“It’s the knitters. They’ve declared war. And the crocheters are geared up for the siege.” Pause. “What now?” “The knitters. You know. The K.I.N.K.s and C.O.C.K.s.” Jean barked out a laugh and set off into a howling giggle fit. “Uhng…huh?” was the only thing I had to offer. Ryder coughed, and then laughed, a deep, warm sound that made me want to press myself closer to him so I could wallow in the joy there. Even Shoe and Hatter chuckled. Roy, just shook his head. “You’re all children.” Bathin wasn’t laughing, but he intently took in our reactions. He almost looked pleased. Which, okay, I hadn’t known him for even a day yet, but I would have expected him to be sort of into pain and suffering, not a bunch of people laughing over a couple acronyms. “Delaney,” Bertie scolded. “This is serious.” “Right. Yes. Serious. Okay. So the knitters, that’s the K.I.N.K.s?” Bertie nodded. “The K.I.N.K.s have threatened the C.O.C.Ks?” “Woulda’ thought they’d be into that,” Hatter delivered deadpan. “Did they forget their safeword?” Shoe asked. Jean’s howl turned into a hissy wheeze. Both men grinned at her reaction. She waved at them, trying to make them stop. Bertie arched her eyebrows. “Perhaps we should head to the engagement before the members get out of hand and things take a turn for the worseNope. She’d started this. And Hatter wasn’t going to miss a chance to make Jean choke on her tongue. “If you’re hard up, Shoe and I can whip those C.O.C.Ks into shape. Shoe’s got lots of practice. He can whip C.O.C.K. with one hand tied behind his back. I hear he likes it that way.” Shoe nodded, his serious expression unyielding. “Hatter has a lot of experience with K.I.N.K. He’s a master at dominating those kinds of situations.” Jean wrapped her good arm across her ribs and whispered. “Hurts. Stop. Oh, gods.”
Keep your gods close and your monsters closer... Police Chief Delaney Reed thinks she knows all of Ordinary, Oregon’s secrets. Gods on vacation, lovelorn ghosts, friendly neighborhood monsters? Check. But some secrets run deeper than even she knows. To take down an ancient vampire hell-bent on revenge, she will have to make the hardest decision of her life: give up the book of dark magic that can destroy them all, or surrender her mortal soul. As she weighs her options, Delaney discovers she can no longer tell the difference between allies keeping secrets and enemies telling the truth. Questioning loyalties and running out of time, Delaney must choose sides before a kidnapping turns into murder, before rival crochet and knit gangs start a war, and before the full moon rises to signal the beginning of Ordinary’s end.
“Grief is a terrible houseguest,” he said. “It shows up when we least expect it and leaves long after it’s overstayed its welcome.” His eyes darkened, and he stared into his empty beer glass. –Devon Monk, Death and Relaxation
Death and Relaxation
Ordinary Magic
Devon Mark
Paranormal Romance
OddHouse Press
(June 18, 2016)
324 pages
Monsters, gods, and mayhem... Police Chief Delaney Reed can handle the Valkyries, werewolves, gill-men and other paranormal creatures who call the small beach town of Ordinary, Oregon their home. It’s the vacationing gods who keep her up at night. With the famous rhubarb festival right around the corner, small-town tensions, tempers, and godly tantrums are at an all-time high. The last thing Delaney needs is her ex-boyfriend reappearing just when she's finally caught the attention of Ryder Bailey, the one man she should never love. No, scratch that. The actual last thing she needs is a dead body washing ashore, especially since the dead body is a god. Catching a murderer, wrestling a god power, and re-scheduling the apocalypse? Just another day on the job in Ordinary. Falling in love with her childhood friend while trying to keep the secrets of her town secret? That’s gonna take some work
I’m usually a big Kenyon fan. I looked forward to this release because it promised more information about the Hellchasers and Thorn. We’ve seen glimpses of them in other books, but this was supposed to explain things a little more clearly. It really didn’t. We had a lot of new character introduced who were given a second chance after being damned and some new species to learn about.
These creatures fight the worst of the worst out of the sight of humans. But, the romance between the two main characters fell flat and there just wasn’t enough to keep interest in the story. It was complicated by an ex wife who was the sister of the main heroine, who is also the ship. It was an ok read. I give it 3 out of 5 stars since it really disappointed.
Don’t know that anyone else will say it so I will…I am going to have a great birthday today. I have so very much to be grateful for-I am alive, I have experienced great love, I have two girls, who despite being teenagers love AND like me, I have people spread far and wide who love me. And so I go into my birthday grateful and positive about whats to come.
@bestbooklover
Once he is healed enough to actually take control of the sex he is still not willing to let Cassie in at all. Cassie trusts him to not kill her but he doesn’t and he doesn’t want to get any more vulnerable to Cassie and so he limits it to oral sex and her orgasm.
Yeah good point. While Rosier’s prohibition was still in effect, that applies to demon sex, so he was held back more by his own figurative demons I think. It also highlights that Cassie and Pritkin never really make a conscious decision (about being intimate) that they commit to. Without external pressure, neither of them would initiate it.
@windsurfingthroughhell said:
Idk, I just have weird and particular ideas about consent and autonomy. I don’t like people making choices for Cassie, especially as regards her body, but this particular instance of it bothers me less than say, that Mircass scene in TtD, because Pritkin didn’t compromise her ability to consent, Rosier did, and he also apologised for it later
As @bestbooklover mentions, Cassie consented to the process at the start. What I’m curious about is why we’re all focusing on Cassie, when she was a deliberate, initiative-taking active party in the whole ordeal. It was Pritkin who was unconscious, who had his body intimately handled without his awareness or prior consent. He didn’t ask Cassie for sexual help, even though he could have; he would have never touched her in any of the scenes if not for Cassie’s demands/actions to ensure that he does.
And even when he does yield to her, he is clearly very conflicted. He is torn and upset, more so than Cassie ever was about any of her sexual encounters. It is him, not Cassie, who is broken and guilt-ridden and angry and catatonically traumatized in the shower, it’s not Cassie who needs comfort, it’s Pritkin. And Cassie has just forced him to relive his worst nightmare and do things he hates and shuns on his own volition.
I did make a satire post about this around April to illustrate double standards and biases, but since nobody addressed Pritkin’s consent, it proves that this topic might be worth a more serious post. I’m not sure whether it’s actually the books or the fandom that focuses so much on Cassie’s more minor experiences and ignores far more traumatic events for other characters, but consent should be a non-gendered topic, just like physical violence (the trivialization of which Cassie also does in the books).
Yay! I love it when we all start talking!
@freespeechfandom has some valid points. As we move through the books, there are some issues regarding Pritkin’s consent. However, if we waited for Pritkin to agree to be healed through his incubus side by Cassie-he would have died first. Pritkin definitely has a hero complex and has consistently maintained that Cassie would be better off letting him go. I agree that consent is a two sided issue and would love to see a well adjusted Pritkin so we could discuss his consent without his suicidal starving of his incubus and his outright denial of his feelings for Cassie.
As for why I keep talking about Cassie-in my opinion the whole series is about Cassie. So I am cassie-centric in my thoughts and posts.
I think Cassie supports Pritkin in the shower. I think she tries as hard as she can to be his friend. Now admittedly Cassie jumped into the deep end of friend and love interactions from the time she first comes to the Senate against her will. Cassie has never had a friend or a lover or even a real bodyguard other than Billie Joe and a hell raising, card cheating ghost from the 1800′s isnt exactly the best template for friendship.
I will be the first to admit that within the books there are boundary issues all around and there is more than enough for everyone!
I’m doing my review for both chapters (a) because I’m lazy and behind on my posts and (b) because I usually read these two chapters together anyway and I have trouble separating them in my mind.
Chapter 26 is is kind of a strange chapter, because you have such a contrast between what is happening and why it is happening. Cassie and Pritkin have sex, and it’s very intimate, but the reason for it is because it’s the only way to save Pritkin’s life. The contrast heightens the tension exponentially. The whole chapter feels on edge – will this actually save Pritkin? Will he go too far and kill Cassie by accident? Will Caleb interfere?
And to make an already awful situation even more difficult, Rosier shows up and puts a compulsion on Cassie. It’s kind of squicky, and he doesn’t help anything by saying “Let Daddy help”, but I appreciate that he wants to save his son. It gets the job done, and that’s honestly the focus of both Cassie and Rosier at this point.
Okay, I admit – I am shipper trash enough to squee over Cassie and Pritkin having a sexual encounter. But Chapter 27 moves us from the hot-but-dangerous sex to the emotional fallout. And, oh man. There is some serious fallout.
This is the chapter of emotional intimacy, and KC does not pull her punches. I’m talking, of course, about the one and only shower hug scene.
*deep breath*
I don’t think there has been another scene with the emotional weight of this one. KC has written dozens of other scenes that make me feel all the feelings, but this is the one that catches my attention before any of the others.
Cassie and Pritkin are kind of literally and emotionally naked with each other, and KC shows us this with almost no dialogue. In a few short paragraphs, we clearly see how much they care about each other and depend on each other, and not just in the saving-each-other way. The depth of their trust in each other is so obvious here. Both of them tend to repress a lot, but they don’t tend to hide from each other. It’s a gorgeous scene, and one that I love to reread often.
The whole thing about Caleb being there has always been vaguely squicky to me but a lot of Casskin sex scenes do have this discomforting edge to them? This dubcon element that’s not really either character’s fault, but which makes me uneasy when reading them, no matter how sexy the scene might be – it’s so tragic really, that they never get to be with each other just for the sake of being with each other. Well, so far.
A side note though – Pritkin is aware that Cassie isn’t in a position to give informed consent and he tries really hard to avoid doing anything that might feel like a violation to her later (it doesn’t but I think Cassie is more okay with having her body used by other people than I would be). I’m not sure whether he could safely have waited for the influence to wear off, but the key thing for me is that he apologises later. Cassie may not feel that he did anything wrong, and he was forced into a situation where he had to make that choice, but I think, and I suspect Pritkin also thinks, that it’s still a choice he didn’t have the right to make. Idk, I just have weird and particular ideas about consent and autonomy. I don’t like people making choices for Cassie, especially as regards her body, but this particular instance of it bothers me less than say, that Mircass scene in TtD, because Pritkin didn’t compromise her ability to consent, Rosier did, and he also apologised for it later – he acknowledged that it wasn’t a good situation, even if it wasn’t his fault. (of course Pritkin isn’t always perfect when it comes to consent – his 18th century self had some Issues in that regard that I wanted to talk about in EtN but then I missed those chapters, so I’ll probably bring it up in RtW when it becomes relevant).
I also appreciate that they get to have some serious fall out from this uncomfortable (albeit sexy) scene? They get to talk about their feelings, reaffirm an emotional connection, and they comfort each other. It’s wonderful.
Anyway, I 100% agree about The Shower Hug. It’s emotional destruction on an epic scale. And you know what? I never picked up on the symbolism of them being naked (or mostly naked, in Cassie’s case). Pritkin’s at his most vulnerable physically and emotionally. Damn it!
OK, So standard disclaimers apply…and you all know all of them 🙂 So, yes this is a really uncomfortable scene. You have got Pritkin unconscious and dying, war mages wanting to try magic and Cassie losing her everloving shit. For the first time ever the war mages actually listen to Cassie and let Caleb drive a dying Pritkin and wounded Cassie away. Rossier being there to help out yeah it’s squicky but given the state Pritkin is in and the state Cassie is in I’m glad Rossier stepped in. Yes it adds complications because Cassie’s consent is iffy, but in my opinion Cassie give’s consent when she starts the whole ball of wax arolling, so later consent is not really needed. She wanted to save Pritkin and by g-d she was saving his ass come hell or high water! Caleb’s freak out is annoying as hell but we need Caleb to know about Pritkin later so it works for me. I’m a little disappointed in Pritkin here. (cue screaming from others on Tumblr) Once he is healed enough to actually take control of the sex he is still not willing to let Cassie in at all. Cassie trusts him to not kill her but he doesn’t and he doesn’t want to get any more vulnerable to Cassie and so he limits it to oral sex and her orgasm. I love the fact that Karen Chance doesn’t allow Pritkin to withdraw and distance. I love the fact that after the life and death sex or die Cassie is able to be Pritkins’s emotional support in the shower. That’s more important than the sex in some ways. cassie is not letting Pritkin distance himself from her and withdraw or take the fault for this…Cassie is not going to let him make this a reason to withdraw further or add it to his noble reasons to withdraw from the field. I think this whole thing shows Cassie growing into her power. making the war mages do what she wants, making Caleb listen, bossing Rossier and Pritkin around and still declaring her independence from Mircea (don’t forget that all of this started with the rebellion and pizza)…as an aside to that given that Pritkin just told Cassie in their comical conversation over pizza there will be no more sexual healing slip ups leads to the most sexual of their healing slip ups…can anyone say irony? I am tired and my brain is stalling so this will be my two cents for a while…Please feel free to argue with me, as all of our perspectives make the reread all the more fun
“evil didn’t pick and choose who to corrupt. It took root like an insidious weed that sought to destroy whatever garden it could find succor in, no matter who, what, or where that garden originated from. Evil was never picky about its host. That was why it was so important to rip it out and toss it off before it could spread and rot the garden from the inside out. Take over and destroy the beauty that made the garden whole and healthy.” Deadmen Walking, Sherrilyn Kenyon
Deadmen Walking
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Fiction
Tor Books
May 9, 2017
384
#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon debuts a sweeping new epic saga sure to appeal to her millions of fans! Deadmen tell their tales . . . To catch evil, it takes evil. Enter Devyl Bane—an ancient dark warlord returned to the human realm as one of the most notorious pirates in the New World. A man of many secrets, Bane makes a pact with Thorn—an immortal charged with securing the worst creations the ancient gods ever released into our world. Those powers have been imprisoned for eons behind enchanted gates . . . gates that are beginning to buckle. At Thorn’s behest, Bane takes command of a crew of Deadmen and, together, they are humanity’s last hope to restore the gates and return the damned to their hell realms. But things are never so simple. And one of Bane’s biggest problems is the ship they sail upon. For the Sea Witch isn’t just a vessel, she’s also a woman born of an ancient people he wronged and who in turn wronged him during a centuries long war between their two races—a woman who is also sister to their primary target. Now Marcelina, the Sea Witch, must choose. Either she remains loyal to her evil sister and almost extinct race against Bane and his cause, and watches humanity fall, or she puts faith in an enemy who has already betrayed her. Her people over the totality of humanity—let’s hope Bane can sway her favor. Deadmen Walking is the first historical fantasy title in New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Deadman’s Cross series. It is a tale of passion and loss, emotions that wound and heal...and ultimate redemption
My next novel will be out June of 2018. I’ve been posting about the process of writing it, and a lot of you are asking what am I working on? Is it an Anita Blake novel, or a Merry Gentry one? Or something new? The answer to your question is in the picture we’ve just posted, or at least clues to the answer are there. The picture will tell you what series, some of the characters featured, and even some of the important plot points. There’s even a clue in this message. All you have to do is decipher the clues and you’ll have your answer. You’ll get your biggest hint next week, which will end some of the speculation, but not all of it. Shall we play a game?
The second you stop questioning yourself is the second that you become the monster.
― Laurell K. Hamilton, A Kiss of Shadows
A Kiss of Shadows
Laurell K. Hamilton
Fiction
Random House Digital, Inc.
2002
480
Meredith, a runaway Elven princess posing as a human private detective with a specialty in supernatural crime, is confronted by a dangerous new adversary, Doyle, the chief bodyguard and assassin of Meredith's aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, as Meredith becomes caught up in one of her dreaded aunt's evil schemes. By the author of Obsidian Butterfly. Reprint.
Gods and Ends (Ordinary Magic) (Volume 3)
Death and Relaxation
