A Bloody Job Under the Moon

Hey O-Gluers!

Are you ready for this?  It's a TWO-FER!

I read A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore AND Under the Blood Red Moon by Mina Hepsen.

So, yeah, it won't be double the length, because it's already 10:30 and I want to go to bed at a reasonable time.

Ok, so A Dirty Job is great.  I like it a lot.  It's funny, self-effacing, witty, and weird.  Charlie Asher becomes a minion of death, which means he collects the objects people put their souls into when they die.  And then evil creatures are trying to take over San Francisco.  There's lots of back story and fun stuff happening and interesting characters.  I don't feel like talking about it.  It is my assertion that the greater majority of the readers of this blog have either read books by Christopher more or in fact read this very book.  So, I'm really not concerned about rehashing the plot.

I just want to ask.  Is it ok for a writer to intentionally niche himself?  Moore writes books that have a similar flavor.  They all have flashy covers, goofy protagonists, and supernatural themes.  So it's an equation that works for him.  So many writers do this, and I'm not sure that I like it.  I mean, he's good at it, so he should keep doing it right?  Or should he try to push himself as a creator of imaginary worlds?  Or are most writers limited to a niche by the type of talent they have?  Because I don't think Moore would have sold many books with poetry, or memoir, or serious novels.

He's a goofball.  And you have to love him, or at least let him amuse you. Like a court jester:

Right on cue.

So, on to Under the Blood Red Moon.

Not a bad first dip into the chilly pool of paranormal romance.  Not a bad go round.  So, it's ridiculous, I mean we have a half Russian princess half English nobility lady named Angelica.  She doesn't really want to get married, but wevs, she has to support her brother with the heart condition ( I don't know why this was necessary except to provide additional dramaz to the part of the book where people were getting drained of blood by rouge vampires and the brother was freaking out.)

So, Angelica is looking for a hub-sand.  Wooo.  But it's HARD FOR HER because she can read minds.  She can hear what everyone is thinking.  All around her.  It makes it hard for her to go to balls, because it makes her crazy and woozy.  And so she hid behind a bush.  Because that made it better.  Sheesh, bushes stop the mind reading.  There's GOT to be a good innuendo in there somewhere.  All of a sudden, she sees this captivating guy.  Woah.  Come to find out, he reads minds too.  So she's ceaselessly attracted to him and has to find out all about him. She meets him and he shows her how to block out all the voices from her mind.  It's like night and day.  One day she is crippled socially, the next day she's gallivanting about and all because of this charming irresistible dude who changed her life... blah blah blah.

Obviously, he's like a 500 year-old vampire.  They flirt around for about half the book.  He's looking for a slayer and the rouge vampire.  She is trying marry this human guy but she can't get Alexander out of her head. We get to the last 1/4 of the book before anyone has any sex at all.  For all the skin and lips on the cover there really should have been dozens of sex scenes.  But they do the nasty once (at the end of a vampire ceremony), and because in 18th century England there are no rubbers, she's showing the next day.  Well, she's showing this sooper secret mark that tells you and everyone reading something REALLY IMPORTANT.  But I'm now going to tell you, because I don't want to deny you the scentilating last 15 pages of the book where the author scrambles to have a final fight scene, marry everyone off, and explain all the prophesies that were fulfilled in the making of this baby.  Seriously, packed a lot in there at the end, not entirely comfortably.

Anyways, lacking on the sex, but not a bad story.  Although, from a feminist perspective, Angelica was screwed until she got screwed by sooooper old vampire uber alpha male.  No way she was going to save herself or enjoy life without a man.  Just not an option.  Some of the plot devices were really transparent.  Like, "I see what you did there, Hepsen."  Get this, Mina Hepsen is a pen name.  The author's real name is Hande Zapsu from Turkey. Personally, I don't see how Mina Hepsen is really all that much better than Hande Zapsu.  Zapsu is kind of an awesome last name.  Zap.  Zapsu.

Righto. That's that about that.  I've got a couple more PR books from the library.  It's going to get magical in here.  Enjoy your week, Okra-Gs.

Archangels can kiss me anytime

I must admit it. Paranormal romance is amazing. 
I really love Vampire books.  Blood and sex ~ sounds like a hell of a party.  I am getting into werewolf books. I like pack thinking.   Biting definitely belongs in romance.  Alien saga novels are quaint but not exciting.  But angel books have potentials. 

Archangel's Kiss continues the story of the Guild Hunters saga as its the third story. 
The heroine of Angel's Blood, Elena Devereaux has transmorphed physically.  Her relationship with the archangel, Raphael, will define her continued existence. These major life changes thrust our pale headed hunter into a tricky world of angel politics and culture. 
It is a hell of a tale.

This review will spoil the reader for the Angel's Blood.  the events take place one year after the conclusion of that novel.  I will try to lessen the effect of the spoilers. 

In Angel's Blood, we meet Elena Deveraux who  is hunter born. She can scent vampires. A necessary skill as a guild hunter, a bounty hunter for vampires. In this world, vampires are enslaved to the angels that crossed them over for one hundred years. Many do not like the arrangement. The guild hunters retrieve runaway vamps for their angel masters.
This video should explain everything (if you know German)...

There you go.  A recap of the first book. 

In this book, Elena wakes from a year long coma and must learn to walk, fight, and fly.  Yes, she wakes up as an angel.  And she has to attend angel school with angel children.

I like Elena.  She doesn't make a series of stupid or bad decisions. She isn't so head strong that she ignores the advice of those smarter than herself. Kudos to Nalina Singh, the author for not turning her into a bitch full of "why the fuck did she do that"  moments.  

The author must have a degree in fashion design.  She explains angel couture in ways that made me imagine her wearing the garments as she wrote the book.  As a girl, I paid close attention to footwear descriptions, even when they contained references to knives and blades. 


There are a set number of archangels in this world.  There are always the Cadre of Ten.  At the end of Angel's Blood, the ten has been reduced to nine.  The lesser angels are expecting to position themselves to be raised to archangel status while the Nine consider the sanity of its oldest member, Lijuan.  Lijuan has organized a ball in Elena's honor.  The mystery behind Lijuan's graciousness and her necromantic hobbies means that Elena will need to be strong by the time of the party.  In addition, to the looming party, there is the inevitable power plays by the lesser angels who see Elena as Raphael's Achilles heel.  They strike out against her as she prepares her body and mind to live amongst angels. 

Singh doesn't lay out good and evil for the reader. Good and evil are related to history and nostalgia.  Ignore it.  Think morality and ethics.  Imagine the morality of a 2000 year old angel and a 50 year old angel.  Power gains with age while the angels ability to empathize with humans lessens.
In the relationship between Elana and Raphael, her archangel lover, the age differences is more than 2500 years.  He is a powerful archangel, she is a fledgling angel who can barely fly.  I loved where this went.  Singh wrote her as a warrior not some pretty pale haired angel.  She didn't not take anything away form Elena in this book.

This is how the story begins.
In angel culture, the two angels would relate as fledgling to headmaster. The other angels refer to Elena as Raphael's pet.  In human culture, they would be man and woman.  Perhaps, soulmates.  Can Elena wrap her head around these Alpha and submissive roles? Can Raphael accommodate her need to be loved as an equal? And where is she going to keep her weapons hidden in her wing modified clothing? 

Singh loves her readers because she spends time with the couple as they develop their relationship.

In addition to the Cadre of Ten, to which Raphael belongs, he has his own group of Seven warriors whom he trusts with his life.   We met the blue winged angel, Illium in the previous book.  Singh, has a weakness for a man's eyelashes.  She projected that weakness onto Illium. He must have the sexiest eyelashes in literary history.  The other six members of his Seven make an appearance in this book.  The Seven include both sexy vampires and sexier angels.  Yummy.   I am hoping there will be more exploration of the Seven in succeeding books. 

I can't end this review without admitting the following.  I was anxious to read some high flying angel sex scenes.  You can look for them yourself.  I am not telling anything.


You can find an excerpt here but be careful, this is the second book of the series.

Not Today or Even on Doomsday

Okra and Glue
Lori Handeland's Any Given Doomsday
I found wrote this review for a knitting forum back in January.
Not sure where to start.......
We meet a Elizabeth Phoenix, a psychic ex-cop who was raised in a foster home and has a huge chip on her shoulder.
Original… You were thinking that, right?
Now, I like urban fantasy and this was a great read. But the woman in me was left feeling abused by this story.  The not-quite feminist, quasi-liberal, closet conservative woman in me.

First, Phoenix’s foster mother is murdered and through her death she passes on these super special powers.
That was okay, I guess..
Dramatic event leads to serious life changes.  I watch Criminal Minds, I get it.

She cannot access this power and requires the aid of a MAN to help her become the ass kicking uberpsychic she was foretold to become. I don’t mean in some mystical Native American ritualistic manner. Because being left in the wilderness with just a knife is lame....

Oh wait, did I mention that she must seek out the incredibly handsome and underclothed Sawyer, a mysterious Native American skinwalker for psychic accession? Ever hear the story about the magical minority? Cliche’
So she leaves her job as a part-time waitress in a cop bar to go cross country.
If you are thinking sweat huts or smoking pipes, get your mind in teh gutter. That is right, he screws her so that she can become the One.

Besides, she really needed to get laid anyway and she mentions several times how long she has been without sex.
Guess what? As STD’s goes she has a problem. She is an empath and when she sexes up someone she gains their powers. See where this is going?

Every man in her life is an enigma. She can’t tell if they are good or bad so she screws them. Despite this clever tactic, somehow she manages to remain a sarcastic bitch to them even after she screws them.
Let’s talk about sex.
Sex kills. Sex enlightens. Sex enslaves. Sex empowers. Sex heals.
Seriously. She gets her sex on in this story and so do the male leads. Besides Sawyer there is Jimmy. A dampir, a human and vampire hybrid. Jimmy became her first love and her foster brother when they were kids. BTW, as it goes this dhampir has daddy issues.  Creepy…

When she encounters a Berserker, an angry bear-like warrior killer, in her bedroom….

…he rose. And rose. and rose. Yep, naked all the way down to his toes - a particularly long distance since I put him in the vicinity of six seven. And the adage of about big feet, big - well you know the one - this guy appeared to have invented it,

Overall the men help her, ignore her, use her and then disappear throughout the book.
After the big battle with the Jimmy’s blood-sucking relatives, does she regroup and meet with the other warriors for good? Hell no. She goes back to bartending. WTF!!!!

I really did not like Liz, sexually habits aside, she was a selfish, hard-headed bitch who walks into really obviously bad situations despite being a former cop and it worried me that she will whore herself to every supernatural creature in order to achieve the power needed to stop the apocalypse.

Did I forget to mention the fairy?