CBR15 Passport Challenge: Different genres – suspense thriller, urban fantasy, and monster romance
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole has been in my audible library for way too long. When it was picked for my Lawless book club, it was a sign. I do like to read mystery and thrillers to mix it up between the glut of romances I read. Dubbed by the author as a gentrification thriller, Sydney Green is having a bad time. After a disastrous divorce, she’s moved back in with her mom in Brooklyn. Her mom is seriously ill. And she is filled with self doubt. Before the big neighborhood block party, she is nudged into starting a walking tour. She wants to showcase the history of the original Black residents before it’s all forgotten and swallowed by gentrification. Rude yuppies continue to move in to the Brownstones on her street, coincidently after neighbors abruptly move away. She shakes tries to shake off her paranoia, but new white faces keep appearing. The bodego is taken over by a racist jerk who tries to keep her change. An uber driver nearly kidnaps her. Things come to a head when more neighbors disappear including her best friend. Her white neighbor Theo has a crush on Sydney. He’s unemployed and just moved to the neighborhood with his girlfriend (who hates him). With a disintegrating relationship, he volunteers to help with the tour. Eventually, the pair start digging into the sinister happenings to unravel a bigger conspiracy of gentrification than imagined.
My favorite characters were the elderly neighbors full of stories and wisdom. They keep Sydney on her toes and surprise her repeatedly by the end. There is a small romance with Sydney and Theo, but it’s really two lost souls taking solace in each other. The scariest part is how the thriller wasn’t as far fetched as I hoped. Brooklyn (and so much of LA) has changed so much. Housing prices are outrageous, so when a family is priced out and sells. Where do the go? How far will developers go to get land? The unconventional but fast paced thriller made my mind wander. Alyssa Cole is an excellent writer, so she will always be an insta buy. Read this if you’re interested in local history, loved Get Out, and like suspense novels.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews was picked for The Ripped Bodice Fantasy Romance book club. So I had to re-read it and defend my undying devotion to the Kate Daniels series. I recognize there is a ton exposition explaining the magic power groups. But how else are they gonna set up this world where magic clashes with technology in unexplained waves? I love urban fantasy when it weaves magic into the real world. Atlanta is the backdrop with crumbling skyscrapers, Kate uses cars with magic engines one day and a horse another day. She is a freelance magical bounty hunter working freelance for the guild. When her mentor is killed, she decides to find his killer and crosses paths with shifter leader, Curran. He is a lion shifter and trades banter with Kate easily. They figure out the big bad and we get to see how much of a badass Kate is.
Book one always gets a lot of flack because Kate doesn’t really have good luck on her date in this novel. The lack of sexy times and HEA didn’t go over well at book club for some. Probably should have warned them! Oops. I was already all in for the slow burn with Curran, since I know the pay off. It’s fun to re-read and see where the hints of their romance began. The prequel story and bonus material with the quiz made buying the mass market worth it to me. Ilona Andrews books are never a bad time. I have multiple copies of their books (and will be getting the disputed trade re-releases). This is a great series if you’re new or seasoned to the urban fantasy genre. You’ve got magic, family secrets, shifter shenanigans, and humorous dialogue. Read this if you like no nonsense women with supernatural powers taking down baddies like in Lost Girl or Wynonna Earp.
I’ve dabbled in monster romance before so the premise of I’m in Love with Mothman by Paige Lavoie won me over immediately. I also organized an event for The Ripped Bodice BK for the second book. Fantasy Book Club at the LA store also read it. They did an EPIC Halloween costume recreating the cover. We meet Heather as she decides to move to a small town near a forest. She needs a change of pace from her social media influencer life. Her mom was an influencer and constantly blogged and posted about her life, so it was natural Heather became a content creator. But the comments got vicious and being permanently online is taxing. Something I know from working as a social media director. She arrives in town and sticks out with her trendy clothes. She befriends a the lesbian general store clerk and her brother who is obsessed with catching monsters in the forest. He also likes hitting on Heather. Heather is skeptical joins him on a hunt, but realizes something is really off about his obsession. When attempting to climb a tree and prove she has the hang of forest life, she encounters Moth aka Mothman. He saves her when she nearly falls to her death. She wakes up at home and thinks she was dreaming. But when Moth falls onto her roof during a storm, she realizes the oddly hot creature with the red eyes is real. She nurses him back to health and discovers he can (conveniently) shapeshift to a human form. That’s when the romance begins in earnest. We learn Moth has no memory and can’t seem to stay away from Heather. Things get messy with the cryptid hunter with the unhealthy crush.
I liked this, but did have some lingering questions with the action-heavy ending and the epilogue “explaining” how Heather survived the final fight. It teases that fae/fairies are a big part of book two, so I’ll be continuing the series. I’m a sucker for tortured heroes navigating the fae realm. Not everyone at book club was sold, but I’m willing to overlook some plot rushing since I loved the premise. I would recommend the audiobook too, which I got from the library to read with the print copy. Moth’s voice was a bit hard to hear without turning it way up, but he is a monster after all. Read this is you want an easy dip into monster romances and a city slicker in the woods story.