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Showing posts with label Lee Roland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lee Roland. Show all posts
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sunday Snippet #114
Vengeance Moon Author: Lee Roland
Novel of the Earth Witches #2
Publisher: Signet
Released: June 5, 2012
REVIEW HERE
I rode the bus wasn't crowded, only a couple of older women and a woman holding a baby. A little boy sat on the seat beside her. I sat behind them on a worn brown vinyl seat with bits of foam thrusting from the separating seams.
I watched the passing shops as they began the decline into blight and wondered what it would be like to live here. A miserable foul-smelling jail cell in New York and the silent halls of Justice had been forced upon me by my own carelessness. But my original home was suburbia, a bright sunny house behind the shop where my mother practiced her gentle magic and sold handmade soaps, oils, and earth-centered jewelry. Daddy's restaurant was next door. I could picture living nowhere else, at least not by choice.
The little boy turned to watch me. children often start at me, at the scar. They are usually guileless little creatures, innocent of the tyranny of good manners. This boy was different. Something troubled him, and his face was as solemn as a mourner at a funeral. His dark eyes held questions. He slipped out of the seat and came toward me. I judged him to be about six. His clothes were clean ut worn. He stood in the aisle and leaned toward me like a conspirator.
"Did your daddy hurt you?" he asked softly. "Your face."
"My daddy?" I hid my surprise with a smile. "No. It was an accident."
His eyes darted around. "My daddy hurt me."
He lifted his shirt. My mouth dropped open. Burns. Round cigarette burns, and ... shit, the monster had heated a knife blade and laid it to this innocent child's tender skin. I touched it gently with my fingers as if I smooth it away. It felt hot and fevered, as if had occurred only moments ago.
The woman holding the baby realized the boy had left her. She turned to face me. I guess she saw the horror on my face.
"I left the bastard," she said. Desperation filled her voice. I think she felt the need to explain that she was a good mother. "They arrested him," she went on, "but he made bail. I have a restraining order, but I think he has people watching me. I should be down here where he is, but I wanted to see my mother. She's been sick."
I nodded. I grasped the boy's shirt and slid it down to cover the scars. I'd seen some of the girls at Justice who had been brutalized like him before they arrived. I kissed him on the forehead. He smiled and went back to his mother.
The bus stopped for another passenger. I didn't pay attention until the little boy rushed by me toward the back of the bus. The high-pitched keening sound coming from him was of purest terror. He tripped and scrabbled along the floor to crawl under one of the seats behind me, still wailing in mindless panic.
The source of that panic stalked down the aisle toward us, grinning like a demon that had found something to kill. He wore a dirty white T-shirt over low-cut jeans. Several chains hung around his neck, and one thick set of links held a devil's head - obviously some gang affiliation.
He stopped and towered over the woman. He snatched at the baby. She tried to turn and hunch over it to protect it.
"What are you doing here?" she screamed. I guessed he'd been following her since she boarded the bus. Probably had his friends keeping tabs on her.
"Gimme that little bastard. It ain't mine, so it belongs in the trash."
Oh, no. This wouldn't happen on my watch. I hadn't spent years training to ignore a bloodthirsty animal like this one. Excitement rose in me. Only two days from Justice and I'd missed my daily exercise in violence. I wanted to do this.
I stood.
"Hey, asshole." I got his attention in my usual delicate way.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Review: Vengeance Moon by Lee Roland
Vengeance Moon
Author: Lee Roland
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Publisher: Signet
Earth Witches #2
ISBN: #978-0451236432
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format(s): Paperback (352 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher
About the book:
|
Revenge is unleashed under the light of the moon…
“On my seventeenth birthday, my mother’s last gift to me was a vision of death—and a curse…”
Madeline Corso can’t rest until she hunts down the three unknown assailants who killed her father and witch mother. Two of them are now dead by her hand. But the third eludes her while she serves time with the Sisters of Justice—a mysterious order of female warriors with ties to her mother.
The Sisters have tracked the last murderer to Duivel, Missouri, and the dark underworld of the Barrows. But Madeline’s release is contingent on her fulfillment of a mission for the Sisters. Madeline doesn’t question them, but once in the Barrows, she discovers that things aren’t what they seem.
Can she rely on Michael, a handsome and enigmatic local businessman, to help her navigate a world of men and beasts? Or will she lose her heart before the mission is complete?
What G & U are talking about:
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Vengeance Moon is the riveting second novel in the new Earth Witches series. Lee Roland has crafted a dark and intriguing world, one that is as gripping in its action and suspense as it is in its passion. You do not have to read the first book in the series, Viper Moon, but it would give you better background on the mythology (not to mention, it was really good, review HERE and a snippet HERE).
In the previous novel, Viper Moon, the huntress, Cassandra, fulfills the purpose the Earth Mother has given her. In Vengeance Moon, we have a new heroine and hero. We were introduced to our hero, Michael, in the preceding novel. He is an unlikely hero, but we hope there is more to him than meets the eye.
Madeline, our heroine, is a very complicated character. A spell cast by her dead mother caused her to witness the final moments of her life and to be consumed to seek vengeance against her mother’s killers. Madeline’s personality has been tainted by the pursuit of her mother’s killers. The overwhelming drive for vengeance overshadows everything in poor Madeline’s life. She has been trained to become a perfect Sister of Justice – women who keep earth witches, who are blessed with great magic, from using it to do harm.
The Sisters of Justice send Madeline to the Barrows to retrieve an object of power that was taken from her mother’s corpse. She must return it to the Sisters and if she is able to kill the final murderer of her parents in the process, so be it. However, her mission turns out to be more complicated and dangerous than anyone suspected. Madeline’s journey to the Barrows allows us to revisit Cassandra and Abby as well as see more of Michael, who was a fascinating and complicate character in Viper Moon. For all of the complexities, hidden plots and such, Vengeance Moon is a nail-biting, edge of your seat read. It is astonishing how much is packed into this novel.
Alas, there is no snippet included for a third novel in this series at the end Vengeance Moon. Gikany and Una were unable to see anything on Ms. Roland’s website regarding a next novel. However, this is a well-written series so far and we eagerly anticipate a third novel in the Earth Witches series. If you haven’t started this series yet, you best hurry and catch up – it’s so worth it!
Their Rating:
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Loved it - enthusiastically recommend (A)
Purchase Info:
Reviews of books in the series:
Labels:
4.5 stars,
G-U Review,
Lee Roland,
Novel of the Earth Witches,
Signet,
urban fantasy
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sunday Snippet #72
Viper Moon
by Lee Roland
Signet PublishingJuly 5, 2011
If, as the Mother insisted, Flynn had to stay with me, he had to know some of my secrets – and accept them without slapping me in handcuffs and hauling me to jail. For him, I’d have to break the veil of obscurity that cloaked the Barrows. He’d be initiated into a new world. Unlike the general uptown populace, he wouldn’t be able to turn away and pretend he hadn’t seen the weird and bizarre. Bigger problem? I didn’t know how I’d conceal some of my more devious retrieval methods from him.
I pulled into the apartment house parking lot and switched off the car. “Are you a shoot first, ask questions later kind of cop?”
“No.” He sounded offended.
“Good. If you shoot my friends, I will be very unhappy.” Not to mention he’d have to shoot me because I’d stand in front of them. “Come upstairs and I’ll welcome you to my world.” When we entered the apartment, I told him to sit at the tab le. I sat in a chair across from him. “Pretend you’re dreaming. It might help. Nefertiti? Nirah?”
Horus dashed across the room and leaped onto the table. Nirah coiled around his neck with her head between his ears. Her tiny forked tongue flicked in and out at lightning speed.
Nefertiti lowered her slender body from a cheap and gaudy chandelier with burned-out bulbs hanging directly over my table until her head was eye level with Flynn. I don’t know how she made it up there. I hadn’t noticed her when we came in. Neither had Flynn.
Flynn sat with his eyes wide and his mouth open. His hand was halfway to his gun.
“No shooting!” My muscles tightened as I prepared to throw myself at him. “They won’t hurt you and you won’t hurt them.”
His hand moved away from the gun, but his eyes never left Nefertiti, Horus, and Nirah.
I reached out and stroked Nefertiti’s head with my finger. She let go and her body hit the table with a solid thump. She coiled herself into a ball.
“Nefertiti, let’s start with you.” I held out my hand and she laid her head on my palm. For her that signified trust. “This is Flynn. He’s going to be staying with us for a few days. I want you to learn his scent so you can recognize him. Now, he’s going to be nervous, so you be easy.”
Nefertiti slid toward Flynn. He had his hands on the table in front of him, both clenched into fists.
“I went to school, Cass.” His voice had an odd tone I didn’t understand. “That reptile has a brain the size of a pea. She could strike at any minute.”
“Maybe she isn’t a snake.”
He gave me a You’ve got to be kidding look.
Nefertiti’s head reached his hands. Her tongue flicked, identifying his scent and body temperature, memorizing him as I would memorize the photo of a child I was hunting.
With impressive courage, Flynn sat still, frozen as someone facing a fearful unknown, determined to hold his ground. Nefertiti inched her way forward until she reached his arm, then stopped.
“She wants to crawl on you.” I gave him a smile I hoped was reassuring. “Can you take that?”
Flynn nodded. A resilient man, facing an uncomfortable situation.
Nefertiti worked her way up his arm and shoulder, the only sound the faint rasp of her body across his shirt. For some reason, her brown markings had deepened to a near black. His jaw clenched when she slid across the bare skin of his neck. She didn’t wrap herself around him, but she laid her head on top of his, mimicking Horus and Nirah.
Flynn’s eyes were wide, but now more in shock than fear.
“Wait.” I held up a finger. “Horus, your turn.”
Horus marched up to Flynn with a cat’s graceful, arrogant dignity, deigning to introduce himself.
“Nirah is small,” I told Flynn. “You need to watch out for her.”
It wasn’t likely he would step on her – she is too fast for that – but unlike Nefertiti, Flynn would need to be aware of her at all times. Nirah isn’t particularly aggressive, but she doesn’t like strangers. Of the three of them, it was Horus’s shitty attitude that really worried me the most.
Horus reached out a paw and flexed his incredible claws.
Oops. Horus the badass tyrant wasn’t a team player. Nirah opened her mouth and hissed, flashing her fangs. Nefertiti darted forward across Flynn’s head to meet Nirah. Her fangs dripped venom and her head swayed back and forth like a clock pendulum, matching Nirah’s moves.
Flynn sat frozen. Formidable control. He might deal well with the Barrows, after all. An unbidden thought jumped forward in my mind. He might deal well with me, too. Did I want that?
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Review - Viper Moon
Viper MoonAuthor: Lee Roland
Release Date: July 5, 2011
Publisher: Signet
Novel of the Earth Witches #1
ISBN: #978-0451233769
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format(s): Paperback (352 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher
About the book: |
Cassandra Archer has faithfully served the earth Mother for years, rescuing kidnapped children from monsters—both human and supernatural—dwelling in the ruins of the Barrows District. But when two children are kidnapped under similar circumstances, all clues point to a cataclysmic event on the next dark moon. Now Cass must race against the clock and prevent a sacrifice that could destroy the entire town…
What G & U are talking about: |
Viper Moon is the exciting first book in the new Novel of the Earth Witches series by Lee Roland. Gikany loved this book and excitedly passed it on to Una (who also fell in love with it). This book is the doorway to a rich and fascinating world. The series is classified by the author as a dark contemporary fantasy. Gikany and Una felt that translates into urban fantasy and whoa, what a fantasy!
Viper Moon starts off with Cassandra, Cass for short, trying to escape a monster chasing her through the Barrows with the lost child she had found. From the start, you have no choice but to grip tightly and hold on this dark and wild ride. From this first glimpse the reader finds himself or herself in a world that exists within the normal realm. The mythology took Una a bit to grasp because it is so different from what she has learned and read before, but it is fascinating. Ms. Roland did an expert job at blending the world-building into the plot without slowing the pace of either the action or the suspense. There were quite a few twists and surprises, which only added to the layers of this novel.
The characters are well rounded and have really intricate chemistry between them. The world that has been weaved is incredibly realistic along with the characters. The characters are not superhuman; they do not have an all-powerful being that gives them everything they need when they need it. There are questions, struggles and sometimes the all-powerful being gets in the way and, dare we say, don’t have all the answers. Another aspect that is interesting is that the book wraps up nicely in the end. There is an unresolved issue, but for out main characters, there is not.
Even though the premise focuses on violence against children, there is nothing neither gratuitous nor glamorizing. It mainly deals with lost children and runaways. It is mentioned how they sometimes end up but we are never face to face with the more dark and negative ends of those endings.
Una had no qualms about reading the excerpt from the next book in the series, Vengeance Moon (while Gikany prefers to not torture herself with a glimpse) and is quite interested in the next book. We think the Novel of the Earth Witches series will be a series of standalone books. However, since this is the first book in the series, we recommend that you go out and read Viper Moon. There is something ego boosting about being able to say, oh, I heard of that great series…”I remember when it first came out and we loved it.”
Their Rating: |
Personal favorite - a must read (A+)
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