Urban Fantasy

"I was covered in blood when the police found me", not the traditional opener for a teen novel! but Devlin throws the reader straight into the thick of things in this novel: a fantastically consuming story that's a cross between the Twilight saga and TV show Teen Wolf.

The characters are compelling and instantly relatable and you feel complete empathy with the lead character Avery, a teenage girl whose parents have just been murdered, and life thrown upside-down as she has to leave her home in the woods to live with her grandmother whom she hardly knows.

Although I started off a little confused as this is the end of a series, I soon caught up with what was happening. The characters and story were easy to follow, however it became a little frustrating towards then end, when it became obvious what was happening, but the characters still had no idea what was going on. But this may be because I am a little older than the target age group, and so cottoned on to the plot a little quicker.

If you've not read the previous 'Merry Gentry' books in this series, you'll probably feel very lost with Swallowing Darkness. Previous story arcs run riot through the new book, especially as it starts off with Merry in hospital after being raped by her Uncle. L. K. Hamilton glosses over the rape very quickly as Merry seems to have/show no trauma, which seems.... Odd!! But anywho... The plot is simple, Merry's guards are being plotted against.. the 'let's kill them' kind of plot and inbetween the sexual exploits and seelie/unseelie/goblin hit-men, there really is little to go on, oh.. ..read more

The second in the YA ‘Raisied by wolves' series. The heroine has aged a couple of years and, despite being a non-shapeshifting human, has her own pack.

A satisfactory build on the previous novel, but I thought the introduction of the psychic coven a little convenient. Still however an easy to read writing style, good characters and some surprising plot twists.

Interesting to see where the next book goes.

A werewolf novel for the younger reader (the heroine, Bryn, is fifteen), or the younger at heart. Interesting concept of the orphaned human child raised by shape-shifting werewolves, and the detail of the pack way of life is well thought out and absorbing.

The heroine is, of course, feisty and the story as she finds out the circumstances of her adoption and falls in love, make for a very good read.

The plot has some surprising twists, particularly at the end and some good subsidiary characters, but the love interest is pale and the pace at time too frantic.

Again we follow Chess Putnam as she tries to banish ghosts and uncover false hauntings, whist keeping her personal life out of work.

As her cases become more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to keep on top of her Church work whilst acting as go between for drug dealers Bump and Slobag, without either of them finding out she's working for the other, and without the Church finding out about her drug habit.

In the third in instalment of the Downside Ghosts trilogy things go from bad to worse for Chess. The church puts her on a case she cant talk about, with a member of the elite Blacksquad - a do-good, abide by the rules woman who just happens to be the Grand Elders daughter, so Chess has to be on her best behaviour - not her favourite pastime. To make matters worse, it seems like the Lamaru are back and stronger than ever, and Chess is their next target.

The first in a trilogy by a new writer, I didn't really know what to expect from this book. latching on to the current craze for stories of supernatural beings, Kane has chosen to focus on witches and ghosts rather than werewolves and vampires.

By setting the book in modern america, she has avoided it becoming too fantastical, and Chess, the lead character, is certainly not your stereotypical fairytale witch, rather a modern day 20-something woman who just happens to cast spells and kill ghosts for a living.

The Abused Werewold Rescue Group is a very funny book with Tobias Vandevelde (Toby) being slap bang in the middle of the action. Catherine Jinks has very cleverly told the story from Toby's very bemused point of view with excellent dialogue to go with the action.

The plot starts of slowly but builds up fairly quickly to a page turning story which I enjoyed very much with it's many laugh out loud moments.

A good teenage urban fantasy to recommend.

The book is written in a different style to the current trend for vampire-romance novels, being much more gory and graphic - the authors portraying vampirism as a disease, and the creatures as less than human. Although this book was a sequel, and I had not read the first instalment, I found it easy to pick up the story and follow the characters.