E.M. Hamill's Blog, page 4

Indie Advent Day 13: Bloodlaced by Courtney Maguire

GET THIS ANIME-FLAVORED DELIGHT HERE

The story was a fresh enough take on bloodsuckers to keep my interest, and I became completely invested in Asagi’s journey.

Asagi identifies neither as male nor female but treads a “sliding scale between masculine and feminine” (Chapter 20, “Arrangements”). A household slave and someone with male anatomy, who presents as female, Asagi has been the victim of assault and abuse. When she and a child named Tsukito are sold to a new, monstrous master with an eye for young boys, Asagi throws herself between the man and the child she has come to love like a son, taking the abuse to spare the child. This is noticed by one of her master’s guests, who ‘rescues’ her from the brutal position by purchasing her service after she is badly injured.

The new household is nothing like the old one—the servants are happy, well-fed, and devoted to their master. Mahiro is kind and generous and expects nothing from Asagi but her company. Too good to be true, she thinks, and she is right: Mahiro is a Youkai, a supernatural being who feeds on blood. There is a fine line between human and monster—so delicate that Asagi finds herself coming to care for Mahiro, but misunderstandings, jealousy, and an act of desperation soon drag Asagi across that line. Her life will never be the same.

This story was completely enjoyable, and each character is painted in fine detail. It employs many well-used vampire tropes, but the imperial Japanese setting and the wonderful characters make them seem new. It was a quick read and there are more books in the Youkai Bloodlines vein (pun intended) to sink your teeth into.

Indie Advent Day 12: Home Within Skin by Jem Zero

GET THIS WEIRD AND WONDERFUL BOOK HERE

One of the best things about indie books is the opportunity to take a chance on something out of your comfort zone, written by marginalized authors giving authentic voice to characters. I’ve been a fan of Jem Zero’s writing for a couple of years now, and Home Within Skin is one of zir best books to date.

The tag line: A homeless trans man and an alien sex worker ruin each other’s nights, film a porno, and fall in love definitely grabs attention, but it doesn’t really do this novel justice. Jax’s story is often uncomfortable, and rightly so. His own choices and fears keep him on the streets, something completely incomprehensible to those of us lucky enough to have a full-time roof over our heads. Alien immigrant Sei-vesz’s decision to be a professional sex worker is another glimpse into a world most people do not understand.

The relationship between Jax and Sei-vesz–the whole story, in fact–is unconventional and real and vital, beautifully written while not straying from the harsh realities of homelessness and prejudice.

And nobody writes alien-human sex scenes like this author, I’m just saying. Treat yourself to this strange and wonderful story.

Indie Advent Day 11: Becoming Crone by Lydia M. Hawke

GET THE CRONE WARS HERE

Finding books in my favorite genres with heroines close to my age has been getting easier lately and I’m so very pleased to add Becoming Crone to that short list. And I love the pun in the series name so much.

Divorcee Claire’s sixtieth birthday is just a day like any other and she’s reluctantly allowed her family to throw a birthday party at her own house. Her young grandson’s thrift-store present, an unusual pendant, turns out to be a magickal artifact and her boring, isolated life is turned upside down. Claire discovers she is heir to an ancient power that only comes to women who have reached the age of wisdom.

With that inheritance comes a sassy gargoyle, a wolf-shifter guardian with a man-bun, and a coming war in which Claire is destined to play a key part as servant of the goddess Morrigan. First, she has to learn how to harness her newfound powers and protect her loved ones from evil Mages bent on stopping Claire from coming into her full potential.

Read this and the rest of The Crone Wars books on Amazon.

Indie Advent Day 10: Sins of the Son by Christian Baines

GET THIS BOOK HERE!

Christian Baines’ SINS OF THE SON is my favorite kind of pulp novel. Morally ambiguous supernatural beings, intrigue, clandestine organizations, and eldritch creepies? Sign me up! The novel starts off with a bang and doesn’t let up until it’s taken you on one hell of a ride.

 The book  is actually book 3 of the Arcadia Trust series. I hadn’t read the first two (something quickly changed, as I really enjoyed this world). It read just fine as a stand alone; there are enough explanations without being tedious, but my unfamiliarity with some of the terms took a little bit of adjustment.

Case in point: Reyland, the main character, is a Blood Shade, and he is rather adamant that he is NOT a vampire despite the allergy to sunlight and appetite for hemoglobin. There is a really interesting mythos attached to the supernaturals in this book that makes it different from any other origin stories with which I’m familiar, and I like it. It’s unique, and I have to say that about the whole book.

Reyland’s usual MO to find dinner and a little recreation is cruising Sydney’s gay scene. A young man approaches him, and what starts as just another night for Rey ends in an attack on his life by this soldier of the Scimitar of Light, a hate-based religious warrior group. But there is something both painfully familiar and very wrong about his attacker, and Reyland calls in his friends at the Arcadia Trust to help him get to the bottom of it.

A priest named Iain Greig insinuates himself into the care of the young soldier, and Reyland is powerfully drawn to him. As the mystery begins to unravel, the evil truth about the Scimitars and their zealous desire to destroy all supernatural beings comes to light—and they are willing to deal in forbidden magic to get what they want.

Meanwhile, Reyland’s irresistible attraction to Iain is getting in the way of business, but there’s more to Iain than Rey can possibly imagine. The survival of the Arcadia Trust hangs on whether Reyland should trust this mysterious stranger.

This book was a blast to read. The secondary characters are well-drawn (I loved Dorotha, Reyland’s elderly downstairs tenant: “Oh, I’m sorry, Reyland, is this one of your ‘special’ parties?”) The end of the book definitely hints at more to come with a bit of a cliffhanger, but it’s wrapped up enough to be satisfying.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a change from your everyday vampire/shifter/witch kind of lore.

Indie Advent Day 9 : Addict by Matt Doyle

Get this moody, tech-noir thriller HERE

Sam Spade meets Blade Runner in this technological thriller series, The Cassie Tam Files.  

Caz is a hard-shelled PI with a gooey center she hides from everybody, even herself. She’s called upon to investigate the death of a virtual reality addict, hired by the deceased’s sister, Lori Redwood. Lori disagrees with the police’s findings of an “accidental” death. The more she gets into the case, the more it appears to be murder, and soon Cassie is being pressured by the local PD to drop the case. Coupled with the fact she’s highly attracted to Lori, her client, Cassie is in over her head and is soon forced to work with her ex-girlfriend to get the answers nobody else is willing to give up.

This book is so freaking cool in its technology. Lori is a Tech Shifter, a person who has received enhancements to her nervous system which allows her to wear an exoskeleton and take on her animal persona–kind of a tech-furry culture. Cassie herself has a security gargoyle named Bert, and I desperately want a Bert of my own.

The atmosphere is just wonderful, and the book series is a ton of fun. I highly recommend them.

Indie Advent Day 8: Of Honey and Wildfires by Sarah Chorn

Buy this painfully beautiful AU Western fantasy HERE

Sarah Chorn’s first novel, Seraphina’s Lament, reinforced my concept of grimdark fantasy as a potential favorite genre. You can see my review of this incredible book here. I now have to add ‘fantasy AU Western’ to that mix.

If grimdark is not your thing, you absolutely MUST read Of Honey and Wildfires and the Songs of Sefate novellas instead to get a taste of Chorn’s magnificent, lyrical prose, which flows between the events of this story like its golden, sticky namesake and weaves the events together in an inescapable flood.

It is not a feel-good book by any means. Chorn explores the greed and inhumanity of the early days of the oil rush, transposed upon the mythical industry of crude shine: literally, liquid magic pumped and mined from the ground. Young Arlen Esco, heir to his father’s vast company holdings, is sent to Shine Territory ostensibly to learn the business. Instead, sensitive Arlen’s world is turned inside out when Christopher Hobson, a larger than life outlaw known as the Shine Bandit, kidnaps him and shows him the dark side of the Esco empire. What Arlen learns about himself and what his father has become is chilling.

The book contains three strands of consciousness: Arlen’s, as he is reluctantly pulled into Chris’s painful world; Cassandra’s: Christopher Hobson’s daughter, outcast by her father’s deeds; and Ianthe’s: the consumptive love of Cassandra’s life, who sees the world in glory and beauty through the haze of the shine addiction keeping her alive. Between the three of them, the painful narrative of life and death, where magic exists but cannot hold back the hand of disease or the ravages of human greed, plays out to its climax.

I absolutely loved this book. Ianthe and Cassandra’s love story is a needle-studded skein of embroidery thread, shining and beautiful but sharp with the scissors poised to cut. Beyond the mention of Arlen’s chest binder, the fact he is male goes refreshingly unquestioned in the narrative in this AU Western world, and I loved that as well.  It’s a must read for anyone who loves achingly beautiful literary prose. The book comes full circle from its shocking introduction to the last page.

Of Honey and Wildfires is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

(This is a repost of my original review with updated text.)

Indie Advent Day 7: Magician by K.L. Noone

GET THIS LOVELY FLUFFY MAGICAL LOVE STORY HERE

OK, so I used to protest I hated reading romance-centered science fiction and fantasy novels. I was a big bad geek, the harder the science fiction **ahem** the better. Romance? No thank you. I preferred my fantasy with fade to black and the bed curtains pulled.

K.L. Noone not only changed my mind, she changed my reading habits. I can no longer say I don’t like it. Because of her I’ve discovered a few others, like Kim Fielding, whom I no longer hesitate to click when I see they have a new book.

Lorre isn’t fully mortal: he’s half human, half creature of magic. His connection to magic is really just an extension of himself, and he can become lost for days being a rock, becoming part of the landscape around him, or becoming a dragon… and nearly killing a king because he forgot how to human.

Self isolating on a deserted island after that near-disastrous mistake, Lorre is uninterested in rejoining the world until a brave young prince shows up on the sand outside his cave and announces he is just going to sit there and read a book until Lorre agrees to help him save his brother’s kingdom. Fascinated almost against his will, the most powerful magician in the world is helpless in the face of Gareth’s absolute belief in his goodness and soon agrees to help.

Barefoot Lorre made the book for me, with his gorgeously intricate magic system and his grumpy self learning to interact and remembering what it’s like to make human connections. Read it, read it now.

It’s hilarious in all the right places and made me laugh and get misty-eyed all in one sitting. sigh.

Indie Advent Day 6: Black Dog Blues by Rhys Ford

GET THIS BOOK NOW

The Kai Gracen Series is, hands-down, one of my favorite urban fantasy obsessions.

The world as we know it upended itself when the elfin Underhill and our world merged in a violent, cataclysmic event. Geography and reality are now completely altered, dragons and other magical creatures roam and hunt, and humankind and the elfin are slowly learning to live together after a brutal war.

Kai is a Stalker: a licensed bounty hunter/magical creature pest control kind of job, one that is thankless and incredibly dangerous and not all that lucrative most of the time, but it pays the bills. Kai is elfin, raised by a prickly human bounty hunter named Dempsey, who claims he won him in a card game, but nevertheless rescued Kai from a life of unspeakable horror. Kai’s origins and past are one of the things that drive the series, as is the found-family theme.

These books are sarcastic, hilarious, exciting, thrilling, and heartbreaking. There are plenty of magical creatures trying to eat Kai for lunch, touching scenes with Kai and the people he loves fiercely and protectively, brutal battles, and descriptions of the horrors he suffered as a child at the hands of the Lord of the Hunt.

There is also a very slow-burn romance between Kai and Ryder, the High Lord of the Southern Rise Court. The violence is graphic but the sex is not, so if you are all about low-romance in your urban fantasy, this series is definitely for you. I could go on for days about these books. Please read them so we can gush forever.

Indie Advent Day 5: A Ferry of Bones and Gold by Hailey Turner

GET THIS INCREDIBLE BOOK HERE

The Soulbound series grabbed me from book 1.

I am a sucker for gods and supernatural beings and magic. The writing was exciting, a compelling story I could not put down.

It’s definitely a paranormal romance, with graphic and oh-so-steamy scenes between battle mage Patrick Collins and god pack leader Jonothan DeVere. That being said, the incredibly compelling and well written series is still totally worth the read even if romance is not your thing. The martial magic system is one of the best I have ever read and the series’ over-arching plot is tight.

Patrick is the veteran of an arcane war, won only through his not-quite-consensual bargain with the gods in order to vanquish a terrifying threat to the mortal world. Suffering a terrible magical wound which prevents him from accessing all the power he once wielded, he now works for a federal agency which oversees magical crime and terrorism. This brings him into contact with Jonothan DeVere, a werewolf with a powerful patron god. Soon Patrick’s debt is called in and he and Jono are embroiled in a battle to defend the gods and the mortal world from a powerful sorcerer who is bent on becoming a god himself.

It’s a fantastic series. I highly recommend it!

Indie Advent Day 4: The Hands We’re Given by O. E. Tearmann

GET THIS AMAZING BOOK HERE

Book one in the Aces High, Jokers Wild series introduces us to Aidan Headley, the new commander on a base of misfit freedom fighters embroiled in the struggle to live free of a dystopian United States now governed and controlled by capitalism under dictatorial corporations.

These books are incredible, slightly dark but so full of hope and amazing characters whom I love to pieces. Aidan has his hands full when he replaces the late commanding officer of the Wild Cards. Not only does he have to earn the trust of the people under his command, he has to overcome his own issues of self-doubt that he’s the right one to lead this notorious but highly effective band of operatives.

Not shying away from topics such as mental illness, depression, and neurodivergence, this series is an exciting ride. Their missions are not always successful, but the team’s found-family resilience keeps them together as the stakes grow ever higher in each book. I highly recommend it!