Currently Reading - and Another Book Haul

There's something about those "Eve" books by S.J. Day that seems to have captivated me, a new genre that you could probably call "sexy urban demon fantasy" or something like that.  I was in White Dwarf books last week (an excellent SF bookstore in Vancouver), and they didn't have anything pulled aside for me (they usually pull aside the Star Trek books).  To support a small business like this, I usually feel obligated to buy something when I'm in there, so I went scanning the new book rack.  An intriguing book, but it was book 4!  So I went looking for book 1.

It's called The Devil Inside, by Jenna Black, and it stars Morgan Kingsley, who is an exorcist in a world where demons are rather commonplace. In fact, demon possession is rather commonplace, so much so that some humans choose to host demons.  The ones who do so when the host doesn't volunteer, those are the ones who Morgan has to get rid of.  But she's got a problem.  She's discovering that she might be hiding one of her own.

It's another series where no holds are barred in the explicit sex category, but it also has an interesting storyline and a wonderful lead character (at least so far, I'm only 100 pages into it).  It doesn't use the religious trappings that Day uses.  Mainly, it's just the demons (though some religious groups protest the voluntary demon possession).  It's an intriguing book so far, as long as you can handle the highly sexualized writing.

Anyway, the other cool thing for me is that I've got three more free books coming from Curled Up With a Good Book!

The first one is called The Ghost King, by R.A. Salvatore, and it's another Drizzt Du'orden book from the D&D Forgotten Realms universe.  I've read and reviewed the first two books, The Orc King and The Pirate King, with this one being the third in the "Transitions" series.  I've been hoping this one would show up on the list, and sure enough, it did.  The series has been kind of interesting, though I hope the final book is better than the second one.

If you're a D&D fan, you'll probably get a kick out of these books.  You can almost hear the dice rolling at times!

The second book is Heat Wave, by Richard Castle.  I've never read a book by Castle, who is a mystery writer.  This book is the first in a new series for him, known for the Derrick Storm novels (no, that didn't mean anything to me either, but maybe to some of you!).

This is what I love about reviewing on Curled Up.  You can take a chance on a book that sounds like it might be interesting without having to worry about paying for it.  Of course, you do have to review it, so you have to hope it's not *too* bad.  But negative reviews can be fun to write, so that's always a good thing too.

Finally, another book I've greatly been looking forward to.  The third in the new Wild Cards series, called Suicide Kings, edited by George R.R. Martin.  I reviewed the first two books in the series, Inside Straight and Busted Flush.  The Wild Cards universe is fascinating.  Basically, soon after World War II, an alien virus hit New York, killing 90% of the population.  Nine percent became "Jokers," basically mutants or some other kind of mutated human that became almost animalistic, or sometimes just evil.  One percent became Wild Cards, basically superheroes with varying powers.  Offspring of these Wild Cards usually become Wild Cards themselves, and this series has a bunch of these second generation heroes.  The novels are called "mosaic" novels, chapters and stories written by different authors all bonded together into one cohesive storyline.  It's really quite interesting to see them pull it off.

Definitely some good reading ahead!!