Book Review: House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter

House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: Book 1 of Crescent City

Publisher: Orbit (May 13, 2014)

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy's Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars 


A couple of recent experiences have made me extremely wary of spin-offs, so it was probably a good thing I didn’t know House of the Rising Sun was one until I was already well into it. I’ve never read Kristen Painter before this, and I’d definitely wanted to give this series a fair shot. So perhaps it’s to her credit that I didn’t even know this was a spin-off novel until I read the author interview at the back of the book – not once did I feel lost or in over my head even if I hadn’t read her House of Comarré series. Right away, I liked how this book was the perfect jumping-on point for a new reader, which is a quality I think all spin-offs should strive for.

Augustine, who was a side character in House of Comarré gets to star in his own series here, returning to his hometown of New Orleans after some time away. He’s playing fast and loose, having very few responsibilities and getting to enjoy the attentions of human women who find his Fae heritage irresistible. He also gets free room and board whenever he wants in a luxurious Garden District mansion, thanks to his adoptive mother Olivia Goodwin, the retired movie star. It’s a good life! Little wonder then why he’s so fiercely reluctant when asked to be Guardian of the city. But when the vampire gangs start attacking innocent tourists and those he loves, Augustine finds he might not have a choice.

Meanwhile, Olivia’s biological daughter Harlow gets into a massive amount of trouble, having been convicted of cyber-hacking. Completely broke and unable to pay the exorbitant fine, she decides on the lesser of two evils and hits up her mom for help rather than go to jail, even though the two have been estranged for years.

What struck me early on was that neither Augustine nor Harlow seemed to be capable of taking responsibility of their own actions. Augustine wasn’t too bad – though it was a bit off-putting the way he figured he could get away with doing something wrong with no repercussions. When threatened with the Guardianship, all he could think about was how it would affect his cushy life. Guess what, Augustine, punishment usually goes hand in hand with breaking the rules! There’s really no sense in resenting it.

Ultimately Augustine redeemed himself in my eyes, stepping up to fulfill his role. On the other hand, Harlow’s attitude left a bad taste in my mouth and did not really fade until the very end. It was revealed early on that her estrangement from her mother was due to Olivia refusing to divulge the identity of Harlow’s father. That’s a fixation Harlow NEVER allows us to forget. Hearing her go on about it, you’d think every single one of her life’s misfortunes could be traced back to Olivia withholding her father’s name. Harlow's introductory scene even involved her wishing daddy would come bail her out of trouble, if only she'd known who he was, and that she’d never have been duped into a cybercrime if only he'd been in her life in the first place. Somehow, I just don't buy that. Plus, Olivia was not as bad a mother as Harlow made her sound. Characters tend to play a huge role in my enjoyment of a novel, so it was unfortunate that Harlow started off so self-absorbed and entitled, and her inability to admit "Hey, I screwed up, and it was my own fault" really grated on me.

But how I adored the Kristen Painter’s portrayal of New Orleans in this series! If she’d had wanted the atmosphere of a never-ending party, she certainly nailed it. It’s the perfect setting when it comes to a haven for fae, vampires, witches and other supernatural creatures. I loved the scene of Nokturnos, a noisy and boisterous night of festivities where everyone just wants to have fun. Can’t really blame Augustine for being so happy-go-lucky when the mood’s just so positively infectious, and world building is simply phenomenal.

Apart from the hiccups with the characters, I actually quite enjoyed this book and had a lot of fun with it. In fact, I thought the last page came far too soon, and wish ending hadn’t been so rushed. These characters have a lot of potential to grow, with Augustine having won me over already, and Harlow is well on her way to becoming a more sympathetic character. I’ll admit it – I’m raring to find out more. All in all, House of the Rising Sun is a promising start, and I look forward to the next book.

A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Orbit Books!

Book Review: Banished by Liz de Jager

Banished by Liz de Jager

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

Series: Book 1 of The Blackhart Legacy

Publisher: Tor UK (February 27, 2014)

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy's Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars 


At first glance, Banished may seem like another relatively routine venture into the paranormal young adult genre, but dig a little deeper and you'll find this first book of Liz de Jager's new series has a few surprises up its sleeve.

Displaying shades of Buffy, the book follows Katherine "Kit" Blackhart, a teenager who hails from a family of monster hunters tasked to enforce the peace between our world and the supernatural realm called the Otherwhere. Upon returning from her first solo assignment, Kit is told to stay at the Blackhart mansion to recover while her cousins head off on another mission, leaving her home alone. One night, she wakes up to a kerfluffle in the woods and finds herself rescuing Thorn, a prince of the fae, from a vicious group of redcaps. Whee! Have I mentioned how much I love stories about the Fae?

Anyway, on the run from enemies who are out to capture the prince, the two of them escape to London where they hope to find help, since all of Kit's extended family seem to have mysteriously dropped out of contact. From here on out, it's a full-tilt, no-holds-barred roller coaster ride of insanity as Kit and her allies race from one place to another to figure out just what the heck is going on. There are sword fights, explosions and magic aplenty, not to mention a whole line-up of supernatural threats including goblins, chimera, and even a dragon! I think my ARC was about 400 pages, but looking back, the book ended up feeling like a much faster read simply because it. Does. Not. Stop.

Events certainly moved at rapid pace. For the most part, this was excellent, taking us on an action-filled journey with the story's courageous and kickass heroine. But whew! At times I actually wouldn't have minded some slower sequences, if anything just to take a breather and let some of the details of the world sink in. That said, the breakneck pace didn't hinder my enjoyment much, even if I felt a respite here and there could have given the narrative more opportunities to fill in some important information.

Kit, for example, is wonderful as a main character, though I sensed there's still so much I don't know about her. We know she carries a pool of magic within her, but the nature of that power isn't fully explained, and I'm still not yet clear on the whys and hows of it. It's also revealed that Kit wasn't always a part of the Blackhart family of monster hunters, and that she only came back to rejoin them after her grandmother who raised her passed away. We get frequent glimpses of Kit's past about her time with her nan when she goes back to her memories, but not the full story about why she was taken away in the first place. So yes, there may be a bit of mystery here that might leave readers wondering, but my guess is that this will be further explored in the later books.

Because the story moved along so quickly, it also felt like Kit and Thorn barely had the chance to know to one another before their feelings for each other deepened. In between all the action, there really wasn't much time to develop Thorn and give his personality more depth (this goes for some of the other supporting characters like Aidan as well), so I wasn't entirely convinced that their relationship would have blossomed so quickly in just a few days. Kit and Thorn's romance was perhaps the main thing that could have used more attention, but otherwise I enjoyed the dynamic between these two characters.

While prolific readers of paranormal YA probably won't find anything too new in the overall plot, there's still plenty of fresh ideas here to keep things interesting, not to mention a few twists and turns you won't see coming. All in all, Banished was great fun. Despite some minor criticisms, I think it's a great beginning to a brand new series, and the author is one I would definitely read again. I'm really hoping we'll see more of Kit and the Blackharts' history in the next book, and I can't wait to see what else Liz de Jager has in store.

A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Tor UK!

Book Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

Series: Book 1 of The Falconer

Publisher: Gollancz

Date of Publication: September 26, 2013

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy's Rating: 4 of 5 stars - "Starring a spirited heroine living a double life, this paranormal fantasy about the Fae is a lot of fun and has me hooked"

I was initially drawn to The Falconer thanks to that striking cover. Just absolutely gorgeous! And then I read the book's description and saw that the story was no slouch either. A mix of paranormal fantasy and historical fiction, the Fae, and a spirited heroine made this one sound very inviting.

It is Scotland and the year is 1844. A year has passed since Aileana Kameron was found standing over the dead body of her mother, covered in blood. Everyone thinks she has something to do with it, but Aileana knows the truth. It was a faery who killed her mother and ripped out her heart. 

Now all Aileana wants is revenge. As a result, she lives a double life, pretending to be interested in frivolous things like dances and dresses when making her appearances in high society, but when the light fades she goes out hunting. Night after night, she tracks and kills Fae, using the skills learned from her mentor, Kiaran MacKay. Kiaran, who is a faery himself, has his own reasons for wanting to see his own kind dead, but Aileana doesn't care, not as long as their goals align...and as long as she doesn't get too close.

Despite bits of historical context hinted here and there, the setting didn't actually feel like historical fiction to me. Or very Scottish, for that matter. Elizabeth May has pretty much created her own world in The Falconer; the place and time period don't matter all that much to the story anyway, but the light flavor of steampunk is a nice touch. The world is filled with all sorts of wonderful contraptions, like tea dispensers and floating lights, and Aileana is something of a tinkerer, designing and creating weapons and even her own flying machine.

Aileana herself is a great character, as fiery and determined as that amazing cover makes her out to be. When it comes to female protagonists in paranormal fiction, she ranks amongst the best I've ever met, mostly because she comes off as able and intelligent rather than irritating in her conviction. However, if I had to pick a favorite character in this book, the honor would go to her pixie sidekick-like companion Derrick. I loved that humorous, honey-guzzling little guy! 

I also didn't realize until after I finished reading that The Falconer has been categorized as Young Adult. I suppose in retrospect, the book contains quite a few trappings of the genre, but honestly, they didn't jump out at me at the time. Aileana is 18 years old, but her experiences have made her older than her years, and even the story's love triangle, which I usually dread, was bearable because it wasn't quite like a real love triangle. Even as a YA novel, I feel The Falconer has excellent crossover appeal.

My final thought, and perhaps also a warning, is that this book ends in a cliffhanger, perhaps one of the more infuriating ones I've encountered in recent years. The final scenes with Aileana and Kiaran against the Fae threat were so intense and suspenseful! And when I saw that there were still quite a pages left in the book, I got all anxious and prepared for the conclusion to be revealed...only to find out that the last chapter was actually a Bestiary. Arrrggh! 

So bravo, Elizabeth May, you have me hooked. Some might say The Falconer is pretty standard in terms of paranormal fantasy, but so help me, it was a fast read and such good fun.

4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book via a giveaway hosted by the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

This took a little bit longer than I expected to finish, despite it always being a joy and a treat for me to return to the world of Mercy Thompson. The thing is, I adored River Marked, the book that came before this. Simply adored it. So if I had to compare the two, I probably didn't like Frost Burned as much, but it's still a solid follow-up. If you're a fan of the series, it's not to be missed.

Anyway, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Mercy's life has not settled into the normalcy of wedded bliss even after her marriage to the werewolf alpha Adam -- but it's not for the lack of trying. The book begins with Mercy taking her teenage stepdaughter Jesse out for some Black Friday shopping (oh, brave, brave Mercy), which is how they end up being two of the few spared when the entire pack and their loved ones get targeted or abducted.

This general premise actually ends up leading to an awful lot of plot threads, which is to be expected if you're familiar with the series. But it was perhaps a bit too much in this book, because I found myself struggling to keep my focus more than I had with any of the previous ones. New elements to the plot were still being introduced almost right up to the very end, such as the revelation which finally led me to understand the reason for the book's title.

Also, I fully admit I may be in the minority for this one, but I did not really enjoy the Adam chapters. To my knowledge, this is the first time he's had his point-of-view featured, albeit in third person, as I don't actually recall if we've ever seen it in a Mercy book before this. I'd have thought it would be amazing to get inside Adam's head, but I was wrong. To be honest, he came off as kind of a jerk. I know, I know, he's a werewolf alpha and can't help it, but nevertheless it still bumped his character up a couple notches on my turn-off meter. I would have been even more put out if the POV change was uncalled for, but because of how certain events played out in the book, I have to admit it was necessary and completely appropriate for that particular situation.

One great thing about Frost Burned, though, is that it introduced two more characters that I absolutely fell in love with almost right off the bat. Asil the werewolf and Thomas Hao the vampire -- I hope we see more of these two in future installments.

Final Verdict:

3.5 out of 5 stars