Devil's Paw by Debra Dunbar

Devil's Paw by Debra Dunbar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Being as this is the fourth in a series where things build from one book to the next, there is very little that I can mention that isn’t spoiler-y for the series. Oh, I can mention things non-spoiler-y for the book, but very little that isn’t spoiler-y for the series.

So, let me see: In vague hopefully non-spoiler –y terms – this is the book where, somewhere along the line – I think I was at about 67% or so, I almost ‘hit a wall’, so to speak. Gregory is an arrogant, condescending, smug, know-it-all-but-is-wrong asshole who has literally tried to kill Samantha several times (not – gotten so rough that he almost did, but literally tried to kill her a few times). He’s an abusive asshole and normally I’d have run the opposite direction from this series. This isn’t a new revelation in book four, otherwise I wouldn’t have started the paragraph the way I did (re: non-spoiler-y). No, this is the way he has been since book one. So? Why have I read and rather enjoyed these books despite assholes like Gregory in it? Two reasons: Gregory isn’t actually Sam’s boyfriend (that’d be the human Wyatt), and two – Sam goes out of her way to lie, and push Gregory to the breaking point – no, I’m not saying ‘Sam deserves it’, I’m saying ‘Sam is a demon and really enjoys pissing off Gregory and ‘gets off on’ both doing that and, well, pain – she finds pain pleasurable.

The problem, the reason why I started to ‘hit a wall’ with this book is two simple facts: the nature of Sam has morphed over time – she’s still a demon, but she’s also grown to be more; the nature of the relationship between Gregory and Samantha, always oddly filled with fear, love, hate, etc., has also morphed over time. Basically, it’s one thing when Samantha pushes Gregory’s buttons, he reacts by almost strangling her, and she moans in pleasure; and something completely different when . . . not sure how to word this – when the action looks more like an abusive relationship with Samantha the battered woman.

But enough of that. This book here is about following up on a specific plot point that has popped up here and there in previous books (or, to word things more fully, two plot lines from prior books are touched upon further in this book). In prior books Gregory would turn up with a severed head and ask Sam to examine it. For all she could tell, it appeared human. Gregory said that it was a demon. There are books/movies and the like wherein a creature would die, like say a werewolf, and it would ‘revert’ to human form. Demons don’t do that. For one thing they aren’t human, nor are they some mutation of humans. For another, unless I misread things, demons remain demons after death. They might end up looking human after death, but only if they died while in a human body – ‘demon energy’ is still traceable, though, in the body. Normally. The severed head has no trace of demon energy. For all intents and purposes, Gregory keeps turning up with severed human heads while proclaiming them to be ‘demons’. Demons who had something drain them of all demon energy.

Well, Samantha and Gregory go on a hunt – searching for who and what might be acting like a serial killer. The heat has turned up, the need to find the killer has increased, because an Angel has now been added to the drained body count.
Meanwhile, and this another of the plot points from prior books pulled forward, one of the humans that Sam previously meet in Elfland, has been ‘rescued’ by Sam. And presented as a gift to Wyatt. Much misunderstanding and anger erupts ((view spoiler)[(view spoiler)[the human is Wyatt’s actual sister, the one who was taken to the Elf kingdom when Amber was placed with Wyatt’s family (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]).

Soooo . . . another interesting and good book, though certain issues had me rating this as the lowest rated book, so far, in the series.

Rating: 3.88

July 12 2017




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The Alexander Inheritance by Eric Flint, Georg Huff & Paula Goodlett

The Alexander Inheritance by Eric Flint

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An overall interesting and good book about a huge 21st century cruise ship that gets, for the lack better explanation, magically transported from said 21st century to the 4th. Some dates would make things easier to understand, especially since I didn't do things like include A.D. and B.C.

I'm not actually sure what date it left 'our' time, but somewhere around 2016 (or, at least, some time after 2011 since there is a comment made about an event that had occurred in that year) A.D. is the origin date of the cruise ship, and something like 323 B.C. is the arrival date (an exact year was mentioned, I don't recall what that exact year was, give or take a few years, the boat of 5000 passengers (and however many crew) arrived a few years after the death of Alexander the Great.

I kind of had the impression that the wife, Roxane, and baby Alexander had been more or less killed immediately, but she's still alive when the cruise ship arrives. Though she's in something like 'protective custody', a playing piece for the generals fighting over the empire Alexander had made. Also alive are a bunch of Alexanders former Generals, plus his half-brother Philip (who falls somewhere in the Autism spectrum) - and Philip's 17 year old wife (with Philip being somewhere in his mid-thirties I believe). Cleopatra also plays a part, though no I'm not referring to the one who ruled Egypt and 'did things' with Caesar. I'm referring to Alexander's last remaining full-blood sibling, his sister.

And a cruise ship full of other people.

While enjoyable I did have a few problems with the book. Mention of health came up, including a couple of references, I'm sure to reassure people, about how the people aboard the 21st century cruise ship weren't carrying anything that would endanger 'the natives'. But, part of the mentioning of the health involved noting that the ship arrived back in time and then used up a good significant portion of their medication treating passengers and the like. And seriously? 5000+ 21st century AD humans and not a one has anything that would adversely impact 'the natives' of the 4th century BC? Heck, one of the crew members was shown basically humping every native he could find - unless this was a new development in his life, he likely was doing that in the 'modern' world - and he had no types of illness or the like? Really?

One of the interesting things that occurs during the course of the book is the cruise ship appearing off Trindad. The ship is observed as it approaches. By a trader. And I'm immediately reminded of a nonfiction book I read recently. About a lost city found in, if I recall correctly, Guatemala (or Honduras?). A city from a civilization that doesn't even have a name of its own because they had been overshadowed by the others, the Mayans and the like - a city that died and was 'lost' because of the Europeans arrival. And the speculation that the reason that it died - even in it's remote location - is because the various city-states and the like weren't cut off from each other. And it's known that Columbus, with ill crew members on board, had visited the coast of Central America - and that there were native traders there at the time - who spread the disease that helped wipe out a good many natives. And here we have this book showing a 21st century cruise ship coming in and a native trader watching it.

The kind of flippant - 'they didn't have anything bad health wise, unlike Columbus' - was annoying.

Another issue: sex. I was perfectly happy to just watch everything unfold as events unfolded, content to let relationships not be delved into. But then the authors decided to start having people circle each other, then engage in 'relations' behind. Not graphically. No, that's not the issue. And even one relationship wasn't the issue. It's how there kept being these couplings pop up and . . . every single bloody one of them was heterosexual in nature. Every bloody one of them. There was a joke tossed out about the time period and the people, something like 'well, they are Greeks and you know what they are like in sexual matters' but . . . that's the only non-heterosexual thing in the book. The joke. As I said, I'd have been content but for the fact that many different couplings suddenly started popping up late-ish in the book. Some of them kind of 'well, we are both here, and I assume you'll go with me because we are close in age' ((view spoiler)[thinking here specifically of that smug Captain assuming that that woman near his own age . . well, let's just move on (hide spoiler)]).

Last problem? My understanding is that this, along with the one where a prison got sent back in time to the dinosaur era, were just stand-alone's. Related, but stand-alones. And this book? Doesn't really have an ending. Hell, it ends with almost a break in action (a ship that might cause 'issues', due to who is on the ship, approaches the cruise ship and . . . book over). (That ending, by the way, was after about 30 names got mentioned "this person from x; that person form y; Q from xx" etc. - in a way that's 'okay' in that a convention occurred, but . . . none of the people named really mattered beyond giving more glimpses of the period and the convention itself was kind of overlooked).

Right, so. It's funny, in its way, but I felt 'closer' to the people of the ancient world than those being held up as being from the 21st. Quite frankly I preferred those sections that dealt directly with the 'ancient people's and less with the 'modern people'.

Rating: 4.35

July 10 2017



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Elven Blood by Debra Dunbar

Elven Blood by Debra Dunbar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The story of ‘Sam the Imp’ continues . . ..

I started the review for the previous book in the series noting stuff about Demons and family and stuff. And how the book found Sam helping her brother Dar. Well this time we meet sister . . . um, Lethesru . . okay, I can’t recall how her name is spelled but it started with an L. L is a succubus and she’s currently also needing Sam’s help. And/or refuge. Sam allows her sister to stay in her house.

Wise decision or not, but that puts an interesting complication into Sam’s life. Specifically the part where L is a succubus. The kind who naturally, though there is also control involved, inject arousal pheromones everywhere around them. The kind that causes Wyatt to lose his ability to think coherently and wish to hump L, Sam, both, or maybe just the sofa. The kind that has Sam herself desiring to hump L (and before ‘eww, incest’, one of the things I hadn’t mentioned before now is that these demons children in group homes aren’t actually necessarily related to each other). See, I’d noted in the previous or the review before that one that this series isn’t a heterosexual series.

Right, so. Recall how there was this powerful demon who wanted an object, Dar was helping him, Sam was helping Dar, and the powerful demon liked ‘punishing’ those who annoy him? Well, Sam now has a steady stream of demons arriving trying to assassinate her. So, constantly horny with succubus in the house, demons constantly attacking, and lover boy can’t keep it in his pants when in Sam’s house (see, again, succubus).

And so Sam decides to do something about this issue. One of the Elf kings (more of the Orlando Bloom type elf than Keebler elf) has offered a deal to Sam – do him a solid, and he’ll take care of Sam’s demon problems. That ‘solid’? Find either: a) a living demon/elf hybrid (the mere thought of an elf with a parent who isn’t an elf is deeply disturbing to elves) – well, dead or alive, just get the 19/20 year old; b) find the dead baby that had been left on earth. Complicated? Well, I worded it that way. Unwrapping it – one of the joys of demon kind is to try to get an elf to mate with them. Well, appears it has actually happened. An Incubus has mated with an elf, the elf became pregnant. That same elf said that she’d then immediately killed the baby upon delivery (birth), and then sent the baby off to do one of those elf swaps (swapping dead elf baby with life human baby). That’s the story she’s told. She’s sticking to it. But rumors have come out that she’s lying. And the king believes those who say she is lying – or, at the very least, can’t keep it at the rumor level. Needs prove one way or another, then ‘solving’ the problem (killing the living elf/demon; finding dead elf baby). And Sam’s on the case. While dodging demons trying to kill her, interacting with that Gregory angel, interacting with Wyatt, living with a succubus in her house, she’s going to track down this baby and/or living hybrid.

1) Quite fun book;
2) Its good Sam is a demon because, if she were human? There’s no way I’d be able to keep reading this series. Gregory is a really abusive asshole. The kind who thinks the thing to do to stop Sam from talking, is to choke her out. Oh, and he’s verbally abusive (various people have various names for Sam, Gregory’s name for Sam is ‘cockroach’). Complicated situation, though. Wyatt is actually Sam’s boyfriend, not Gregory. And Sam just loves pushing Gregory’s buttons, pushing him into reacting and doing the things he does (she’s a demon, to her pain is pleasure (and pleasure is pleasure)).

Right, where was I? hmmm. Well, that’s probably all I have to say. Another good book in the series.

Rating: 4.43

July 10 2017



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Satan's Sword by Debra Dunbar

Satan's Sword by Debra Dunbar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The story of ‘Sam the Imp’ continues . . ..

Demons kind of do things differently than humans (with exceptions, there are humans who grow up this way), family wise. In many ways. The important difference, of note here, is that demons are born and then get tossed into group home type situations. Many foster siblings.

And I mention the above because this book circles around the fact that one of Sam’s ‘brothers’ asks for Sam’s help. Sam doesn’t want to help, but, well, Dar, the brother, has helped her in the past . . . and it’s kind of the thing they do (except when they don’t and just laugh at the other in their trouble). Apparently Dar needs Sam to go pick something up from the Vampires. Easy, the Vampires don’t want it. Dar has tried to get it but they won’t deal with him, and, what with the ‘kill on sight’ demons live under while on Earth finding someone else to get the item is tough. And Sam is already there on earth. Oh, and the Vampires have agreed to turn the item over to Sam.

As I said, easy, right, just get an item, turn it over to brother Dar, and get on with life. Except then the Vampires start playing tricks on Sam, Sam learns that Dar is doing this for a much more powerful demon who is known to enjoy punishing those who annoy him, and well . . . things be tough.

This one might also be the one where the ‘ear’ killer is out and about. And the green cat. I can’t really say anything about it, as I might be a book too early. Though I think it’s this one wherein Sam learns that someone has been killing homeless people (and Satan killed Batman, but that’s just a weird little kind of disturbing side stories, disturbing because of stuck toilets and plumber butt, not disturbing because of other reasons). Sam’s been changing, she has, since she’s meet Gregory and lived to tell the tale. But she hasn’t changed too much, bah, someone killing the homeless, who cares, right? Except in an ‘ooh, neat, I’d like to meet the guy, maybe even ‘own’ them’ kind of way. Until . . . one of her ‘own’ gets threatened. Can’t have that happen.

Oh, and a trip to Atlantic City with boyfriend Wyatt occurs.

Great continuation, great series. Hard to write reviews after I have already read further into the series and stuff.

Rating: 4.48

July 10 2017




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Imp by Debra Dunbar

A Demon Bound by Debra Dunbar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If I remember to look it up I can get the date I got this book, but, and the point – I somewhat randomly spotted this book, noticed it looked vaguely interesting and, a plus, it was free! Then I took a month or two before I got around to trying it. And I only did because I saw someone make a comment about the book and I suddenly realized that I owned it already so I should try it.

“Samantha Martin is an imp” – is the beginning of the book description. ‘Samantha Martin’ is kind of an odd name for a demon (which is what an imp is, and an imp is kind of a low-ish level demon), eh? But it is her name. Along with a bunch of others that occasionally come up. Names have meaning, see, and Martin has been acting as a human for the past 40 years (more on that later), as someone named ‘Samantha Martin’.

Why that name? What caused her to go with that in the human realm? Simple, the human she encountered and ‘owned’ went by that name. Angels bind, demons own – as gets repeated in the series. Here ‘own’ means that the demon literally ‘absorbs’ the person into themselves. They, the demons, then, in turn can ‘create’ bodies that match those they own – and not all that they ‘own’ are human (there’s one ‘cute’ scene, probably in a later book, wherein Samantha goes ‘jogging’ with a friend – and Samantha is in the ‘body’ of a cute doggie – because at some point she ‘owned’ a dog).

‘More on that later’ – Samantha has been on Earth for about 40 years now. But she’s not 40 herself, nor is this her first ‘vacation’ here on earth. No, see, demons like popping over every once in a while for ‘vacations’ wherein they do as much damage as they can and then flee back to Hel (one l there). For some reason, though, Sam decided to go ‘low level’, live as a human as much as possible, using as little of her power as possible. There’s a reason for that – the low use of power part. For, you see, millions of years ago Demons and Angels fought a war, to a draw. Demons went to Hel, Angels stayed in their realm. They ‘patrol’ earth, though, and kill any demon they spot on Earth while also watching over humans (over their ‘evolution’), and over werewolves (there may or may not be ‘others’ that they ‘strictly’ control, but it seems they only kill on sight demons and only strictly control werewolves – the ‘others’ is in how strict their control is, and how killable others are). There are also vampires, Elves, and others. Oh, and, to leave this paragraph near where I started, Sam herself is 1) a demon; 2) somewhere just short of a 1,000 years old.

On earth Sam works as a something of a slumlord, and lives near a hunky man named Wyatt. They have an ‘interesting’ relationship but they have just flirted so far (at the start of this book here). And, as noted, Sam tries to play down her use of demon power, not her being a demon, just her use of power. As in, she’ll purposely swerve to run over a squirrel, but try to avoid ‘owning’ it (which reveals power, and Angels can detect power usage), or hitting it with lightning (demons have differing powers).

Sam’s ‘vacation’ is interrupted, though, when her rental agent person (I’m not exactly sure of Michelle’s exact title/job function) attempts to introduce her to another person who has some property to unload (Candy). The party, Michelle, Sam, and Candy (along with some of Michelle’s friends) meet at a club. Roughly around the time Sam and Candy meet, in walks danger – in the form of Gregory the angel. Everyone immediately turns and gazes adoringly upon Gregory (Angels, asshole like as they may be, have that effect on people). Except for two – Sam literally crawls out of the place, trying to avoid being seen by the Angel, and by the time she gets outside, she realizes that Candy had followed her. Whereupon Candy ‘looks’ at Sam in a way that allows Sam to know Candy knows what Sam is. For whatever reason, Sam doesn’t know what Candy is, despite having lived a life that would seem destined to learn all prey and predators out there.

This is a long about way to come to – learning what Sam is, Candy takes advantage and basically blackmails Sam into helping her and . . . her . . . group (it’s in the description, but is it a spoiler? (view spoiler)[Candy is a werewolf. Werewolves are tightly controlled and regulated by the Angels, and there are many things that would allow them to be killed by Angels. But, even so, there are more wolves being killed, seemingly without breaking any ‘laws’ of the Angels, but still being killed by an Angel. Candy blackmails Sam to ‘take out’ the Angel. (hide spoiler)]). To help Candy and her group deal with a serial killer who is targeting Candy’s kind.

As I’ve seen here or there, one of the neat things of this book is that Sam is in fact a demon. And is allowed to act like one. She’s not some human who suddenly learns, after living as a human, that she had ‘other’ blood, or anything like that. No, she knows what she is. And what that is is chaos. Demons fluctuate somewhere around ‘chaotic’, and Sam herself fluctuates between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil; and occasionally chaotic good. If I was writing a review for the books I’ve read so far in the series, I’d continue that line of thinking but I’m not, I’m writing this here thingie for this here bookie.

Quite a fun and enjoyable book. Oh, one last thought – demons and angels specifically, though possible others, are . . . changeable. As already noted, Sam ‘owns’ more than just humans – and creates bodies based on those she owns. Well, naturally, some she owns are female . . . and some are male. Flexible, see? And the Angels are that way as well. Though the second part, sex, is more demon centric – demons aren’t exclusively heterosexual (how can they be when they can be anything, anybody in any body). Angels . . . well, that’s tougher and can be explained vaguely – part of the reason for the war was because Angels prefer the spirt form more than the physical form; demons prefer the physical, sinking into it, experiencing it, wallowing in it. That doesn’t mean that Angels do not have sex . . they just have . . . different . . um, ways of doing things. I’m being purposely vague. All I had wished to note, though, is that this isn’t a ‘me man, you woman, we hump’ book – everything’s flexible here. Though Sam’s love interest is male, and Sam’s in a female body at the moment.

Rating: 4.55

July 10 2017




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