And the two randomly chosen winners of the Spider’s Revenge ARCs are:

Zealith

Deb@Debbie’s Book Bag

Congrats! Winners, you have until noon, Wednesday, Sept. 7 to e-mail me your snail mail addresses, or I will have to pick two different winners.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by and left a comment. I appreciate all the nice words about my books. Also, I got a lot of good reading recommendations and new books and authors to check out. So thanks again!

Finished Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis. This is the first book in his Occult Crimes Unit Investigation urban fantasy series.

Note/disclaimer: I was asked by the author to give a cover blurb for this book, which I did. My blurb is: “A winning mix of urban fantasy and hard-boiled detective fiction.”

Stan Markowski is a detective in Scranton, Pennsylvania, who’s responsible for policing all the things that go bump in the night, like vampires, werewolves, goblins, wizards, and other supernatural creatures, aka supes. In fact, Stan is on what’s known as the Supe Squad (the Occult and Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit). Stan has his hands full with his job, and he has some other issues too — namely, being assigned a new partner after his old one is killed in the line of duty and his strained relationship with his daughter. But when someone starts brutally torturing and killing supes, Stan’s determined to catch the perp before he strikes again …

I have a fondness for detective books and noir fiction, and the thing I liked best about this book was the noir feel and world-weary narration of Stan. He’s very wry and almost deadpan throughout the whole book, and I liked his voice. As I was reading, I could almost hear someone like Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon saying Markowski’s lines.

The plot is entertaining, and it’s interesting to watch Markowski piece together the clues about what’s really going on. There are also a couple of nice twists with Markowski’s daughter and his partner. I won’t spoil them here, except to say that Gustainis introduces some plot elements/backstory throughout the book, then ties it all together nicely at the end.

One other thing to note is that there aren’t any chapters, per se, in this book — just scene breaks.

Overall, if you like books with hard-boiled feel to them, you should check out this series.

My grade: B

Would I read this author again: Yes. I’m interested to see what Gustainis does with Stan in future books.

Memorable quote: “My name’s Markowski. I carry a badge.

Also a crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a 9 mm Beretta loaded with silver bullets.”

I haven’t done a giveaway here on the blog in awhile, so here goes.

My publisher was nice enough to print some ARCs (advanced reading copies) of Spider’s Revenge, the fifth book in my Elemental Assassin series that’s coming out on Sept. 27.

I have two ARCs of the book to give away here on the blog.

The giveaway is open to folks ages 18 and older in the U.S. and Canada. (Sorry, overseas folks, but I am maxed out on my postage budget right now). If you win, I would appreciate it if you would read and review the book on your blog, Facebook, Goodreads, or wherever sometime around the release date.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment here on this blog post and tell me what the last good book you read was. The giveaway will run through Friday, Sept. 2. The winners will be chosen randomly and will be announced here on the blog on Monday, Sept. 5.

Happy commenting!

Finished The Creed Legacy by Linda Lael Miller. This is the third and final book in her Creed Cowboys trilogy.

After years on the road and a devastating personal tragedy, Brody Creed has finally come home to Lonesome Bend, Colorado to make amends with his twin brother, Conner, and the rest of their family. Brody also wants a second chance with Carolyn Simmons, a woman that he once had a relationship with but left behind. The attraction between Brody and Carolyn is as intense as ever, but Carolyn never really got over Brody breaking her heart, and she wonders if she can trust him with it a second time …

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love westerns (whether they are contemporary or historical), and Miller’s books are just comforting, down-home reads. I know exactly what I’m going to get when I pick up one of her books — a sexy cowboy or two, men and women with strong roots and friendships with each other, a big extended family, and lots of pets.

This book follows that formula, but the elements just didn’t quite gel for me this time. My main problem with this book is that there just didn’t seem to be all that much romance in it. Brody and Carolyn talk and think about each other a lot, but it didn’t seem like they were actually on the page together at the same time all that much. I would have liked to have seen much more of them interacting with each other and working through their issues.

Overall, this book didn’t work for me as well as some of Miller’s other titles have, but if you like westerns, you should check out her books.

My grade: D+

Would I read this author again: Yes. Despite the fact that this book didn’t work for me, I still enjoy Miller’s westerns.

Memorable quote: “On the other hand, Brody reflected, the beauty of that land could heal, take a man by surprise, even though he’d called the phone home all his life. That day, for instance, the sky was so blue it made Brody’s heart ache, and the aspens, cottonwoods and pines lining the landscape were shimmering splashes of green, a thousand hues of it, ranging from silvery to near-indigo. The river wound like a ribbon through the valley, as clear as azure glass.”

Finished Primal Law by J. D. Tyler. This is the first book in her Alpha Pack paranormal romance series.

Kira Locke knows that the scientists at the lab where she works are up to something shady, so she decides to steal some lab samples to prove it. Too bad for her that she is discovered and is forced to flee from the lab. The men guarding the lab catch up to Kira and almost kill her before Jaxon Law intervenes. Jaxon is part of Alpha Pack, a secret group of soldiers who can shapeshift and have other abilities. Jaxon and his friends take Kira to their compound, where she encounters even more strange beings. Kira finds herself attracted to Jaxon, who feels the same way, despite the fact that a past lover betrayed him and the rest of his team. The stakes get even higher when the samples that Kira stole from the lab turn out to be related to a secret project involving shifters like Jaxon and his team, but the members of Alpha Pack are determined to get to the bottom of things — no matter how high the price might be …

I liked the idea of Alpha Pack, and it was interesting to read about the world and headquarters that Tyler has created for her characters, along with the various creatures that she populates it with.

Kira and Jaxon are both likable enough characters, as are the other members of Alpha Pack, and there’s some amusing banter in places, especially between the guys. However, I thought that Kira accepted the idea of shapeshifters and everything else that she encounters way too easily, and I thought the pack accepted and trusted her way too easily as well. Basically, Kira almost immediately becomes part of the pack’s inner circle. That just didn’t seem all that believable to me, since the group is supposed to be so secretive and tight-knit.

Also, I would have liked a lot more forward movement on the conspiracy plot. Kira and Jaxon figure out that someone is trying to create a breed of super-shifters, but there are definitely more questions than answers at the end of the book, which I thought was frustrating.

Overall, this book didn’t work for me, but if you like paranormal romance with shapeshifters, you might want to give it a shot.

My grade: D

Would I read this author again: Maybe. I think this is an interesting concept, and I’d like to see what Tyler does with the other characters.

Memorable quote: “Kira Locke had thirty seconds to lift the samples and get the hell out. Every second counted.”