Published: September 2016 by Satalyte Publishing
Format reviewed: E-book (mobi)
Genres: Fiction, fantasy, magic realism
Source: Publisher
Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016
Available: Publisher (print and electronic) ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The author is a friend. I have done my best to give an unbiased review.

Who wants superpowers?
Not Rhonda. Rhonda wants to live an ordinary life.
“My life is a soap opera with magic,” thinks Judith, as she reviews her year. Before it all begins, she just wants to lose her past and keep her children safe.
Belinda, her sister, wants recipes.
Their lives are simple.

All three women get a lot more than they bargained for in 2002 and 2003.
Bushfires.
A possessed lemon tree.
Prophecy. Magic. Romance.
Violence. Politics.
Family.

Secret Jewish women’s stuff ought to be carried out in more exotic places than suburban Australia. Except that sometimes, suburban Australia is chancy and troubling. Even without those mystery boxes from the great-grandmother no-one talks about. Even without the Angel of Death and Zoë’s pink tutu.

The Wizardry of Jewish Women is a complex book of literary fantasy that focuses on the lives of three women. Judith and Belinda are sisters who have just inherited two trunks of their great-grandmother’s papers. Rhonda is a historian and prophet whose historical articles trigger a need to blurt modern-day prophecies on the same topics in online chat rooms.

The book has many of the typical themes and characteristics of the author’s previous novels. It is a very feminist book, with Judith explicitly identifying as feminist and being involved in political activism. The domestic sphere is valued, as the story focuses on the daily lives of these women and their relationships. Judith and Belinda trade many phone calls as they try to sort out the mystery of their great-grandmother’s papers, and it seems fitting that the magic spells they find are mixed up with old family recipes. Judith must also contend with raising two kids on her own. Rhonda’s domestic life looks different, as her home also functions as her workspace. Being cut off from her family, she is very much alone and finds company instead with a few valued friends both locally and online.

Family is certainly an important theme of the book, but for me the heart was about ethics. When Judith discovers that her great-grandmother’s magic actually works, she is tempted to use it against her abusive ex-husband. However, Jewish magic should not be used to harm, as Belinda’s research informs her, and Judith is faced with setting a good example for her magically talented, young teenage daughter. Belinda herself must decide whether to withdraw to safety when her synagogue is firebombed or whether to stay and support the community. And Rhonda must deal with privacy violations from her own ex-husband and from online enthusiasts keen to root out the mysterious online prophet. She also fends off sexual harassment from her case manager at the temp agency.

As is typical of the author, there are some unusual things going on with the style. There’s something interesting going on with the numerology of the chapters. Each chapter is comprised of numbered sections. The amount steadily diminishes, making each chapter progressively shorter. Judith’s story also slips back and forward between third- and first-person, often with little or no warning. These choices made it a challenging read, particularly in the beginning when the chapters are long and I didn’t yet have a grip on who was who and what the relationships were. This is not a book that spells out parallels or connections clearly. Rather, the reader has to work for them.

All in all, I found The Wizardry of Jewish Women was a challenging book, but rewarding. It’s definitely my favourite from this author so far.

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.

Published: July 2015 by Piatkus
Format reviewed: Paperback, 375 pages
Series: Souls of Fire
Genres: Urban fantasy
Source: Gift
Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016, #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks
Available: Publisher (print) ~ Abbey’s ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Book Depository ~ Booktopia ~ Dymocks ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers for previous volumes/books.

Keri Arthur, New York Times bestselling author of Fireborn, presents the thrilling new Souls of Fire Novel featuring Emberly Pearson, a phoenix that can transform into a human—and is haunted by the ability to foresee death….

Crimson Death, the plague like virus spawned from a failed government experiment to isolate the enzymes that make vampires immortal, continues to spread. Emberly and her partner, Jackson Miller, are desperately seeking the stolen research for a cure before the virus becomes a pandemic.

But their mission is jeopardized by another threat uncovered in Emberly’s prophetic dreams. A creature of ash and shadow has been unleashed on a murdering spree. Now Emberly must summon all her gifts and investigative knowledge to put an end to this entity’s brutal rampage—even if it means placing herself in harm’s way….

Given how much I loved Fireborn, I was surprisingly disappointed with Wicked Embers. It wasn’t a bad book, but it didn’t make the most of the elements it had.

As with the last book, it begins with one of Emberly’s prophetic dreams and dives into the action from there. Danger looms on all sides–from the creature of which Emberly dreams, from the two vampire factions looking to shut down her investigation, and from the mysterious grey-cloaked figure seeking to capture her. Indeed, I found the romance took a backseat to the thriller elements in this book. If you’re looking for gun battles, chase scenes and explosions, Wicked Embers has you covered.

However, despite all the action, I actually found the pace a bit slow in places. The revelation of the Grey Cloak’s identity and the truth of what has been going on with Emberly’s ex, Sam, was late in coming and so obviously signalled throughout both books that it proved no surprise. I also felt the repetition regarding the evolution of the creature’s prey was unnecessary, though I understood the reasoning behind it.

I was pleased to see Emberly’s polyamorous relationships continue. Each of her relationships remains distinct, with different dynamics at work. Unfortunately, they remain pretty stagnant throughout the book and don’t develop beyond the parameters set in Fireborn. It also had me noticing a distinct lack of female characters beyond Emberly. A few potentially significant female characters were mentioned, so I’m hoping to see this change in future books.

As a phoenix, Emberly has some impressive magical abilities. Nevertheless, she kept within the boundaries established in the first book and I enjoyed seeing some new limitations established. In fact, I found the magical world-building to be a highlight of the book  and enjoyed the introduction of a couple of new forms of magic.

Overall, I found Wicked Embers to be an entertaining but flawed book.

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.

Published: November 2011 by Morrigan Books
Format reviewed: Paperback, 262 pages
Genres: Horror, sci-fi, speculative fiction
Source: Pulp Fiction Books
Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016, Once Upon A Time X, #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks
Available: Amazon ~ Book Depository ~ Booktopia ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: A few of the contributors are acquaintances. I have done my best to give an unbiased review.

This novella collection is powerful, sexy and very, very deadly.

‘The Five Loves of Ishtar’: Kaaron Warren Follow the path that the goddess Ishtar takes through the eyes of her most devoted worshippers, her washerwomen. Sharokin, Atur, Ninlil, Shamiran, Ninevah and Ashurina share in their goddess’ loves, losses and triumphs, as kingdoms rise and fall in the Land of Rivers.

‘And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living’: Deborah Biancotti In modern-day Sydney, male prostitutes are dying. Their bones have turned to paste and their bodies are jelly. As Detective Adrienne Garner investigates the deaths, she finds rumours of strange cults and old gods whose powers threaten her city and, ultimately, her world.

‘The Sleeping and the Dead’: Cat Sparks Dr. Anna remembers little of her life before the war, merely traces of the man she used to love. When three desperate travellers rekindle slumbering memories, she begins a search that takes her to Hell and beyond. A search for love and, ultimately, enlightenment.

Having an interest in mythology but next to no knowledge of Ishtar herself, I picked up this anthology on a whim at a speculative fiction convention in the distant past. It trends a bit more towards horror than I would usually read–unsurprising, given the authors–but it remained within my tolerance.

As the description makes clear, Ishtar is a collection of three novellas that tell the story of the goddess at different points in time. Kaaron Warren kicks off the anthology, showing Ishtar at the height of her power. Ostensibly told in first person, the point-of-view pulls towards omniscient third person. I didn’t find this a problem, but I know others may. In fact, I found the point-of-view an interesting aspect of this story. There are multiple washerwomen telling the story, but the sameness to the language encourages the reader to perceive them as the same person–much as Ishtar does. And yet, the washerwomen often have different attitudes towards the goddess they serve. I appreciated this nuance.

Being Kaaron Warren, of course there’s viscera in the seams of Ishtar’s clothing and armies of still-born babies. Despite this, I found the story a bit slow-paced and felt my attention wandering from time to time. It had a lot of work to do in laying the foundations for the other stories. Covering a lengthy period of history, it details Ishtar’s myths as well as her loves (which are usually related), bringing them to life with historical detail. I enjoyed the way it commented on the changing relationship between the genders (though I should note it was very heteronormative and subscribed to a gender binary). Likewise, it did an excellent job of showing the changes in power experienced by Ishtar.

Deborah Biancotti’s modern take was better paced and it hooked me in much more quickly. Like Cat Sparks’ story, it was told in third person, present tense. Ishtar was more of a distant character in this story, though remains at its heart. As such, her motives weren’t entirely transparent and the story lost cohesion a bit towards the end. However, I thought it connected well to the previous story and the justification for setting it in Australia was reasonable. One quibble I had was to do with the style. In places it was both show and tell, as if the author didn’t trust the reader to interpret the description correctly. However, this was a relatively minor annoyance.

Having dealt with the past and the present, Cat Sparks’ story focuses on the future. It is unclear how far in the future it is, particularly since Dr. Anna’s memory is a bit sketchy. It is also unclear where exactly it is set, other than a desert wasteland containing remnants of the present day. I liked this because it could equally have been former Mesopotamia as Australia (though I’m leaning towards the latter). I found the style a bit fussier than the previous stories, playing with language in a way that was sometimes enjoyable and sometimes tiresome. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this story most of the three. I appreciated the way certain elements of the previous stories had been reinterpreted for the future setting. As with Deborah Biancotti’s story, the ending devolved into chaos a little too much for my taste. However, it was also an appropriate finale to the anthology.

Overall, I found Ishtar a solid anthology but one not precisely to my taste.

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.

Published: January 2016 by Hachette Australia
Format reviewed: E-book (mobi)
Series: Tommi Grayson #1
Genres: Urban fantasy, New Adult
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016
Available: Publisher (print and electronic) ~ Abbey’s ~ Amazon ~  Book Depository ~ Booktopia ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of Tommi, a young Scottish woman living an ordinary life, who stumbles violently into her birthright as the world’s most powerful werewolf. The sudden appearance of a dark, mysterious (and very attractive) guardian further confuses her as her powers begin to develop and she begins to understand that her life can never be the same again. The reader will be swept up in Tommi’s journey as she’s thrown into the middle of a centuries-old battle and a world peopled with expert warriors and vicious enemies – this is the start of a series – and a world – you will fall in love with.

While it’s not without its problems, Who’s Afraid? is some of the best urban fantasy I’ve read in a while. It falls squarely within its genre but nevertheless manages to avoid many of the common pitfalls.

Tommi is a great character. She’s sensible as well as sassy, thus managing to avoid the slide into irritating. Like most people, she makes mistakes and decisions that are not exactly wise. Yet even when she does so, she never entirely abandons common sense and takes precautions when it comes to risky situations. For example, when she goes to visit strangers in a house on the edge of town, she texts her best friend the address in case something happens.

In this way, Tommi reflects the groundedness of the story as a whole. Like most urban fantasy heroines, she has physical attributes that mark her as different–in Tommi’s case, it’s her blue hair. However, this is not because Tommi is a special snowflake who was born that way (being a werewolf is surely enough on that front!), but because she dyes it, making it a conscious style decision for her.

The groundedness also manifests in the romance. The characters don’t make the best impression on each other at first. Even once they get past that, it’s a slower burn than I generally see in urban fantasy. I enjoyed it all the more for that.

The casual diversity also delighted me. A number of minor characters are mentioned as having same-sex spouses and there’s a bit of a mix of races. Tommi herself is half Maori.

Which leads me to one of the reservations I had about the book. Although Tommi is half Maori, she has been brought up in Scotland, away from her Maori heritage. The portrayal of that part of her family is problematic for spoilery reasons. I was disappointed not to see it balanced out with a more positive portrayal of the Maori, particularly because it leaves me feeling like the story is only paying lip-service to diversity rather than truly being inclusive of cultures that are different. I also wasn’t sold on Tommi’s reasoning for seeking out her Maori father, especially since she believes he raped her mother.

It is also worth noting that if sexual assault is a trigger for you, it may be best to steer clear of this book. While I felt the incident was handled with maturity, it combines with Tommi’s age to take this book into New Adult or adult categories rather than YA.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Who’s Afraid? I’ve not seen any strong indications outside of the blurb that this is going to be a series. However, the way has been left open and I am very keen to see more.

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.