Incarnate by A.C. Ruttan

TITLE: Incarnate
AUTHOR: A.C. Ruttan
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 84k)
GENRE: Urban fantasy
COST: $5.50

As an Incarnate, Cia’s main job is to protect the portal she guards. But when her Warden gives her the job to find another Incarnate suspected of numerous murders, she takes it. Because the other Incarnate is Arthur, the husband she hasn’t seen in ten years. Finding him isn’t difficult, but finding out what is really going on, why a symbol only he would use is showing up on dead bodies, is another matter entirely…

My summary is woefully inadequate, as is, honestly, much of anything I could write. This was a densely constructed urban fantasy, playing with religious themes like angels, Heaven and Hell, and demons, that try to blend/merge with a plethora of historical references. The end result was a confusing mishmash that could’ve been so much more.

So I’m not going to even try summarizing this. There are twists and turns galore, so what I would say would get trumped within a few chapters anyway because I’m reluctant to give spoilers. But therein lies its greatest flaws. In its attempt to convey this complex world, it gets mired in too many flashbacks and too many information dumps to get the point across. The best parts were the action sequences because the story actually moves along at those points. Luckily, there were enough of those to keep me reading rather than giving up after the first third. (The fact that there are editorial inconsistencies don’t help, i.e. Arthur’s eyes changing color while he’s human when he doesn’t have souls anymore.)

Characterizations get lost in the world-building, too. Cia fares the best, but even hers is lacking. Incarnates have two souls, and frankly, her older soul is far more developed than she ever was. I couldn’t tell you much about who Cia really was, but I could write reams on Boudicca. Arthur is more interesting in demon form, mostly because when he’s human, he comes across as a block of wood. These two are supposed to be in love, but I didn’t feel it until close to the end. A whole host of supporting characters flit through the pages, but because their various roles are so muddy for most of the story, it’s hard to really care about any of them, either. The one thing that got me through to the end was simply the need to discover how it all turned out, but even then, I’m pretty sure I don’t have it straight.

I do know, however, I won’t be bothering with the second book. None of the characters were interesting enough to follow, the author’s reliance on flashbacks as a narrative device was tedious, and the lack of clarity as the story attempts to construct its world was too frustrating to overcome.

Readability	6/10 – Editorial inconsistencies and too many flashbacks made this more of a chore than it had to be
Hero	4/10 – More interesting as a demon, but still lacked much of anything to really capture me
Heroine	6/10 – Her older soul’s personality was stronger than hers
Entertainment value	4/10 – I finished because I was curious about how it played out, not because I cared
World building	7/10 – While it’s obvious a lot of care/attention has gone into it, it’s not conveyed efficiently
TOTAL:	27/50

Nephilim by Mary Ann Loesch

TITLE: Nephilim
AUTHOR: Mary Ann Loesch
PUBLISHER: Lyrical Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 70k)
GENRE: Urban fantasy
COST: $5.50

As a nephilim – the child of an angel father and a mortal mother – Faye has certain talents, like being able to heal and encourage life. She’s also sensitive to a lot of other aspects of the angelic realm, but ever since her family and fiancé were killed, she’s turned her back on any kind of heavenly creature, even her guardian angel Azal. When he comes to her with a request to investigate another angel, she doesn’t want to take the task. But the description of Nathan Ink, a tattoo artist who puts the personification of a human’s sin directly into his skin, intrigues her enough to at least check him out. It’s the question he raises, as well as the fact that the people he tattoos keep dying, that intrigue her enough to continue…

Finally, something compulsive and surprising. I was beginning to wonder if these books existed anymore.

Faye is a nephilim, the child of an angel father and a mortal mother. She owns a nursery, where her talents for encouraging life and healing are well utilized, as well as sings part-time at a club. She doesn’t have many friends. Touching people shows them too much most times for her to be comfortable. She’s also cut herself off from everything heavenly, since she blames God for the death of her parents and fiancé. A visit from her guardian angel Azal, however, sends her into a tailspin. He wants her to look into a potential rogue angel called Nathan Ink. Nathan tattoos sins onto people’s skin for the world to see and for the bearer to survive, but the mortality rate of his clients is unnaturally high. Faye doesn’t want anything to do with it, but she’s curious enough to at least go check him out. What she doesn’t know is that it’s a ruse. Azal has set her in Nathan’s path for a reason, though he isn’t telling anybody yet what that reason is. The more Faye learns about Nathan, however, the more concerned she gets about his methodology.

There’s more. So, so, so much more. You can read the blurb at the publisher’s site if you want to be spoiled for it, but honestly, I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to be surprised. Because this book offers that in spades. It is twist after twist after twist, some of which left me gasping out loud, almost all of which had me compulsively turning the pages until I was done. It’s not an easy read. The prose is dense, the explanations not always clear, the characters sometimes frustrating. But I couldn’t put the damn thing down, getting increasingly invested in how it was all going to turn out. It doesn’t shy away from the violence that accompanies the darker side of humanity, but at the same time, there’s a certain hope that permeates Faye, brightening the path of the story more than once. I felt much as she did for a good part of the story, especially in regards to her contradictory feelings for Nathan in the first half. He is not your typical angel. His methods are twisted and dark, incredibly nihilistic in tone and deed. Whenever he’s on the page in that first half, the story becomes almost bleak, slowing my reading down even further. I didn’t stop, though. I couldn’t. I needed to know what happened next.

Bear in mind that this is not a romance. It’s not sold as one at Lyrical, and it doesn’t fall within the genre parameters. Expect a romance, and you’ll be disappointed. I knew all this, but the last chapter still managed to upset me, mostly because I’d become so emotionally involved with everyone. As a result, it’s a mild detraction in my overall enjoyment.

Due to the level of violence in this, it’s probably not for those who are bothered by it. And I do wish the editors and the author had taken better care with the use of apostrophes. Their misuse was starting to annoy me about halfway through (you’re for your, possessive apostrophes in the wrong place, apostrophes used on a plural word that wasn’t possessive, etc.). It complicated an already dense read, no matter how compulsive it was. In spite of that and my other minor concerns, however, this remains one of the more memorable, intense reads I’ve had in a very long time.

Readability	8/10 – Dense and compulsive, though the author and editors need a crash course on how to use apostrophes
Characterization	8/10 – The bad guy was a stereotype, and I felt the heroine flipflopped a little too much at the beginning, but by the end, I felt like I knew all of these people
Plot	8/10 – Twisty and turny, just like the way I like it
Entertainment value	8/10 – When story developments make me gasp out loud, I know it’s working
World building	8/10 – Some aspects weren’t as well explained as I needed, but overall, I was impressed with how rich the world was.
TOTAL:	40/50

Quarter Square by David Bridger

TITLE: Quarter Square
AUTHOR: David Bridger
PUBLISHER: Carina Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 47k)
GENRE: Urban fantasy
COST: $3.59

Carpenter Joe Walker walks in on his wife and best friend having sex, and finds his life thrown into chaos. He makes a deal with them. In exchange for not giving them a hard time by being together, he’ll take a rundown theater his friend owns and keep it as his own. His motives are selfish. The night he discovered the affair, he also discovered a secret magical door within the theater that leads to an idyllic place where magic reigns. But finding Quarter Square will change his life far more than losing the two people he trusted most…

I was fascinated by the blurb for this story on the publisher’s website. I have a soft spot for alternate worlds and an even softer spot for theatrical settings, so this seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately, the execution left quite a lot to be desired.

When Joe Walker discovers that his wife and best friend are sleeping together – by walking in on them – he runs off to lick his wounds by spending the night in the rundown theater his friend has recently acquired. There, he sees three young men go through a magical door. He follows, convinced he’s dreaming, and meets a group of street performers who live in an idyllic world cut off from the rest of Plymouth called Quarter Square. After confronting his wife and friend the next day, he agrees to let them go off and be together without a fuss if the friend gives Joe the theater. A deal is made, and Joe returns, hoping to find Quarter Square again. He soon realizes that it’s actually a real place, kind of a halfway house between the mortal world and the wild magical one. It’s populated by a vast variety of people, most of them street performers. One in particular, a singer named Min, enchants him, and when he discovers that their hideaway is in danger of disappearing forever because it’s losing its anchors to the real world, he decides to rebuild the theater and make it more permanent in order to save the square.

This is only the beginning of what turns out to be a very convoluted, almost schizophrenic fantasy tale. I call it schizophrenic because I could never figure out what exactly it was trying to be. Every time I thought I had it, something would twist the story off into a new direction, and I was left floundering all over again. At turns, it’s magical realism, pure fantasy, shapeshifter horror, and romance, and while I admire writers who try to blend genres, it’s just not done very well here. Each time the story shifted gears, the voice itself changes, with the pace and style changing with it, so that there was no sense of flow or build. The most interesting section occurs just about the middle of the story, but then it veers off again into a whole new direction that left it scattered in its dust.

As a result of trying to put too much into the story, characterizations falter. The story is told in 1^st POV from Joe’s perspective, and because he has no idea what’s going on – and because other characters are actively keeping him in the dark a good part of the time – neither does the reader. Min is presented as this feminine ideal almost from the start, but she lacks any kind of personality for the first half, instead becoming this icon for Joe to admire. He tells us he’s falling in love with her, but I never understood why or what the real appeal was. Then, when she does start getting a personality, it’s not even a likable one. She’s manipulative and bossy, withholding information that would make their situation better and treating Joe like a child. Since so much hinges on her, both the action and caring about what’s going on, I was distanced from what was going on for almost the entire story. I mostly just finished it because I was curious about what else could get stirred into the pot, and I can honestly say I have no desire to keep on reading with the series, especially with how unresolved everything was at the end. There’s some sense of inner closure for Joe as he reaches a better and more true understanding of his self and purpose (and makes choices based on that), but in light of the emphasis placed on the action, the fact that it remains unresolved is frustrating enough to deter me from investing more time in the series.

Readability	6/10 – Technically clean, but with so much packed into it, it never flowed well or really engaged me
Characterization	6/10 – Characters blend into each other for too much of the story, and motivations given little depth
Plot	7/10 – A lot of original ideas going on in this, but it’s too much for the size of the story and none of them get developed well enough
Entertainment value	5/10 – I only finished it because I was curious about what else could get thrown into it, not because I cared/liked about any of the characters
World building	6/10 – Some great ideas that never get the space to bring them to life
TOTAL:	30/50

Blood Vice by Keith Melton

TITLE: Blood Vice
AUTHOR: Keith Melton
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 93k)
GENRE: Urban fantasy
COST: $5.50

Boston’s criminal underworld is at war, and vampire Karl Vance has chosen a side. As a hired hit man for the Ricardis, he satisfies his bloodlust by preying only on those who deserve it, but when Maria Ricardi decides to make her own play for power within the family, things take a deadly turn. The rival Lucattis have their own vampire to defend them, Alejandro Delgado, who’s in town primarily to settle the centuries-old vendetta between him and Karl. He recognizes Maria as Karl’s weakness, but his strike against her changes the war irrevocably…for everyone.

NOTE: This is a review originally written for The Electric Elephant.

A vampire as a hit man for the Mafia? How on earth was I supposed to resist a set-up like that? The possibilities of how it could play out were delicious, and with the excerpt detailing him doing a hit, then going off to church to pray for their souls, convinced me to give it a go. I don’t regret the purchase for a second.

Karl Vance is a master vampire, centuries old, living in Boston and subsisting both physically and financially on hits for the Mafia family, the Ricardis. He lives with a woman/creature named Xiesha, who he saved from the Order of the Thorn years earlier (a group of religious warriors who kill evil supernatural creatures, Karl has an amnesty agreement with them). In payment for saving her life, Xiesha serves as Karl’s servant, protecting his home with magical wards, fighting for him, conducting business during the day when he can’t, etc. They have an easy equilibrium with their existence until Karl gets an email (Nosferatu of the digital age) asking for a meeting with Ricardi. It’s not just with the father, but also Maria, his daughter. Maria wants to do more than play accountant for the family. She wants to demonstrate she can do great things for getting the family more power, in hopes that she can show she can take over for her father when the time comes. Her plan is to hit the Lucatti’s cash flow, using Karl to take out targets that earn the rival family a steady income. Karl only agrees after he learns that the Lucattis have Alejandro Delgado for them. Though the Ricardis aren’t aware of it, Delgado is a vampire, who had the same creator/Master Karl did. The two have been enemies ever since Karl killed their Master, and now it looks like they’re going to finish their little war amidst the Boston Mafia families.

This propels the story into its action-packed, labyrinthine plot, gradually picking up speed as new events twist it into a different direction. Karl is an interesting take on the usual vampires in urban fantasies. He recognizes his nature and tries to satisfy it with criminal rather than innocent kills, yet afterward, he prays for their souls, even though religious artifacts of any sort cause him pain and weaken him. Not for his own soul, because by his own admission, there’s no hope for him. As for Maria, she isn’t the usual shrinking violet that generally typifies heroines in urban fantasies where the protagonist is male. She’s very much her daughter’s father, eager to get ahead in the family, uncaring of what it takes. She’s desperate to see and experience what it feels like for someone to die, too, and makes no apology for it when Karl calls her on it. They make great characters to get embroiled with as the story charges into its full momentum.

That changes some when a plot twist nearly halfway through catapults Maria into an entirely new direction (I won’t elaborate, I try to avoid spoilers in reviews if I can help it). The new path her thoughts take, the broody angst about what she’s doing, sits ill for more than a few chapters, while Karl starts to seem more morose as well. Their characters become less the ones I fell for in the beginning and more like angsty archetypes I try to avoid. It takes a while for them to even out, and for my interest and dedication to the characters to reaffirm itself. That, too, is the primary reason this drifts from an outstanding to a very good read in the end.

The prose itself utilizes wonderful incisive imagery, like From this close, Karl could smell the blood in the young woman’s veins. Warm. Rushing through her body as her heart thundered away, life in liquid, a heart-blood sacrament., and Dribbles of red stained the white of his open shirtfront like a scattering of roses on snow. The author combines his precise verbiage with never-ending action, and I finished the story, wishing there was more than this one book. Since this is labeled the first of a series, I can only hope that there will be more to come. While it does have a slight romance within it between Karl and Maria, it’s absolutely not a romance overall. There are miles and miles for this series to go, and I for one would love to see the road Mr. Melton chooses for them.

Readability	10/10 – Incisive imagery, relentless action…absolutely fantastic
Characterization	9/10 – Only a few of the minor characters slip in richness
Plot	8/10 – I have to admit, I didn’t care for the twist halfway through, though it did spiral the story into a new direction
Entertainment value	8/10 – Some of the broody angst on the part of the leads starts to wear thin by 2/3’s of the way through, but otherwise, great
World building	9/10 – I absolutely love the premise, the atmosphere was rich, and with the exception of wanting more about Karl’s past, found everything I could want
TOTAL:	44/50