“The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.” - Chanakya

Oh, Celia keeps on keeping on . . . and what she keeps on with is writing funny, insightful, and suspenseful and, yes, totally hot books that cheer me up and engross me. Mostly quick reads, always with an undercurrent of the human condition, Celia is, in a word, AWESOME!

So, here is the thing. She has a new series, Tiger Tails, that reaches, and in some ways exceeds, her other super-fun series. Ahhh… better than a cup of cocoa on a cold day. Well, even better when you can read her tales while drinking a cup of cocoa, just sayin’.

Now, it’s a tale of a tail – or rather, a bunch of tails. Being literally shoved out of the closet is never pleasant. And for the tigers, well, they never wanted to come out of the “Shifter Closet” at all, no matter what the lions and wolves and bears chose to do. But, things being as they always are, secrets don’t last. And this whopper is going to cause a world of hurt for the tigers. Because, well, grabbing a tiger by the tail has a whole other meaning in Celia’s newest world.

This new series by Celia is a blast. So far centering around the “coming-out-of-the-closet” of the tigers in her much-like-ours world, the first story, Fast and the Furriest introduces us to the tiger pride, and its leader, Ares. Poor Ares. Even though the lions and wolves and bears (Oh, My!) are “Out” to the public, the tigers just want to be left alone. And they stay hidden – that is, until they are rudely shoved out of the closet by an article, complete with photos, in a nasty little bit of yellow journalism. An article printed under the byline of the woman Ares thought was his. Oops. Of course, it doesn’t help that the article points out that, if you can pull a tiger’s tail, he (or she) belongs to you forever. Ah, Hell, thou hast no idiocy such as that of a human shifter stalker. “Uh, hey, lady? Really not cool to terrorize the poor pregnant tiger lady up a tree trying to pull her tail. Uh, yeah, I said PREGNANT tiger LADY.” Oy. Needless to say, it was a zoo. And it doesn’t help that DoPE (Department of Paraphysical Entities) is trying to capture high ranking female shifters in order to force them to mate with humans, so that said humans puppet masters can take over the shifter groups and control them (read: Turn them into war machines). Again, Oy.

As with all of Celia’s work, there is both a large dose of humor and an even larger dose of pathos to be had in her stories. Humans in this world pretty much suck – not surprising – and there are deeper stories here of the ‘human’ condition. But be prepared to burst out laughing in public as well, if you are brave enough to read on the train ;-)

I received Fast and the Furriest from Celia in exchange for a realistic review. I posted this review in a couple of spots, but I apparently pulled a Senior Moment and wandered away while posting, hence a late post to my site and multiple others. Oops! I still Love Ya, Celia!!!

Here is the thing, Celia. You are pretty much the Queen of Awesome-sauceness. So say I, and so say we all! And who couldn’t agree? Everything that flows from your pen (computer? Tablet? Whateves.) is a delicious blend of funny, dramatic, suspenseful, and just darn fun!

Take You’re Kitten Me. The newest series by Celia is a blast. So far centering around the “coming-out-of-the-closet” of the tigers in her much-like-ours world, the first story, Fast and the Furriest introduced us to the tiger pride, and its leader, Ares. Poor Ares. Even though the lions and wolves and bears (Oh, My!) are “Out” to the public, the tigers just want to be left alone. And they stay hidden – that is, until they are rudely shoved out of the closet by an article, complete with photos, in a nasty little bit of yellow journalism. An article printed under the byline of the woman Ares thought was his. Oops. Of course, it doesn’t help that the article points out that, if you can pull a tiger’s tail, he (or she) belongs to you forever. Ah, Hell, thou hast no idiocy such as that of a human shifter stalker. “Uh, hey, lady? Really not cool to terrorize the poor pregnant tiger lady up a tree trying to pull her tail. Uh, yeah, I said pregnant tiger lady.” Oy. Needless to say, it was a zoo. And it doesn’t help that DoPE (Department of Paraphysical Entities) is trying to capture high ranking female shifters in order to force them to mate with humans, so that said humans puppet masters can take over the shifter groups and control them (read: Turn them into war machines). Again, Oy.

In this second book, the women are still under attack, and the stakes continue to get higher. A few women have been taken or attacked and had their tails pulled – Ares sister among them. And the daughter of the national wolf alpha, Veronica, “Ronnie” to her friends, has been attacked twice. Desperate to protect her, her father sends her back to the tigers, where her best friend and Ares mate, Zoe, lives. Only, they aren’t on the ground for ten minutes before Ronnie is attacked by humans – twice. Though she has a knife at her throat, the human press don’t catch that part, only the part where Ares’ Second, Branden, and two of his security team kill two of the attackers and critically injure one. Don’t mess with an Alpha Second when his ‘gonna be mate, no matter if she is a wolf or not’ has a knife at her throat. Ah, well. So much for the whole “We really are just harmless little kitty cats” motif. And of course, DoPE (perfect acronym, BTW) jumps on the opportunity to lock up Branden, his security team – and Ronnie as well. And you can just bet what will happen to poor Ronnie if a certain manipulative General gets his hands on her. Daughter of the National Wolf Alpha, chosen of the National Tiger Second? Score for General Disgusting Monster, all the way around. Hum… you know, as usual, the humans come off as the true monsters. Well, yeah, I can see it. If shifters showed up amongst us tomorrow, you can pretty much call it from the UF books – some salivate to get themselves a piece of ‘critter ass’ while others variously hate, intend to kill, and intend to force them into military service – or onto autopsy tables – in the name of ‘National Security’. Sigh. Hey, as if the guy next door who mowed your yard for you when you were sick and his wife who brought you chicken soup are suddenly monsters just because you suddenly found out that they like to run on four legs when the urge strikes. Ugh. Humans. The gift that keeps on needing a good gene pool cleaning . . .

So, again, Celia is Awesomesauce to the Max! And you really should rush right to your reading device, or local book store, and grab up everything she has written. But starting with the Tiger Tails series is a great start if you haven’t done so already. Enjoy! I absolutely did.

I sometimes get books from Celia in exchange for realistic reviews, but in this case, I just bought it. Couldn’t help myself – So excited to get the next in the series!

1865. While the US is enjoying the end of the Civil War, in London the Liberals take over Parliament in the form of Lord Palmerston, who died that same year leaving Lord John Russell as Prime Minister. And Lady Jane Grey has sent a note to her platonic love, Charles Lenox.

Dearest,

Would you come over before supper, perhaps at a little past six o’clock? Something has happened. Do come, Charles.
Yours, faithfully,
&c.
Jane

What follows is a tale of mystery, politics, society and the upper-crust formality for which the Victorian period is so well known. Lenox is no Lord Peter Whimsey – he is much more reserved, his intelligence sharp, but quieter and more reserved.

This is very much a “Victorian Cozy” mystery, with interesting characters and a landscape that pulls you into the sights, scents and sounds of Victorian London. Honestly, I requested the book by mistake, as I wouldn’t normally read a historical (it simply isn’t my genre) but I still enjoyed it.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

“All hope abandon, ye who enter here!” - Dante Alighieri

“He, who had done more than any human being to draw her out of the caves of her secret, folded life, now threw her down into deeper recesses of fear and doubt. The fall was greater than she had ever known, because she had ventured so far into emotion and had abandoned herself to it.” ― Anaïs Nin

A day and a half. A few hours, cold and weary. Lost. Afraid.

“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.” ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Hell truly is dark. And it opens up in the mountains above Durango Colorado, in a ghost town forgotten for one hundred seven years. Abandon. Abandon all hope, for Abandon is the home of death. The home of the darkness which fills the human soul.

Twisting. Twisting.

Abandon was once a thriving gold mining town, filled with people, light and laughter. “The whores, the opium, the fun”, but hey, it was the gold rush, and everything goes. But then, the gold vein faded out, people wandered away. And by the time Christmas day of 1893 arrived, and only a small number of people remain.

Jocelyn Maddox, the barkeep and black widow, waiting for the snows to pass in the spring when she will be transported to Arizona to hang for her crimes. Ezekiel and Gloria Curtice, the local lawman and his wife. A preacher, a deputy, a few families. Abandon is dying. Dying.

Dead.

Now, six people return to Abandon. Scott Sawyer and Jerrod Spicer, mountain guides. Emmett and June Tozer, paranormal photographers. Lawrence Kendall, university professor and specialist on everything Abandon. And Abigail Foster, New Yorker, outdoor magazine journalist, and estranged daughter of Lawrence. They have climbed to 13,000 feet, then dropped 2,000 to the ghost town of Abandon. And then, they too begin to die.

Moving through the abandoned Abandon, you can almost see the town itself, in all its disintegration. Gasping in the thin, high-altitude air. The scent of firs and snow, the cordite scent of landslides. Dry rot and age. And then? Fear. Blood. Desperation. Death.

Blake Crouch is a master of edge-of-your-seat suspense. Horror on a human scale. Breathtaking terror so thick in the air the reader gasps, feeling the cold upon the skin, the terror deep in the heart and mind.

“Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people” ― Dante Alighieri, The Inferno

Enter at your own risk.

I received Abandon from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

“There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death.” - bell hooks

A meth addict mother. Check. A brutal, drunken stepfather. Check. Living in a hellhole of an apartment, waiting for said stepfather to storm into her room and rape her. Double check. Jayna Winston fled into the night on the very night that nearly happened. Bloody, beaten and alone.

Fast forward to the present day, and Jayna finds herself in a hell of a mess. In Paige Tyler’s mythology, werewolves are created at times of great terror and pain, and Jayna’s change came that terrifying night. Now, her alpha, Liam, has placed his small pack into the hands of the Albanian mob, locked them into committing crimes, from theft to murder. Murder. And Liam apparently doesn’t care that his tiny pack is in danger of being killed every time they commit a crime. That right this very moment Jayna’s life is in danger.

Because Liam said there were no werewolves in Dallas. Especially no alpha werewolves. But now, in a warehouse in a bad part of Dallas, Jayna and the omega wolves Liam has taken in – huge, ruthless, savage – are surrounded. Surrounded by a SWAT team composed completely of wolves. Alpha wolves.

A whole pack of alpha wolves. Toe-to-toe to one of said wolves, Jayna knows she will never survive. Until the alpha wolf dumps her into a packing crate, tells her to be very, very quiet – and then pours a shipment of very expensive perfume over the crate to block her scent.

What the . . . ?

Why did that happen? And to make it even weirder, the alpha, Eric Becker, tracks her down. But he doesn’t arrest her. He wants to help. Liam may have dropped Jayna and her tiny pack into certain death, but Becker wants to help. No one has ever offered to actually help Jayna. Now she and Megan, Moe, Joseph and Chris, three beta wolves, can no longer rely on Liam. And without Liam’s strength, they can’t leave, can’t fight back.

But Becker has a plan. First, he has to present himself as an omega, and be accepted by Frasheri, the Albanian mob boss, and his underboss, the psychopath Kostandin. And then? Well, here is what is going to happen . . .

Tyler’s mythology is interesting in its difference. Neither Jayna nor her pack members, or Becker himself, have been wolves for very long, all learning what it means. All have things to teach one another. Jayna is terrified, of course, of losing her much loved pack members, even Liam who sold them out to the mob in exchange for money and the illusion of power. To save them she will have to be stronger than she ever could have imagined. And she comes through beautifully. Becker and his people are strong, of course, but also very human in the best sort of way. A pleasant read.

I received In the Company of Wolves from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.