Gods of Manhattan -- audiobook (Mebus)

Gods of Manhattan
by Scott Mebus (2008)

[NO IMAGE -- AUDIO BOOK ONLY]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This title was suggested by the public library -- I forget if it was Brookly or NYPL. I was looking for another book to listen to while I was walking. I didn't realize that it was so old (or that, I just learned, it's part of a series). Once again, I listened to the first chapter twice just to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Interesting book about a secret world of Manhatta occupying the same space as Manhattan and filled with people, "Gods", from New York's past, including Lenape Indians. It's listed on Wikipedia as a children's novel, but it's about 272 pages long. I guess that's on par with early Harry Potter books though.

I enjoyed it and plan on reading it in the new year. Perhaps I'll suggest it to my book club, so two birds, one stone.

This is a place-holder entry. I'll write the full one when I read the book. That's my new rule for the blog. I can make up and change my own rules.

Yeti Left Home (Rosenburg)

Yeti Left Home
by Aaron Rosenberg (2023)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was an ebook I purchased in a Kickstarter from eSpec Books, which also published my book In A Flash 2020. As a supporter of this book, my name appears in a list in the closing pages.

As silly as it sounds, many of these Kickstarter books go into the electronic TBR pile. I have a directory of them on my hard drive. Between my book club selections, holiday reading (whichever holiday) and older books already in my Kindle app, I sometimes go back and upload stories and books, usually starting with the shortest, looking for some quick reads. (This means I read more short stories, but then I read more authors, too.)

Happily, Yeti Left Home is from this year, so I'm not too far behind with this one.

First, side note, I told Danielle (Ackley McPhail, of eSpec Books) at a convention that the sequel should be called "Yeti Persisted". She laughed but it's not going to happen.

The story: Wylie Kang is an unassuming Yeti who desires nothing more than his isolated cabin in Embarass, Minnesota, with his reclining chair, his big screen TV and a cold breeze coming in through the window. He pays for this by catching and selling fish in town. One night, Wylie starts having dreams about running though the woods and attacking campers. He wakes up with leaves and twigs in his fur and hands, and no way of explaining it. Worse, he hears that campers were actually killed.

And, worst, a Hunter is looking for him. Hunters trap cryptids like him.

Wylie packs his chair and TV into his pickup and flees his cabin to lay low for a while. He drives all the way to Minneapolis and finds a motel, paying cash out of a coffee tin. He has a drivers license but little else.

While walking around the city, he gets pickpocketed, but the culprit is caught by a Red Cap who recognizes Wylie as something special. This fellow, Knox, takes Wylie under his wing, so to speak, and gets him settled into an apartment that will be cheaper in the long run than the motel, even if he's only staying in the city for a week. The apartment is owned by another supernatural being, and Knox introduces him to more.

Of particular interest are Brea, the Ogress, who is keeping an eye on Wylie to make sure that he isn't any trouble, and Sinead, a Banshee who tended to keep to herself before meeting Wylie. Brea suggests Wylie go to docks to look for work, and Sinead gives him directions.

Once at the docks, Wylie is immediately popular after preventing an accident that might've led to a bad injury, and because he's great at the job of lifting and hauling, even though it exhausted even a yeti like him, but in a good way. He's also popular because he puts an end to the shakedown from a protection racket. His coworkers are so grateful that they give him the heads up that there's a woman looking for him.

Note that his coworkers don't know what he is. They just think he's a big, hairy guy who can lift a lot.

He's finally caught by the Hunter but tells her that he'll find the actual killer, and the "scooby" gang is off to work.

As one can imagine, the Yeti didn't leave home. He's found one.

A quick, enjoyable read with a lot of cool characters all getting along.

Pumpkin Blend (Layne)

Pumpkin Blend
Paramour Bay #14
Kennedy Layne (2020)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a freebie from a BookBub mailing. I downloaded it and read it before Halloween, and then forgot about it. Not that it was forgettable (well, maybe a little), but I got behind in my blogging and didn't check my library for everything I'd read. On a side note, I already had book #15 in my Kindle library, which I apparently downloaded last year (or earlier), but haven't read yet. It's a Christmas mystery. There is very little chance that I will get to it by this Christmas as I have a couple of other things going already.

This will be short, and hopefully the Christmas entry will be longer. It was a little difficult to get into because it's the 14th book, so the author is free to assume that the reader should be at least somewhat familiar with the characters.

The big mystery is the disappearance of a very large, prize-winning pumpkin from a cart in town a couple of weeks before Halloween. It disappeared by magical means, but no one knows how. At the same time, the witnesses had to be convinced that they didn't see what they thought they saw. The farmers on the wagon assume that it fell off along the way.

The main character is a witch, and her mother is also a witch, but she's away and can't help with this. The witch has a cat that's a familiar and addicted to edibles and naps. The cat got confusing when he talked about his Former True Love, his New True Love, his On Again True Love, etc, mostly because at first I assumed he was talking about other cats, not actual people. Some people are aware of the paranormal, in general, and the circumstances of the main characters, in particular, but most are blissfully unaware.

The story eventually leads to a cemetery right before Halloween and the spirits trying to break through and the ones trying to prevent that from happening. Pumpkins help with that some of thing.

It wasn't bad, but two months later, it doesn't seem to be very memorable.

Here's the Good Reads synopsis, for any visitors to my site wishing more info:

Pumpkin tea blends aren't the only things that are being stirred up in the next baffling whodunit of the Paramour Bay Mysteries by USA Today Bestselling Author Kennedy Layne...

All Hallows' Eve is only a fortnight away, and the residents of Paramour Bay can't wait to get their hands on all the candy corn, caramel apples, and pumpkin tea blends this fall season. As a matter of fact, the highly anticipated Halloween Festival is about to kick off in town square with the reveal of the largest pumpkin that has ever been grown in their very own local pumpkin patch.

There's only one itsy-bitsy problem--someone has stolen the town's prized jack-o-lantern! Raven ropes Leo into solving another mystery, but he goes all in when he realizes that a pilfered pumpkin is the least of their worries!

Fill up your candy bowl, grab your favorite pumpkin-flavored drink, and get ready to solve the perplexing case of the missing prized pumpkin!

This was an ebook.

The Fox's Fire (McPhail)

The Fox's Fire:
And Other Fantastic Tales
Danielle Ackley-McPhail (2021)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This is another eSpec Books book, of which I have many, thanks to a number of Kickstarters and lots of bonuses and freebies.

Note: Danielle Ackley-McPhail was the editor of my collection, In A Flash 2020, and one of the editors of Devilish & Divine, which contains three of my stories. And, finally, my name appears in the back of the book along with the names of other kickstarter contributors who helped make this book happen.

I read this a couple of books ago, so forgive me if some thoughts have already fled.

There are eight stories contained within: The Fox's Fire, The Promise of Death, The Devil in the Details, A Moment Out of Time, Forever and a Day, Crossroads and Curses, Mis En Place, and Mama Bear. They cover a wide expanse of fantasy.

Favorites include the title story, which finds a Japanese kitsune encountering Native Americans; Mis En Place, about a restaurant where everything is in its place; and Mama Bear, which is a tale of the Wild Hunt.

An enjoyable book, which I wish I hadn't waited so long to write up. Unfortunately, the real world intrudes and blogs take a backseat.