Rosy's scrawled book recommendation: Dark Time by Dakota Banks

Dark Time

Dakota Banks

Blurb

Three hundred years ago, she sold her soul to a demon. Now she wants it back.
For centuries, the woman calling herself Maliha Crayne has lived a second life - as an assassin for the malevolent creature who owns her soul. A haunted killer with the blood of countless victims on her hands, she has finally discovered a way to nullify the demonic pact that chains her: If she saves a life for every one she has taken, she will be free.
But if she fails, her punishments will be unspeakable, unendurable . . . and neverending.

Publisher

Harper Voyager

ISBN

978-0062049988

Rosy's scrawlings on Dark Time

I picked up Dark Time when it first came out mainly because the cover, while portraying a woman wearing leather, didn't portray the main character as "sexy and she knows it" while the blurb on the back had nothing to do with such things. Upfront honesty in a book cover is always appreciated, plus the accurate portrayal of the mood of a book. So for those reasons I picked up this book while it was still the only Dakota Banks book printed.

The first thing I'd like to point out about the story is that it truly shouldn't be read only by women. Yes, the main character is a woman but this isn't a dreamy, waffly romance that will get most men's back up about how high the expectations of them are or how nonsensical the love is. Instead, what you get is a hefty dose of dark, bloody and intriguing along with a pretty original concept of how a person must gain redemption/freedom and just what the costs are. There is no standard sexy demon with black wings or even scaly demon and nor is there a look into the heavenly side of things. What you get instead is a demon that's almost intangible and undefinable, a past filled with human jealousy, greed and rage and a future that looks to be short and rather uncomfortable.

Otherwise, there's a mystery for Maliha to solve, people's lives to save and a clock that's ticking away. There's plenty of weaponry and strategies and one of the most horrible scenes I've read in a while. I won't say what it is but I will say it wasn't horrible due to shock value or gore but rather the level of cruelty and disregard given to one character. Let's just say the scene has since been stuck in my mind. The mood also remains intense throughout and it along with the ticking clock (as it were - if I say too much I'll just be spoiling your fun) compels you to read on.

I'm pretty sure that this book will exceed your expectations for a first publication. The writing style is smooth and the atmosphere created tense and dark. There isn't any section you could point to and say it could have been left out and there's plenty of complexity in the plot and character motivations. The characters, while mostly on the cynical and dark side of things are believable within the bounds of dark fantasy/horror. And there's nary a gushing heroine in sight. All in all, it reads as though it isn't Dakota Banks' first publication.

And I have to add again, the cover for this one is really well done.

I'd recommend this book to: anyone interested in gritty dark fantasy or horror and anyone interested in an intense read. I'd like to also recommend Dark Time those men out there looking to read books with serious female leads that aren't entirely romance driven and can fight with the best of them.

Rosy's scrawled manhwa recommendation: Black Wind by Jay-guun

Black Wind
Jay-guun

Blurb
Dana is an archaeologist, who has discovered an artifact, which according to her confirms the presence of witches in this world. It also proves that 'witch hunts' were not all lies.

Alternative names

블랙윈드

Black Wind Pandora

Status

Ongoing

(40 volumes complete in Korea)

Sites for reading online (free)
Manga Fox, Manga Reader, 

Manhwa
In short, a Korean version of a Manga. There are many similarities in the writing style and art but different cultural references do apply. Read left to right.

Rosy's scrawlings on Black Wind
There were two things in this manga that pointed to a new author but neither could be said to be complete failings. To be perfectly honest I'm really hoping Jay-guun continues as there are plenty of ideas bubbling away in the story so  far. I'll note the two things so that you can see it and look past it to more important matter. In the first volume there is a tendency for that with is not the focus of the image to be made blurry. This annoyed me a little as what is the focus of the story isn't always what I want to look at once I've gleaned what's going on. The blurriness is mostly discarded as the second volume starts up, with only a few dashes of it to keep the style. The second things didn't annoy me at all but rather just told of someone starting out as a writer. In such cases, yes, it might annoy those who are used to well polished works only but have a little patience. This is what discovering authors is all about. The thing is the sometimes repetition of words or phrases, for instance :"idiot" or "predator of". Part of this is because of the manhwa/manga story structure of upping the ante of each battle and part due to either translations or the original text. Either way, this is a bit of nitpicking so you can ignore me and read on thinking, "she's a little picky" - that's fine with me.
So, issues aside, why do I recommend this? As I said, there are plenty of ideas bubbling away and I do love a witch story that breaks your expectations. In this story there are humans, witches and Templars. Witches are another species, Templars seems to be part human and part something else caused by evolution while plain old humans are what they are. Deadly only when there's a weapon about and a cause to fight for. So in Black Wind you dont' just get witch goodness but Templar goodness. Two for one! That'll make anyone happy. Plus there's a guy who becomes the walking dead but isn't modern zombie while there might be a case for old time enslaved zombie if the magic is used just a little more - you'll understand this sentence when you read the story. Three for one! Yippee! Put simply, hitches aside, this manhwa is shaping up to be quite enjoyable. Plus there's the traditional escalation of violence and "I'm better/more evolved than you"-ing once the first battle is done. That's enough to make most of use manhwa/manga readers happy.
The art is pretty and brightly coloured, the fight scenes well depicted and the all-important facial expressions shifting between classic manhwa/manga stylings and realism. The illustrations are spaced out amongst short pieces of text, except in the prologue where there's more text that illustrations - this being so because the prologue is essentially a letter from Dana to her friend. The blurriness of the original images gives way to clearer depictions and I assume settles further as the series continues. There's more to be uploaded so I have to guess here considering the material I have available. All in all, this manhwa is visually pretty.

I'd recommend this manga to: anyone who loves a witch or zombie story, men and women (protagonist is male but the other subjects are quite often female) and teens.

Notes on manga reader sites
The quality of manga readers can vary. The uploads are often done cheaply or as a serious hobby by a collective. Be aware that sometimes licence hasn't been given but the sites noted above, Manga Fox in particular, are extremely careful about adding and pulling mangas according to license agreements. So you shouldn't have to worry too much about the material being pirated. There are also translated works and non-translated. Amongst the translated works you will find that the quality of translation may vary according to the skills of the translators. Usually the works are perfectly readable anyway, with only a few added or dropped words or a word in the incorrect tense or with/out plurals. But sometimes the text becomes gobbledygook. In which case, either seek another version or give up and buy an official copy once a printed translation comes out. The other issue of note is you may need to expand the screen to read the text easily as sometimes the scans are minimised a little.
I find that if a page doesn't download properly or some other issue occurs (too slow or someone ordered the pages incorrectly etc.) with one reader then skipping across to another reader and picking up where I was is quite easy and rarely annoying.
Otherwise, enjoy and watch out you don't get too addicted you forget about the necessary things in life.

Rosy's scrawled book recommendation: Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland

Mark of the Demon
Diana Rowland

Blurb

Book 1 of the Kara Gillian Series

When Homicide Detective Kara Gillian finds traces of arcane power on a body, she quickly realizes that this is no ordinary murder. The serial killer known as the Symbol Man is a nightmare that Beaulac, Louisiana thought had ended three years ago, but now he's back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he is well-versed in demonic lore.

However, Kara is a Summoner of Demons, and may be the only cop on the city's small force who can stop the killer. Able to see and interact with a world most people can't, Kara must draw on her skills as a police officer and master of the arcane to stop the Symbol Man from killing again and possibly summoning something even she can't control.

But with a demonic lord of unearthly beauty and power haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head.

Publisher
Bantam

ISBN

9780553592351

Rosy's Scrawlings on Mark of the Demon

I picked up this book when Diana Rowland made her debut and I have to say I fell in love with her writing straight away. The reason I picked up a book was obviously not the cover. If you've read some of my previous posts you'll know I had to hid this a bit when out and about. Although I must say that the cover is very tastefully done compared to many others out there. So, from my lack of interest in the cover you can also guess what snagged my attention was not the romance factor. At all. Nope, what did was reading that Kara was a police officer and so was Diana Rowland. This is what snagged my attention: 

"She has worked as a bartender, a blackjack dealer, a pit boss, a street cop, a detective, a computer forensics specialist, a crime scene investigator, and a morgue assistant, which means that she's seen more than her share of what humans can do to each other and to themselves. She won the marksmanship award in her Police Academy class, has a black belt in Hapkido, has handled numerous dead bodies in various states of decomposition, and can't rollerblade to save her life." - from her bio.

I thought, out of all the crime writers, the writer that worked as a cop has to have produced something awesome. And I was right. The book was awesome and luckily for me, it had just the right blend of crime, paranormal and romance to keep me happy. I gave nary a flinch at the rosey romance or grunt of disbelief at the character's reactions. I have to say here, when romance is included I do love and almost need the romance to be a bit darker and not of the usual plot lines otherwise my brain over-analyses and I just can't take it. This romance met my high demands though and was a pleasant surprise.

For me, I loved the crime aspect first as I could peek into the world of an American cop, although through paranormal blinkers, and got a small glimpse of what a crime scene can really be like. Demons are always a hit, who can say no to an enigmatic character you just can't figure out. No woman, if the massive fan numbers of Eric Northman can be believed (and they can). What I loved the most of the paranormal aspect of this book was that the demons aren't exactly the religious type demons you usually see in so called dark or paranormal romances. These have a dimension of their own that isn't Hell but rather another pretty world, don't go by names like Azazel or whatnot, don't have uber-buff bodies and great black wings and so on and so forth. While there are demons as you'd imagine non-human looking demons to be there isn't much to ring of old religious visions, except maybe the division of the demon world into kingdoms (but then so is the human world and most others in fantasy writing). After the demons came the magic, which was also powerfully written, so much so that some of the most memorable scenes are of how the magic works. The magic is always described in action too which has left me with images of glowing symbols popping to mind every time I think of this series of books.

Does it sound like I can't say a bad word? I can't really. Only the cover needed a little hiding because yes, you caught me, I was reading something a little romantic with the cover of a romance story. Reading romance is mostly out of character but I do occasionally run across an author who writes romance the way I like it and because it is rare I tend to collect them. For me, romance isn't nearly enough. The substance of the rest of the story has to be either great fun or rather intriguing to carry it, and preferably of another genre. In The Mark of the Demon, Diana Rowland blended it all just right and I sat there in my comfy chair with my tea just short of boiled and found myself in another, highly addictive world. Luckily no bears popped up to send me running.

I now buy Diana Rowland's books as soon as I hear of them. Converted in one hit.

I'd suggest this book to: women who love romance and paranormal features blended with their crime stories, or any of the other combinations I could put those genres in. Women interested in a fun and yet challenging read. Women, really...

Rosy's scrawled book recommendation: Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

Skinwalker
Faith Hunter

Blurb

A year ago Jane nearly lost her life taking down an entire blood family of deadly rogue vampires that preyed on the helpless local populace of an Appalachian town. Now, after months of recuperation, she’s back and ready to fight again. Except this time, she’s hired by those she’s trained to kill—vampires.

Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind—a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. Back from hiatus, she’s hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katies’s Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who’s killing other vamps.

Amidst a bordello full of real “ladies of the night,” and a hot Cajun biker with a panther tattoo who stirs her carnal desire, Jane must stay focused and complete her mission—or else the next skin she’ll need to save just may be her own.

Publisher

ROC

ISBN

9780451462800

Rosy's Scrawlings on Skinwalker

This book was addictive from the start. Having a practical and deadly fighter with an inner big cat spirit that doesn't always want to play along and has desires of its own can mean trouble of the highest order. Or a great deal of fun, depending on your perspective. 

Jane has a character I could actually believe was strong and capable in a fight rather than one sporting weapons more as adornments. She has an unusual background and this only adds to her abilities to travel with her stake and kill on request. "Have stake, will travel" is her calling card and her main victims are supposed to be vampires, although when the dust settles this isn't always so. I also appreciated that Jane got into and out of certain tricky situations without either being constantly rescued or pulling off a completely unbelievable act. A certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required, obviously, as this is fantasy fiction but within reason Jane holds her own properly. In other words, Jane is a kick-arse character who can be identified with and held in regard.

The world of the book is less gritty inner city and more a wide-spread built up suburban area near hills and a forest, at least from my impressions. It doesn't take Jane long to travel between built up areas and the forest or graveyard etc. The landscape is varied and often stark. The forest becomes spooky and enclosed, the graveyard too open and arid while the centre of town seems to be made of one fortress after another, not to mention dingy bars and old houses. The reason I mention the world of Jane Yellowrock is that it isn't a constant blur of gritty grey city buildings or a whitewash of standard housing which can crop up in urban fantasy. The place where Jane stays is permanently cut into my memory as though it were one I'd walked through.

The action is face paced and fun. Magic is included. The world leaves you alternating between dark claustrophobia and brilliantly lit agrophobia. The men are nice and nasty in turn with each man quite capable of and willing to be both. The romance is laid back and slow paced despite being the hands on type due to the inner big cat's desires. As one who can easily be put off by flower romantic stories I can attest that this one didn't disturb me at all and was in fact rather intriguing for being a three way romance that included a long dead big cat. Unusual, no?

All in all, this book was just plain addictive. I now by all the titles of this series before reading the blurb or even seeing it on sale somewhere. They're on my list. You know the one, that list book addicts have that contains the titles of all as yet to buy and to be released books that you know you'll love. That one.

I'd suggest this book to: to women who love urban fantasy and subtle dark romantic stories where things don't always work out with the man or men in question. I'd also suggest this book to anyone who likes to read about rarely touched on paranormal beings and monsters as this series, while having vampires and werewolves does have witches and of course the extraordinarily rare skinwalker.