Laura Bickle

In my review of Embers I remarked that part of why Anya liked Brian was because of his 'ordinariness'. Brain and tech-geek he may be, but he was rather simple at heart. So of course it couldn't stay that way. Like Anya I'm unsure how I feel about the revelation about Brian's character. I mean considering what they do, it seemed odd that he'd mess with things like that.

Hope Solomon, motivational speaker philanthropist extraordinaire, gave me the creeps. Even before Anya found the dirt on her she made my skin crawl. I understand that there are honest to goodness helpful folks out there. I also understand that for everyone of them there's fifty of the Hope Solomons in the world. Unlike Drake, who truly believed that what he was doing would help (somehow), Hope was purely in it for the greed. Money, power, fame...this lady cared only about herself. So she was the perfect foil to Anya's growing uneasiness about her powers and herself.

Sparky had baby newts! Mind you technically speaking Sparky isn't a he or a she, Anya just labeled him thus, but it gave us a chance to have whacky fun times in a Baby Store and see Anya act like a mother hen. Also fun, all the nifty gadgetry Brian came up with to help Anya out. The whacky fun times in the store though seemed out of place--like this one moment of cheerfulness in an otherwise dark, dark novel. It was kind of jarring, so even though I enjoyed the scene it didn't 'feel' right.

Charon pops up again and has a larger role than just cryptic messenger. I really liked him and sincerely hope he appears in the series again. He didn't beat around the bush, though he omitted certain details to keep things moving along. The ghosts in the museum? They were fun and interesting. Kind of like "Night at the Museum" but with more mayhem.

I wonder at the consequences of this fight on Anya. Not just supernaturally, but personally. She learned things about Brian that were unsettling, the team itself is headed for self-destruct and the news about her father, and the truth of what happened when her mom died? Yeah, let's talk about trauma issues...… (mehr)

I waited until I had book 2 (Rogue Oracle) in my hands before deciding to read this because I had a feeling it would be like with Williams alter-ego persona Laura Bickle's Anya Kalicinzyk series (meaning, I'd want more and not have it and be sad). It didn't disappoint!

Using the Tarot Cards as a means for which Tara found clues was more engrossing then I first believed. I'm not quite a skeptic when it comes to such matters (tarot reading that is), but I thought it would subsume more of the story then it did. Instead it was more like a silent partner that Tara would confer with and use as a guide, but it wasn't the crutch that the synopsis makes it sound like. As Tara puts it to Special Agent Harry Li the cards don't tell her what to do and she blindly follows them. Instead they offer a way for her to draw connections and use her own intuitive powers to observe what lines up with what.

A plus side is that Williams gave instructive but not preachy or info-heavy details about each card without breaking the flow of the narrative.

Even knowing this is the same author as Laura Bickle, the book itself felt different. There's some similarities between the two protagonists--they both suffer past traumas relating to their gift, both are alone in the world (blood ties wise), both work (or in Tara's case worked) with law enforcement to make the world a better place. The difference is how they interact with the world at large. Anya keeps herself closed off, grudgingly giving small pieces of herself. Tara, even though she is frightened of what could happen, is more open. more willing to accept help.

She's not happy about it, but she recognizes that help--even help from a not quite sure if she can trust him source like Harry--can only facilitate helping the matter at hand. Her and Harry clicked instantly, despite their wariness and general disapproval from his superiors. They were surprisingly complimentary to each other; Harry's forthright manner and logical approach coincided with Tara's intuition really well. Often they would reach the same, or at least similar, conclusion through their differing tactics.

Oh I loved Harry. I really did. I wanted to cuddle him and love him and hold his hand the entire book. He was just so earnest. He didn't believe in the system blindly, but he wanted to believe they had the best intentions and his superior (Corvus, Tara's ex-partner who was ten kinds of shady slime) was doing the right thing. Gabriel, that man made my eye twitch. Seriously. He screamed scumball every time he opened his mouth.

I found the Pythia and Daughters of Delphi subplot to be intriguing. At the end, when most of the cards are laid out on the table, hindsight made second meanings for the comments throughout. If nothing else those are ladies I will never play a game of chance against.… (mehr)

Originally I had no intention of reading Embers. I'm a little burned out from Urban Fantasies, at least starting new series, and had resolved to take a break. Best laid plans and such found me buying Embers and then reading it in relatively quick order.

The tone of the novel was much darker than I expected, exploring several deeper emotions such as lust, guilt and personal responsibility in slightly uncomfortable ways (for me at least). Anya is a conflicted young woman with deeply rooted guilt issues and a problem with forming personal connections, not particularly uncommon in today's UF heroines, but Bickle takes it a step forward with Anya's growing fear that one unwary step will burn her life down. Uncertain about the exact nature of her power as a Lantern (spirits are attracted to her like a moth to flame and she has the power to devour them, burning them to nothingness), Anya fights her nature. Meeting the firebug with an oddly do-gooder mentality, confirms her worst fears, but also opens her up to exploring who and what she could be.

The cast surrounding Anya, both supernatural and otherwise, all have distinct personalities. Sparky, her 'hellbender' elemental protectors; Brian, tech geek who cares for her; Katie, organic baker by day, witch by night; Ciro, demonologist and one tough old man; Jules, group leader and fond of slapping Mike upside the head; Mike, the newbie on the crew with a whole lot of enthusiasm and then Captain Marsh, her boss at the Fire department. The firebug, who becomes more important for a variety of reasons as the story goes on, was oddly appealing. He was doing bad things, but I couldn't tell if he was a sociopath, warped from his experiences or genuinely believed he was doing the right thing for the city.

I had a growing fear, as the way to stop Sirrush from rising became more and more clear, about what would happen in the end. And it came true. And despite everything that had happened I got misty-eyed and sad. It seemed appropriate, but still.

Book 2, Sparks, is due out at the end of August though there isn't a whole lot out about what it will be about and the end of Embers gives nothing away to give us clues. I am however looking forward to it and have great anticipation for Laura Bickle's alter-ego, Alayna Williams's debut UF Dark Oracle due out in June!… (mehr)