The Hollows Series – Kim Harrison

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“I would have sworn fairies were too big to fit into a frog’s mouth.” 

Dead Witch Walking – Kim Harrison

This series was such a fun read. 13 novels in total and I well remember waiting on tenterhooks for that last one to come out. The only disappointment was that the series ended there, though it did feel, to me, like a natural conclusion and a fair ending all round. Kim Harrison’s Hollows series creates a world of magic, as you might guess, where witches and vampires and fairies and many more all live together in… Well, not harmony, which is often the point of the novels.

It’s a colorful world, chock full of unique characters that do more than simply provide the typical roles you might find in another urban fantasy book, they feel real. As real as a pixie or a demon ever can feel, that is. All these characters are delved into over the course of the series and all change and grow, sometimes in very surprising ways. Our heroine, Rachel Morgan, is a sympathetic character whose humor often shines through, though she does seem to get the short-end of the stick rather often and accepts it with a grace that is difficult to fully buy into for me. Or perhaps I’m just severely lacking in it and she is representative.

Either way, as the books progress (and they do progress, many of the people and relationships are constantly growing and changing) I came to care about the characters more and, if anything, sometimes wished we could leave Rachel’s head for a while and go inhabit one of the other intriguing personalities. She has, in fact, recently written some prequel books set in this same world that do exactly that and I’m looking forward to diving into to those (starting with ‘The Turn’ which takes us back about 50 years to the point at which the supernatural world came out of the closet).

The books are written with a very light touch, lots of tongue-in-cheek humor and slightly outrageous situations but this doesn’t stop the serious moments from hitting home (and be ready for one or two particularly hard-hitting ones mid-way through the series). As is often the case, there are some family secrets lurking in the background for the heroine a little further down the line and a couple of romantic entanglements to spice things up. Each book has a specific story line it seeks to cover, in addition to furthering multiple side-stories, and this gives you a sense of completion at the end of each book that is quite satisfying – even as you are reaching for the next one.

Nalini Singh – The Psy-Changeling Series

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“Our laws might seem harsh but we’re not inhuman. We treasure every unique individual. We make room for difference.” 

Slave to Sensation, Nalini Singh

Further to my earlier review of Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series, we’ll take a brief look at her equally captivating Psy-Changing series. These books would certainly classify as Paranormal Romance and each one tells the story of a different couple. This couple generally consists of a mix of changeling (wolves, leopards, etc.) and psy (a group of emotionally -repressed humans with a range of psy gifts such as telepathy, telekinesis and foresight).

The changelings are typically passionate, pack-oriented individuals who we are strongly encouraged to identify with, whereas the psy exist under ‘Silence’, wherein they are cut off form their emotions, cold to each other and the outside world in order to contain their powers. You can see the opportunity for conflict here, as well as other things 😉 There are over a dozen books in this series now and whilst they certainly do follow a familiar formula, they are each different and engaging enough to absorb the reader.

The heroes and heroines are unique enough from each other to stand out, for the most part, and the certainty of the HEA is what, I imagine, attracts many to the series. Including me. My personal favorites were the first and tenth books in the series (Slave to Sensation and Kiss of Snow, respectively) which tell the stories of the changeling Alpha’s and their psy partners. Particularly interesting is the ongoing psy/changeling war that brews in the background and builds throughout the series, with some stories focusing more or less on the wider world the characters inhabit.

Nalini is one of my favourite writers of Paranormal Romance and I think her work outdoes most of the rest of the field (that I have read, at least) by a clear mile. If this is your kind of thing, don’t miss out on many hours of easy, enjoyable reading.

Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling

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Nothing makes me sadder (in literature, at least) than the fact that Jane Austen only completed six marvelous novels before her death. Many authors have since tried to continue her beloved stories, with varying degrees of success. I’ve read many, many ‘sequels’ or ‘retellings’ over the years in the hope of recapturing at least a little of the magic that she wove and this is one of the few books that I have found that manages to.

Lara Ormiston takes up the story from the point at which Elizabeth Bennett receives Mr. Darcy’s first, inglorious proposal and asks the question: what if she had said yes? From there on, she takes the story in a slightly different direction than the original, of course, though many events seem predestined to occur regardless of the changes. This is a character-driven story, which I always prefer, but that does mean it can get a little exhausting being constantly inside the characters’ heads and experiencing their every emotion.

The language is not jarring and I did not spot any obvious ‘modernisms’ to take you out of the spirit of the 19 century. The characters are recognisable and, most of all, enjoyable. Nothing could compare to Jane Austen’s original work, but this is an interesting story, told well by a clearly invested author and one which I will be glad to reread in the future.

Nalini Singh – The Guild Hunter Series

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“How long have you been with Raphael?”

“You ask a lot of questions for a dead woman.”

“What can I say? I prefer to die well-informed.” 

Angel’s Blood – Nalini Singh

It’s hard to believe, but I started reading this series nearly a decade ago when the first book – Angels’ Blood – was published. There are now 12 books in this series and I have to confess, I haven’t yet gotten around to reading the last 3. This is strictly a time issue though, for if my to-read list was a little shorter and my free-time a little longer, I’d have devoured these all long ago.

I’m a fan of supernatural books, but the trick for me is to make two things in particular happen: there must be characters that I can relate to, a world that I somehow recognise and balanced against this supernatural creatures that truly feel as alien as they are. It’s a difficult line to tread and one that I rarely find is sustained throughout an entire book, let alone a whole series. Nalini Singh, however, writes beautifully realised characters that I can empathise with and sets them in a world that is just similar enough to our own that I can imagine inhabiting it, whilst being frighteningly different to the point that I wouldn’t want to.

Nalini Singh also has another long-standing series that I’ll be reviewing in the near future (her Psy-Changeling Series) and it is set in a different, though equally enjoyable, world where there are rules and norms that are established and understood. For me, this is one of the great benefits of long-running supernatural series. There’s plenty of time to establish the world and make it real to the reader so you can be sucked into the story so much more quickly each time.

The main character in this series – Elena Deveraux starts off as a vampire hunter, hired by an Archangel named Raphael. Suffice to say she ends the first book in a very different place and the series continues to explore the ramifications of the first, dramatic entry for some time. There’s an ever-expanding cast of characters to enjoy and many find themselves explored in much greater depth as the series progresses. I think this series is well worth the time I have already invested in it and I’m looking forward to spending some more time in the near future, catching up with some old favorites.

Poirot

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outline of hercule poirot

“If you will forgive me for being personal – I do not like your face. “

Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie)

Agatha Christie’s most famous creation, with his foppish manners, memorable moustache and his ‘little grey cells’. It took me many months over the course of a very relaxed gap year (several years ago) to plough through all these wonderful books and I only hope I have the time to do it all over again soon. 33 full-length novels, amongst which are some of the great crime-writer’s best (Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, to name just two) and over 50 short-stories comprise the Poirot collection and not once did i guess ‘who dun it’ correctly.

This is likely as much a reflection of my own, non-investigative thinking as anything (I find I can relate all too well to Hastings’ constant confusion) but even during the rereads I have managed since, little enjoyment is lost at knowing a few of the twists and turns. The writing takes us back to what is sometimes called a more ‘innocent age’ , and certainly there is little i recognise of my England in the quaint villages and their prim, proper peoples. None of this is to the books’ detriment, however, at least not in my opinion. The gentle humour, occasionally endearing (though quite often more of the ilk that you love to hate) characters and well-constructed plots make for a fun and easy read.

It’s so difficult to single-out favourites (though the two mentioned above are sublime), but for myself I find the ones with Ariadne Oliver to be particularly great fun. Take them to the beach. Take them to the park. Or take them to work and escape to Agatha Christie’s world for a few minutes on your lunch break. I’ts easy to dive in and out of and trust me – you’ll be chomping at the bit to see if the Butler really did it. (Spoiler alert: usually not).

Karen Chance – Cassie Palmer Series

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covers of all karen chance books
The story so far…..

“Other people had lipstick-smeared tissues in their trash. Or empty nail polish bottles. Or napkins with cute guy’s phone numbers scribbled on them.

What did I have?

A dead, possibly time-travelling fish.”

Reap The Wind by Karen Chance

Just another day in the life of your friendly neighbourhood Pythia and Karen Chance excels in the little moments like this. Throughout the series her heroine, Cassie Palmer (a time-travelling seer and recent leader of the supernatural world) struggles to balance her numerous commitments with the reality of a life constantly on the run. Her life runs at a mile a minute and so do these books, leaving very little time for a breather.

There’s a wonderful cast of characters, however, that only seems to grow as the books progress, all with their own distinct personalities that you can feel whether given a few pages or a few chapters. 8 books in the sprawling story can sometimes seem a little overwhelming with Cassie constantly being drawn into so many subplots that the main story lines can seem to make little progress.

So long as you have the patience and desire to commit to a long series and enjoy a bit of delayed gratification though, you will be amply rewarded. Very little happens without reason, despite so very much seeming to happen all the time and Chance manages the time-travel shenanigans with great care so that however confused you may be, you feel the author has a solid understanding of how events fit together.

I’ve been following this series for a decade now and I’m enjoying them just as much as ever. With at least two more due to be published in the next couple of years, I can’t recommend this series highly enough. Get stuck in and be prepared to be thoroughly sucked into an engrossing and magical world of witches, weres, fae and vampires.

If I could go back in time and reading them all over again – I would 🙂