Confession Time: I judged this book by its cover. But look at it! Isn't it everything urban fantasy should be! Big city in the background. A full moon. A knight drawing his sword against a muscley red-eyed beast that can only be a werewolf!!! Wait, what? ...Not a werewolf? Hmm, okay. (But it looks like a werewolf!! ...no? *Sigh*. Fine.)

Griffin is just your average guy until one summer Georgia afternoon when the screams start. When a huge, muscle-bulging monstrosity with long black claws and sharp teeth kills his father, and a stranger appears out of nowhere and says things like "Come with me if you want to live."...well, what do you do? Of course, you don't go with that guy!! You need answers! Heroes are awfully persuasive though and soon enough Griffin is sucked into another world that he had no idea existed, one of secret societies and superhuman talents.

Read more at Cats Luv Coffee

With that blurb, you can only imagine how Uncle Billy's Chicken Hut and Salvation Emporium reads. Uncle Billy, all 6'6", 300 lbs of him, removes "roadblocks, impediments, unfulfilled dreams and blockages" to make transitions from the living to the dead to the afterlife problem-free. Various souls end up in this cross between a diner and Hermoine's bag of holding to deal with those pesky little questions that finding yourself dead might bring on.

Read more at Cats Luv Coffee

There is a war transpiring between good and evil, both in real life and hidden darknesses. Spiritual warfare defines Evil Realms. That's where Pastor Joel Benjamin finds himself called to stand in the gap. 


The story actually begins somewhere else. It begins with a police chase and the almost paranormal disappearance of the car being chased. The two inside are bank robbers and violent criminals, believing that they have stumbled on a farm full of women and children, easy pickings for their demented, perverted souls. Instead, they've stumbled upon a cult.

Cats Luv Coffee Book Reviews

Darkling and LVP Publications take the reader on a preternatural tour of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada in this horror anthology. Each story is prefaced by Darkling with a Cryptkeeper-like narrative with an irreverent tongue-in-cheek banter bringing levity in contrast to the stories. Some of the tales reimagine indigenous folklore in the modern-day, like Glenn Mori's devastating tale "Taan: The Beginning", about brothers whose gift from the Great Bear Mother is the ability to transform, or Eddie Generous' "The Creature From the Grey Lagoon, where a daughter revisits the location of her father's death, encountering a creature described as the Ugly One. Sèphera Girón's "The Partridge Creek Monster" serves up Jurassic style scares. Others transport us centuries in the past, like "The Amarok Dream" by Kim Bannerman, where an English naturalist obsesses over a golden-furred creature, and James Pyne's "The Last Stand at L'ansse Aux Meadows" gives us a Viking tale of horror. Supernatural enthusiasts aren't overlooked either with stories of spiritual revenge in Donna M. West's chilling "Another Chapter in the Story of Holland Cove", and Nancy Kilpatrick's bewitching "Children of Gael".
While anthologies can often be inconsistent, Creatures of Canada sustains a high level of quality throughout. Hopefully, future tours are already on the docket.

Reviewed for Unnerving Magazine

Remnants is a shared world anthology, featuring 14 tales of post-apocalyptic science fiction, heavy on the horror with a splash of supernatural. All of the stories in this anthology share a world that has been ravaged by monsters of an unknown origin. Differentiated into two groups, the aerial "swarm" and terrestrial "horde", these creatures have decimated the planet in a one-two punch. The swarm arrives in a pall of purple storms, stinging and shocking their victims with enormous stingers, heralding the arrival of the horde. The horde is made up of massive eyeless creatures with mouths filled with rows upon rows of teeth. Impervious to man-made weapons, the horde tramples everything in their path. Yet these stories are not really about the unfamiliar monstrosities. Instead, Remnants focuses on the people left behind, the survivors of this new insanity, the last remaining dregs of humanity. Each author attempts to define who the heirs of this new nightmarish world really are.

Resistance by Stephen Coghlan is our introduction to this alien new world and one of the longest stories in the anthology. After finding a lost girl, what lengths will a survivor with no previous connection go to protect her? After the lengthy read of Resistance, First Swarm by J.D. Sanderson with its telling of two photojournalists' encounter with the Swarm was shockingly brief, but not without influence. These first two stories are a detailed look into this horrific new apocalyptic world.

Heatwave by Aaron Lee, my least favorite in the collection, describes a blogger's statistical profile of death, a scorecard for the entire planet. His creation of a digital "thermometer" to show the world the rising fever of the planet, turns into a first look into the carnage of the Swarm, as he tries to uncover the truth of what's happening.

Then there are those stories in which the survivors rediscover their own humanity. In Megan by J.D. Kellner, a cuckolded husband fights not only the Horde but his own regrets and resentment. Civilian and military alike trapped within an underground bunker find a moment's happiness in the mundane in Against the Darkness by Stephen Coghlan. The Brood by Ian Fairgrieve gives us a prison escapee's encounter with not only the creatures but with the rubbish of humanity, reminding him to not let this current world change him. Rian's Path by D.W. Hitz again focuses on humans as a greater threat when society breaks down.

The supernatural aspect of Remnants becomes clearer in The Other Side by Michael D. Nadeau as 17-year-old Alana explores the spiritual realm created by the deaths of those around her. This story really introduces another facet to the anthology with those who find themselves walking on the other side of the spiritual plane and what continues to drive them once survival becomes a nonissue. The ghostly Love Song by Rachel Ford is one of the most poignant pieces in the anthology, with an eternal love song and protection from beyond the grave. It was easily one of my favorites. This Sheltered Isle by Benjamin Hope transpires another transcendent ghostly encounter in the isolated Ministry of Defense base on the isle of Hirta in Scotland. Echoes of Faith by Alan Provance also satisfies supernatural wantings with the folk tradition of giving offerings to the spirits for protection.

Then there are those stories of survival however small the odds. The Badlands by Crystal L. Kirkham is an entertaining read of a band of survivors with a unique way of fighting back. In The Forgotten by A.A. Rubin another group of survivors makes their stand against the creatures and one survivor gets a little help from an unseen source. A Final Longing by Stephan Coghlan is the most science fiction leaning piece of the collection and perhaps one that gives hope to a new life.

Remnants is the anticipated mix of compelling and mediocre short stories. Some are stories of survival and hope while others are of destruction and despair. The insinuation of the spiritual realm amongst the earthly devastation was an interesting juxtaposition and one that gave necessary relief to the doom and gloom. This anthology certainly depicts a radically different hostile world, but one in which each person has the opportunity to decide who they will be when their back is against the wall and little hope for survival is imminent.


Website | Twitter | Pinterest

Night Moves is the fifth offering in the Spells, Salt, & Steel series and as always, the Martins delivered. After reading Season 1, which included novellas 1-4, I couldn't wait to hitch another ride to Mark Wojcik's world. What makes these novellas so great? For starters, how many other books have sheepsquatch?

And there he was, in all his sheepish glory. . . . It had a head like a big horned sheep, and a muzzle like a husky dog and a yeti had a mistaken night of passion and birthed a love child. Not to mention, the things smelled like ass.

Billed as comedy urban fantasy, the adventures of Mark Wojcik are unusual, to say the least. Mark makes an entertaining narrator for the Spells, Salts, & Steel universe. Slightly self-deprecating, Mark talks us through not only what's currently happening, but what he's thinking while it all goes down. It makes for a humorous dialogue, to say the least. Think about the goofier episodes of Supernatural but with a running commentary from Bobby. (Balls!) Mark is definitely not the knight in shining armor here to rescue the day—or maybe he is if the knight gets drug along behind the dragon facedown in the mud.

This time, a sheepsquatch isn't the only problem Mark and his friends have to deal with. Someone is hexing cryptids to rampage, which means someone in the Craft is involved. There's also a group of friends with untrained psychic abilities who are being watched by a woman in white and members of the local coven are attacked by a demonic doll and start hearing Tommyknockers. The common denominator here is Nazi occultists artifacts and a man obsessed with the Vril. It's up to Mark and friends to take care of the problem before the CIA discovers anything worthy of investigating.

When you think about it, that's a lot going on for a novella but the read always feels more like a conventional novel...until it ends, leaving you wanting more. Charming characters and unique paranormal beings combined with intriguing mysteries and Mark's absurd narration make the Spells, Salts, & Steel novellas a must-read.


Website | Twitter | Pinterest

Dead Woman Scorned is Book Two in The Patience of a Dead Man series and takes a different run at the dark shadow that is Mildred Wells than Book One did. (Read my review of The Patience of a Dead Man here) While we already know that Mildred is more than a disembodied haunting, Clark takes us back to the beginning, revealing exactly how developed into what she is and how she acquired her power.

Surprisingly, the picture of Mildred Wells that comes into focus is one to be almost shockingly sympathetic towards. While there is no denying that she is this rage-filled vengeful creature, she might truly have reason to be. Her past was certainly not kind to her. In fact, you could almost say it purposefully molded her. As they say: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Tim and Holly get a break from being the object of her furor as she absconds on a terrifying spate of revenge. All is not well, however, and Mildred's absence from the farmhouse is only a temporary respite.

Once again, the pace of the novel leaves no downtime for the reader to worry about getting bored. We are cast about from character to character, from past to present, as the story weaves strain and apprehension around everyone involved. There are even new characters to get to know—some more temporarily than others—like neighbor, Bob Simmons, police officer and relative to Elizabeth the writer of the scrapbook found by Tim in the farmhouse. While quite a chunk of the story focuses on the past, it's only setting the stage for when Mildred returns now that we are all fully aware of what she is capable of.

The departure from the farm house and Tim and Holly's story was a bit disorienting, especially after the abrupt ending of Book One. While this allows for fully explore Mildred's past, the nail-biting disquiet permeating Dead Woman Scorned wasn't felt as much here. I look forward to Anger is an Acid, which hopefully will bring Mildred's tale full circle.


Website | Twitter | Pinterest