The BiblioSanctum

Audiobook Review: Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone

Posted on November 20, 2013 5 Comments

Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone

Genre: (Urban) Fantasy
Series: The Craft Sequence #2
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: October 29, 2013
Author Info: www.maxgladstone.com

Wendy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars: I never thought I’d love books where lawyers and big corporations are the (sort of) good guys.

The god wars effected Max Gladstone’s incredibly rich world in many ways. In the first book in The Craft Sequence, Three Parts Dead, we learned about the death of a warrior goddess and what the hollow form that remained after her resurrection meant to those who loved and worshiped her in Alt Coloumb. Two Serpents Rise takes us over to the desert city of Dresediel Lex, where the storm god was defeated, and water is now supplied by Red King Consolidated.

Caleb Altemoc works for RKC. His first task in the book is to investigate the poisoning of that water supply. And by poisoning, I mean someone infested it with sharp, pointy demons. Aside from that inconvenience, he has to deal with the fact that the number one suspect is his own father, a former high priest of the deposed gods, now a terrorist. And Mal, an enigmatic and beautiful cliff runner who is almost impossible for Caleb to catch. Oh and the giant hungry serpent gods who are threatening to wake up.

You don’t necessarily have to read 3PD, but it does help establish the world and the way gods and worship work, which is what I fell in love with about this series. Gladstone’s gods serve an actual purpose, as in, a storm god keeps the reservoirs filled, while a god of fire heats a city and a goddess of war defends it. Their power is not limitless, though. They require worship and faith, and in the case of the old gods of DL, they required sacrifice. RKC brought an end to this, but if you’re going to depose a god that waters the desert, then you better know how to bring the rain.

I never thought I’d love books where lawyers and big corporations are the (sort of) good guys. 3PD followed a lawyer’s investigations into the death of a god, while Caleb is a risk assessment manager with a penchant for gambling. I love the way Gladstone works in the intricate details of business plans, mergers and contracts literally signed in blood, combining it all with his unique form of magic, the Craft. The use of Craft takes an interesting twist through Caleb, who is no Craftsman, but thanks to his dear old dad, is not without ways to defend himself.

I love the world of the Craft Sequence. It is so thrilling and unique that I simply refuse to try to categorize it into the many fantasy sub-genres others try to poke it into. I love that, thus far, the stories are separate enough from each other than I can hope for many more adventures from different aspects of this world, including points of view from the gods themselves.

On the downside, I listened to this as a very disappointing audiobook. I love the Craft Sequence enough to tolerate it, but the narrator was not particularly good with pacing and inflection at the right times. He often sounded like he was whining when the character just wanted to make a point. And worst of all, many of the characters, particularly the females with whom Caleb often had lengthy conversations, sounded much like Caleb, making things very confusing. For this reason, the characters weren’t as compelling and endearing as they should have been.

Story: 4 of 5 stars

Narration: 1.5 of 5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday 11/20/13

Posted on November 20, 2013 Leave a Comment

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!

Wendy’s Pick

The Barrow by Mark S. Smylie: March 4, 2014 (Pyr)

By being in the right place (Goodreads) at the right time, I discovered that the Artesia prequel story my friend Mark Smylie is writing isn’t a comic, but an epic new fantasy.

“To find the Sword, unearth the Barrow. To unearth the Barrow, follow the Map.

When a small crew of scoundrels, would-be heroes, deviants, and ruffians discover a map that they believe will lead them to a fabled sword buried in the barrow of a long-dead wizard, they think they’ve struck it rich. But their hopes are dashed when the map turns out to be cursed and then is destroyed in a magical ritual. The loss of the map leaves them dreaming of what might have been, until they rediscover the map in a most unusual and unexpected place.

Stjepan Black-Heart, suspected murderer and renegade royal cartographer; Erim, a young woman masquerading as a man; Gilgwyr, brothel owner extraordinaire; Leigh, an exiled magus under an ignominious cloud; Godewyn Red-Hand, mercenary and troublemaker; Arduin Orwain, scion of a noble family brought low by scandal; and Arduin’s sister Annwyn, the beautiful cause of that scandal: together they form a cross-section of the Middle Kingdoms of the Known World, brought together by accident and dark design, on a quest that will either get them all in the history books, or get them all killed.”

Mogsy’s Pick

Red Delicious byCaitlín R. Kiernan: February 4, 2014 (Roc)

I’m really looking forward to this sequel to Blood Oranges! This is one wild series by Caitlín R. Kiernan writing as Kathleen Tierney. Siobhan Quinn is definitely not your run-of-the-mill urban fantasy heroine. Not at all.

“Half-vampire, half-werewolf Siobhan Quinn survived her initiation into the world of demons and monsters. But staying alive as she becomes entangled in underworld politics might prove to be more difficult. When the daughter of a prominent necromancer vanishes, it’s up to Quinn to find the girl. But her search will land her directly in the middle of a struggle between competing forces searching for an ancient artifact of almost unimaginable power…”

Cover Lover

Posted on November 19, 2013 Leave a Comment

After successfully getting my profile up to a comfortable 87% with NetGalley, I said I would not get any more ARCs for the year, but further to my book haul of denial, I’m clearly not good with my personal promises and resolutions. These two books from Angry Robot popped right out at me because, well, just look at them. Look at them! I try to resist, but sometimes, I’m a sucker for a gorgeous cover and a pretty face. Fortunately, so far, I’ve not been disappointed.

Book Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Posted on November 19, 2013 2 Comments

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.

Wendy’s Book Haul: Shopping Spree

Posted on November 19, 2013 Leave a Comment

I recently made some silly statement about new year’s resolutions and how I was not going to buy any more books in 2014. My TBR pile is too high and I must get through those first before I succumb to further flirtations from BookOutlet and Amazon. Apparently, my resolution plans do not take into account all the goodies I’ll end up scoring between now and year’s end….

I ended up at BookOutlet after Mogsy’s five star review of Starhawk, but sadly, they did not have any other books in Jack McDevitt’s Academy series. But I couldn’t very well leave the site without checking my wish list and oh look at all the books available: Shade’s Children, Path of Beasts, In the Night Garden and King of Thorns in hardcover are now miiiine.

…Saving $47 on books I didn’t intend to buy? Priceless (well, maybe not…)

Then, less than an hour after placing that order, a belated birthday present arrived – a gift certificate for Chapters. I pre-ordered Words of Radiance, which felt right after my The Way of Kings bookflail and then went all in on making 2014 the year of The Witcher.

Book Review: Knife Sworn by Mazarkis Williams

Posted on November 18, 2013 Leave a Comment

Knife Sworn by Mazarkis Williams

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Book 2 of The Tower and Knife Trilogy

Publisher: Jo Fletcher

Date of Publication: October 25, 2012

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars – “Gorgeous writing and strong characters in this intriguing sequel; you won’t want to miss this”

The Tower and Knife series continues with Knife Sworn, and the second book is as full of magic, intrigue and beauty as the first — if not even more so! One might be tempted to stop with The Emperor’s Knife, its story having wrapped up so nicely at the end after all, with Sarmin coming into his own and the Pattern Master vanquished forever. But trust me, you won’t want to miss this.

The events at the end of The Emperor’s Blade saw Prince Sarmin free at last, taking his place on the throne after years of being locked up in a tower. Mesema, the girl sent from the horse tribes is now his wife and empress, and has just given birth to a boy. However, Sarmin’s own mother the Empire Mother Nessaket has also just recently borne a son, throwing the matter of succession into question. And as the first book has shown, too many boys with royal blood at the palace has always led to bad news.

On top of this, Sarmin has been suffering from memory lapses and getting pressure from his advisers to name a new royal assassin, or a knife-sworn. He’s also just received an unwanted gift of a harem of concubines, which he suspects is actually harboring a spy. There are only a few people close to Sarmin he can trust, and with the births of the princes and the arrival of a Yrkman peace convoy, they become more important to him than ever before.

First and foremost of these characters is Grada, whom we met in The Emperor’s Knife and has since become one of Sarmin’s closest companions and his trusted investigator. I mentioned in my review of the first book that out of all the points-of-view featured, my favorite one was Mesema’s. In Knife Sworn, she takes on a less central role, but in her place Mazarkis Williams has given us the narratives of three other women, all strongly characterized and well-written. I’ve already mentioned Grada, whose complex past and warring emotions made her the most interesting person in the book. There’s also Nessaket, who was almost a villain in my eyes in The Emperor’s Knife, but in Knife Sworn I actually sympathized with her. And finally, my favorite character in this book was Rushes, the slave girl who instantly endeared me to her with her good heart.

Mazarkis Williams’ writing is also in a league of its own, invoking such powerful and vivid imagery. It has been many, many months since I read The Emperor’s Knife, but I still remember a certain scene involving blooming flowers in the desert, which Williams had brought to life with exquisite attention to detail. The writing was simply beautiful, and it is even more so now in Knife Sworn since the storytelling has become cleaner and more robust. It’s the prime reason why I enjoyed this sequel even more than the first book; in The Emperor’s Knife I sometimes found myself lost in terms of which character I was supposed to be following or trying to figure out where I was. I experienced none of that here, in the smooth flowing pace and structure of Knife Sworn.

The author has also ramped up the intrigue. If that was your favorite part of the first book, you will not be disappointed here. Conspiracies, secret agendas and betrayals abound, with twists thrown in. Almost everyone can be seen as a friend or a foe, depending on whose perspective you’re following. I read this book much faster than I expected, because I wanted badly to see what certain characters would do.

The only thing I would have liked to see more of in Knife Sworn is the magic. Specifically, I wouldn’t have minded a bit more about how it works; the first book introduced a very interesting system involving relationships between mages and spirits, and it was one of the coolest ideas I’ve ever come across in fantasy. Mages didn’t play as big a role in this one, though with the emergence of a new magical threat to the empire, I hope the third book will offer a deeper and more detailed look at the magic of this world.

On that note, The Tower Broken will be coming out very soon! I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

4 of 5 stars

A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Graphic Novel Review: Catwoman Volume 1: The Game by Judd Winick and Guillem March

Posted on November 17, 2013 Leave a Comment

Catwoman, Vol. 1: The Game by Judd Winick and Guillem March

Series: Collects Catwoman #1-5
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: May 22, 2012

This isn’t exactly the Catwoman I wanted to learn about, but I do like her and I can see her learning to become the woman Batman loves and respects, once she figures out the baggage she’s hanging on to.

4 of 5 stars

A lot of controversy surrounded Catwoman’s reboot as part of DC’s New 52. Along with Starfire’s questionable outfits, sexuality and posing, Catwoman’s raunchy, angry sex with Batman, culminating in this splash page, DC successfully offended many of their established readers.

I have always liked Catwoman (and totally ship her with Batman,) though I’d never followed her titles. The New 52 gave me an opportunity to finally get to know her properly, though I understand in reading it, why former fans of the character would be offended. Selina Kyle is no longer the lady whom Batman both loved and respected. Now she’s a reckless 22-year-old who keeps walking the edge that will get her, or worse, someone she cares about, killed. Batman is determined to stop her – to save her from herself – if only she weren’t so damn enticing.

Catwoman is also very angry and very violent in this incarnation. It was the violence of the story that caught my attention more than the (gratuitous) sex splash page. In fact, that angry Bat/Cat sex is all part of this new, angrier Selina persona. This isn’t exactly the Catwoman I wanted to learn about, but I do like her and I can see her learning to become the woman Batman loves and respects, once she figures out the baggage she’s hanging on to.

I’m happy with the way she handles Batman. He’s a strong influence in her life and I assume he’ll continue to show up from time to time (well, it’s Batman and if there’s one thing common to just about every book in the New 52, it’s that Batman needs to stick his pointy ears in every one of them), but it becomes clear that she’s not one of the many problems that the great detective can solve, no matter how much he wants to.

The art is slick, perfectly capturing the agility and expressions of the character. I loved the use of reflection in many scenes, allowing the focus to remain on Catwoman and her reactions.

Without getting into spoilers, I was somewhat disappointed with the treatment of a certain character who was very important to Selina. It upset me enough not to want to actively pursue the series. However, I recognize the purpose of the particular plot device and appreciate where things ended up at the end, implying that maybe Catwoman will begin to learn the lesson Batman is trying to get through her head.

Mogsy’s Book Haul

Posted on November 16, 2013 Leave a Comment

The year’s NaNoWriMo has been going great so far; I’ve been keeping up with my word count every day and have on a several occasions even managed to churn out a review or two for the site. Which is nice because I’ve received some amazing books for review in the last two weeks.

Allegiance – courtesy of Tor, the final and third book, actually, of Beth Bernobich’s River of Souls trilogy which I’ve heard a lot about but have never gotten a chance to read. I may have to remedy that.

Knife Sworn and The Tower Broken – from Jo Fletcher, the follow-up books to Mazarkis Williams fantastic debut The Emperor’s Knife. I’ve just finished Knife Sworn and loved it, so keep an eye out for the review on Monday, and I can’t wait to get to book 3.

Hell Bent – I’ve always wanted to check out Devon Monk’s books, and I finally got the chance to do it with Hell Bent, the first book of her new urban fantasy series spun off from her Allie Beckstrom books. Like I said in my review, I think it’s off to a good start.

Vicious – with thanks to Pabkins from MyShelfConfessions, I finally got a chance to read this book, which everyone is raving about! As well they should! It was fantastic.

Iron Night – the sequel to M.L. Brennan’s Generation V and it was INCREDIBLE. A full review will have to wait until closer to the release date, but this one was one of my most highly anticipated novels of the new year and it was everything I hoped for an more!

The digital pile:

The Daedalus Incident and Ice Forged – two books that I’ve had my eye on for a long time, and mashing the “1-click” buy button was practically instinctual when I saw these as Kindle deals on their respective days. Subsequently, so was picking up their Whispersync audiobooks at the greatly reduced price.

Cold Magic and The Innocent Mage – and while on the topic of audiobooks, the Audible matchmaker tool is like the most evil thing ever. Running my Kindle library through the thing alerted me to some of my older ebook purchases that now have Whispersync enabled audiobooks. Some of them were at $2-3 a pop, which is how I ended up with these two new titles in audio format.

The Emperor’s Blades -I’d just gotten my NetGalley stats back up past 80% this summer, but since then I’ve made a few new requests. I really should be polishing off books I already have but I couldn’t resist when I saw this one. Another one of my most highly anticipated books of the new year, and I’d been waiting patiently for it to go up on NG for a long time. Tor has so many great books coming out in the coming months, they are killing me!

Review Bites: Fairy Tales

Posted on November 16, 2013 Leave a Comment

Disney and the hit series, Once Upon A Time, keep fairy tales at the forefront of current pop culture, yet these stories have been around since forever and many other storytellers have had their fun with them along the way.

Fearie Tales returns fairy tales to their roots, reminding us that these stories were originally not intended for children – unless you want to scare the crap out of them and make sure they don’t do as their told lest the monster in the closet eat their toes. Like the Brothers Grimm, this anthology collects fairy tales, specifically focusing on the darker aspects. The original stories are juxtaposed with variations by some of favourite authors including Garth Nix, Neil Gaiman, Michael Marshal Smith and more. I wouldn’t necessarily say the stories are as gruesome as the cover suggests. “Haunting” is a more effective word that describes some of my favourite tales, such as Open Your Window, Golden Hair by Tanith Lee, a disturbing take on the story of Rapunzel. When paired with the absolutely creepy illustrations by Alan Lee, I may have found myself checking under the bed once or twice while reading this…

With thanks to Jo Fletcher Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a fan of Once Upon A Time, which inspired me to finally get on with reading Fables. For those who still believe that Once is a rip off of Fables, be sure to check out Bill Willingham’s interview with Bill Willingham to learn the error of your ways. There certainly are similarities, considering they are both pulling from the same source materials, but both stand quite well on their own.

Fables Volume 1: Legends in Exile takes place in New York, centuries after the fairy tale characters we know and love or hate have been run out of town by the Adversary. Those who look human remain within the city, while the others live in the more rural areas. There is an amnesty in place that has absolved everyone of past sins. Snow White more or less runs things, but when her sister, Rose Red, goes missing under violent circumstances, she is forced to team up with Bigby Wolf, resident detective, to find her sister and the culprit.

As an introductory story, the mystery allows the reader to meet many of the characters and discover how author Bill Willingham has made each of them adjust to this new life. The result is some really interesting characters and relationships and yes, I am already shipping Wolf and Snow. Whut? The mystery itself plays out like a good old fashioned ’80s murder mystery, complete with Wolf indulging in a big reveal at the end. It’s wonky, but I’ll give it a pass because I’m already impressed with the concept and the characters. And oh look, The Wolf Among Us game is available on Steam…

Grimm Fairy Tales is a great example of “don’t judge a book by its cover” even when the covers of these graphic novels make such an effort to ensure that you judge them. Scantily clad fairy tale ladies adorn each cover, posed provocatively, trapped in precarious situations, tormented by evils. How good could this comic really be? Based on these covers alone, I figured I was in for a laugh in reading this. I was pleasantly surprised to find just how deceptive the covers are.

Each story starts in the real world with a young woman facing a serious problem in her life, such as a boyfriend who shuns her for not putting out, a partner who wants her to abort a baby when she doesn’t. It even surprised me by focusing on a male protagonist who is smitten by a girl who is obviously using him. Each protagonist stumbles across a mysterious woman and or her mysterious book of fairy tales and turns to a page with a relevant story to help them come to a decision about their future. The tales follow the standard story, but then offer some intriguing twists that offer a moral punch.

Despite the covers, there are no buxom babes prancing around in corsets and fishnets in the stories. Other than the occasional cleavage, everyone is appropriately dressed and none of the women are taken advantage of beyond the constraints of their respective fairy tales.

I’d originally decided to read this along side Fables thinking it would prove to be an amusingly poor comparison, but I ended up discovering something surprisingly interesting that wasn’t as bad as it appeared to be.

Book Review: Hell Bent by Devon Monk

Posted on November 15, 2013 Leave a Comment

Hell Bent by Devon Monk

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: Book 1 of Broken Magic

Publisher: Roc

Date of Publication: November 5, 2013

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars – “Action-filled and suspenseful start to a new spinoff series set in the Allie Beckstrom universe. Looking forward to more!”

While it’s true I’ve never read anything by Devon Monk before this, her name had been on my reading list ever since her Age of Steam books first caught my eye. I wasn’t aware that she was working on something else, which explained my surprise when I saw that she had a first book of a new Urban Fantasy series out this month. You know me, I can never pass up a chance to read new UF! The fact that I’ll also finally get to check out a book by Devon Monk was also very exciting.

Hell Bent is the book in question, starring the jaded Shamus “Shame” Flynn as the main protagonist and narrator. Being a special kind of magic user called a Breaker, Shame along with his Soul Complement Terric Conley have the ability to “break” magic, channeling it in its full force. Thing is, Shame’s magic is Death and Terric’s is Life, and both are constantly engaged in a struggle against their power, which can consume them if they’re not careful. In Shame’s case, he has to remain control of himself at all times, lest his Death magic harms others arround him.

In a world where the power of magic has become so diminished, the Breakers immediately become targets when secrets behind their abilities leak out and become known to the government. A group of Breakers, including Shame and Terric, choose to stay and fight on home ground. But then, people with magic in their pasts start disappearing and dying — people close to Shame and his friends. Then, beautiful and mysterious Dessa breezes into his life asking for help to find her brother’s killer, making Shame realize the extent of the threat if the Breakers’ secrets fall into the wrong hands.

Almost right away, I had to do a double-take of the blurb on the cover, to make sure I was indeed reading the first book of a new series. I had that strange feeling of being dropped into the middle of a a situation, much like walking into a theater fifteen minutes after the movie had already started. The world of the book had an “established” feel to it already, as well as a community of characters firmly set in place, described in a way that made me feel I should already know them. I did some research and that was how I ultimately came to discover Devon Monk’s other Urban Fantasy series, the Allie Beckstrom books. I don’t know how I managed to completely miss the boat on this series, because there are nine books all together and they were pretty popular, but I soon found out that Hell Bent is actually the first book of a spinoff. Which explains a lot!

With that mystery out of the way, I have to say that while those familiar with Allie Beckstrom will probably find a lot more to be excited about in this book, it was nevertheless a pretty fun ride for a newcomer like me too. Yes, I felt a little lost at first, but that was mostly due to my own compulsive desire to find out everything about the world and the relationships between all the members of this tightly-knit group of magic users (that is, nothing all that pertinent to understanding the story). The details that were important, on the other hand, were all there, so readers new to this world need not fear. If you’re anything like me, you might even feel the urge to pick up the Allie Beckstrom novels. Indeed, my curiosity led me to add Magic to the Bone to my reading list, because I was just too intrigued by all the mentions and references to people and events in this previous series.

One thing I wasn’t too sure of about this book was how I felt about the main character. I can tell Devon Monk is a talented writer from the way she has crafted this indepth and fully fleshed-out personality for Shamus Flynn. The problem is, that personality is a very caustic one. I’m used to reading Urban Fantasy starring snarky characters, but Shame’s brand of snark was tinged with a little too much hostility for my tastes. Right from the start, I could tell he has a massive chip on his shoulder. Not that he doesn’t have a good excuse, being Death Magic incarnate and all, but at times his angst would reach levels I could barely tolerate. It took me a while to warm up to him, when the story got going and the goodness in him eventually made itself known. He also has an unconventional way of showing that he cares, which actually won him points from me. Plus, I enjoyed his brutal and no-nonsense methods of payback. For a character I downright disliked at the beginning, he certainly has a way of turning things around and making me change my mind.

The final point I want to bring up involves the romance. Devon Monk did a fantastic job building it up and carrying it out, making it emotionally impactful for the reader. But for whatever reason, it just didn’t work for me. Shame and Dessa were great together, but the way their relationship was written and presented somehow gave me the feeling like it was shoehorned into the story to make a point. It’s definitely not a dealbreaker, but I do prefer it when a romance develops more realistically between two characters, especially in this case when things happen so quickly.

Despite being slightly disappointed at how the story was left wide open for the next book (not all the loose ends were tied up nicely), I did enjoy how this one ended. The climax was action-filled and suspenseful, leaving me excited to find out what will happen next. Hell Bent did its job as a good teaser and gave me a taste of what to expect, and I have a feeling I’ll probably like the second Broken Magic book even more. I can definitely see Stone Cold in my future, not to mention the Allie Beckstrom series as well!