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Stormhaven by Jordan L. Hawk
All the wonderful things from the first two Whyborne & Griffin books are present in this third one, plus more. Action, adventure, romance! Spooky monsters! Stormhaven has a heavy Lovecraft influence, this time in a “dweller of the deep” kind of thing. Gods being summoned from the depths of the sea, (more) secret magic cults, insanity and possession all have a big part in the story; it’s super spooky and made me think of dark stormy nights the whole time. Wonderful atmospheric writing, as always! Not only is it another terrific blend of mystery, horror and romance, it doesn’t rest on its laurels re:its characters. My favorite thing about series…
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Peripheral People by Reesa Herberth & Michelle Moore
I picked up Peripheral People because of the scifi MYSTERY angle, with the romance being a bonus. (I’m also always on the lookout for scifi books starring people other than straight white dudes. Especially ones with aliens! Just fyi.) Scifi mysteries are far and few and I desperately need to find more of them. Especially if they’re as good as Peripheral People! Admittedly, this one has a serial killer, a plot detail I’m not much into, but the rest of the story kept me occupied enough that I ended up not minding the serial killer so much. It was a twisty enough mystery that I didn’t even figure out who…
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The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
So apparently I have a thing for books about repressed introverts who’re plagued by the paranormal when they’re not working in a museum. I’m not really surprised. It combines my love of books, antiques, mysteries and the paranormal, plus there’s a character with the potential for some sort of clam situation if they have a cute enough sidekick. (Spoiler: Kyle doesn’t have a sidekick (or friends). He also doesn’t go anywhere in a character development sort of way. It’s the only downside to an otherwise wonderful book.) Sarah Monette is the lady who wrote The Goblin King (as Katherine Addison), one of my favorite books from 2014! This is the…
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Threshold by Jordan L. Hawk (2013)
This is the second book in the Whyborne & Griffin series and it is much like the first: wonderful plot, great characters, iffy sex scenes[1. more unfortunate word choices ruining otherwise okay sexytimes, although at least each sex scene involves important character/plot development things. I hate when you can cut out sexytimes entirely and lose nothing from the book; what’s the point of having them if they don’t DO anything?] and fun historical paranormal mysteries. Well, not FUN. More like terrifying.
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Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall (2013)
As you know, I am a huge fan of Alexis Hall’s Prosperity series, which is a steampunk historical romance horror thing with amazing characters and a fantastic setting. Her Kate Kane series, meanwhile, is an urban paranormal mystery series with romance elements set in modern day London. I burnt out on urban paranormal mystery romances some years ago, but I had faith that AH wouldn’t just regurgitate the same old tropes that originally turned me off the genre. And he didn’t! A lot of the story elements ARE the same as other urban fantasy series– there are werewolves and vampires and witches, the protagonist is a half-faerie princess PI with…
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Hotblood! vol. 1 & 2 by Toril Orlesky (2014)
I think I found this series through Tumblr? Maybe? It’s a historical fantasy crime Western with centaurs, and it’s available free online. All things I enjoy! I ended up accidentally reading the equivalent of two volumes (plus a bit more) over the course of one evening. The art is so lovely. The limited color palette makes it kinda dreamy-looking, in a stark kind of way It’s a nice mix, and the pages are very pretty to look at.
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Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk (2012)
I somehow stumbled across Widdershins while browsing through something on Scribd. I’m so glad I did, because I ended up having an amazingly fun time reading it.
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Flight of Magpies by K.J. Charles (2014)
I don’t know why I bother preordering books (see: this post), as I almost always put off reading them until way later anyway. Case in point: this book! I’ve had it since pub date, but I waited ages to read it. I suppose it’s the excitement of knowing that it’s going to show up in my mailbox/Kindle? And I WAS/AM excited for Flight of Magpies to be published! It’s the third book of a series I’ve very much enjoyed, with characters I like and a wonderful fantasy-mystery plot. So in the previous book, A Case of Possession, Crane and Stephen worked through some problems in their relationship: namely, do they…