Hello to all,
This week is sure to offer us a lot of great release after Illumination from Susannah Johnson, it's Tales from Harvorsmouth by E. J. Stevens that releases today.....if you don't remember it it's part of the Ivy Granger series from which i gave you my opinion on the first books ( yes i'm behind in this series but i will catch up.)
Novellas when not mandatory to follow a series are a great bonus, it gives us more insight into the past of the characters for example...unfortunately it's often only in digital which is why i prefer when they are bonus so if we skip them as print readers we don't miss anything capital. However when they are bundled together so that we can have all of them ( and sometimes new ones)AND available in print it's often a little treasure. I enjoyed Ivy Granger series so i couldn't miss this one but now it's time i tell you a little about the novellas inside^^
Happy reading!
Publisher: Sacred Oaks Press
Publication: 2017
Genre: urban fantasy, dark,
paranormal
Violence: mild/strong
Language: normal/mild
sex: mild
Public: 18+
Source: eARC
Description from goodreads :
In Tales from
Harborsmouth, readers get a chance to delve deeper into the exciting world of
Ivy Granger.
Ivy Granger is a psychic detective with ties to
Harborsmouth's paranormal underworld. Too bad those ties tend to ensnare Ivy
and her friend Jinx in the Machiavellian schemes of the city's teeming
population of bloodsucking vampires and psychotic faeries.
FROSTBITE (Ivy
Granger #0.5)
In this Ivy Granger prequel, join Ivy and Jinx
on a disturbing case that leads down a dead end alley to a house ravaged by
time and circumstance.
Everyone knows that there's no such thing as
ghosts, but when a client claims that her house is being haunted, Ivy tries to
keep her mind open and her weapons handy. If her psychic gifts and recent cases
have taught her anything, it's that you're better off arming yourself for the
unexpected. Anything is possible in Harborsmouth.
BLOOD AND MISTLETOE
(Ivy Granger #1.5)
Holidays are worse than a full moon for making
people crazy. In Harborsmouth, where many of the residents are undead vampires
or monstrous fae, the combination may prove deadly.
Holidays are Hell, a point driven home when a
certain demon attorney returns with information regarding a series of bloody
murders. Five Harborsmouth residents have been killed and every victim has one
thing in common—they are fae. Whoever is killing faeries must be stopped, but
they only leave one clue behind—a piece of mistletoe floating in a pool of the
victim's blood. The holidays just got interesting.
CLUB NEXUS (Ivy
Granger #2.5)
A demon, a human, an Unseelie faerie, and a
vampire walk into a bar...
These four intertwining short stories are set
in Club Nexus, the hidden haunt of Harborsmouth's paranormal underworld.
Iced: A bargain gone wrong leads a highborn
Unseelie faerie to life as an enslaved bartender with a taste for revenge.
Dusted: Being a highly skilled predator doesn't
necessarily put you at the top of the food chain at Club Nexus. A southern
vampire with a hankering for blood and wanton violence may have bit off more
than he can chew.
Demonized: The demon attorney we love to hate
has his eye on a certain rockabilly human. Too bad she's brought a crossbow
loaded with holy water dipped bolts for this night on the town.
Jinxed: Just when Jinx needs a carefree girl's
night out with Ivy, a smoking hot demon tries to buy her a drink. She really is
the unluckiest human on the planet.
THRILL ON JOYSEN
HILL (Ivy Granger #5.5)
Few places are as rife with opportunity or as
fraught with danger as Harborsmouth's notorious Joysen Hill. Vampires own the
real estate, and even the most ruthless human thugs won't venture there after
dark, but when Torn gets stuck babysitting, he can only think of one place in
Harborsmouth interesting enough to take a demon toddler, a teenage bridge
troll, and a grouchy hearth brownie. What happens next substantiates the city's
advertising slogan. No matter who or what you are, no matter how young or old,
you can find your thrill on Joysen Hill. (less)
My opinion:
I love when author bundles together several novellas from an universe
for me it gives an useful additional insight into the series and i'm happy this
one is doing it and more. Now some of
the novellas can be read in any order, always better to read a series in order
novellas included but in this case some are prequel and others gives enough
information to satisfy a new reader without making him feel lost. That i
absolutely loved it's really a great bonus.
Now since we are speaking novellas, i
will give a short opinion on each one while trying to avoid spoilers too much.
Frostbite: really good, creepy would have it been perfect around halloween
time. We discover a bit of Ivy and we see some of her limits as well. Fast paced it's read very quickly.
Blood and Mistletoes:
We meet again with some secondary characters we met in the main series like
Marvin, Kaye or Jenna so it's really enjoyable and for a new reader the author
does explain who they are and how Ivy met them so it was really not disturbing
or confusing. The investigation is short ( this is a novella after all) but we
get all the right elements...i loved to
see Ivy deep sense of Justice
Club Nexus:
This one is in 4 parts/chapter that must be read in order as in each one we get
the event from one point of view and deepening some aspect over others... very
interesting....we discover more about the demon Forneus and if read in order we
do see how much Ivy and Jinx have improved.
It's dark, is sure to have effect later
in the series but can be read even if you only have started the series or read
the anthology to this point without confusion ( or very little spoilers only)
Thrill on Joysen Hill:
This one is very spoilerish if you haven't read the first 5 books in the series so i do recommend
you to wait until you have read those to really savour it. Really it's better as it doesn't really focus
on Ivy as she is busy doing something i won't
tell and we see a bit more of a secondary character we saw earlier in
the series: Sir Torn the cat sidhe king.... he is a funny character i really
love him so i was happy to read this but i really do regret not having been up
to date in the series first...it can be confusing a little or letting us with
more questions...as a result at this point it's the one i enjoyed the less in
the anthology but it's still a very good one simply better for a reader of the
series ( and one up to date) not the best at all for a new reader
Score: 5/5
