Lustlocked

It's been awhile since I read any entries in the "Deadly Sins" series, so I had forgotten just how short a novella can feel. With that in mind, Wallace in heavy on the plotting and a little shy on world-building and character-building in this one, so if you really want to understand, I'd start with the first Sin book, [b:Envy of Angels|25819511|Envy of Angels (Sin du Jour, #1)|Matt Wallace|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443116470l/25819511._SY75_.jpg|45399552]. Although he introduces characters from the first book, details on most are a little bit light, except for our nominal 'normal' lead of Cindy, introduced the first book and still dealing with the mental fallout of the job. At any rate, I show more thought it went quicker than the first, [b:Envy of Angels|25819511|Envy of Angels (Sin du Jour, #1)|Matt Wallace|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443116470l/25819511._SY75_.jpg|45399552], with less bizarro action.



Um, scratch that.

What was awkward to me was the introduction of a seriously famous person as a side character without saying the celebrity's name, but including all the other details to give fans knowledge. I'm not sure why, to be honest. Then when the musician's children became part of the story, it was even weirder, because it diverted from real life. I feel like if you are going to borrow from real people/events, then it should be an 'all in' situation--either you embrace it with inclusions of famous references (and risk dating the book) or you are vague enough that it won't matter.



All that said, it was more fun than I expected. Wallace's 'Sin' series has one novella per sin, set in a obscure catering firm that does jobs for paranormal creatures. (My review for the first here). Given that, I was hesitant to start 'lust,' fearing a slicked-up orgy as centerpiece, but I should have trusted Wallace to put his own bizarre yet entertaining spin. Although a little weird in the plot development, it gave time for progress in Cindy's character, as well as a few side characters we hadn't met yet.

"Her first instinct is to say something glib, but something about the way he smiled stops her. It’s as if he were remembering a million troublesome moments all at once.

Besides, as the origins to the disaster came out of good intentions (whoops! You know what they say about that and the road to Hell), it's nice to have a positive message.

“Wow. Okay. Well, it’s not like that doesn’t happen all the time, Pac. At least none of them died.” “You’re a bright-side kind of chick, and I dig that about you,” Pacific says amiably.

The e-book edition also contained the short story 'Small Wars,' which details how the ingredients for the main course were procured. It makes much more sense now, and should have just been included with the novella. show less

Very lighthearted fun. I mean, what else can you expect from a humorous fantasy featuring the feast of a goblin wedding from an error-laden crew of fantasy chefs that just happen to set off a horribly unfortunate scene of a magical sexy-time?

The real treat is in the details, and there's plenty to love. Can you imagine that the goblins are actually the beautiful people? That the Goblin King is the very one we just recently lost, for real, and sadly? Not Prince. The other one. ; ; It put a slight damper on my enjoyment, understandably enough, but it was charming and appropriate.

Even the scary bits with blood and screaming was light-hearted. Or maybe that's just me. :)

The bonus story to the text pulled off what would otherwise be a show more hard-pressed adventure into the realms of magic and mahem, of discovering warriors and defeating armies... but in all actual fact, it was just the attempt to fill out the regimen of chefs and servers. It filled quite a bit of backstory for me, since I had not read the first book in the series.

I got this copy as a promotion, but even so it was quite fun and quite worth reading. I do rather wish I had read the first, but alas, no chance just now. On the bright side, I did just get the Netgalley arc for book 3, so onward and upward and let's see what kind of dish will make the princess cry or destroy the kingdom. :) These *are* rather delightful and fraught with peril. :) show less

So fun, and those who got upset about the goblin king... I don't understand them. It was unfortunate that David Bowie died before this book came out, but it is not unfortunate that a version of him is in it. It's awesome. I suspect the man would've loved this portrayal.

Will read next story! (Best compliment I have for any writer.)

Reviews at The Artemis Reader

I feel like I can’t even talk about this book without spoiling it. But if you seriously want a quick read and laugh, read the second book in the Sin du Jour series. You get introduced to a lot of characters fast, and frankly most are a little hard to remember, but the dialogue and plot are humorous and snappy. Plus plenty of references to the Goblin King – points to those who get that reference. A worthwhile little read nonetheless.

I would like to thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge & NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book to review. Though I received this e-book for free, that has no impact upon the honesty of my review.

Goodreads Teaser: "The staff of New York's premier supernatural catering company, has their work cut out for them in this outrageous follow-up to Envy of Angels.

Love is in the air at Sin du Jour.

The Goblin King (yes, that one) and his Queen are celebrating the marriage of their son to his human bride. Naturally the celebrations will be legendary.

But when desire and magic mix, the results can be unpredictable.

Our heroes are going to need more than passion for the job to survive the catering event of the decade!"

As with the first of story about Sin du Jour, show more this one is full of weird and wildly unpredictable events. It seems mayhem is the best way to describe how this place functions. The interplay of the various characters, their oddly unique skill sets, and the crazy things that happen around and to them, makes this a stunning sequel.

Lena and Darren return to Sin du Jour as regular employees this time, rather than temp workers. This means they finally begin to get the inside scoop on how things function, and the very high level of dysfunction. And all that happens within the first few pages. From there things just get zanier, and why it may be life and death for the staff and clients of Sin du Jour, no one ever said it couldn't be entertaining for the rest of us. And entertaining it is!

If I had to offer up anything negative to share it would be that the story is to short. I wanted more, and needed everything to last longer. There was one item that was brought up that I anticipated being a future hurdle for the intrepid team from Sin du Jour, but oddly it was simply left hanging on the branch like a forgotten apple. But aside from that, and again that was only mentioned because I want more of the tales from Sin du Jour, this was another raging success in my eyes. I can't wait for another adventure with the talented, and twisted, SdJ team. show less

The Sin du Jour catering crew is back, this time preparing for a goblin wedding. Lia and Darren think they haven't decided to sign on permanently with Sin du Jour, but that illusion is dispelled so quickly it can't even count as a spoiler.

This time their difficulty is not a hard to get ingredient. There is a challenge in making identical-looking dishes for both goblin and human guests, but that's not the problem, either.

The problem is what happens when a seasoning from the goblin menu is accidentally added to the human menu.

The challenge is undoing the damage.

Entertaining and fun.

I bought this book.

More Awesomeness!

Best yet, great ending. Loved the cinematic scene with the cake. The sand painter is kind of a jerk but his granddaughter rocks.