Debra Dunbar

Aria is a Templar, she was born a Templar to a Templar family. She was trained to be a Templar – but when the time came, she didn’t not take the Oath. Despite her mother’s nagging. Despite living in poverty and no work skills, she refuses to take that Oath and accept the comfortable life that comes with it

But as a Templar she is still consulted by the local vampires who want expertise in deciphering a magical symbol – an exposing a deadly and complicated feud in the process.

One of show more the storyline elements I most loved was the central question “what have the Templars become?”

The concept has a lot of really nice nuance on it – and a really interesting moral quandary and debate with no simple answers and lots of different facets.

On the one hand, we have the utter passivity of the Templars, their lack of interference, how they’ve become rather irrelevant in the modern world (even if they are still a deeply feared power) and how they general live lives of extreme wealth and comfort while giving nothing back. This is wonderfully part of Aria‘s own refusal to take the Oath, while still claiming identity with the Templars themselves. She believes in them, but isn’t comfortable with what they’ve become.

The flip side is, we have the Templar’s own genocidal history. We have a history that shows the Templars judging, picking sides, declaring various beings evil and generally not being proud of that. The debate is whether they don’t act because few things are that simplistic (especially in a multi-faith world, exactly who are the “pilgrims” on WHAT “path” that need protecting) or whether that’s an excuse for the passivity?

This all feeds into the main plot line of the vampires and their attacker… and how it’s so very very difficult to say which side is right. Or, rather, they’re both right. And wrong. It’s complicated and neither side especially has the moral high ground.

It’s also pretty nice to have a protagonist with a big shiny sword and shiny powers who, in turn, cannot just nuke the enemy until victory is achieved.

All this level of nuance also comes to Aria and her family. Obviously there’s a rift with her turning her back (kind of) on the family business – but equally there’s an immense amount of love there. It’s layers and it’s wonderful.

There are other strong women in the story but not necessarily in huge roles (her mother is an especially complex and strong relationship). There’s also some interesting comments from her regarding Leonora, the female leader of the vampires and how she’d love to back and celebrate a powerful female leader- but isn’t going to excuse Leonora because of that or overlook her huge flaws.

I also really like the depiction of Aria’s poverty. A lot of characters in this genre claim poverty – but it’s just that, a claim. They tell us they’re poor, it may even be a useful character tool to make them take a mission they otherwise wouldn’t. But they don’t live as if they’re poor. We see little budgeting, we see little struggle or worry. While Aria worries about her back rent, worries about meeting in a café because she can’t afford anything in it, she worries about transport, she worries about getting a decent meal. She worries about missing work and frequently goes without sleep to work and complete the mission. It feels real, it is not just a powerful motivator but also informs her character a great deal.

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“I could hardly tell him I was obsessed with him and that he better get used to me stalking him like a creeper in a white van.”

4.5 Star

A very funny, unique Urban Fantasy opening - Samantha isn't an imp who pretends to be a good person. She's slipped out of Hel over forty years ago and since then has become a successful slum lord. She keeps her powers under the radar so as not to attract the attention of avenging angels, and she mainly spends her day flirting with her next door neighbor show more who has slowly become her first and best friend. Things turn complicated when the local werewolf diva blackmails her into exposing herself and helping their cause.

To say this book is funny would be an understatement. While Samantha isn't a "good" character, she's not actually an evil one either, especially compared to the other paranormal creatures walking around. The humor lies in her not understanding what humans are talking about half the time, trying to figure out relationships, and warring with a particularly vengeful angel who is strangely drawn to her. We do get to see some of her powers pop up, but not in traditional ways. All fun times. While it's light and quirky, there's the inevitable dark stuff that goes with this sort of world-building and magic.

The Hel and Angels in this book aren't from the legendary or Christian mythos. They aren't ascending from Heaven or Hell so it's all based on the authors' imagination crafted for this series in particular.

Samantha loves annoying people and getting under the skin, which makes some of the best parts of the series. I absoluately heart Wyatt - he may not have the angel power thing going on, but he's awesomely loyal, sounds yummy mowing the lawn even to me from book page description, and totally stays in Samantha's corner the whole way. I'm not as into the angel Gregory, although scenes with him turned out fun sometimes too - a love triangle seems in the picture, possibly, but hopefully the author quashes that. Time will tell but I see some confusion in the next sequel at least. I'm team Wyatt but have a feeling....

Hard to put down, fun and 'different', I recommend this to Urban Fantasy fans on the hunt for something new. I'm delighted to see this series has tons of books under its name too, so I'll be digging into the second right away. show less

While I enjoyed this second book I felt like the overall story made far too little progress.
Some people already complained about this in the first book but I felt it was totally fine for the first one to just be an introduction while telling a more or less contained story, but I expected the MCs situation to develop a lot further in this second one. I think the problem is in part that a lot of implicit questions that were introduced in the first book, instead of being answered, were just show more worded explicitly in this one.
In a similar vein, many people are already turned off if an MC denies her obvious connection to the supernatural for one book. But here she is almost entirely in denial for two entire books already. I get that these books only cover a very short stretch of time each but to the reader 300 pages roughly feel like 300 pages even if the time passing with the story varies wildly.

In summary, I felt like the book kept on baiting me with information I expected but never actually got.
I will most likely still read the third one but if there isn't any significant progress in that one either I am done with the series. show less

“Or you could take out your phone and we could play Words With Friends for your soul.”

The first was pure fun, unique and made me laugh aloud a few times, so I was happy to continue the series. The second isn’t as good for several reasons, but it’s still a fine follow-up that continues a strangely twisted, unique Urban Fantasy series world. It’s hard to put my finger on why I didn’t get into this one quite as much since the characters are the same (with growth) and the storyline show more is interesting, but I think a problem is that I saw some traits of the main character I found annoying and that the humor was weaker this time around.

The story is mainly Sam helping out her foster demon brother retrieve an artifact from vamps, and then having to do a mix-up with a few Elven races. There were some fun scenes in there that were hard to put down. Oh, and the demon brother is hilarious – the unique characters definitely keep me coming back to the story, that and how unique some of it is. Yes it’s twisted, but yes it’s fun!

The demon horse was epic, and with her dog the animals may as well steal the show.

Sam has a meaner side in this book – I knew it was around in the first book but it didn’t dominate the story as much. I’m confused on her being committed to Wyatt in her way, a character I actually like very much, but then turning around and doing so many others on the side suddenly. If I went by the first books rhythm and how she thinks about Wyatt when she’s with him, I find this interest in others surprising. The love triangle tangle with Gregory is just annoying. It’s a strong contender in this series that makes sure it stays as much in the mind of the reader as anything else going on in the story.

Wyatt is loyal and fun, so thankfully he’s around plenty even if I ended up feeling bad for him being paired with Sam. Sam being a different character was fun at first, but the mean and twisted side doesn’t work as well for me this time because I couldn’t relate to him. At least she doesn’t torment/kill one guy because he beats her at Angry Birds (yes, really!), but the ear eating scenes I could have done without.

I know a lot of people like Gregory and I do enjoy his scenes for the most part, but he mainly comes across as a dick that pisses me off. His superiority attitude doesn’t help me warm up to him, and if I were Sam I’d feel more like slapping him than the weird interdimensional sex thing.

Even if I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first, it was still a fun ride that made quick reading. Sam especially amused me with her music taste, tormenting Wyatt in the car with Journey and freeing herself by singing with the Elves. Ha.

But seriously, who doesn’t love Journey??? show less