Unfinished Business by Samantha M. Derr

REBORN by Carlo Angelo
Several days ago Ilya confessed his feelings to Ridley, and since then matters between the two men have been strained. With Ridley sick and their case about disappearing men still unsolved, Ilya is almost relieved to take on an easy case of dispelling a rogue at the Netherworld estate. But the more if the estate he sees, the more he realizes the easy case might just leave him dead.

YOU MAY NOW KISS THE (CORPSE) BRIDE by Stephanie Rabig
Nora is at her wit's end. She died several months ago, and knows she should move on, but can't get thoughts of her husband out of her mind. Thought ghosts technically aren't allowed to contact the living, she finds a Private Investigator, Sanaa, who's willing to bend the rules for her. Sanaa's willing to help, but she has shadows in her past, including a vengeful former client. Just because she's dead doesn't mean she wonder need her .38.

THE THRILL OF THE CASE by Cassandra Pierce
At first, Geordie thinks his case will be run-of-the-mill: an aging millionaire wants him to tail his sexy young boytoy to see if he's been cheating. Expecting to be bored even more than on most surveillance missions, Geordie follows his target to a private nightclub and manages to slip inside. What he finds turns his whole world upside down. but he's got a job to do, even if it's not nearly as routine as he'd anticipated, and being discovered as a detective will get him killed fast. The attraction to the club's owner isn't helping matters.

GODFREY AND THE DETECTIVE  by Megan Derr
Godfrey makes a point to live a quiet, unassuming life - mostly because vampires are a lot less likely to get dead that way. Finding a dead body in his yard is very much the last thing he wanted, though he can't be entirely upset about the hot, scruffy detective assigned the case. The problem with humans, however, is that they don't know when to quit...

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My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley)

Reborn by Carlo Angelo
I liked the premise but this was one of this short stories that don't work because they try to include too many ideas. Like, how did the different realms work, what kind of supernaturals are there and what are their specs? The characters too needed fleshing out, apparently they were both human (?) though Ridley had visions and they both investigate supernatural events? The plot was interesting it just needed more.

You May Now Kiss The (Corpse) Bride by Stephanie Rabig
I've read 'Welcome to your Afterlife' by Stephanie and this short story was set in the same world. http://catswhoread.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/welcome-to-your-afterlife-by-stephanie.html And just like that book this one fell flat. There just didn't seem to be a point. 

The Thrill of the Chase by Cassandra Pierce
Another vampire novel. Bad guys weren't punished by the end of the story which was disappointing, but there was two lots of magically instant-vampire-love-story. Blah.

Godfrey and the Detective by Megan Derr 
Megan is a fav of mine and this book was the best of the anthology. Her characters are always so snarky but lovable and Godfrey was no different. I just wanted more! More expansion on characters, more story and the world fleshed out a bit more. I guess that's the curse of the short story. 

Blank Spaces (Toronto Connections 1) by Cass Lennox

Absence is as crucial as presence.

The decision to stop dating has made Vaughn Hargrave’s life infinitely simpler: he has friends, an excellent wardrobe, and a job in the industry he loves. That’s all he really needs, especially since sex isn’t his forte anyway and no one else seems interested in a purely romantic connection. But when a piece is stolen from his art gallery and insurance investigator Jonah Sondern shows up, Vaughn finds himself struggling with that decision.

Jonah wants his men like his coffee: hot, intense, and daily. But Vaughn seems to be the one gay guy in Toronto who doesn’t do hookups, which is all Jonah can offer. No way can Jonah give Vaughn what he really wants, not when Jonah barely understands what love is.

When another painting goes missing, tension ramps up both on and off the clock. Vaughn and Jonah find themselves grappling not just with stolen art, but with their own differences. Because a guy who wants nothing but romance and a guy who wants nothing but sex will never work—right? Not unless they find a way to fill in the spaces between them.

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My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley)

This book was disappointing. Asexuals seem to be the unicorns of the LGBT book world, so to find a book where the main character identifies as asexual is rare. Unfortunately this book just makes him look like a weak guy who wants a relationship so badly that he's willing to let his 'boyfriend' sleep with any dick that moves. The whole thing just left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

That aside the actually plot was soooooo drawn out. There was thefts, the bad guy was caught and the two main characters got together. That was it. And it took 234 pages. It desperately needed an editor to go through it with a red pen and just slash out whole paragraphs as unnecessary. It was almost like instead of saying "they got up and got ready" the author said "they opened their eyes, stretched, put their feet on the floor and got out of bed. then they walked across the bedroom into the bathroom before picking up their toothbrush and toothpaste" etc, etc. 

The characters weren't that great. Vaughn was a pushover and he didn't seem to take advantage of or enjoy the fact that he had money, a great job and loving parents. Jonah was a slut and while it was implied that there was underlying reasons for it nothing was explained. 

In the end I was left feeling like the author had written a gay novella, had decided to plump it up with filler and change a character to a unicorn asexual. 

Private Dicks: Packing Heat by Samantha M. Derr (editor)

A Bar Called Once by Daniela Jeffries - Five years after Lana, the love of her life, left her for a man she hardly knew, Ryssa threw herself into her work as a private detective. But when she realizes women are being abducted from the bar where she and Lana met, her investigation leads her to Lana's husband as the prime suspect.

Black Suede, Red Velvet by Freddie Milano - Black Suede is one of the most exclusive clubs in town, and one with a lot of secrets. The owner, Fujimoto, is suspected of drug trafficking, and James Tachibana goes undercover to get enough evidence to bring in the kingpin—and starts to get too close to Kana, Fujimoto's favorite escort.

Cold, Bitter, Dark by Douglas P. Wojtowicz – Several years ago Deacon met Mishelle, a trans woman working as a prostitute. Much has changed since, but the two remain friends, and while Deacon wishes they could be friends and lovers, he's in no hurry to risk what they've got. Then Mishelle comes to him for help with a kidnapped girl, and Deacon learns too late he may never get a chance to say everything he wished he had.

Mr. X And The Blackmailed Female by Edale Lane – Mr. X is a celebrated and highly successful private detective in 1890s, and somewhat notorious for the mysterious way no one ever sees him, but must instead go through his assistant, Miss Stetson Goody—who is really Mr. X. It's a scheme, and a life, that's always worked perfectly for Stetson—until Lady Ashton shows up with a blackmail problem.

Orpheus Rising by Andrea Speed - Manu Collins is a private detective investigating a murder, who stumbles into the fact that Ralph Rundle, the richest man in the city, is involved in human trafficking. He frees some of the victims, but finds himself at a very dangerous crossroads: does he go after the man himself? And if he does, what does this mean for both his life, and his relationship with his boyfriend, Eric?


Sweetbrier by Helena Maeve – As the Battle of Britain rages, a small town on the Welsh coast grapples with strife of its own—a guesthouse hosting cowardly Londoners and rich men too cynical to join the war has just become the scene of a suspicious death. Veteran-turned-detective Rahul Khan has no desire to get involved, but his curiosity is piqued when police hasten to dismiss the case—and snared further by Mark, one of the misfit residents of Sweetbrier House.
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My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley) 

I normally loved anthologies edited by Samantha M. Derr but this one was a real let down. None of the stories were anything past sub par and some were just bad. I found Sweetbrier to be pointless and confusing, though the confusion could be due to the fact that I was just skimming rather than reading. Orpheus Rising and Black Suede, Red Velvet were probably the best, but even they need some expansion and some soul. 

The Spirit Chaser by Kat Mayor

Some places are too evil. Some places should be left alone.

Austin Cole has it made. Star of the hit television show Spirit Chaser Investigations, he has become the world’s most famous paranormal investigator. Although hard work, a talented investigation team, and favorable genetics have something to do with it, it’s his lack of fear and willingness to take risks no one else will that make Spirit Chaser Investigations cable’s number-one show. When a ghost-hunt-gone-wrong seriously injures his best friend and lead psychic, Austin is forced to find a replacement for a team member he considers irreplaceable.

Casey Lawson can’t catch a break. She’s been on her own since she turned eighteen and is scraping by as a part-time psychic and cashier at a New Age store. When a desperate Austin Cole calls her up and offers her a position on his team, has her fortune finally changed?

He’s a control freak; she’s stubborn and opinionated. It takes time, but when they finally realize they’re working on the same side, everything clicks, both on and off screen. 


Just when things are looking up, a new threat emerges. Over the years, Austin has angered plenty of demons, and one of them has set her sights on him. Now he’s the one in danger, and it’s up to the team to rescue him from the riskiest investigation of their lives.

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My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley) 

WARNING: I'm going on a spoiler filled rant!

NO, NO, NO, NO and NO!

The characters were awful excuses for human beings. Austin was so damn stupid I'm glad he died! How can you hunt evil spirits for years and still be so stupid as to not trust your psychics? He IGNORED the premonition that either spelled his death or his best friend's death. A-hole. The their was his 'religious' lifestyle. Here he was spouting off about eating healthy, not drinking, exercising and praying regularly and for most of the book the dude was possessed! WTF?

It took me multiple tries to finish this book and I wish I hadn't. 

I guess the reason I'm so pissed off was the fact that the premise and the secondary characters had promise. However its kind of a catch 22. They had promise because the author didn't pay much attention to them, if she had they may have turned out as bad as Austin, Casey and their shitty love story....

Hound and Key by Rhiannon Held

Key has lived her entire life in captivity, forced to use her magic to kill the enemies of Ariadne, an ageless woman with powerful magic of her own. Key knows she and Ariadne are both members of the Hand of the Gods, five souls reborn through the ages, but Key remembers none of her past lives. She chafes against Ariadne's control, and longs to escape to lead a life of her own.

Eric has worked for Ariadne for years in ignorance of her secrets, but now coincidences and bad luck are piling up. When he talks his way into the compound that houses Key and the other members of the Hand, he learns the truth about Ariadne's magic—and the murders she's committed with it. Together, Eric and Key escape and set out to find Lantern, the one member of the Hand Ariadne has never managed to capture—and who may know how to stop her for good.

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My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley) 

The idea had merit, but it was poorly executed. The mythology was very thin and I would have liked to see it expanded upon. The story was very one dimensional and the characters were extremely irritating, which led to great apathy on my part. It actually took me three goes to finish this book and it was a close call. 

The blurb was misleading (though I can't blame that on the author), the 'escape' didn't happen until the end, the 'truth' about Ariadne's magic was literally in the last couple of chapters and the majority of the book was filled with Key whining or complaining about lack of memories, when at the end she 'realised' she didn't need them. Add that to the fact that she seemed to be written as a bit of a slut which was annoying. 

I don't know if there will be a sequel but if there is I don't thing I could justify wasting my time. 

The Daemoniac (A Dominion Mystery 1) by Kat Ross

It's August of 1888, just three weeks before Jack the Ripper will begin his grisly spree in the London slum of Whitechapel, and another serial murderer is stalking the gas-lit streets of New York. With taunting messages in backwards Latin left at the crime scenes and even more inexplicable clues like the fingerprints that appear to have been burned into one victim's throat, his handiwork bears all the hallmarks of a demonic possession.

But consulting detective Harrison Fearing Pell is convinced her quarry is a man of flesh and blood. Encouraged by her uncle, Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry hopes to make her reputation by solving the bizarre case before the man the press has dubbed Mr. Hyde strikes again.


From the squalor of the Five Points to the high-class gambling dens of the Tenderloin and the glittering mansions of Fifth Avenue, Harry and her best friend, John Weston, follow the trail of a remorseless killer, uncovering a few embarrassing secrets of New York's richest High Society families along the way. Are the murders a case of black magic—or simple blackmail? And will the trail lead them closer to home than they ever imagined?

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My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley) 

My biggest problem with this book, and the reason I only gave it 3 stars was the fact that it wasn't made clear if there was or was not a supernatural element. It was heavily implied but then constantly refuted, BUT if you read the blurb for the second book at the end of the first it basically says that the supernatural IS real. ???

That aside, it was a pleasant read. When the bad guy at the end was revealed it made sense, there had been hints throughout that became apparent when you looked back. I like books that do that instead of pulling an implausible answer out of left field. 

The characters were good, but I wanted to smack Harry for not seeing what was right in her face i.e. John! While Arthur Conan Doyle is mentioned and shares a few telegrams, he doesn't actual appear in the book which was a bit misleading.

Other bits of the blurb were also a bit misleading, Harrison (or Harry) is not a consulting detective, her older sister is, she just pretended to be her sister for a client. Also the burning finger prints were a big hint towards the 'supernatural' and mentioned a couple of times, but they were never explained. And at the end there was a mention towards Jack the Ripper (re: blurb), which seemed like it should have been a whole other book but instead was mentioned in an epilogue of sorts. 

All these niggles aside there was a good flow, and the actual story was enjoyable. I cant blame the author for the blurb inconsistency because they have no influence over that. I will be keeping an eye out for the second one in this series.