The Half-Breed Vampire
Theresa Meyers
Harlequin Nocturne, Feb 21 2012, $5.50
ISBN: 9780373618798

In the Cascade Mountains, wolves attack hybrid vampire Slade Donovan. Game Warden Raina Ravenwing rescues him from a pack of werewolves; killing one of them. She explains she hunts this pack for abducting Robbie two weeks ago with a plan to transform the teen. He agrees to help her complete her mission because it coincides with what he is doing for the Cascade Vampire Clan who took him off the streets of Seattle.

Raina knows her instant attraction to her new teammate comes at a bad time as the task must come before her need. He feels the same though he also knows he offers nothing, not even his heritage to Raina. Complicating their pursuit, the rogue pack leader knows the officer is his mate.

The third Sons of Midnight Cascade Vampire Clan romantic urban fantasy (see The Truth About Vampires and The vampire Who Loved Me) is a fresh tale with terrific twists including what the hero is. The storyline is fast-paced from the onset as the rogues prove to have unique power that places Slade and the other vampire security members in peril for their lives and Raina as the intended soul mate of the evil Bracken. Theresa Meyers provides a great thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The Dread
Gail Z. Martin
Orbit, Feb 1 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9780316093613

Weary of war but knowing hostilities are heating up; tired King Donelan of Isencroft goes to lie down in his bed. However, an assassin rigged a bow contraption underneath, which is activated when the monarch’s weight hit the bed. The ruler is dead and the kingdom is on the verge of civil war. Donelan’s daughter Queen Kiara Sharsequin Drayke leaves her husband and child behind in Margolan to go home as the monarch and prevent the civil war at a time when external crisis threatens the country.

Elsewhere in the Winter Kingdoms, trouble has returned with the bellicose rise of normally isolated Temnotta. At the same time, Kiara’s mate Summoner-King Martris Drayke (see Chronicles of the Necromancer) struggles with sorcery and steel combat coming to his nation at a time Tris fears for the soul of his infant child while he must use forbidden magic to deal the rise of the Dread.

The latest Fallen King’s Cycle political-military fantasy (see The Sworn) starts off with the shocking assassination, but slows down immediately afterward while the numerous subplots are established. Once done, the storyline accelerates into a rousing thriller as war has returned to the Winter Kingdoms. Filled with minute details, fans will believe they traverse the dangerous realms of the Martin mythos.

Harriet Klausner

Raven Calls
C.E. Murphy
Luna, Feb 21 2012, $14.95
ISBN 9780373803439

Seattle Urban Shaman Joanne Walker loved being a police detective, but balancing her two worlds ended when a werewolf bit her. She quits the force as she knows she cannot quit the mystic realm. Jo scratches a compelling itch that has her leaving behind her former police boss Mike Morrison who she only recently began seeing (see Spirit Dances) to fly to Ireland.

Mike sends Jo’s best friend septuagenarian Gary Muldoon to Dublin to keep her butt out of trouble. They head to the Hills of Tara in County Meah when a woman comes out of nowhere to identify Jo as Siobhan Walkingstick, Walker’s birth name. As the pair climbs the metaphysical Hill of Tara, Jo’s life spins full circle when she learns what the obsession that brought her to ancient magical Eire is all about; the deceased individual, who gave up everything for her, needs rescuing, but first the Shaman must escape the dark power of the Morrígan.

This is a great spin as the heroine has good cause to put on hold, perhaps permanently, her relationship with Mike in order to learn more about her ancestry and battle some nasty adversaries. Thus the spinning stunning storyline returns to its fantasy roots as Jo is in mortal combat with a nasty goddess in a long ago era (there is no Seattle coffee available) as the latest Walker Papers (see Demon Hunts) is a super smart shocker.

Harriet Klausner

Autumn: Aftermath
David Moody
Dunne Griffin, Mar 12 2012, $14.99
ISBN: 9780312570026

One nanosecond ago everything was fine; a moment later 99% of the human race died; however over the next three months the dead failed to stay dead as they returned as the mindless indead with an innate instinct to kill the 1% of human survivors. Several of the 1% survivors reach the remote island of Cormansey; access exclusively by air ad boat, making this isolated rock zombie free for the fifty-one humans including a pregnant women. They helicopter to Chadwick to obtain needed supplies.

Another of the 1% made it to fortified Cheatham Castle. These twenty-one survivors go to Chadwick for supplies too. The two human groups collide as the castle dwellers believe the islanders are encroaching on their territory of Chadwick. The islanders invite the Chadwick crew to join them on the island as there is strength in numbers. Many want to go but their leaders refuse to give up their power. As tension mounts, the two small pockets of humans seem ready to war with each other instead of allying against the greater threat.

The final Autumn urban fantasy (see Autumn: Disintegration and Autumn: The City) is a great finish to a fabulous zombie thriller. The underlying premise is that those on power obsess with remaining in power at any cost even to their own group’s survival. With a deep look at the human need to dominate or subordinate, readers will relish this entry as only the strong survive by using the weaker as fodder.

Harriet Klausner

Discount Armageddon
Seanan McGuire
Daw, Mar 6 2012, $7.99
ISBN 9780756407131

The Price extended family has been cryptid hunters for generations. However, they eventually rejected the Covenant of St. George that condoned species cleansing. Like the rest of her clan, Verity Price is a cryptozoologist who works to insure safe environments for cryptids and humans. However, though she is passionately dedicated, her first love is ballroom dancing though she wonders where that strand of her DNA comes from.

Thus Verity moves from the West Coast to New York to dance for a year. When she prevents a carnivorous ghoul (clearly an oxymoron) from dining on a human, Verity, who works as a waitress for a Dark bogeyman at Dave’s Fish and Strips club, concludes this is why she never has a Saturday night date. As cryptids are being hunted in the city, Dominick DeLuca catches Verity in a rooftop snare. The two enemies agree to team up when lizard people are found in the sewers and rumors abound that a sleeping dragon underneath Manhattan gneiss bedrock is awakening.

As October takes a Daye off, Seanan McGuire begins a new urban fantasy starring a Romeo and Juliet couple. The storyline is fun to follow due to the amusing asides from the priceless heroine. With a nod to the classic cantina scene in Star Wars, it is the McGuire Manhattan mythos with the various cryptid species, many introduced at Dave’s club (like the therianthrope bouncer – cute as long as you don’t tango, and the dragon princess - known for making money faster than Wall St. and without a male), that makes for a great read.

Harriet Klausner

Thief’s Covenant: A Widdershins Adventure
Ari Marmell
PYR, Feb 21 2012, $16.95
ISBN: 9781616145477

In Davillon, Adrienne Sati became an orphan while very young. Though all alone, she used her intelligence and streets smarts to live on the city’s mean streets (and below) until taken into the home of Alexandre the aristocrat. However, her world crashes when she got tangled up with minor God Olgun, who is not even one of the acceptable worshiped Pact of 120 deities. Now with Olgun sharing her skull, Adrienne is back on and under the mean streets of Davillon, but as Widdershins and she cannot go home since being accused of mass murder of some of the city’s elite.

Constable Henri Roubert catches Widdershins, but with no intention of bringing her in; instead he plans to shoot her claiming she tried to escape. The weapon fails and Robert’s hand is severely damaged. Escaping, Widdershins and Olgun search for the real killer of the elite, why she is the last surviving worshipper of the god in her head, and who wants her dead and why.

Thief’s Covenant is an exciting entertaining investigative fantasy starring a lead protagonist who, if not for the occasional magic, readers would assume is schizophrenic as she and her guest hold amusing satirical discussions. The storyline is not linear as the reader finds the hero at a pivotal plot point; but also going back in time to how the heroine got to her current dilemma and forward to how she tries to survive. With a strong city anchoring the otherworldly elements, high school age and older fans will enjoy touring the underbelly of Davillon with the twin guides as their squabbling jocular hosts.

Harriet Klausner

Borrowed Heart
Linda Lamberson
LAOL, Dec 2 2011, $8.99
ISBN: 9780615498768

The psychic Madame Sasha tells Evie Sanders things about herself and her family very few people know. She also warns her that she has been marked with The Curse of Three, which will include two near death experiences and something worse. Evie awakens from a bad dream that seemed so real because she met Sasha two years ago.

After class, Quinn Harrison introduces himself to Evie and asks for her notes from a session he missed. He asks her to come to a party, but she is dating her Michigan boyfriend Ryan Walker though they are apart as she attends IU and he goes to Illinois. Still Evie is attracted to Quinn so she and her two BFFs (Lisa and Rachel) attend the party. However, due to a drunk, Evie dies in a car accident after seeing Ryan with another woman in Champagne. Five days later she awakens to a Peter informing her that this is no longer Bloomington and he will guide her in her transition into being a rare chosen Shepherd to help humans. As she learns the rigid Rules, Evie has one problem with obedience, Quinn.

Book One of the Evie Sanders series is a terrific romantic urban fantasy starring a fascinating heroine who at sixteen realized she had a gift and welcomed it rather than running from it. Evie holds the entertaining storyline focused with help from her mentor and her beloved. However, what makes this strong opening act work is the unique Lamberson mythos that sub-genre fans will appreciate and want more.

Harriet Klausner

His Dark Bond
Anne Marsh
Kensington Brava, Feb 1 2012, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758266798

Three thousand years ago, the revolt in Heaven by the fiercest warriors the Dominion led to Michael the archangel tossing them down to earth with their wings removed. The only way back to Heaven is if they bond with their specific soul mate. In 2090 the first bonding occurs.

In M City, Zer the leader of the Fallen knows Michael’s lieutenant Cuthah is raising an army of the Fallen who have turned rogue. They also learn he has killed their soul mates for centuries. Currently Zer’s number two Nael has a list of four names of alleged soul mates. On it is university Professor Nessa St. James who is studying genetics. Zer insures her funding and lab are shut down even as she is coming to identifying a thirteenth tribe of Israel lost in history. She turns to the Genecore Foundation for support, but Zer grabs her; she tells him to F off. He kills two rogues and takes her to his club. She is upset he killed two rogues, but he insists they came to drink her dry. Zer says she is a bond mate who will be matched to one of the Fallen; any of them except him.

The second Bond futuristic urban romantic fantasy (see Bond With me) is a terrific thriller as the concept of a bond mate saving a fallen angel is cleverly developed making along with the genetic research the storyline feel plausible. The lead protagonists are a solid pairing of a leader and a scientist both in denial. Although the villain proves weak and futuristic dystopian Moscow underdeveloped, fans will enjoy Anne Marsh’s second bonding tale.

Harriet Klausner

Wrong Side of Dead
Kelly Meding
Bantam, Jan 31 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9780345525796

His goal at any cost is to eradicate all vampires, mad scientist Walter Thackery tortured monster hunter Evangeline Stone. He nearly broke her before she finally escaped (see Another Kind of Dead).

She knows she needs time to mentally heal from her ordeal at the hands of the psychopath, but Dreg City cannot allow her the luxury as her Triad allies are battered to the point of possible extinction. The half-Blood vampires attack Evy and her associates using logical tactics as these bloody hybrids retained their cognitive thinking processes. On top of that assault, the beleaguered Triads must confront the return of the once thought extinct Halfies. Even on the personal front an attack leaves the heroine teetering when her beloved Wyatt Truman is brutally victimized by agents of Thackery. However, a betrayal inside the Triads leaves an already despondent Evy ready to give up the fight.

The latest Stone dead urban fantasy (see As Lie the Dead and Three Days to Dead) is an exhilarating thriller that turns the already very dark saga many degrees darker. The heroine feels her world imploding from within and exploding from without as she feels bone marrow weary and helpless with the waves of assaults. Thackery may be a stereotype in a generic sense, but is a credible villain whose vile activities make the tale with his end justifies the means credo in which his ethnic cleansing of vampires supersedes anything including the possible mass destruction of Dreg City. Kate Meding has written a terrific entry that is filled with action yet also contains psychological suspense; as Evy may be a PTSD sufferer at a moment when she cannot afford to be off her top game.

Harriet Klausner

Echoes of Betrayal: Paladin’s Legacy
Elizabeth Moon
Del Rey, Feb 21 2012, $26.00
ISBN: 9780345508768

King Kieri of Lyonya and hybrid elf Arian prepare to marry. However, his dead ancestors caution him to trust no one as treachery follows him and he needs to watch his beloved; but especially his elven grandma queen of the Ladysforest clan. Although he plans to still wed Arian, he wonders if his grandma’s elf clan who have mostly stayed away or humans are planning to assassinate him; as each race detests him.

King Mikeli of Tsaia angers his nobles when he gives the dukedom of Verrakai to former Lyonya Captain Dorrin who helped him survive the seditious dangerous acts of treason by the former Verrakai magelord. His aristocracy rejects the outsider due to her gender, her combat experience for another kingdom and her forbidden magic skills. Loyalists to the traitorous magelord former duke attack Dorrin’s squires and threaten Mikeli’s rule.

Although Kings Kieri and Mikeli face betrayal, they have a greater threat to their respective kingdoms. Feral young dragons are killing humans, elven and gnomes. War between dragonkind, humans, elves, and gnomes seem imminent.

The third Paladin’s Legacy fantasy (see Oath of Fealty and Kings of the North) is a great military-political complex thriller as readers will understand that the Paladins are agents of chaos whose interventions gave long term consequences. The storyline is fast-paced as Elizabeth Moon’s relativity-inertia premise that for every positive action there is a negative reaction (on someone) makes for a strong entry in the superb Eight Kingdoms mythos.

Harriet Klausner