Various Thoughts

Cry Wolf , by Patricia Briggs : This book takes place in the same world as the author’s Mercy Thompson series, and its storyline begins shortly before Moon Called ‘s does. It follows Anna, an Omega werewolf. Omega’s are like Alphas, only without the constant need to prove their dominance. The story begins with Anna having recently been rescued from an extremely abusive Alpha, deals a bit with how she adjusts to living and interacting with Charles (the one who rescued her), and ends with a large-scale confrontation against a powerful black witch who has designs on taking control of all the North American werewolves.

Dancing with Werewolves , by Carole Nelson Douglas : This book has a much ‘girlier’ vibe to it that just about all the other Urban Fantasy books I’ve read. I’m unsure whether that means it’s somewhat unique, or that I’ve just been getting extremely lucky with the genre. The book is about Deliah Street, a former reporter specializing in paranormal events who transforms herself near-seamlessly into a semi-detective. There’s very little in the way of explanation for most of the book’s timeline or plot points, with events sort of just flowing into one another as if they were preordained.

Exit Strategy , by Kelley Armstrong : This is certainly quite the departure from her Women of the Otherworld series, at least thematically. The book tells the story of Nadia, a former police officer turned professional hitman/nature lodge owner as she and her mentor (Jack) track down a hitman turned serial killer before he can draw too much attention to the business. Most of the book is filled with various detective work as they try to figure out who’s behind the murders, but there’s also a romance subplot as the relationship between Nadia and Jack becomes a bit more three-dimensional.

Curse the Dawn & Made to Be BrokenCurse the Dawn is the fourth book in Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer series. It focuses on Cassie’s search to find someone to teach her how to be Pythia while she tries to avoid the vampire Senate, the Silver Circle, and Apollo’s  followers. Over the course of the book she gets embroiled in...

Demon Bound & BetrayalsDemon Bound is Caitlin Kittredge’s second book in the Black London series. It picks up some time after Street Magic ended, with Pete no longer a detective and instead working with Jack as freelance exorcists. It’s never explained why exactly she left the police force, but there is an implication that her new association...

The Devil’s Playground, The Better Part of Darkness, & Spider’s BiteThe Devil’s Playground continues, and sort of concludes, Jenna Black’s Morgan Kingsley series. I had thought this storyline could be dragged on forever with all the various characters’ comments about how Dougal could just sit in the demon realm and wait until Lugh finally slipped up and showed himself. Interestingly, Black decided to instead have Dougal occupy...

Nightlife, Moonshine, & MadhouseThe first three books in Rob Thurman‘s Cal Leandros series are somewhat similar to Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series. Mainly in the way they start off so-so with questionably likable characters and grow on you over time. The best part of the first book is Darkling. By far. Niko is a health nut,...

Captain’s Fury, Hunting Ground, and Witch CraftCaptain’s Fury, the fourth book in Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series, nicely escalates matters without feeling rushed or forced. Partly this is due to how Butcher’s books are roughly double the length of the apparent fantasy standard, but mostly it’s the way he continues to both seamlessly insert new threats...

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