Dante valentine Book 5 by Lilith Saintcrow. Dumped in an alley after a high holy beating by Lucifer, this book is more fragmented than the others; the main character is an emotional mental wreck for most of the book, lots of rage with no direction; this book felt like a mushroom cloud to end a decent series. Hardly any character development (and regression, in the case of the protagonist). The series was overall decent, but the constant always-dodging-bullets and always-emotionally-wrecked character get wearing. Worth reading, but I’m glad the series ends here.

Dante valentine book 4 by Lilith Saintcrow. When a necromance doesn’t have many friends in the first place, killing some of them is bound to piss her off. Dante heads home to Saint City to solve a close-to-home crime while also being nagged to take care of her responsibilities to the Devil. More of a tear-jerker than the others; same gripe about the heroine getting a little stale with her reactions, but a decent urban fantasy read.

Dante Valentine book 3 by Lilith Saintcrow. In this installment, the Devil finds the bounty-hunting necromance and hires her to hunt down some escaped demons. But he also lied - he’s the Prince of Hell, after all - and that makes her job even more difficult than expected. At this point the reader can recognize some small writing tics and oft-repeated phrases; the heroine’s inability to notice her own past errors and recalibrate future action in light of them is old, but the action is great.

Dante Valentine book 2 by Lilith Saintcrow. A spunky, angry necromance is trying to find out who is killing psychics…and trying to avoid the Devil who wants to talk about her dead boyfriend. The hotheaded herione bit wears a little, but the story is worth it.

Dante Valentine Book 1 by Lilith Saintcrow. A very promising urban/paranormal fiction first book with some great worldbuilding and interesting characters. Definitely worth reading, not many punches pulled.

by Stephen King (short story collection). Not his strongest collection, but I’m always excited to pick up a King collection I realize I missed when it came out. My favorite story of the bunch is “N.”, I do love my psychological horror mixed with some old school elder gods; the rest are pretty pedestrian, but readable. less horror-filled than the usual King fare.

Otto the Regal

A Roland March Mystery by J. Mark Bertrand. Quite a good murder mystery picked up by chance from the Kindle store. Plenty of bad guys to shuffle through, no simple explanations; keeps you reading through the very end. Recommended.

Book 3 of the Monsters in Hollywood series by Lila Dubois. The third installment actually bites into pieces of actual adventure and plot once the author finishes wearying us with sex, sex, and more sex. Hoping the future books will focus more on the monster predicament than figuring out how to describe sex in novel ways.

(Monsters in Hollywood, Book 2) by Lila Dubois. Again, more sex than substance, and hearing the same complaints all book long from the female character gets old very quickly. Formulaic paranormal romance that - aside from the monster angle - is closer to bodiceripper formula than paranormal. A shame, the paranormal angle of the book could have been interesting and lent itself to more adventure.