Box Office Poison by Phillipa Bornikova + a Giveaway

This second book in Phillipa Bornikova's urban fantasy/legal thriller series brings Linnet Ellery to Hollywood!

Since coming out to humans, vampires, werewolves, and the Alfar have become part of every facet of the human world. The Alfar, with their insanely good looks and their incredibly slow aging, are particularly popular in the film industry. Some would argue, though, that the Alfar are no more talented than their human counterparts but that they have an unfair advantage in that they can glamour themselves into the job. Unfortunately, rumblings along those lines are creating a bad scene in the industry and the Screen Actors Guild. Human actor and heartthrob Jeffery Montolbano has called for arbitration between all the interested parties in hopes they can come to some agreement before things get too out of control. Ishmael, McGillary, and Gold are assigned case and although they do have a local office, firm partner David Sullivan and Linnet are sent out from New York to handle it instead - their overall distance from Hollywood and the industry means no party should have an unfair advantage in the case. But when they arrive, Linnet notices an odd trend beginning with the Alfar. The added wrinkle of a group calling themselves Humans First leads Linnet to wonder if there's something more going on under the glitz and glamor of Hollywood than a dispute between actors. 

This series is seriously fun! I adored This Case is Gonna Kill Me and couldn't wait to get back to Linnet and this world with Box Office Poison. I was immediately impressed that Bornikova took the characters out of New York and to Cali for this second installment. It shows she's made a real effort to keep things fresh and new in the series even at this early stage.

We do also get to know more about Fey - the world the Alfar inhabit. I won't go into any detail there thanks to possible spoilers (read book one!) but this was something I was definitely looking forward to in this book.

Rating: 5/5

Readers unfamiliar with the series can - if they really want to - start with this second book. It's a completely different case and there's enough of the backstory on the world and Linnet that you're not necessarily missing anything from This Case is Gonna Kill Me that would hinder the enjoyment of Box Office. There are, however, enough details about the happenings of the first book to make for pretty big spoilers should you start with this second and then work your way back to the first. Since the first is soooo darn good and out in paperback, I'd suggest springing for them both :)

(Bornikova, if you didn't know, is actually a pseudonym used by Melinda Snodgrass you can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.)

Now for the giveaway! Thanks to Tor I get to offer up one copy for giveaway. US only please (and no PO boxes). To enter, just fill out the Rafflecopter below before Sunday, August 18.


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