The members of Centaurion’s former Diplomatic Corp who weren’t eaten alive are still M.I.A. Shadowy forces in the government still hope to turn the A-Cs into the War Division. And somewhere, in a country far, far away, people are creating superbeings, aka Big Fuglies, to wreak havoc upon the world. Instead of running headlong into battle, Kitty is stuck doing the most despicable, horrendous, pity-inspiring aspect of her new job yet – attending the Washington Wife class. As co-ambassador of Alpha Centauri, Kitty must learn to be diplomatic and couth, two words totally not synonymous with our beloved heroine. (more…)

Okay, not really, but we can pretend, right?

School has taken me away, my preciouses, but I’m still knocking about behind the scenes, mainly writing really bad poetry.

No, I’m not kidding. I have to write POETRY for a degree in Foreign Languages and Liberal Sciences. But that’s not why we’re here…
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Sweet baby Jesus. Those were my first thoughts when I finished Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones, the third book in the Charley Davidson series.

After being nearly tortured to death, Charley and her trusty sidekick, Cookie, are back in action. Not only are they investigating a new turn of events in the matter of one Reyes Farrow, but they’re also looking into the disappearance and possible murder of a surgeon’s wife. (more…)

There’s no rest for the wicked, and no hope of a good night’s sleep for a grim reaper in love with the most wicked of wicked men – Reyes Farrow, aka the Big Bad, aka Son of Satan. Too bad Reyes’ corporeal self is MIA. His incorporeal self, being the most devious yet oddly charming scythe-bearer you could imagine, refuses to tell Charley its whereabouts, claiming the fate of the world may rest on it never being found. Alive, anyways.
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Moira is in Faerie, dealing with court and the increasingly insane Queen, leaving Abby in charge of the shop and Midnight Marketplace. Brystion is sticking to the shadows in the garden surrounding Abby’s house in the Dreaming. Talivar is giving some seriously un-bodyguard like signals. And Benjamin, Moira’s newborn, is sporting some interesting appendages.
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“A Karma Girl Christmas” is a novella in the Bigtime series featuring superheroes, ubervillains, and humor a-plenty. Carmen Cole, the newest superhero member of the Fearless Five (yes, this series began life BEFORE Kung Fu Panda), must guard the toys and donations for needy families being held at Oodles o’ Stuff, a shopping center and neutral ground for supers on both sides of the coin. Carmen’s defeated the evilest of the evil, the baddest of the bad, so she’s ready for anything—except, maybe the Mintilator.
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Paramedic Charlotte “Charlie” Marena and leader of the Takyn, Samuel Taske, are kidnapped off the Golden Gate Bridge. When someone with supernatural abilities is kidnapped, the blame automatically falls to Jonah Genaro and his company of crazy geneticists, GenHance, but this time, he isn’t the culprit. This does not make for a happy megalomaniac. Ironically, the direct effects of his actions help the Takyn instead of hinder them, a fact that had me giggling in my own maniacal way.
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Sophie Garou has the right job, the right clothes, the right shoes, and the right boyfriend. Everything would be perfect if she didn’t have to shave more than most and got fleas when she turned into a wolf. The daughter of a gypsy woman and a werewolf, Sophie’s life is as normal as it can be. She has no pack, has never met another of her kind, and she’s absolutely fine with that until she sees a tall, handsome stranger on the street who screams “Alpha Male Wolf Here for Your Pleasure”.
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Sophie Garou is about to find out how the other half lives. The Houston pack has finally gotten wind of her presence in Austin and they aren’t happy. Their request? She must grovel at their feet or be hunted. As if Sophie would grovel – that would be hell on her designer jeans!
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Kitty Katt-Martini (which sounds like a delicious mixed drink) just gave birth to one of the first Alpha Centaurion/human hybrids in years. She’s tired, a little freaked out by everyone’s reaction to the delivery, and in desperate need of a bassinet. But the bad guys have never waited for Kitty and Company to be ready for attack before. Why start now that she’s a mother?
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The Goblin King by Shona Husk reads like a more romantic, less-80’s version of Labyrinth, sans the awesomeness of David Bowie. Eliza, our rich and confused damsel in distress, summons Roan, the Goblin King, in an act of drunken idiocy. She doesn’t understand that he is not a man to be trifled with, and spending several lifetimes being summoned out of his prison-like home in the Shadowlands doesn’t make him the most reasonable person to deal with. (more…)

Domino Riley is a magical gangster in L. A. Sounds strange, huh? It is. She’s an enforcer in Shanar Rashan’s unit. They deal in drugs, prostitution, and other illegal activities to amp the juice, or magical energy, such acts create. Again, pretty strange, right? Just wait…

Two of Domino’s guys end up skinned. No, this isn’t a clever gangster term. They had the flesh ripped from their bodies. Funny thing is, neither of the guys had enough juice to get squeezed, or drained of, their magic. (more…)

P. I. Kira Graceling is in the wrong place at the wrong time. She witnesses Mencheres, one of the oldest and most powerful vampires, committing a sort of suicide-by-ghoul. Lucky for her, Mencheres is gentleman enough not to die and leave her to be devoured. But she’s seen too much, knows too much. Mencheres finds himself in a situation when he can’t pull the vampire whammy on Kira to erase her memories, so he does the logical thing – he kidnaps her.
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Marissa Holloway’s abilities and connections as a Fury help make her a damn good Chief Magical Investigator, but sometimes, Fury politics get in the way. Kind of hard to focus on the murders of male Bastai, or Cat shapeshifters, while worrying about family, the machinations of the Fury elders, and her Warhound boyfriend, Scott. But that’s exactly what Riss must do. Oh, the joys of policing Boston’s supernatural community.
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The assassin known simply as shadow among the Blood and the Night World is sent to kill the one being that can trap her in the light – a sunmage, able to summon light to illuminate her darkness. And he is not just any sunmage, either, but the brother of a Templar warrior who doesn’t take kindly to being attacked in his own home. Instead of killing the would-be assassin, the sunmage offers sanctuary and an escape from her psychotic vampiric master.
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There once was a puck who liked to…

Okay, so there’s more to Nightlife by Rob Thurman than a randy puck who has no qualms with whom he beds. There are also psychotic creatures who were alive when dinosaurs roamed the earth, a half-bred cranky man-child, and Niko, no adjectives needed.
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Abra Barrows is the timid wife of a philandering journalist. When her husband, Hunter, returns from a trip to Romania where he researched the Unwolves, or werewolves, he admits to coming home a changed man. Not that he’ll quit cheating on her, but that he’ll physically change from man to wolf.
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Emma Hutch has the unique ability to send images into the minds of people she touches, which works wonders for her matchmaking business, The Good Witch, where women pay her to plant images of themselves into the heads of men they want to date, but it doesn’t work so well during sexual situations when her attention isn’t fully on the individual in front of her. (more…)

One of the more difficult aspects of reviewing is the need to remove your own biases and let the story stand on its own. For this reason, I want to discuss a few issues with Common Ground. I’m giving it four tombstones because the story is solid, the characters are vivid and easy to visualize, and the sex is steamy yet sweet.
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Disclaimer: We shall not be discussing the merits of Stephenie Meyer’s work, our opinions on the Twilight series, or the author who received the quote. Any and all commenters who do will be (silently applauded as long as you agree with me) deleted. : )
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