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A Librarian Reads Red Glove

Friday, April 29th, 2011

The Curse Workers Book 2: Red Glove by Holly Black

Cassel Sharp and his family of supernatural gangsters are back. Cassel realizes now that he is the rarest kind of curse worker: he has the power to transform other people. He could simply change their looks, or change them into an animal or even a harmless object. His power was already being used for the Zacharov crime family by his older brothers who would erase his memories after he would get rid of any enemy of the mobster. Cassel knows he has made people “disappear” but he can’t remember any of it. Is he still a murderer?

And he has another reminder of how powerful he is when the girl of his dreams Lila begins attending his elite prep school. This is the girl he thought he killed but really just changed into a cat for many years. Plus she is Zacharov’s daughter and heiress to a powerful mobster family. Lila likes him too, but she was cursed by Cassel’s mom (an emotion worker) to love and adore him. So Cassel can’t even trust her feelings for him.

To make matters worse Philip, Cassel’s brother who manipulated Cassel into killing, winds up dead from many gunshot wounds. Now Cassel’s family, Zacharov, and the federal agents are after the killer. And they all think Cassel knows more than he does. Cassel will have to rely on every grifter technique he knows to weasel out the truth. But he will also need to rely on something much worse: his friends. How can Cassel find the killer, please everyone, get the girl, and keep his friends safe? It seems the odds may be stacked against him this time.

Red Glove is an excellent sequel to White Cat. Both have such an excellent mix of mobsters, magic, and mystery. Highly recommended and appropriate for ages 14 and up.

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A Librarian Reads Soulless

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Alexia is a 26 year old spinster in Victorian London. She is unmarried because her social life suffers because she loves to read and that she has Italian heritage. Alexia doesn’t mind her spinster lifestyle. It gives her plenty of time to study further and talk to her vampire and werewolf friends who are an integral part of society in England.

However one evening, while chaperoning her eligible younger sisters at a party,  Alexia encounter a very hungry vampire who actually tries to feed off of her. It is just socially unacceptable and downright rude for a vampire to just try to feed on anybody. But to make matters worse the vampire doesn’t seem to know who Alexia is, or what she can do. She happens to be the only preternatural in all of Great Britain. She has the ability to nullify any supernatural traits by just a mere touch. So if a vampire tried to bite her, he would suddenly find himself without fangs and totally human.

Alexia must assume that the young vampire is ignorant of her standing amongst supernaturals. When he fails to stop his attempts of biting her she must must fight back. She winds up staking the vampire with her parasol and a wooden hair pin. Now she has a dead vampire on her hands and has unconsciously thrust herself in a supernatural mystery. It turns out that rove vampire are being created but not by any of the local vampire hives. She must help the Queen’s supernatural task force in uncovering the perpetrators.

Unfortunately this means she must work with Lord Maccon, a werewolf of the aristocracy, and someone she finds very attractive. The feeling is surprisingly mutual. How can she do her job and navigate the social rituals of courtship at the same time? She won’t have to worry for long because the villains have found a better test subject for experimentation then rove vampires, namely Alexia and her preternatural powers.

Soulless is a delightful, witty, and quick read. I recommend it for fans of urban fantasy and Jane Austen. It is appropriate for ages 16 and up due to one sex scene towards the end of the book.

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A Librarian Reads Midnight Girl

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Midnight Girl by Will Shetterly

Cat’s birthday is on Halloween. Every year a stranger leaves her a new costume at her doorstep. When she was younger it was cool and neat to get mysterious gifts. Now that she is turning 14 she is determined to discover the identity of her benefactor. Her best friend Tee helps her climb out of the house before dawn and they camp out waiting for the stranger to show. What they don’t expect is that there is a large wold dropping the package off with its jaws. Who could train a wolf to do such a thing? And this year the Halloween costume it leaves behind is no costume at all but a beautiful gown intended for the young woman that Cat is becoming.

Things become more mysterious when Cat and Tee walk to school. A van speeds out of nowhere and careens out of control. Just as it is about to run over Cat the same wolf that dropped off her present pushes her out of the way. Something is definitely going on. That evening Cat’s family from both her father’s and maternal grandmother’s sides of the family visit for separate dinners. For some reason the two families have never gotten along.

But then after midnight, after the birthday celebrations are over, she learns the hard way why her two families are at odds and why a wolf has been stalking her throughout the day. She is secretly a child of the night. Her long lost mother has come to reclaim her. And now that she is 14 and awakened to her supernatural side she will need to feed on human blood.

Midnight Girl is an excellent quick read. Highly recommended and appropriate for all ages. Unfortunately it is only published online. Please click on the cover above to access this amazing book.

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A Librarian Reads Sandman Slim

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

Eleven years ago your friends performed a ritual where they purposefully sent you to Hell. Once there you were forced to fight monsters, demons, and anything else Hell could throw at you. You survived. Then one day you escaped back to Earth.

If you were Sandman Slim you would want revenge on those so-called friends. Unfortunately you just can’t go around slaughtering people like you can in Hell. First of all it draws unwanted attention. Plus there is the fact that you have been out of touch with the world for eleven years. You don’t even know how to work a cell phone, or navigate the world in the 21st century. Fortunately you have a few remaining friends who will help you through the transition to this new world; friends like an immortal alchemist or the disembodied head of an enemy.

Sandman Slim is a great mashup of urban fantasy and detective stories along the lines of the Dresden Files. Fans of supernatural action will not want to miss this beginning of an awesome new series.

Highly recommended and appropriate for ages 16 and up.

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A librarian Reads The Demon’s Covenant

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

demons-covenantThe Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan

Mae has killed someone in order to save her brother Jamie. Her victim was an evil magician who tried to feed her brother to demons, but he was still a person. She has tried not to think about it and move on. But then she discovers her brother, who has a gift for magic but not the knowledge or skill to use it, being harassed by the school bullies. Before she can intercede she finds herself frozen. A magician has spelled her. He then scares away the bullies and helps Jamie out. Jamie is relieved and treats the magician like a good friend. But Mae knows who this magician is; he is the leader of the circle of magicians who threatened she and Jamie mere months before. His name is Gerald and Jamie should be very afraid of him, but he’s not. Once Gerald and Jamie leave together, the spell on Mae is broken. She immediately seeks the aid of Alan and Nick, the brothers who helped defend she and Jamie from the magicians before.

But things are not easy between the two brothers. Something has happened between them that has strained their loyalty to each other. It doesn’t help that Mae is attracted to both of them. However they are all in agreement that Jamie is playing a dangerous game by hanging out with magicians. As they try to decipher Gerald’s motivations they come across a deeper plot that will change the balance of power between the magicians and all who oppose them. Gerald needs to be stopped because he seeks to expand his power and the only people in his way are Mae, Jamie, Alan, and Nick. Soon Mae will need to make tough decisions again; decisions in which she may have to kill again, or watch allies die. She will have to put her feelings aside and focus on the fight ahead, because if they lose, then the magicians and their demons win.

The Demon’s Covenant is a superior book to its predecessor, The Demon’s Lexicon. If you enjoyed the first book you will definitely be thrilled by the second. This story is shaping up to be a great new series and I am looking forward to the third installment. Appropriate for ages 14 and up; recommended to urban fantasy enthusiasts.

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