Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest

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A psychic travel agent and a Seattle PD detective solve a murder in this quirky mystery in the vein of Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files and Charlaine Harris’s Aurora Teagarden series.

Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted.

After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack.

Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda’s psychic abilities couldn’t help the case several years before, but she’s been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar’s open-mic nights, where she performs Klairvoyant Karaoke—singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people’s personal effects. Now joined by a rag-tag group of bar patrons and pals alike, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer—and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.

* Source: NetGalley; ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

A psychic travel agent and a detective teaming up to solve a murder is the pairing I didn't know I needed! I guess it might be weird to say a mystery is adorable but this one was. Along with being suspenseful it was also funny and tender in the right moments.

Leda and Grady meet through unusual circumstances. He hires to arrange his flights but when she reschedules his return flight hoe, he's annoyed. Leda, who's "clairsentient" as she terms it herself, can't exactly explain to him why she's insistent on him skipping this particular flight to wait for the next one. from certain death when she reschedules his flight. It's only when he realizes the certain death she saved him from that he wonders how on earth she did it so he decides to pay her a little visit. After she reveals her little secret - that she's sort of psychic -  Grady has an idea. He wants to hire her to help him solve a murder that's been a thorn in his side. It's an unorthodox approach and he'd probably be ripped for it back at his station if anyone caught wind about it, but he's desperate. He's baffled by certain details of the case and after hitting so many dead ends, Leda's gift could provide a breakthrough. Leda's a whole lot of hesitant about this as she's still learning about her gift but agrees to assist. A little extra cash wouldn't hurt as she tries to get her travel agency business going. It's in the midst of working together that Leda makes the unexpected discovery that Grady may have a connection to her own mystery - the murder of her fiancé a few years back. How the two cases are connected is elusive to her, and as alarming as it is, and as much as she's not sure how trustworthy Grady is, she's sure of at least one thing: that she must see this through and Grady is essential to that.

Though it's a mystery, there's a level of lightheartedness that I enjoyed. Leda is quirky, to say the least. Her best friend, Niki sometimes has to push her. Mind you, I tend to be quite judgmental about best friend characters in stories because I feel that a lot of the times they're written to be so over the top that  they overshadow the main character. In Niki's case, she has that tendency that but I never thought she overwhelmed Leda when they were in scenes together. Leda has a unique way to hone her gift. Her clairvoyant karaoke schtick might seem gimmicky but she's somehow able to tap into people's emotions and convey messages through song. She may not understand why a particular song comes to her but she's willing to be the conduit. Those were sweet moments with the added touch that I also found new meaning in certain songs. 

A good mystery can be so satisfying. Grave Reservations is witty and enjoyable and I especially love when unlikely partnerships occur. Leda's innocent nature and big, soft heart strike a nice counterbalance to Grady's many years of detective work that's probably made him a little tired and jaded. I appreciated that he never condescended to her. He might've been a bit exasperated by her and Niki's goofiness and tendency to not listen very well at times, but he always treated her respectfully. Knowing firsthand that Leda's the real deal probably helps, too. I liked this curious, engaging mystery and definitely recommend Grave Reservations. I also wouldn't mind another one featuring Leda and Grady. It'd be fun to see how her gift continues to grow.

~ Bel

Glass Heart by Amy Garvey

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Wren can do things that other people can only dream of. Make it snow on a clear, crisp day. Fly through an abandoned tunnel. Bring a paper bird to life.

Wren knows her abilities are tinged with danger--knows how easy it is to lose control--but she can't resist the intoxicating rush. And now that she has Gabriel by her side, someone who knows what she can do--what she "has" done--she finally feels free to be herself.

But as Wren explores the possibilities of her simmering powers, Gabriel starts pushing her away. Telling her to be careful.  Telling her to "stop." The more he cautions her, the more determined Wren becomes to prove that she can handle things on her own. And by the time she realizes that Gabriel may be right, it could be too late to bring him back to her side.

 

So guess who went all fangirl in the bookstore when she eyed this one? That’s right – me. Cold Kiss was one of my Top 10 reads from last year so I squealed ever so slightly when I saw this. To recap, Wren’s a witch and in the previous book brought her dead boyfriend Danny back to life… sort of. He was really more zombie-like and eventually with Gabriel’s help (he just happens to be psychic); Wren righted everything by returning Danny to the afterlife.

In Glass Heart, Wren and Gabriel are together now and she's enjoying her newfound happiness though it’s clear that she’s still working on moving past Danny. Being her first love, she does tend to compare the two guys. The most notable difference that bothers her is that Danny was an open book to her and Gabriel is the opposite.

The struggle in Glass Heart is Wren’s curioisty to learn more about her powers, to let loose and be herself. She accepts that magic is a huge part of who she is and wants to be able to unleash that part of herself. Gabriel on the other hand is insistent on discretion. Gabriel has this quiet reassuring quality about him and he’s very much her protector. He’s constantly worried for her and admonishes her every now and again for her lack of judgment. This difference in opinion drives a wedge between them and forces Wren to fall in with other like-minded people with the same abilities. This spells trouble.

There’s a distinct difference between Cold Kiss and Glass Heart. Glass Heart doesn’t have the heavy weight of mourning and loss that the previous one did.  This time it's purely about high school and the growing pains of finding your place. Wren’s feeling hopless because she cannot publicly show her abilities and she envies her friends who can show off their talents.  Glass Heart is also about rebuilding family. Now that her mother openly admits to their magical inheritance, Wren, her sister, her mother and aunt have to work through the transition.

I was happy with Cold Kiss as a standalone and to be honest, I had no idea how it could even go further from there.  Amy Garvey did a wonderful job allowing Wren to be a typical adolescent. It’s tough enough being a teenager these days but being one with special abilities can be an isolating experience.  Wren may behave like a petulant child occasionally making some seriously questionable decisions but this is what Glass Heart is all about – developing into your own through false starts and rough moments. In the end she realizes where exactly she is.

 ~ Bel

 

 

 

 

Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly

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From Candlewick Press:

Willow knows she’s different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars.  Willow has a gift.  She can look into the future and know people’s dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them.  But the assassin, Alex, does.  Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself.  He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces, and that he’s one of the few humans left who can fight them.  When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil.  In the first book in an action-packed, romantic trilogy, L.A. Weatherly sends readers on a thrill-ride of a road trip – and depicts the human race at the brink of a future as catastrophic as it is deceptively beautiful.

They’re out for your soul… and they don’t have heaven in mind.

My librarian (my co-worker’s 15 year old daughter) has supplied me with many books in the past year.  Whenever my library (the one my tax dollars go to) doesn’t have my book, I ask The Librarian and she always comes through.  So it’s because of her that I came to know Angel Burn.

I have to say it started off really well.  Meeting Alex the assassin first, who is surprise, gorgeous, was fun.  Weatherly set it up with just the right amount of mystery that got me hooked.  Who is this guy riding around in a sleek Porsche?  How does he have the energy to go work out for hours at a 24-hour gym after a kill?  And which gym is it because I want to go?

Alex receives his next assignment – to eliminate Willow Fields.  Willow is your typical high school girl with her own quirks.  I like her.  She’s self-assured about who she is and what she does.  Having had to grow up fast does that to you.  She and her mom who’s mentally not all there live with her aunt who isn’t all that pleased to be sharing her house with them.  

Willow’s special gift is that she’s psychic.  She doesn’t tell the person exactly what will happen but tells them the options that lay in front of them and the potential outcome of each option.  When she agrees to do a reading for a schoolmate, she uncovers a deadly truth and inadvertently ends up smack in the middle of a war between humans and angels. 

Weatherly presents a revamped version of angels that are not God’s divine creatures.  They’re hideous and feed on a human’s life force to sustain their own.  Their world is slowly being destroyed due to some “Crisis” that no one really knows how it began.  They've been coming to earth to feed off of unsuspecting humans for a while.  The human that has been fed upon believes that they’ve received a special gift from the angel. The truth is that their encounter results in "angel burn".  On the outside they appear to be in a blissful state.  Angel burn leaves them fatigued, the body starts to deteriorate leading to various physical and mental diseases.  No one suspects a thing because the humans are so enraptured by this that they do anything to protect the angels and serve them.  Massive churches are dedicated to angels whose followers become their meals.  One of the largest churches is in Colorado headed by Raziel, who has plans for an angel invasion, The Second Wave, by which more of them will come to earth via a gate that will be opened soon.

A small group of people known as AK, Angel Killers know the truth and are fighting for human kind.  Alex is one of them.  He comes to understand what Willow is and that her special gift can help defeat the angels.  Their initial encounter ends up with them being on the run together.

It’s while they’re on the run that the book is really interesting.  The initial awkwardness and fear of two strangers being thrown together give way to an uneasy camaraderie where they slowly learn to trust each other.  Soon sexual tensions arise.  It’s a given that they’d fall for each other.  I liked how Weatherly divided the chapters so that we could see each one’s perspective.  The scene when they finally admit their feelings for each other is sweet, though I felt the subsequent chapters after that kind of lost their oomph. 

It did pick back up with Willow attempting to destroy the “gate” to prevent the impending Second Wave. Alex and Willow learn that they’re not alone as they had thought.  There are still some good guys out there, including other angels who feel that what the rogue angels are doing is wrong. 

Available December 2011

The climax set up the next installment very well.  With so much at stake, it’ll be interesting to see how Willow will reconcile her feelings for Alex, the truth of who she is, from whom she comes from along with the cause that she is determined to fight with Alex at her side.  There’s a lot of story left to tell and I’m looking forward to it.  Angel Fire comes out in December.

- Bel