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Book Review of the Niki Slobodian series #1-4, by J.L. Murray

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I grabbed all of J.L. Murray‘s Niki Slobodian series off of the Amazon free list over the last year or so.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
The Devil is a Gentleman
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
The Devil Was an Angel

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue SeaDescription from Goodreads:
Niki Slobodian sees things – things that aren’t supposed to be there. Labeled an Abnormal by New Government, her name is tacked onto the Registry, which seems to be getting longer these days. Now she can’t work or she’ll end up the same place as her father: in prison. But with no money coming in, Niki’s getting desperate. 

So when a mysterious client offers to get her off the Registry in exchange for taking his case, Niki jumps at the chance. All she has to do is round up a homicidal Dark that’s escaped from Hell and is cruising around the city in borrowed bodies. The murders are piling up, with Niki’s notorious father somehow involved, and Niki’s running out of time. And it seems the Dark isn’t the only thing that escaped…

Review: 
I really quite enjoyed this book. I found Niki to be a strong, quick-witted heroine. Her sidekicks were useful and there was a surprising amount of humour. It all came together in an interesting paranormal action/adventure mystery with excellent writing and flawless editing. There did seem to be a lot of history between some of the characters that made me wonder if I was really reading the first book, but I caught up soon enough.

My only real complaint, two-fold as it is, was that the book felt very short. Amazon lists it at 160 pages, but I started it after dinner and was in bed before 11. In that time, I also bathed the kiddies and sent them off to dreamland. So even if it there is an physical page count of 160 somewhere, I bet it’s double spaced.

Also contributing to this perception of brevity was the way challenges were overcome very, very easily. If seemed like Niki and her crew waltzed in, said “be gone” and vanquished the big-bads effortlessly. Of course, it wasn’t that simple, but it felt like it was. She managed to solve two mysteries and save the day twice in the 160 pages available. That didn’t leave a lot for buildup, tension, or elaborate planning.

Yes, it all felt too easy but that really was made up for by the humour and engaging characters. I can’t wait to read The Devil is a Gentleman.

The Devil was a Gentleman Description from Goodreads: 
Where Niki goes, death is never far behind. 

Everyone Niki knows hates Congressman Frank Bradley. He is the father of New Government, after all. He started the Registry, and the world adopted it. Bradley is the man who separated Abnormals and Normals, and made it a crime for Abbies to exist.

So when Bradley shows up at Niki’s door bearing a terrible secret, then promptly disappears, she feels compelled to dig deeper. But the more Niki uncovers, the more danger she is in. A mysterious organization is out for her blood – literally – and her father’s criminal past may not be as self-serving as she thought. There is also the matter of Niki’s inscrutable employer Sam and the secret of his identity. With help from her partner Bobby Gage, Niki finds out just how little she knew about her family, and the truth of who she really is.

Review:
I’d call this another hit. I continue to enjoy Niki and Bobby’s wit and the mysteries Murray sets up for us. I also really started to feel the influence of, or similarities to Kim Harrison‘s The Hollows series or Laurell K. Hamilton‘s Anita Blake Vampire Hunter (before the plots devolved into cheap erotica). It has a similar gun toting, strong heroine with a tendency to gather followers, fans and abilities as the series progress.

Like the first, this book also felt short. It also introduced some interesting side characters, that seemed to have just been dropped unceremoniously and it ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger, which I hate, but the writing was just as crisp and well edited as in the first. I’m looking forward to book 3, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

Before the Devil Knows You're DeadDescription from Goodreads:
The worlds are out of balance. The Creator is missing. And the war between Heaven and Hell has begun.

Niki Slobodian came back, but there were side effect. She is filled with a strange power no one seems to be able to explain. Not even Sam. She is also plagued with strange visions whenever she touches anyone. This does nothing but complicate the fact that she may be the reason for the war raging in the streets of her own city. A war that could mean the end of humanity. 

Niki has always done whatever she had to for the people she loves, but this time is different. With carnage escalating and the people she cares for in danger, Niki and Sam must work together to save what is left of humanity. And with a psychotic archangel trying to assume to post of the Creator, and one slim chance to right the balance, the odds are against them.

Nothing is ever easy for a Slobodian. Not even stopping a war that could unmake the world.

Review:
I’m still enjoying this series, but it’s also faltering in much the same way as many other such series. There seems to come a time when the main character reaches a point where she goes from being an exceptionally powerful or talented whatever, to becoming the most powerful. It becomes unbelievable after a while and I think Niki reached that point in this book. Perhaps it will be pulled back a bit in the next one. I hope so. Because if she remains so all-powerful, what challenge can there really be? I’m holding off on my judgment on this until I finish the next book.

Some major Biblical characters are offed in this book. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that one…and I’m not even religious. But it’s difficult to fathom using preexisting myths and then ignoring or changing large parts of them in order to fit the plot. It’s jarring. Be that as it may, Niki again proved herself to be a resilient woman of stellar moral fibre and imperturbable determination.

The Devil was an AngelDescription from Goodreads:
Niki Slobodian knows loss. She knows tragedy. But she has never known this kind of pain. After the war the Archangel Michael waged on her city, Niki is dealing with the loss of her loved ones. And the haunting suspicion that everything was her fault. As well as her new duty to help all the lost souls cross over.

But when Niki’s only living friend, Bobby Gage, comes up missing, she has to take action. She enlists the help of Lucifer and together they learn that Bobby has been tracking Kane, the man who murdered his family, and is now killing again, leaving a trail of mutilated corpses all across the globe. And with the power to disappear unnoticed, it seems an impossible feat to find him and stop him.

But Niki is familiar with the impossible. And she would do anything to help her only living friend. Anything.

Review:
I’d say this was a great end to the series, but I get the distinct impression that it isn’t actually the end. Rather, The Devil was an Angel is simply the most recent book published in the series. I’d certainly be interested in reading more if Ms. Murray decides to write them, but I’d be disappointed if it turned into one of those series that never actually concludes. I find that so unsatisfying.

I was plenty satisfied with this book, however. Niki continued learning about herself and her abilities. She grew a lot as a character, especially around the matter of acceptance. Lucifer was an interesting incarnation of himself. I really felt bad for poor Sam though, despite all his misdeeds and the first half of the book is almost devastatingly sad.

There is quite a bit more gore in this book than the previous ones. I’m not particularly bothered by this, but some might be. But Ms. Murray’s writing remained exceptional ’till the end. Thumbs up.

Tips for submitting Ebooks to bloggers for review

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ID-100207548This is an on-going list of things that help make submitting an ebook for review flow smoothly. I’ll be adding points as they occur to me. It’s written to be specific to me and my blog, but in all likelihood would work for any number of bloggers. I’m trying to focus on specific tasks—the mechanics, so to speak—not the request itself. So I’m going to skip over the obvious be polite/professional, don’t SPAM or harass the reviewer, and other such basic etiquette. The Bookish Brunette and Lindsay Buroker do a good job of breaking that down, if that’s what you’re looking for. This is about the nuts and bolts of getting a book into my hand and a subsequent review on the net.

To start with,

READ THE POLICY!!
I know this sounds too simple for words and every blogger to ever write a tips and hints page starts with it, but people really don’t do it. In my case, I don’t just assume they don’t, I know they don’t. I set up two email addresses, one labelled 2lazy2readP&P@sadieforsythe.com and the other, further down the page, labelled ereview@sadieforsythe.com. A full 1/3 of the requests I get come to that first email address. Of those that manage to read far enough to spot the trap, many still don’t follow the directions (point #2), so I’m forced to wonder how well they read them. But it’s a start.

FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!!
I know, I sound like a first grade teacher. But my case makes an excellent example of why this is important. I strive to write an objective review. And, as much as I love meeting authors (and I really, really do), I find that too much conversation upfront impedes my ability to be impartial. This means I’ve set the whole system up so that I don’t actually ‘meet’ authors prior to reading their work. After—great, but not before.

lady-face-angry-mdSo, if you send me a ‘request’ that says ‘write me back if you would like a copy’ (which is me requesting your book, BTW, not you requesting a review) you’ve A) not followed direction and probably annoying me upfront, but more to the point, B) just collapsed my system. Don’t expect a response (not that you’d know that, since you probably didn’t read the policies or you would know better). And…

DO YOUR BASIC RESEARCH
Under no circumstances write me this email and expect me to comply.

Good afternoon,

I saw your contact on book tweeting service, can you send me more informations about book reviews? Where will you post your review? your blog, amazon, goodreads, Facebook?

this is my new book…

Thank you very much

Looking forward to hear from you

Best Regards

Not only because all of that information has already been provided in the Do it Yourselfpolicies he/she obviously didn’t bother to read (yes, it came to the 2lazy2readP&P address), not to mention it’s listed on Book Tweeting, but also because I get several requests a day, have more books available to me than I can read, and therefore don’t need to work for more. I don’t need to make my case to you, just the opposite in fact. You make my job easier if you wish me to do you a favour, not the other way around. I don’t work for you. In fact, this gets me so riled up I wrote a whole rant on it. I know this really falls under the etiquette umbrella, that I wasn’t going to address, but it’s just so basic it needs repeating. 

INCLUDE THE INFORMATION ASKED FOR
I know this really falls under follow directions, but it deserves it’s own point. I ask for a title, synopsis, page length and cover image. I love it when authors include genre classifications too, but I don’t specify it. I ask for this information for a reason. It helps me decide if I’m interested in your book or not, but it also helps me in another way. I use Goodreads to keep track of my TBR list. If you’re book is too new to be on Goodreads I often add it so that I can place it on the appropriate shelf. To do this I need some basic information. Yes, I can search Amazon for this information (this is now acceptable by GR policies) and I do. But having the basics to begin with helps me help you.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE FILE NAME
man and kindleThis is something I never would have thought of if I wasn’t running an ebook review blog. Think it through. You send me an e-file. I then log it on my TBR list and plonk it onto my Kindle, to be read at some future date. When that time comes, I search my kindle for one of two things, the title or the author’s name. If the file is called something else, god forbid Unkown (of which I have several), I’ll never find it and, therefore never read it. So take that extra second to ensure that the file you attach to your email will show up when searched for.

IF YOU’RE INCLUDING LINKS, INCLUDE THE RIGHT ONES
If you send a Smashword’s coupon include the Smashwords link, not the Amazon one. I see this all of the time. People send me a coupon for one site and then link me to another. It’s usually Amazon. I think authors want me to know it’s available there. I promise, I’ll always look. But the logistics of the problem is that I still end up having to search for the book before I can actually use that handy-dandy coupon you’ve provided me. And as anyone who searches Smashwords regularly knows, their search engine is a bit of a pain. So just providing the link upfront instead of the higher profile Amazon one makes me happy. Honestly, I would prefer no link to a useless link. I’m just saying.

KEEP A LIST
listI have on more than one occasion, received the same book from the same author 2 or 3 times. I’m assuming this isn’t harassment, so much as poor bookkeeping. This wastes everyone’s time. You waste time posting a duplicate email and I waste time trying to log it only to discover I already have it.

SERIES
If a book is 2nd, 3rd, etc in a series, I will need the previous books. This admittedly runs the risk of my reading/reviewing the first one and not continuing the series to the newest book. If that happens at least you got one review from me. But without the beginning of the series I’m almost guaranteed not to read the book you send me.

NUMBER OF REVIEWS
I know those first couple reviews are the hardest and most nerve wracking to find, but I’m unlikely to choose to read your book until you have them. The reason is that I’m going to be honest about my thoughts. That means if I disliked the book I’m going to say so. I’m not heartless though. I want to know going in that if I dislike the book and rate it poorly there are enough other reviews to balance everything out. There are a lot of dissenting views out there on the use of acquaintances for reviews. As long as they actually read the book before reviewing it I have no issue with it.

Like I said, this is an on-going list. Expect it to grow. But it’s a start. I’d be really interested in hearing from others. Have I forgotten something, missed something, mangled something? Let me know. 

Book Review of Sara Bain’s The Sleeping Warrior

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The Sleeping WarriorAuthor, Sara Bain sent me a copy of her novel, The Sleeping Warrior.

Description from The Goodreads:
LONDON solicitor Libby Butler’s life is in a mess. Her affair with her boss is going nowhere as is her position in a city law firm. A narrow escape from the knife of south London’s elusive serial murderer, The Vampire Killer, has challenged her outward bravado and left her nerves in tatters.

When duty calls Libby to a police station in the middle of the night, she meets the enigmatic Gabriel Radley. Dressed like an ancient warrior, Gabriel has a habit of disappearing from police custody and danger appears to dog him.

Gabriel is searching for a ‘stone’, its value ‘beyond human imagination’, that will help bring a ‘monster’ to justice. When Libby agrees to help him, she plunges her life into grave danger where no one is safe.

A cult who call themselves The Awakened, a gangland thug and his henchman, a female assassin, a detective chief inspector from Scotland Yard, and even the serial killer, all become inadvertently embroiled in the chase for the stone and the pivotal force of Gabriel.

As the death toll rises, Libby is forced to face herself, learn the true value of life and the potent significance of the Sleeping Warrior within.

Review:
I generally thought this was an entertaining story with a number of interesting, seemingly independent threads that eventually wind together into a neat little package. There were some interesting characters. I particularly liked Libby, Gabriel, Rose and Lars (as we’re supposed to). It was also interesting to see, what would otherwise be considered bad guys, fighting on the side of good. That seems to be a sub-theme (is there such a thing?) of the book. Actions alone aren’t enough to judge the shade of one’s soul. I never could decide if it’s supposed to be religious fiction or not. But if it’s so subtle that I can’t decide, then it’s not obvious enough to bother me.

While most of the many twist were wonderful, there were occasionally some that were unbelievable. One in particular, the second hospital scene, almost ruined the book for me. Not just because it pushed the envelope of credibility, but also because it came out of no-where (When did everyone have time to plan this?), and because the whole book changed tone and direction after it. It really felt to me that there was a perceivable breach in the plot-line and that series of scenes is the epicentre of the rupture. A lot must have happened behind-the-scenes, because a number of characters suddenly started acting out of character all of a sudden and kept it up until the end.

At end the reader is left with questions. I don’t mean loose threads. The characters are left with the same questions. There are just some things—like what Gabriel actually is, or what Shinar did to be pursued, or what led Shinar to hunt the stone—that no one learns the answer to with any certainty. The reader can guess, but has no way of knowing if they are right.

Lastly, though not a criticism by any means, if you’re looking for a steamy PNR, this isn’t it. There are no sex scenes. There is love, of sorts, but no real romance. That’s not the point here.

All-in-all, I really enjoyed The Sleeping Warrior and would be up for reading more of Ms. Bain’s work.