation of humor, tension, and tenderness upon which sits a riveting and suspenseful story. I bit off at least three of my fingernails, gasped several times, and went on to whisper “oh my god, they wouldn’t do this…. no!” at least once. Additionally, an older and wiser Kate is thrown a curveball or two that will leave readers wanting more while setting up future books nicely. I agree with Danielle at AlphaReader entirely, this book does feel like the calm before the storm. It is not an all consuming read, but it was enjoyable and well done.

Magic Slays was one of my highly anticipated reads for this year and I am happy to say that it delivered on all of my expectations. There was never a paragraph I wanted to skip or a description I rolled my eyes at. The foreboding at the end was absolutely perfect and I can not wait to see where Kate finds herself next time and who she is faced with. I have a guess. It is taking all of my willpower not to type it.

Favorite Quote

I made a mental note to punch Jim in the arm the next time I saw him. “Thought it was funny, did he?”

“I didn’t think it was funny.”

I bet. “People were about to die and I could save them. There was a girl . . . Anyway, I’m not hurt. I’ll be home for dinner.”

“As you wish,” he said.

My heart made a little jump. I love you, too.

The tension in his voice eased. “You sure you don’t need your Prince Charming to come and save you?”

The knot in my stomach evaporated. My Prince Charming, huh. “Sure, do you have one handy?”

“Oh, I think I could scrounge one up somewhere. As often as I have to rescue you . . .”

“I’m going to kick you in the head when I get home. Repeatedly.”

“You could try. You probably need the exercise since you sit on your butt in the office all day.”

“You know what, don’t talk to me.”

“Whatever you want, baby.”

Now he was just jerking my chain. I growled at the phone.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was purchased by me.

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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.

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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.

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.

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Ilona Andrews is at it again, teasing us poor readers. Today, my birthday, she flaunts this yummy anthology goodness! I can’t even tell you how excited I am to learn about this anthology…. Its all I can do to not cackle with giddiness. Jim Butcher, Vicki Pettersson, Ilona Andrews, and more…. all in one book? An urban fantasy fangirl’s ultimate dream!

It looks like it is set to be published in July 2010 and the paperback is available for preorder from Amazon here. No kindle version yet. Check out Ilona Andrew’s blog for the small snippet from the Kate Daniels story in the anthology.

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Jackson Holt makes a decent living as a private investigator in New Orleans, home of one of the largest underground supernatural populations in the United States. He and his partners have never met a case they couldn’t crack…until a local bar owner asks him to do a little digging on her newest hire.

With time running out, she has no choice but to trust Jackson as he struggles to uncover the truth of her past-and her destiny.

Moira Rogers is a new author for me, or rather a new duo of authors. For some reason I went into reading this one expecting a plot heavy on the romance and was pleasantly surprised to find that this book is just as heavy on the action, plot, and character building. I love it when an author surprises me.

The story is about Mackenzie who is on the run from some crazy shifters looking to use her for her body. While on the run she falls into a web of really cool people who convince her the supernatural is real and give her an unexpected support system. Jackson Holt takes a liking to her immediately and will do whatever he needs to keep her safe.

The story arc is reminiscent of a paranormal romance…. girl is in trouble, our hero must use his super powers and super friends to save her. But, in this story our heroine isn’t weak or waiting around to be saved and our hero doesn’t expect her to sit back in a safe corner and wait it out. I found the characters to be honest. The dialogue between them was easy and free flowing. The relationship was realistic, a nice mix of playful flirting with sincerity. Jackson is funny and sexy, protective without being overbearing.

The plot of Crux builds quickly. The book is action packed and I had a hard time finding stopping points so I could get some much needed sleep! There is an atypical twist in the plot three quarters of the way through. After it I thought for sure we were getting an ending and the “Big Bad” would continue to haunt us in the next book, but instead the story keeps going! Because of this small twist in plot sequence, the story loses a bit of momentum and I felt the true ending was smidge anti-climatic. Not overly so, and definitely not enough for me to dislike it.

In Crux Moira Rogers has built a strong supernatural world with an exciting plot and realistic characters. With as much as I enjoyed the interactions between Mackenzie and Jackson, I am looking forward to the next books in the series! There were so many intriguing side characters introduced in this group of friends… only more good stories can come after this!

Crux is available for purchase now from a variety of ebook stores, find the links as well as full chapter excerpts here. Crux will be released in print format on January 5th.

Book 2 of the Southern Arcane Series, Crossroads, will be released in ebook format in February 2010 and print format in December 2010.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me for review from the author

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