Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn

Let me start by saying that I like Yasmine Galenorn's writing quite a lot. I love her pagan/metaphysical books — she's one of the few authors out there who seems to have a genuine passion for the subject matter—and I've also enjoyed the one installment of Chintz 'n' China that I've read.

That said, I didn't really enjoy Witchling, the first novel of her Sisters of the Moon series, though I feel kind of bad saying so about something she's obviously worked hard on and feels strongly about.

Yasmine Galenorn has set herself a difficult task here. Most writers of urban fantasy choose a narrator who has grown up in the ordinary, everyday world of humans. Whether the protagonist is aware of the supernatural at the start of the book or not, s/he does begin the s... Read More

Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn

I picked up Witchling simply because Amazon.com suggested it and I hadn’t read an urban fantasy in a while. Simple enough explanation, I think.

Yasmine Galenorn follows the Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance recipe pretty well. She has a heroine who’s sassy, supremely attractive, highly sexually active and surrounded by interesting and powerful characters/creatures that somehow end up following her lead. Galenorn uses our world as the setting while throwing in an explanation for why the Supernatural has suddenly become part of our everyday life. It’s pretty common fare in this genre.

The good part about Witchling is that the plot is fairly quick and Galenorn doesn’t spend too much time delving into the inevitable relationship issues that this genre seems to demand. There is plenty of stuff like that to keep the romance-reader int... Read More

Changeling by Yasmine Galenorn

In Changeling, Yasmine Galenorn avoids the thing that annoyed me most in Witchling; namely, the infodumping. Having set the scene in Witchling, Galenorn is free to spend most of Changeling on plot and character development. There is some exposition, but it didn't strike me as excessive. It was just the right amount to get me caught up after two years' absence from Galenorn's universe.

Changeling is written from the point of view of Delilah D'Artigo, a sister of Witchling's heroine. When sexy werepuma Zachary Lyonnesse walks into Delilah's life, he brings two problems with him: a murder mystery, and second thoughts about her relationship with her boyfriend Chas... Read More

Bone Magic by Yasmine Galenorn

Bone Magic is the seventh book in Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld (Sisters of the Moon) series. A self-described paranormal romance, Bone Magic continues to follow the adventures of the D'Artigo sisters as they fight the impending invasion of the normal world by the Underworld Demons. The sisters are part-Fae and have special powers that may enable them to save the world.

Galenorn knows her way around the paranormal romance genre and with her seventh Otherworldnovel, she is clearly hitting her stride. Camille, the protagonist of Bone Magic, is a pretty classic example of the paranormal heroine, except without the self-esteem issues (she knows that she's powerful and really good-looking) and without the conventional ha... Read More

Night Myst by Yasmine Galenorn

Cicely Waters, 26 year-old black-clad, green-eyed, tight-abbed, tattooed, street-fighting witch, has been summoned back to her Cascadian hometown so she can use her powers to help solve the mystery of a witch's murder and some strange disappearances. Soon Cicely finds that things are worse than she could have imagined when she learns that the Indigo Court, an old race of vampiric fae, are planning to take control of both their vampire and fae ancestors. Cicely and her pals will have to make an uncomfortable alliance with the Crimson Court vampires to beat this even nastier foe.

I don't normally read contemporary urban fantasy, but I wanted to try Night Myst because it's been released on audio by Tantor Audio and I love their books. As usual, their production was beautiful and perfectly cast. Cassandra Camp... Read More

Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Songs of Love and Death is the third anthology that George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois have edited together. Like Warriors and Songs of the Dying Earth, Songs of Love and Death brings together some of the biggest names that SFF has to offer and they set these authors to work on a common theme.

Martin and Dozois offer a cross-genre anthology that ranges from Robin Hobb’s epic fantasy “Blue Boots,” which tells the story of a romance between a young serving girl and a silver-tongued minstrel, to  Read More

Songs of Love and Death by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (editors)

George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois have collected a nice batch of all-new stories from an all-star cast in Songs of Love and Death. The theme is “star-crossed lovers,” and as you might guess from the title, each tale is a love story, and many are death stories, too. Some are sad, some are sexy, and one or two are slightly sappy. Overall, I enjoyed the collection. Here’s what you’ll find in Songs of Love and Death:

“Love Hurts” by Jim Butcher may be the story Harry Dresden’s fans have been waiting for because it looks like Harry and Murphy will finally get together... or will they?
In “The Marrying Maid,” historical romance author Jo Beverley provides a Regency romanc... Read More