In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

Maelyn Jones and her family have always spent Christmas at a cabin in Park City. But this might just be their last!

Maelyn's parents and their best friends from college have made the cabin an annual tradition. It's meant that Mae and her brother grew up alongside Andrew and Theo, the owners' sons. In spite of that, or maybe because of it, Mae has had the most massive crush on Andrew since she was thirteen. Which is why it's such a shock that a couple of glasses of egg nog led to her making out with Theo! What's worse, Andrew saw the whole thing and Theo blows her off in the most awkward way!

But when Mae and her family are in a wreck just after leaving the cabin, she wakes up to find herself on a plane headed to the cabin...again. Of course she's thoroughly confused, but when it happens again she realizes the universe might be trying to tell her something. With her future and her fate in her hands, Mae gets a do-over like no other. And this time, she wants to be sure she does things right!

In a Holidaze is just as cute as you'd imagine a Christmas themed Groundhog Day to be in the hands of Christina Lauren! (Note this is my first time reading them, but I have heard wonderful things about their work and knew I was going to be in for a fun ride!)

Mae is not in a good place. She's unhappy with her job, living with her mom, and hasn't had a decent date in quite some time. But a drunken makeout session with one of her childhood friends isn't going to fix anything. In fact, she's afraid it could ruin everything considering their families are so close. But it's the news that the cabin is going up for sale that's more shocking than anything. 

So when she's given a chance to do it over, she can't actually decide what her mail goal should be: saving the cabin or finally confessing her feelings to her longtime crush. 

I adored Mae! She's at that age when she recognizes that she isn't happy but isn't too sure what to do about it. Expectations mean that she's already floundering simply by living with her mom. Plus, there's been all kinds of pressure for her end up with Theo, linking the families officially. But this is her chance to figure things out and, hopefully, get it right. And who hasn't ever dreamed of that? (It's certainly the theme of lots of books and movies!)

This latest from coauthors Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings is full of yuletide cheer, lots of laughs, and a ton of awkward moments. It's also kind of steamy!

In short, it's an excellent feel-good read that just begs to be read in one sitting, which makes it perfect for the season! And it's exactly what I was looking for: a fun and light read that transported me temporarily away from the stress of everyday life (and Covid)! Mae and her extended family of longtime friends made for great weekend companions. 

Order a copy from your favorite indie via Bookshop!

Sweet Tea and Sympathy by Molly Harper

When up and coming superstar event planner Margot Cary loses control of a huge event in a disastrous way, she finds herself without a job and with dwindling options. No one wants to hire the star of the latest viral video. No one except Margot's long lost Southern family she can't even remember meeting.

Margot's mother whisked her daughter away after having had enough of her husband's drinking. And that was the last time Margot had anything to do with her father or his family in Lake Sackett, Georgia. In all the years since, no one's reached out to her and she's been fine with that.

But they're reaching out now, in the form of an offer of employment. And a place to live. As serendipitous as the offer is, Margot isn't sure she wants anything to do with these people. But with no other offers to speak of, she's willing to do it long enough to land a job elsewhere. The last thing Margot planned on, though, was getting attached!

This is the first book in the Southern Eclectic series. Considering these are quirky rom-coms set around a southern family who runs a bait shop and funeral home (that's one business—a bait shop on the lakeside and a funeral home in the back), with no fangs or fur, it's a bit of a change for Harper!

What isn't a change is Harper's signature humor and charm, which are both present in spades!

These were recommended to me when I asked for something lighthearted and happy—and this first in the series is certainly both.

I liked Margot. She's a bit high strung and also a bit of a snob but she comes by it honestly. As she and her family get to know one another, though, and she falls for a local, she begins to loosen up. And yet, her determination to leave the small town behind and return to the big city and a big job are always at the edges of the story. Which makes the will she won't she aspect much of the tension.

Sweet Tea and Sympathy is perfect if you're in the mood for something light and breezy. It's feel good to the extreme. And if you love it, as I do, there's more! Ain't She a Peach features Margot's cousin, the town coroner, and Gimme Some Sugar focuses on their other cousin, Duffy.

The Summer Guests by Mary Alice Monroe

A storm is brewing and that means a host of evacuees making their way up the coast from Florida to safer areas. Grace Phillips offers her farm to a few close friends and their various animals, which is fortunate because they have the space and the means to put up a number of people, dogs, and, thankfully, horses. But throughout the week, the stress and tension of close quarters and worries over the storm play havoc on the farm and its residents. As the storm tears through its path, they all find that while they may be physically safe, the hurricane will tear through them emotionally. By the end, friends and lovers will find the closest of relationships stressed to the max. Whether they'll come out of it intact is the real question. 

Talk about a book I can empathize with. Growing up in southwest Louisiana, I was no stranger to hurricanes, storm preparations, and evacuations. My final years of college were the worst with storm after storm threatening the area and dissipating before hitting, causing all of the local businesses and the schools to wan in their response levels with each new storm.

So yeah, I can understand stress centered around leaving your home, wondering if your home will make it, worrying about animals, and even the friction it all causes among groups of people sheltered together.

Of course in The Summer Guests, the farm these folks have evacuated to is HUGE! There's the main house, the barn, and two "cottages," which are anything but the small abodes I imagined they would be. So there's plenty of space for these folks to all spread out and ignore one another. But they don't. In part because of Grace and their relationships with her.

While the various guests all vaguely know one another, some simply due to being part of the horse world, the one person they all know is Grace. And she'd like nothing more than for all her close friends to get along with one another. But tension and stress definitely don't bring out the best in people. You can imagine the strength of the emotional storm brewing is as strong by the time it figuratively hits as the hurricane they're all bracing for!

One thing I'm not familiar with is horses. I rode, more regularly than most, but it was limited to summer camps and trips to dude ranches. Dressage and jumping, maintenance, sales, etc are all foreign to me. But they are a central portion of The Summer Guests. This was an interesting aspect of the book and one that's threaded throughout, giving the reader a sense of familiarity from the start even if you know literally nothing about horses at all.

The Summer Guests is the kind of read you can sink into and the characters are the kind you can call friends by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even more so now that I no longer live along the coast and have to worry about storms that are already earning names this calendar year!

The Party by Robyn Harding

It's Hannah's sweet sixteen, but rather than a massive and expensive to do, Jeff and Kim Sanders have agreed to a small get together of girls sleeping over at their house. Kim is very clear about the rules - no booze, no drugs, and no boys - but Hannah has always been a good girl. The same can be said about her two best friends. But Kim knows one of the other attendees can be a bit wild and the fourth girl is a complete unknown. 

Hannah has only just been accepted into the popular crowd at school and she doesn't want anything to ruin that. But when things get out of control and one of her friends ends up in the hospital, she's forced to look closely at the choices she's made. 

Gossip and judgement run rife in their community in the weeks after the party and Jeff, Kim, and Hannah find themselves at the center. As the pressure and scrutiny become more intense, the whole family begins to buckle. Secrets and lies are revealed and everyone has chosen sides. 

The first thing I have to say about The Party is that not one of the characters is likable or sympathetic. And I think that's the point. Each of them - Kim, Jeff, and Hannah - are self motivated and self absorbed. And it's clear from the very start as Kim kicks off the tale.

Kim and Jeff have a strained marriage. Jeff had an incident that Kim holds over his head and that judgement from his wife has forced Jeff to focus his energy elsewhere. Running, biking, working out... all of it's an excuse to stay away from Kim and their home.

But Jeff's no better. He makes terrible decisions, as becomes clear as the story continues.

Hannah is a little easier to empathize with simply by being a teen. Most people likely recall what it's like trying to fit in and much of her story revolves, at least in the beginning, around keeping her boyfriend happy. But again, as the story continues, the reader hopes time and again that she'll make the right choice.

I know this is meant to appeal to readers of Liane Moriarty, and it may for some readers. For me, however, the draw was simply in finding out the truth about what happened at the party itself. I wasn't emotionally invested in any of these characters. In fact, it was almost a sick sense of voyeurism watching them tear their family and lives further apart. It was certainly page turning, but not all that amusing in the end.

Rating: 3/5

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

I got a fair amount of reading done over the holiday weekend, likely do to two big factors: hubs went camping so I had the house to myself AND I chose pretty much all thrillers.

Ruth Ware's latest was my third read of the weekend and, thankfully, it didn't break my stride or my streak of fabulous book choices!

Lo (Laura) Blacklock has been writing for Velocity magazine for ten years and has been waiting all this time for her big break. With her boss currently out of commission, it seems Lo's chance has finally come. 

The Aurora Borealis, a high-end luxury cruise ship built for just twenty passengers at a time, is making its debut voyage and Lo is to be there to represent the magazine. But just two days before she's set to leave, Lo's house is broken into. Lo doesn't want to let the incident rule her life - the invasion was bad enough, but she wasn't physically harmed - so she sets off for the trip as planned. But on her first night on board, Lo believes she witnesses a woman being thrown overboard. 

Lo of course reports the incident, believing the victim is the very girl she met in cabin 10 earlier that day. But cabin 10 is supposed to be empty. What's more, there's no evidence anyone was ever in the room and all of the passengers and crew are accounted for. The head of security placates Lo, but doesn't hide the fact that he believes she imagined the whole thing. It doesn't help when Lo's own attack and her lack of sleep in its aftermath are revealed. Now it's up to her to find out the truth, but even Lo has begun to wonder if she really saw what she thinks she saw. 

Pretty early on we know that things aren't going to go well for Lo. Each section ends with correspondence, articles, and theories about where Lo is. Apparently, just a few days into the trip Lo's work and family realize that she's not been in touch and begin to raise warnings. But we do learn that for whatever reason the wifi has been out on the ship, too.

Lo's investigation becomes more and more desperate as each day progresses, with just enough to bolster her conviction that she did indeed witness something terrible. Something she soon realizes she shouldn't have. Because as her investigation progresses, Lo begins to suspect just about everyone on board could have been part of the crime that's being covered up.

I quite enjoyed the book. I expected a twist, some big reveal, and it left me suspicious of everyone just as our main character was, with one caveat - I was, at times, suspicious of Lo! There's a bit of a The Lady Vanishes feel to The Woman in Cabin 10, which I have to say I did greatly appreciate. Mind it is just a bit - maybe an homage to rather than a strictly inspired by. Either way, The Woman in Cabin 10 is a fun thriller and one that's put Ware's In A Dark, Dark Wood on my immediate to read list now too.

Rating: 5/5

The Bullet by Mary Louise Kelly + a Giveaway

When Caroline Cashion goes to the doctor complaining of wrist pain, they all think it's just strain or carpal tunnel. But then an MRI reveals something strange: Caroline has a piece of metal lodged in her neck. An x ray reveals the metal is actually a bullet but with no scar or memory of any injury, Caroline has no explanation. 

The discovery of that bullet forces her parents to admit that she was adopted at the age of three. Her birth parents were murdered and little Caroline was the only witness and survivor of that tragic crime.  In the over thirty years since, the case has never been solved. Now, the promise of new evidence, the very bullet buried in Caroline's neck, has prompted the police to reopen the cold case. But someone else wants to make sure that evidence is never recovered.

With an intriguing premise like that, how could I resist this one? Plus, I figured this would be fast paced and suspenseful enough to distract me from the icky, nasty snow this weekend. I was right!

I really liked Caroline. I mean, her life is basically turned upside down with the discovery that not only was she adopted (she's in her late 30s and had never been told) but that her birth parents were murdered in front of her. Of course she has no memory of either event considering she was so young, but still that's a lot for anyone to handle. And of course a fictional character gets to handle it as well as the author can portray it, but I thought Mary Louise Kelly really did a great job in that regard!

When we meet Caroline she's a professor comfortable in her life and her situation. She's single, she's the youngest of three children, she has a great relationship with her parents and her siblings... She's normal in every possible way. Then she finds out she's got this HUGE thing in her past, she's got parents she can't remember, and she has very limited resources in finding out anything at all about them. But she catches two lucky breaks: first, a reporter who covered the original murders is still around and takes an interest in Caroline's story.

The paper covers Caroline's situation, prompting a handful of people to reach out and contact her. That's where Caroline's second break comes in: a detective who worked the case is still with the department and is able to answer at least a few of Caroline's questions.

Caroline doesn't really consider the killer that much. And it's understandable, why would a killer have any interest in a woman who couldn't even testify at the time of the actual murders, right? I can see how and why that would never pop into Caroline's mind. She's coming from the angle of simply wanting to learn more about her past and understands that there's very little chance the killer will ever be caught.

But that's before she realizes she'll have to get the bullet removed, and that it could be analyzed and used as new evidence in the case.

The Bullet is a crazy fast read. I'd been limiting myself to short stories and novellas for the past week just because of all the things I've been working on, but I found that The Bullet was just as perfect a fit for a busy week as any short or anthology was. I read the whole thing in almost one sitting (I had to put it on pause to run an errand but otherwise...). It was exactly what I needed!

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher I have two copies of the new paperback edition of this one to give away. To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, January 4. Open US only and no PO boxes please.

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Short Fiction Friday: Seize the Night edited by Christopher Golden

Vampires have had a tough time of it lately. Burnout, I mean. They were the HOT topic for quite some time and then the reading public seemed to lose their taste for them. It happens. A glut of books all on one subject generally does mean readers are going to sour to it eventually.

But even if you're in this boat, the new Seize the Night anthology is so worth your time!

The premise of the anthology is simply to make vampires scary once again. The authors (a FANTASTIC lineup) take their bloodsuckers from mythology and folklore all around the world, creating a collection of truly frightening tales that is a serious genre standout!

And did I mention they're scary vampires? Yeah, I'm not kidding. These authors took their job seriously in bringing vampires back to their terrifying (and deserving) roots!

Scott Smith (SCOTT SMITH!!!) kicks off the collection with what has to be hands down one of my favorite stories of late: a young woman takes a job as a caretaker for an elderly couple and things don't go very well for her. Seanan McGuire's outing is equally excellent and will make you reconsider the wonder of fireflies. Kelley Armstrong tackles the viral apocalypse and the decline of humanity in her tale. And John Ajvide Lindqvist offers up a tale that may possibly be set in the same universe as his wildly popular Let the Right One In and follow up short "Let the Old Dreams Die." These are just a few of my favorites - it really is overall a fabulous collection and each of the stories is brand spanking new for the collection.

Here's the full TOC for you:

"Up in Old Vermont" by Scott Smith
"Something Lost, Something Gained" by Seanan McGuire
"On the Dark Side of Sunlight Basin" by Michael Koryta
"The Neighbors" by Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Paper Cuts" by Gary A. Braunbeck
"Miss Fondevant" by Charlaine Harris
"In a Cavern, in a Canyon" by Laird barron
"Whiskey and Light" by Dana Cameron
"We Are All Monsters Here" by Kelley Armstrong
"May the End be Good" by Tim Lebbon
"Mrs. Popkin" by Dan Choan and Lynda Barry
"Direct Report" by Leigh Perry
"Shadow and Thirst" by John Langan
"Mother" by Joe McKinney
"Blood" by Robert Shearman
"The Yellow Death" by Lucy A. Snyder
"The Last Supper" by Brian Keene
"Separator" by Rio Youers
"What Kept You So Long?" by John Ajvide Lindqvist
"Blue Hell" by David Wellington

This is - as with Slasher Girls & Monster Boys from last week - a seriously fantastic collection of tales. It's one to savor, too. Rather than zoom through it, as I was tempted to, I saved it, reading a tale or two a day and in between other reads. It stretched out the scary and tempered the terror a bit.

Trust me, readers, this is a collection you want, need, and have to get your hands on!

Rating: 5/5

Brother by Ania Ahlborn + a Giveaway

As part of my continued efforts to binge read as much horror as I can in the days leading up to Halloween, yesterday I burrowed in with a copy of Ania Ahlborn's latest, Brother. I've not yet quite recovered.

I'm going to head this up by saying that in spite of what you read below, Brother is quite good. Ahlborn's got a serious talent for horror and any genre fan should definitely check her work out. I do have a copy of Brother to give away today so be sure to enter via the Rafflecopter at the end of the post if you're interested in getting your name in the running.

Michael doesn't really fit in with the Morrows, but he does know his place. Don't upset Momma and do everything Reb says and he'll be ok. Maybe. 

When Michael meets Alice, he finds himself falling for a girl for the first time. And as Alice dreams of leaving behind Dahlia, she makes Michael consider escaping the Morrows for the first time. But Reb has other plans for Michael. Plans that don't include his leaving the Morrows. Ever. 

I've been debating how much to say about this book, but considering I found out what it was really about from other reviewers I guess it's not too spoilery to go ahead and tell you this is a book about cannibals.

Yep, you heard right. Cannibals. Never my favorite horror subject matter, but since it's Ania Ahlborn I didn't let it deter me. I think one of the reasons I generally stay away from cannibal horror is that it's a bit too... human. I can see it happening more easily than a lot of the other horror fodder and I find it more disturbing as a result.

And Brother is definitely disturbing.

Ahlborn reels you in with Michael, letting you get to know him and his story. He's not really a bad guy, but he's been raised into an impossible situation. And the focus is more on him as a character and his arc than the overall eating human flesh thing.

And then there's Reb. Reb's story we get via flashbacks interspersed between the present day narrative. Reb, like Michael, turns out to be more gray than black and white. In fact, he turns this story from a clear cut horror tale into a bit of a family drama. (In actuality, the when and the exact why behind this family's weird food issues are never really laid out. It's a framework, a really twisted framework!)

We all know that there are houses that hold secrets. Kids growing up in families that hide awful stories. I'm not saying I think any of my neighbors are serial killing cannibals but I am saying that Ahlborn has taken something familiar to us all and wrapped it up in a gory little package that fits neatly into genre reading. It's quiet well done, too.

Horror should shake you up, readers, and Brother does just that. You can consider me pretty amply shaken :)

I would say as well that you shouldn't pass up Ahlborn's acknowledgements. She does specifically refer to the movie that inspired this and it's likely not the one you think it is. You know, in case you want to continue the... fun.

Rating: 4/5

And now for the giveaway. To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, November 9. (US only please.)

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The Troop by Nick Cutter

Back in February, in my Pre Pub Book Buzz post for Frances Harding's Cuckoo Song, I made a very brief mention of the first ever James Herbert Awards. As a horror fan in general and a James Herbert fan in particular this is super awesome. Herbert, a powerhouse in horror, passed away in 2013 but his name is one that genre fans will undoubtedly never forget and an award in his honor just seems right.

Of the nominees - all published in the UK between January and December 2014 -, I've currently only read *gasp* half. I know! I'm working on it. But one of the very first of the nominees I read, way back in June of last year (and never posted a review of here on the blog) was Nick Cutter's debut, The Troop. (Nick Cutter is actually a pseudonym used by Craig Davidson.)

The Troop won, by the way.

Every year, Tim Riggs and the boys of Troop 52 take a little camping trip out to Falstaff Island. For a whole weekend they cookout, camp, tell ghost stories, hike, and enjoy the wilderness and solitude the island has to offer. But this year that wilderness and solitude turn against them.

A stranger arrives on the island, well into the night, and Riggs - a doctor - knows instantly that there's something very wrong with the man. What he doesn't know is that by helping him, Scoutmaster Tim has put the whole troop in very grave danger. As the man's sickness spreads, first to Tim and then to the scouts, the surviving boys struggle to stay alive and uninfected.

The Troop is a nasty horror read. Gross out, stomach churning nasty. The illness in question is a parasite, so you can probably imagine the kinds of ick that go with a horror set around that. Imagine, then multiply by ten and you might just be in the realm of what Cutter really has in store for you.

Trust me, I thought I was prepared. I wasn't.

If you're really twisted - and even I'm not this bad - you'll take The Troop camping and make sure you've just eaten when you read it. If you're not twisted, surround yourself with antibacterial options (soap, lotion, whatever), find a cozy clean place INSIDE to read, and don't even think about eating until tomorrow.

All kidding aside, The Troop is completely terrifying. Comparisons to Lord of the Flies are totally appropriate, as you might imagine. I mean, the adult in this scenario is obviously

Rating: 4/5

Short Fiction Friday: The Whispers by Lisa Unger

Thriller maven Lisa Unger is bringing readers back to The Hollows with a trilogy of novellas this fall. The first, "The Whispers," released on Tuesday and introduces readers to Eloise Montgomery. But not really. Eloise does actually appear in the first Hollows novel, Fragile, but this is the first time we're getting her story.

Eloise's day begins like any other - she wakes her daughters, fixes breakfast, and gets both girls and their father off without a hitch. Almost.  As she races to catch up with them, she has no way of knowing that the delay will lead to tragedy.

Six weeks later, Eloise awakens from a coma and learns that both her husband and her eldest daughter have been killed in a car accident. As she and her remaining daughter attempt to move on, Eloise begins to see things - strange things that can't possibly be there. At first she thinks maybe she's dreaming, but she soon realizes that isn't the case. Somehow, Eloise's accident has left her with the ability to see things others can't. Things she can use to help the people who need it most. 

If you've never read Fragile and are just meeting Eloise and The Hollows, it's a nice prologue for things to come. If, however, you're a fan of The Hollows books and have been antsy to return there, you're in luck!

Much of "The Whispers" is simply set up for Eloise's character: her past, how she got her ability, and her first attempts to make use of that ability. The second eshort, "The Burning Girl," is due out November 25 and is set ten years after "The Whispers." The final story in the trilogy, "The Three Sisters," releases January 5 and brings back yet another familiar face, Jones Cooper!

Fans of Unger's work and The Hollows stories will love getting to know Eloise in more depth. They're also a nice diversion while we wait for Unger's upcoming release, Crazy Love You, which hits shelves in February.

Short Fiction Friday: The Last Illusion by Clive Barker

I just found out that Clive Barker has a new book due out and that said new book brings together Pinhead and Harry D'Amour (I had to Google Harry thanks to my Swiss cheese brain). The Scarlet Gospels isn't due out until May 2015, so I do have time, but it seems some Barker reading is definitely in order as preparation. If you read yesterday's post you'll know the news also comes at a time when I'm craving some good horror movies and once my wholly holey memory was somewhat nudged by Harry's list of published appearances, I realized it had been quite some time since I'd seen any of the movies based on Barker's work. Lord of Illusions (and some others) have been added into the Halloween watch list and I dug out my copy of Cabal for my first Barker tale of the season.

If you've not read Barker before you should know that he is quite graphic and quite gruesome. This little tale even features a demonic band made of body parts!

Harry D'Amour is a PI in New York and has seen things no man can truly recover from seeing. But it's this experience that leads to his latest job - he's to sit with the body of well-known and recently deceased illusionist Swann. The job is weird, but Harry can't resist the mournful pleas of Swann's widow and agrees to take the case. Just a few hours and one very realistic nightmare later, Harry is relieved of his duty. But the job doesn't end there. Apparently, Swann had reason to worry about what would happen to his mortal remains in death and though the widow feels they're comfortably out of the woods, Harry has reason to believe otherwise.

So this is apparently the first time Barker readers met Harry. He would go on to be part of The Great and Secret Show and Everville (the first two books of Art Trilogy), a short story in a long out of print anthology called Cutting Edge (edited by Dennis Etchison), and of course the upcoming Scarlet Gospels. And while I thought I'd read at least The Great and Secret Show, it seems I have not.

Harry is a cool character. A classic PI but one that dabbles in the occult. "The Last Illusion" alludes to a pretty horrific case that launched the supernatural part of Harry's resume, which explains why he isn't too terribly surprised when demons and other stuff start popping up in the Swann case. "The Last Illusion" is disturbing and a bit oh, so 80's in my opinion (it was pubbed in 1985 after all).

I'll have to dive into the as yet incomplete Art Trilogy to see how Harry's character develops, and to be ready for The Scarlet Gospels. Anyone else interested in tackling Harry's evolution can find "The Last Illusion" in Cabal, the sixth title in the Books of Blood series (pictured above. This installment also includes the stories that make up the inspiration of Nightbreed. Interestingly enough, there is a forthcoming anthology set in the Midian world - called Midian Unmade - due out from Tor next year as well.)

I should point out - for any of you who've also seen the movie but haven't read the story - that the film is QUITE different from the short. And yet, Barker himself did write and direct the adaptation. It was odd, though, reading the short without knowing that they differed so.

Four Summoner's Tales by Kelly Armstrong, Christopher Golden, David Liss, and Jonathan Maberry

One prompt, four authors, four very different stories. This is the concept behind Four Summoner's Tales a collection of novellas featuring Kelly Armstrong, Christopher Golden, David Liss, and Jonathan Maberry. According to the intro, Golden and Maberry conceived of the idea over dinner one evening. Their prompt was just one sentence: A strange visitor comes to town, offering to raise the townsfolk's dearly departed from the dead - for a price. With that in mind, they chose two additional authors and all set out to create their own tales.

In Armstrong's "Suffer the Children" a town devastated by a diphtheria outbreak welcomes a man who claims to be able to raise their children from the dead. But of course it comes at a price. Addie and her foster family are certain that this is no miracle and must discover the truth before the town is too far gone.

Golden's "Pipers" a small Texas town has seen unimaginable tragedy: over twenty people gunned down in an increasingly escalating war with a Mexican drug cartel. Enoch has come to offer them a new option. He can bring back their dead, and with their help, bring down the cartel. 

In Liss's "A Bad Season for Necromancy" In eighteenth-century England, a man has a plan to get out from under his father's thumb. He kills his father, steals his little bit of money, and moves to the city where he now calls himself January. Here is plans to find a wealthy wife and leave his past behind. But his ghosts aren't so happy to be left behind and his plan is ruinously revealed. When he discovers a book that will allow him to raise the dead, he thinks that surely all his problems will disappear. He's greatly mistaken. His troubles have only just begun.

And finally Maberry's "Alive Day" features Captain Joe Ledger on a mission to recover a lost team of soldiers in Afghanistan. The team, codenamed Rattlesnake, went dark while attempting to stop a group of drug traffickers said to be moving more than just opium. Rattlesnake ended up running into something much worse than terrorists, but it isn't until his own team arrives to investigate that Ledger begins to understand. 

Each of these four stories is obvious very different from the others. Not only is it a great collection, but it's a wonderful example of how even one core concept can bring about in quite different results.

Rating: 4/5

Carniepunk by Rachel Caine et al

It's Carniepunk release day! Yay! I know it doesn't take much of a review here to confirm the book is as awesome as everyone expects it to be. Let's face it, a lot of us have been antsy pantsy about this release. I lucked out big time and got an early copy and whether you need it or not, I'm gonna go ahead and talk about how fabulous a read it is :)

Concept wise there's no way this could be anything but a win in my opinion. I'm sure carnivals mean all kinds of things to all kinds of readers. For me, there's a mystique and a romanticism around the idea of a carnival but the reality is much more dirty and creepy for me. But whether you fall into the category of people who romanticize carnivals or the category like me whose skin crawls even thinking about those dirty rags wiping the ick off the seats of the ride you're about to get on (ewwww!), Carniepunk does have something for us all. (An anthology of carnival based tales by some of the hottest urban fantasy authors out there is just gonna work.)

Some of the stories are series tie ins while others are totally new characters, but they all stand on their own even if you haven't yet read the author's backlist. Be warned, though, my must have list is bursting at the seams already and any of the authors here I haven't previously read have been added to the list now, too!

Here's the lineup and story list for you (in order they appear in the book):

"Painted Love" by Rob Thurman
"The Three Lives of Lydia" by Delilah S. Dawson (a Blud story)
"The Demon Barker of Wheat Street" by Kevin Hearne (an Iron Druid Chronicles story)
"The Sweeter the Juice" by Mark Henry
"The Werewife" by Jaye Wells
"The Cold Girl" by Rachel Caine
"A Duet With Darkness" by Allison Pang (an Abby Sinclair story)
"Recession of the Divine" by Hillary Jacques
"Parlor Tricks" by Jennifer Estep (an Elemental Assassin story) - available as a free e read right now
"Freak House" by Kelly Meding (a Strays story)
"The Inside Man" by Nicole Peeler (a Jane True story)
"A Chance in Hell" by Jackie Kessler
"Hell's Menagerie" by Kelly Gay (a Charlie Madigan story)
"Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea" by Seanan McGuire

Some of my faves:

"The Three Lives of Lydia" - I've never read Dawson before but a quick search proves the cover of her first Blud book is definitely familiar. This is a world I want to dive wholeheartedly into now!

"The Sweeter the Juice" - Mark Henry has been talking up Carniepunk and his tale for a while so this one came with big expectations (I had to force myself to read in order rather than jumping directly into this one). It's excellent but also quite nasty!

"The Cold Girl" - just because. Once you read it, you'll know.

"Freak House" - like Dawson, Meding is new to me and I definitely need to read this series now.

"Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea" - Seanan McGuire is so awesome. I've read her work as Mira Grant and have the first in her October Daye series in my TBR. This story is a little different from the others in that the carnie folks are the main characters. It's something of a bittersweet tale and utterly fabulous in every way.

A must, must, must have for any fan of urban fantasy/paranormal romance!

Rating: 5/5