A LIT & Speculative Blog: Great Pairings- Part 1 & Contest

Sometimes you read a great book and you want something that feels just like it. You want to recapture the feeling you got discovering a new world. Here is my first recommendation....

Available 03/27/12
Forgiven
Demon Trappers Daughter Quadrilogy, Book Three
by Jana Oliver
ISBN-13: 978-0312614805
St. Martin's Griffin, 368 pages.
Amazon, B&N, Goodreads

Jana Oliver's third spellbinding Demon Trappers novel - following The Demon Trapper's Daughter and Soul Thief- brings all new thrills, as Riley Blackthorne takes on demons, love... and the future of the human race.

The days are growing darker for 17-year-old demon trapper RileyBlackthorne. With her father’s reanimated body back safely, Beck barely speaking to her because of a certain hunky Fallen angel, and a freshly-made deal with Lucifer, she has enough on her hands to last a normal teenage lifetime. Though she bargained with Heaven to save his life, her ex-boyfriend Simon has told the Vatican’s Demon Hunters that she’s working with Hell. So now she’s in hiding, at the top of everyone’s most-wanted list.

But it’s becoming clear that this is bigger than Riley, and rapidly getting out of control: something sinister is happening in Atlanta… or someone. The demons are working together for the first time ever and refusing to die, putting civilians in harm’s way. Riley thinks she might know who’s behind it all, but who’s going to believe her? Caught between her bargain with Heaven and her promise to Lucifer, Riley fears the final war is coming – and it may be closer than anyone thinks…

I love Riley and Beck because they are a hot mess, and their hot mess is more real to me than any perfect love story. Riley and Beck don't pull any punches, they go for the jugular, they bleed all over the pages.

One of the things I love best about this series is that nothing is ever what it seems, a villain can be despicable in one book, can redeem himself in the next, and so the hero can always falter as well.

In fact, this series reads more adult than YA. If Riley weren't seventeen, this book would be found in a different section of your bookstore or library. It's mature, it's brutal, it's raw- and that's just the language and the emotional drama. Layering in a stupendously fantastic urban fantasy steeped in demons, angels, necromancers, witches... and who knows what else. All of that set against a near futuristic crumbling dystopian south.

Available Now
The Space Between
by Brenna Yovanoff
ISBN-13: 978-1595143396
Penguin Razorbill, 360 pages.
Amazon, B&N, Goodreads

Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this?

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be.

This second novel by rising star Brenna Yovanoff is a story of identity, discovery, and a troubled love between two people struggling to find their place both in our world and theirs.

The Space Between is subtle and dreamy yet evocative and atmospheric. It's fragile beauty is as razor sharp as the steel garden of Daphne's home, wrapping itself around you. I read the perfect description of it once, "the girl who cannot feel and the boy who doesn't want to." Daphne is one wrong decision away from darkness, and Truman is throwing himself completely into a downward spiral. Seeing them blossom as characters is achingly beautiful.

Whether it be the steel gardens of Hell, or a near-futuristic dystopian version of a gritty Atlanta, both of my recommendations are set in fascinating worlds that will immerse it's reader in their often horrific beauty. Urban fantasy is a genre that's rich but crowded, it's difficult to read one that feels fresh, enticing, dangerous, and deliciously familiar all at once. All of these are stories that transcends the YA classification, any fan of this genre will fall head over heels for these books. If you are like me and follow religiously the cults of Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, Patty Briggs, and Rob Thurman (just to name the tip of the iceberg) then trust me that these recommendations are sound, they will not disappoint.

If you are just beginning the Demon Trapper's series, or you've been ontenterhooks waiting for this third installment, any one of them can be paired withThe Space Between. Both are dealing with broken characters, some who fight tooth and claw to survive, and some that need to be saved.

MY FAVORITE PAIRINGS CONTEST DETAILS