Reading in Reykjavík

Genre: Urban fantasy, alternative reality, pastiche. I'm not going to give any plot summary here, since the plot hinges on so many secrets that I might give one away by accident.   Never the Bride builds on an interesting, if not exactly original premise: the old Gothic horror stories describe real historical events and there really are more things in Heaven and Earth (and Hell) than Horatio could have dreamt. The Bride of Frankenstein is real and lives in Whitby; the Invasion from Mars really happened; vampires walk the earth; and there are more spooky goings-on in the Goth capital of Britain than you can shake a stick at. Oh, and the book is full of cliches, just like the last two paragraphs. That's not to say it isn't entertaining, but there is something missing. The narrative is episodic rather than linear and while the stories that make up each episode do connect into a plot of sorts, there are so many loose ends flapping in the breeze that you can see not ...

Originally published in March 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. This is the third installation in the Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter series. Blake is an Animator whose job it is to raise zombies from the grave, along with other duties: the occasional execution of murderous rogue vampires and work as an adviser to the police in cases where her expertise is needed. In this case, the action starts when Blake is called out to a murder scene where a man has been attacked by a pack of vampires. Blake herself soon runs into them and has a narrow escape. She soon meets an ancient vampire who wants to return vampiredom to the old order: no integration, no citizenship, just a few clever and powerful vampires against humanity, with the weak and the stupid destroyed. She plays an important part once the battle for the city - between the “civilised” vamps and the “wild” vamps - begins. Her hate/desire relationship with master vampire Jean-Claude continues to intensify, and she meets a living man i...

This is my fourth Gothic Reading Challenge book. I read a review of this book on one of the blogs I subscribe to through my blog feed or one of the blogs I follow on Blogger, but I can’t for the life of me remember which one, so I don’t know who to thank for the recommendation. It was definitely a blog that mostly focuses on young adult fiction, urban fantasy or romance (or any combination thereof), which narrows it down a bit, but not enough for me to go to the trouble of checking which one it was. When I came across this book on one of my random trawls through the public library the title looked familiar and I recognised the story and remembered it had got a good review, so I checked it out and took it home with me to read. Genre: YA urban fantasy Year of publication: 2006 No. in series: 1 Setting & time: New Hampshire (I don’t recall seeing a town name), USA; contemporary. Identical twins Rayne and Sunny McDonald are polar opposites in everything except looks. Got...

I hadn’t planned to review this book, but then I realised that not only was it a perfect fit for the Gothic reading challenge, but also that I had already reviewed the previous four books in the series, so why stop there? It fits the Gothic theme because much of the story seems to happen at night, in a medieval style castle (even if it does have electricity and hot and cold running blood water), parts happen on a medieval battlefield which is pretty damn scary, there are vampires involved and supernatural threats, there is considerable angst, and there is cloak-and-dagger villainy that threatens the heroine (who, however, is no shrinking violet and is fully capable of defending herself). Intro, necessary for understanding of some of the below. Cue a bad Christopher Lee vocal imitation doing the starting voiceover to an episode of The Dark and the Dangerous : "The Darkyn were once people, but centuries ago they became infected with an organism that stopped their ageing process...

Click image to read about the challenge My second Gothic Reading Challenge book, but the first to be reviewed. I’m working on the review for the other one. Fits the Gothic theme because: a lot of it takes place at night, there are vampires, ghosts and demons involved, there is angst, the heroine shows some genuine Too Stupid To Live behaviour (a required plot element in the Gothic novels of old), and the hero is tall, dark and dangerous, and was alive during the Gothic era. Genre: Urban fantasy, romance Year of publication: No. in series: 2 Setting & time: London, UK; contemporary Inexperienced Summoner Allegra Telford is in London to prove she can summon and bind ghosts when she begins to have dreams about a wounded, bleeding man. Coming across him for real wasn’t in the bargain, but she does and is swept into an adventure involving ghosts, demons and Moravian Dark Ones (aka “my vampires must be unique” by any other name). There are hardships to overcome and the rew...

Genre : Urban fantasy/paranormal romance Series and no. : Darkyn, # 4 Year of publication : 2007 Setting & time : Rural France, England, Ireland and the USA; contemporary Darkyn lord Gabriel Seran is the prisoner of the Brethren, a religious sect dedicated to eliminating the Darkyn. Chained to a cross and walled in down in the basement of an old chapel on the grounds of his former estate in France, he feels abandoned by the other Darkyn, but is honour-bound to protect their secrets. Meanwhile, burglar Nicola Jefferson is searching for a particular relic in the chapels and churches of Europe while stealing such treasures as she finds and selling them to finance the search. She has also freed a number of imprisoned Darkyn, but when she frees Gabriel something feels different. Meanwhile, the Darkyn king has imprisoned Dr. Alexandra Keller ( If Angels Burn ) in his stronghold in Ireland, forcing her to search for a cure for the affliction that is slowly turning him into a mutant. ...

Genre : Urban fantasy/paranormal romance Series and no. : Darkyn, # 3 Year of publication : 2006 Setting & time : Miami, Florida, USA; contemporary Homicide detective Samantha Brown is a dedicated police officer living with the memory of a shooting that nearly killed her and is plagued by the fear that the colleague who was stalking her, and who she is certain was behind the shooting, will come back to finish the job. She meets the mysterious Lucan when the only clue to a horrific murder is a replica of a medieval cross bearing his name. Lucan, once a powerful Darkyn assassin and now a nightclub owner in Miami, is immediately attracted to Samantha, but he has a job to do and can’t allow himself to love her. Additionally there is a mutated, insane Kyn on the prowl and the religious fanatics who pose a threat to the Kyn are nearby and preparing to attack. Lucan was a minor villain in the first book, If Angels Burn . He has a powerful talent: he can kill any living being with ...

From the book: He found the fact that she hid the candy and the books in her desk rather endearing. He had even read one of the books— Pride and Prejudice —although he had thought many of the heroine’s problems could have been solved if someone had simply strangled her mother. Genre: Urban fantasy/paranormal romance Year of publication: 2005 No. in series: 2 Setting & time: Chicago, USA; contemporary Darkyn (i.e. vampire) Thierry Durand, cured in body but not in mind after the horrific events described in If Angels Burn , has escaped from captivity and arrives in Chicago, full of angst and knowing that he cannot be sure of being able to control himself from going totally berserk when met with difficult situations. He feels like he needs to redeem himself for past events and plans to start by exacting revenge on a group of men who mutilated a young protégé of the doctor who healed him. In Chicago, heiress Jema Shaw is trying to live a normal life in the shadow of ...

I found the first two books in this series at the library, and dearly hope they will buy the remaining six in the series. I feel I need to read these books because I think that while Viehl has done a good job of making the spin-off Kyndred books that I have been reading independent of the Darkyn books, I feel I need to know more about the world and background they take place in. Year published: 2005 Series and no.: Darkyn, #1 Genre: Urban fantasy, paranormal romance Setting & time: Chicago and New Orleans, USA, with scenes in Rome, Italy; 2000’s Chicago reconstructive surgeon Dr. Alexandra Keller repeatedly refuses to see an out-of town patient despite his increasingly urgent and generous offers of reimbursement, because she doesn’t want to leave the patients under her care for the time it would take to examine him and do the surgery in New Orleans, which he is not willing to leave. But Michael Cyprien is not used to people saying ‘no’ to him and has her kidnapped and brought to...

I bought this book yesterday, started reading it once I got home, and didn't put it down until I had finished. Year published: 2010 Series and no.: Kyndred, #2 Genre: Urban fantasy, romance Setting & time: New York city, USA; 2000’s Shape-shifter Rowan Dietrich arrives in New York, almost as if drawn there. She’d had an unhappy childhood there, first with abusive foster parents and then as a street child, and really just wants to visit the graves of some old friends before heading onwards to Boston and the job that awaits her there. A motorbike accident throws her in the path of alluring and mysterious chef Jean-Marc Dansant, who (not entirely out of the kindness of his heart) gives her a job at his restaurant, lends her an apartment and arranges to have her neighbour, the sexy but hostile Sean Meriden, repair the bike for her. Rowan finds herself drawn to both men, but finds it hard to decide which one she wants more, and so the tension between then begins to mount. Meanwhi...

When the publishing date of this book was pushed forward, it left Lynn Viehl’s publisher unable to print and send out advance reading copies (known in the publishing industry simply as ARCs), Lynn decided to take matters into her own hands and offered the readers of her blog, Paperback Writer a chance to read the book by sending out e-ARCS, in exchange for reviews (the offer has now expired). This book will be in bookshops on October 6th. This is the first book in a spin-off series from the Darkyn books by Viehl, featuring some characters readers of that series will be familiar with. Year published: 2009 (coming in October) Genre: Urban fantasy Series: The Kyndred (#1) Setting & time: (mostly) Atlanta, Georgia; contemporary. For those who want to be totally surprised by this book: potential SPOILERS coming up. …. … .. . .. … …. The Story: Jessa Bellamy has a psychic talent that has helped her build a business that screens job applicants for companies, but someone has discover...