New Fiendish Review: Hold Me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride

Book:                Hold Me Closer Necromancer

Author:              Lish McBride

Publisher:         Henry Holt & Co.

ISBN/ASIN:       9780805090983

Release Date:    Out Now!!!

Rating:                4.0 Stars

Check out Lish McBride’s page here. 

Hold Me Closer Necromancer, the stunning and hilarious debut by Lish McBride reads like a junior-set Christopher Moore, with evil angel Chuck Palhniuk perched on McBride’s shoulder whispering twisted sweet nothings in her ear.  

McBride’s engaging paranormal black comedy about Sammy Lacroix (ahem, Samhain!) a counter jockey college dropout with an unlikely talent has enough geek cachet to get a mention on Attack of the Show—it’s that good. But don’t expect Godzilla to clamber out of the pages just yet…just ghosts, zombies, witches, and a whole lotta shapeshifters are in HMCN. McBride’s piece is strictly paranormal with a twist…and its gut-bustlingly funny. 

After flaming out from U Dub, Sammy hasn’t a clue what he is, or what he wants from life. He can barely get through the day at his McJob without a bit of inflammatory havoc here and there. When a benign game of potato hockey with his fellow minimum wage colleagues goes south, and he loses his precious gris-gris bag, the inexplicable shielding that has protected him his entire life goes with it. All of sudden, Sam is exposed, to himself for the first time, visible to the wrong sort of Seattle-ites, and from there the proverbial poop hits the fan.

Someone very powerful has been experimenting on the shapeshifter population of Seattle. Someone who thrives on power, who doesn’t want competition from another necromancer and is willing to gobble up their power…one way or another.  Sammy has to get to the bottom of his personal history in order to fight this new threat and get on his destined path. How the heck did he end up being a powerful necromancer? And who the heck magically bound him from finding out? Throw in a beautiful alpha-to-be were chick, some shapeshifter shenanigans and you have a delicious story that will have you ROFL, as well as piquing your interest for MORE.

HMCN is a one-stop read, I would be very surprised if you put it down for any length of time, it has a super-compulsion-read-spell embedded in it. If you like A. Lee Martinez, Chuck the All-Powerful, Mike Mignola, or even Lisi Harrison, you will love Hold Me Closer Necromancer. It’s both scary and adorabalicious. It has everything: action, laughs, sexy scenes, mystery, intrigue, blood, guts, zombies, growls, fur, claws, and a wicked, wicked sense of humor.  I loved it, laughed my butt off it, stayed up all night reading it. 

A Fiendishly Bookish Review and One Grumpy Cat 

New Fiendish Review: Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney

Book:                 Bloodthirsty

Author:              Flynn Meaney

Publisher:          Poppy/Hachette

ISBN/ASIN:         9780316102216

Release Date:    October 5, 2010

Rating:   3.5 Stars

Buy: | Amazon | B&N | Border’s | Powell’s | Indiebound |

Find out more about Bloodthirsty and Flynn Meaney

Bloodthirsty is a hilariously funny book of one pale dude’s journey through the ups and downs of high school, and Flynn Meaney has spared not one agonizing scene. One, or all of us, has experienced at least one of the excruciating issues that Meaney depicts. And that is what makes Bloodthirsty so hysterically funny. It’s honest, and believable.

With a neurotic and germaphobe mom, an equally strange dad, and a brother whose popularity surpasses his own, is it any wonder that Finbar Frame is well…very much a wallflower? Despite his incredible spooky eyes, Finn has enjoyed none of the popularity his jock brother has experienced, hasn’t had his first kiss, and virtually has no friends. In fact, Finn is very much the opposite of his brother.

Until the Frame family moves from Podunk, Indiana to New York and then the metamorphosis begins…

Riding the wave of popularity of a recent vampire novel, Finn realizes he has all the characteristics of the most popular vampire heart-throbs. And he even has a built-in allergy to sun. Deciding that this could work for him, dropping a few hints here and there, soon those in the “know” at Pelham Public think Finn is a vampire. And he works it.

But the realization that his brother Luke might not be as perfect as he appears to be, throws Finn for a loop. Luke’s grades begin to drop and his moodiness soars to new heights. It seems for the unlikely twins, that when one is up, the other is down. When Finn’s popularity soars at Pelham complete with vampire groupies, Finn reflects that popularity might not be all that its chalked up to be. Especially when Kate Gallatin swoops in and seems to like Finn…just as he is.

Bloodthirsty is a humorous mix of Bridget Jones meets Twilight, and reminds one of a teen version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid as well. You can’t but help root for Finn. If you are into lighthearted fare, with a plenty of chuckles then Bloodthirsty is your bag, baby!

A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat!)

New Fiendish Review: Virals by Kathy Reichs

Book:                 Virals

Author:               Kathy Reichs

Publisher:           Razorbill

ISBN/ASIN:       9781595143426 (arc)

Release Date:    November 2, 2010

Rating:   4 Stars

Buy: | Amazon | B&N | Borders | Powell’s | Indiebound |

Find out about Kathy Reichs and the new Virals trilogy.

Kathy Reichs has pulled three cherries to a jackpot with Virals-her debut young adult adventure tale about an intrepid teen that stumbles upon a cold case murder in her backwater turf.

Tory Brennan, niece of Bones fame Temperance Brennan is not happily enjoying her new home. Not really. Her father Kit is fumbling at fatherhood, and his girlfriend Whitney is trying to turn tomboy Tory into a debutante.

Largely Isolated at a research-oriented facility on Morris Island, Tory has had to make due with the teens of other scientists stationed at the Loggerhead Island Research Institute or LIRI. But she’s become close to her rag tag entourage. Hi, Ben, Shelton and Tory even have their own Civil War bunker which doubles as their honeycomb hideout. Everyday they are boated into exclusive Bolton Prep in Charleston, where they have to endure being referred to as the “boat people”. That is something she could almost deal with if she didn’t have an impossible crush on Chance Claybourne.

Teenage angst aside, that is not what’s singular about Virals…Reichs has thrown the whole kitchen sink into this affair and it works: a cotillion, human remains, murder, assassins, super powers like telepathy and acute senses, a wolf/dog hybrid, a viral contagion let loose, mobsters working for a senator, secret pharmaceutical experimentation-Virals has it all.

Reichs has demonstrated that she has not succumbed to the quick sand trap of dumbing down YA novels…a mis-step that has foiled other debut authors before. Virals is smart with sassy Tory Brennan manning the helm. It feels more like a YA intrigue with Reichs, Michael Crichton-esque techno smarts and an action packed Clive Cussler feel to it with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. It is completely out of the box fix and a welcome change.

With Reichs just hinting at the DNA shifting powers that the gang has gotten I expect that the next installment of the Virals series will be more action packed than ever. Something I am entirely looking forward to.

A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat).

New Fiendish Review: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Book:                 Nightshade

Author:              Andrea Cremer

Publisher:         Philomel|Penguin

ISBN/ASIN:        9780399254826   

Release Date:    October 19, 2010

Rating:  5 Stars (FB’s Top 10 of 2010)

Buy: | Amazon | B&N | Borders | Powell’s | Indiebound | 

Find out more about Andrea Cremer here. 

Discover the world of the Nightshade, Bane and Haldis wolf packs.

Calla Tor is wicked sharp, and doubly dangerous. An Alpha. A Leader. Wolf of the Nightshade Pack. And she rarely gives quarter.  Soon to be mated to Renier Laroche of the Bane pack, Calla will do as she’s told. She’ll obey and submit to the mating because she has been groomed for the position her entire life.

She has to. Because there has never been such a critical time for the Keepers and the Guardians in their small Colorado mountain community. Fighting off the Searchers for centuries, both must guard and keep secret the sacred sites. Especially Haldis Cavern.

But when Shay Doran stumbles into her life, Calla finds she’s breaking all the rules. One after another. First to save his life, and secondly, when he’s hot on the trail of something big. Something that affects the hierarchy of the Keepers and the Guardians. Something very, very, forbidden.

She would never question the natural order of things-would she? But what if the packs’ history was all-wrong? What if they were lied to? What if, somewhere in their distant past, the packs fought back against the tyranny of the Keepers? What then? 

Nightshade is intoxicatingly, and mind-blistering good with feverish interludes that whets your chops for more. Andrea Cremer’s tale rides the high wire between an adult paranormal/urban fantasy fix and a YA paranormal treat. And it has all the sexy elements of both: a wickedly saucy mating dance between Ren and Calla. And Shay and Calla-the proverbial love triangle fraught with danger, and a swathe of enemies hot on their heels. 

Cremer writes provocatively but with a cautious step in her quest for realism, barely hinting at a few suggestive themes…especially that of Sabine and Efron, and Logan, Neville and Mason-which might make a few readers twitch.   

Nightshade was smart. Very smart. And very very silky. With a plot like this, and such captivating characters, chock full of wolf politics and action, its no wonder I blew through it in one night. And it bounced itself right into the Fiendishly Bookish Top Ten of 2010. The only con is knowing I will have to wait nearly a whole flippin’ year to find out what happens next (pouting). Cannot wait! 

Reviews from the book blogosphere: 

See what YA Addict has to say about Nightshade

See what My Overstuffed Bookshelf has to say about Nightshade

 A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat)

New Fiendish Review: Delcroix Academy by Inara Scott

Book:                Delcroix Academy: The Candidates

Author:              Inara Scott

Publisher:          Hyperion|Disney

ISBN/ASIN:        9781423116363 (proof)

Release Date:   August 24, 2010

Rating:    3.5 Stars

Buy: | Amazon | B&N | IndieBound | Powell’s |

Check out Inara’s page and find out more about The Candidates.

Read up on Inara at Authors Now.

What exactly does Dancia Lewis have? Well other than a startling white girl ‘fro, blue eyes and a mediocre wardrobe. Not much.  Dancia has perfected the art of being nondescript. Her two-step jitterbug of misinformation to “not” know someone and her introvertedness pretty much assures that she won’t be noticed. And that’s the way she wants it.

Because when Dancia ends up caring for someone, has friends, or anything remotely resembling a normal life, then things just happen. Weird things-things that she cannot control. Like a power within her that she cannot control if anyone she cares about is threatened. Like that man who threatened her grandmother and who is now in a coma, or that car she spun out of control, or the branch that “accidentally” fell on that guy.

Dancia has learned to tamp down her power. But someone has noticed. When two recruiters from Delcroix Academy come knocking at her door, Dancia and her grandmother don’t know what to expect. But Delacroix does, and they want Dancia-badly in their academy and in their program. Because Dancia is a Level 3 Talent, and Delcroix has been watching her for some time now. Watching her and Jack Landry, another candidate. And he is just as talented as she is. Who will use their talents for good and who will use them for evil?

Inara Scott has written a juicy YA paranormal that hooked me right away. I read it in one sitting. It’s well written and the pace is steady and sure. Scott takes the time to develop Dancia and her relationships with Cam and Jack. In fact, that is the draw to the story. Who is better one for her? The one who is the Watcher? Or the one who frees up her Talent? Unfortunately Dancia is drawn to both of them.

The only hiccup that I care to mention is the big reveal, which ultimately gets drawn out to the end, and is somewhat lackluster. I understand the need for placing the climax near the end, because it sets up the reader for the expected cliff-hanger. After all, there is a sequel in play. Scott is currently writing Delcroix Academy 2 |The Watchers. (and yes I will read that as well)

There is so much latitude with this story that Scott could have developed further. She could have really propped up the backstory of the Governing Council or had the opportunity for some real action scenes involving the Watchers. She definitely sets up what could be potential conflict in #2 with Dancia’s and Jack’s powers. Will they go head to head in the future? Maybe. How will their feelings conflict as well? There is a lot hanging at the end of Delcroix Academy besides your nimble fingers clutching that cliff. Is Delcroix Academy best characterized by sweet love or intrigue? For this particular effort it cannot be both.

I could easily see this series on the telly, it definitely has that Hex feel to it.  You’ll be drawn into Dancia’s world-spun along a tale that has an even greater promise of a flourishing series. I look forward to seeing where Scott takes the characters next.

A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat)