STORM FORCE EXCERPT

Kell spotted the bird as soon as its wingtips cleared the edge of the cypress stand at the eastern rim of Bayou Cote Blanche. For a moment, he indulged a hope it might be a hawk in search of fish, or a pelican, or a cormorant, or a fucking giant mutant hummingbird.

Anything but an eagle.

“It’s her.” At the sound of his voice, Gator raised his spotted head and focused sharp, mismatched eyes on the horizon, barking furiously in his Catahoula big-dog voice, usually reserved for alligators and swamp rats.

Kell had been sitting on the porch of his cabin at Cote Blanche since Nik’s phone call from New Orleans two hours ago, waiting to see who’d arrive first—the man or the bird.

            Should’ve known it would be the freakazoid eagle with the deceptively sweet name of Robin. He’d come to think of her as Razorblade Robin. Nik would have to rent a boat in Jeanerette and navigate the serpentine waterways of Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Swamp to get here. Razorblade Robin could just sprout feathers and soar.

            The midday sun glinted off the glossy reddish-brown wings of the golden eagle as it swooped over the smooth, murky water of the bayou and landed with a harsh caw at the end of his dock. Gator rose to his feet and looked up at Kell, asking permission to chase.

“Sorry, buddy. You don’t want to mess with that one. She can take you.” Hell, she could take both of them.

Kell took a final look at the pile of papers he’d been reading—notes about his team’s new assignment. Mostly, he’d been studying the photo on top of the stack. The woman, Emory Chastaine, an environmental activist well known in tree-hugger circles, had been photographed from a distance with a telephoto lens that gave the image a grainy feel, made worse by his generator-powered printer. But he could tell she was tall, athletic-looking in a t-shirt and jeans, shoulder-length blond hair, pretty in an all-American kind of way.

Not his image of a terrorist. Which made her even more dangerous.

            Gator sprang off the porch as the eagle strutted down the dock toward them. He approached the bird in a crouch, his growls echoing off the still water. Damn dog never did listen worth a flip. Kell leaned back in his chair to watch the show. With a screech and a blur of feathers seconds before Gator reached her, the eagle morphed into a petite, waifish brunette.

Make that a naked, waifish brunette with a snark-tastic attitude who arched an eyebrow when Kell’s vicious watchdog turn into a slobbering, tail-wagging fool, jumping up and down so vigorously his black and white spots seemed to blur. You’d think the hound saw birds turn into people every day.

            If Gator went the crotch-sniffing route, Kell might have to die of pure humiliation.

            Not like the naked bird-woman came as any big surprise. He reached for the t-shirt he’d thrown across the other porch chair and tossed it to her as she approached, Gator dancing around her legs. “Put this on.”

            Robin Ashton, five-foot-nothing of shapeshifter and the tracker for Kell’s new Omega Force team, caught the shirt and used it to wipe the sweat off her face. “It’s like a sauna out here. Pretty, though, if you’re into the primordial.”

She turned to study the bayou, a minor niche in the massive Atchafalaya basin, and Kell made it a point to keep his eyes away from her ass. It wasn’t that he wanted to look at it, exactly, but he was a guy, and it was right in front of him.

***

You can read my review of the first installment of this new series here.  I loved it, highly recommend it, and am looking forward to the next release!

She-Wolf Review

As we all know, there is quite a bit Susannah Sandlin love here, at She-Wolf Reads, so when presented with the opportunity to review her new serial series STORM FORCE, my response was “Hell, yes!”  I was particularly excited to read this because it’s a loose spinoff of her beloved Penton Legacy series.  This is also my first serial review.  It’s a bit difficult because I can’t give a review of the story as a whole — a beginning, middle, and end — but rather, I can give you my impressions and opinions about the start of the story. If the point of the first episode of a serial is to whet a reader’s appetite, Sandlin more than succeeds at that for me. 

With this first episode we are introduced to Jack “Kell” Kellison, former Army Ranger, nursing an injury in secret and heading a counter-terrorism team, Omega Force.  This covert group is made up of human and supernatural operatives tasked with investigating and thwarting acts of domestic terrorism.   Jack’s team is interesting.  Sandlin introduced enough information about them to make me want to know more – members include someone who can learn the history of something by touch, shifters, and a tech genius.  But it’s really Kell that takes center stage and I like him – tough, smart, and leading a somewhat lonely existence.  His life has been centered on the military and his injury threatens that life which also makes him a bit vulnerable.  It serves as a reminder of his humanity, especially when his fellow Omega Force members are supernatural and stronger.    

This team is thrown into investigating a bombing in Houston and their primary suspect is Mori Chastaine.  She is the biggest mystery of this first installment.  She’s young, the head of an environmental activist organization, and, I think, not human.  We don’t know what the heck she is but we do know something is not right.  Sandlin hints at enough darkness, power, and fear in her background to keep me on edge wanting to know what she is, who her family is, and why she’s been implicated in the bombing.  When you find out who may be pulling the strings, it makes her mystery even more interesting.  

What Sandlin always gets right is a sense of place and her character interactions.  I always feel like I’m sitting right in one her scenes, whether it’s in the middle of the Bayou or in downtown Houston.  Her ability to describe a place and make it tangible to the reader is remarkable.  I also love her character interactions.  She gets camaraderie right, she did it in Penton and she does in Storm Force.  The hardest part of the serial is that I want more.  But I guess that’s the point! 

I really enjoyed episode one of STORM FORCE.  The conflict is compelling and the characters are interesting.  I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next installment.  Highly recommended!

4 HOWLS – Excellent and highly recommended

She-Wolf Review

RIVER ROAD has to be one of the best books I read in 2012.  I read it as 2012 was coming to a close and it ended the reading year with a bang for me.  Picking up three years after the first book in the series, ROYAL STREET, Johnson continues to bring us a fantastic heroine charged with keeping the supernatural world in line while dealing with romantic confusion and an unwieldy magical staff.  

RIVER ROAD, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways…

1.    DRUSILLA JACO, a.k.a. “DJ”

DJ continues to be one of my favorite UF heroines mainly because she’s one of the most relatable I’ve come across.  DJ is strong, smart and independent; she’s self-deprecating, a bit geeky, and full of a social awkwardness that makes me smile.  She’s not without her struggles.  DJ doubts her abilities, her work, her romantic life – all issues we can relate to regardless of the fact she’s a wizard.  Different job, same problems.  In the first book, she was very green in terms of being a Sentinel, but now, three years later, she’s starting to come into her own.  She still needs to look things up in her magical tomes and bemoans not knowing enough, but she’s developing a stronger sense of self as Sentinel which makes her a wonderful character to watch develop.

2.    ROMANCE

I wasn’t too big of an Alex fan in ROYAL STREET.  I preferred Jake’s easygoing nature and warmth.  But Johnson really flipped the switch on me in RIVER ROAD.  With three years gone by, Alex and DJ have developed a comfortable but layered friendship.  Preserving a working relationship keeps the chemistry to a platonic distance.  And that chemistry is undeniable.  Alex admirably holds his obvious feelings for DJ at bay while his cousin, Jake, recommences his romantic overtures towards her.   Awkward?  You bet.  By the end of the book, I was team Alex all the way and was practically yelling at him to make a move.  What makes this romantic triangle work is its slow development.  DJ has a lot to figure out and Johnson is giving her heroine the time and space to do just that.  It’s going to make the resolution of this romantic conflict all the sweeter because of it.  Oh, and let’s not forget the sexy dead pirate, Jean Lafitte, who also has his eyes set on DJ.  With him in the mix, anything can happen.

3.    THE MYSTERY

RIVER ROAD has a very well-drawn procedural feel to it as well.  Someone is polluting the waters of the Mississippi and it’s up to DJ to figure out the culprit before two clans of mermen go to war and innocent lives are lost.  DJ has her investigator hat on and works through theories and possible magical stopgaps as she slowly makes her way to the final solution.  Walking with her through her investigative steps was fun and suspenseful; it also provided a great backdrop in which to add more to the overall word-building of the series through the introduction of mermen and nymphs, and all the baggage they bring to the politics and history of the supernatural world.

4.    WORLD-BUILDING

This is still one of the major strengths of this series.  Johnson really excels at creating a layered supernatural world full of magic, power, and politics.  The idea of the historical undead – the continued existence of past historical figures whose immortality is fueled off the collective memory humanity still holds for them – is still one of the most original ideas I’ve seen in a UF.  Johnson adds to this world by bringing the fae to the forefront towards the end of the book.  This is obviously where the next in the series is heading as DJ’s staff and bloodline have brought her to the attention of the effectively frightening fae.  I’m intrigued by where RIVER ROAD leaves us in terms of this storyline.  I have a feeling DJ is going to be pushed beyond her boundaries in the next book.

5.    NEW ORLEANS

In some books, the city in which the story takes place can often be just a backdrop and easily replaced by any other city in the world.  Not so with the Sentinels series.  New Orleans is a character in and of itself.  While Katrina played a major role in the first book, its aftermath plays an equally important role in this book.  The city is rebuilding, dealing with neighborhoods that haven’t been able to bounce back and people who’ve decided not to rebuild.  Furthermore, the magical pollution of the Mississippi was also a timely reminder of troubles in the non-fictional Gulf region.  And it’s this reminder that keeps the story of mermen, wizards, dead pirates, shapeshifters, and all the magical mayhem and excitement of DJ’s world, grounded and relevant to our own in a very thoughtful way.

I finished RIVER ROAD in the wee hours of the morning and my first thought was, “Damn, this was good.”  Honestly, if you’re looking for a strong UF series with a very relatable and likeable heroine, a unique world and well-developed magic system, then you would do well to pick up RIVER ROAD and it’s predecessor, ROYAL STREET.  Hands down, RIVER ROAD was one of my favorite books last year.  Read it.  Now.

My Soulmate. May not be perfect, but it’s perfect for me.

She-Wolf Review

It’s no secret that here, at She-Wolf Reads, there’s a lot of love for Susannah Sandlin (a.k.a. Suzanne Johnson) and her Penton Legacy series.  I’ve reviewed the first two books here and here, the author has guest posted here, and the latest book in the series, OMEGA, made my most anticipated reads for 2013 here.  There’s something about this community of vampires and their layered relationships, coupled with the tenuous future of Penton that keeps me coming back for more.  Sandlin originally announced this as a trilogy.  Let me say right now that I will start writing letters to the publisher to get more books in this series.  Yes, I like it that much. And this latest release, OMEGA, didn’t disappoint.

Some of the strongest and most original aspects of OMEGA are its two main male protagonists – Will and Cage.

His ego couldn’t deal with both his father and a woman with bigger balls than him. A man had to have limits.

Let’s start with Will.  In the second book, ABSOLUTION, when I got the sense that Will would be the featured character in the follow-up, I admit there was a part of me that may have been a little worried.  I bought into his image as an arrogant, cocky, reformed rich kid who, while smart and with a good heart, still came across as someone who lacked a certain depth.  That Sandlin is a tricky one.  The Will we discover in OMEGA is unlike any other vampire hero I’ve read in a PNR.  His arrogance masks insecurity and while he’s a strong male character, he’s not the overt alpha male we normally see in the genre.   This guy has serious issues and a past he’s trying to not let define him.  I love the depth Sandlin gave him, along with the very realistic coping mechanism of arrogance to hide insecurity.  I also loved that he’s paired with Randa, a Vet, who probably scares and intimidates the shit out of him, all the while not knowing she feels the same about him.  The tension is delicious and the coming together of the two is sweet, tender, and deserved.

One thing that sets OMEGA apart from the previous two books in the series is that there’s a good amount of time devoted to another character in addition to Will and Randa, the book’s central couple.  That character is Cage.  He got on my radar in ABSOLUTION and in OMEGA, Sandlin fleshes out his position in Penton and why he’s there.  Cage is interesting.  He has skills from his past in the military in addition to a unique profession that makes his insight into the Penton vampires probing and, at times, funny.  Cage also starts to have feelings for one of the Penton crew which opens up a romantic dilemma for the tight knit group.  While I did feel there were traces of insta-love, it didn’t matter.  The conflict it promises to create is going to be heartbreaking and I want to see where it goes.  But I won’t give details because it would be a major spoiler.  Suffice it to say that if we’re lucky enough to get another book, Cage will be a major player both in terms of the future of Penton and with regards to its romantic drama.

For series fans, rest assured Sandlin brings the overarching storyline of Penton’s relationship with the Tribunal to somewhat of a conclusion and by that I mean she goes ahead and opens up another storyline that is, well, very cool.  The potential for spinoff or continuation is ripe in OMEGA leaving me both satisfied and, honestly, rabid for more.

Now, be honest…a letter to the publisher…too much?

My Soulmate. May not be perfect, but it’s perfect for me.

TOUR GIVEAWAY

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SUZANNE JOHNSON & THE 5 BOOKS THAT INSPIRED HER

1.     The Stand by Stephen King

This is the first book I remember reading when I was old enough to really get caught up in the emotion of adult characters. It gave me an appreciation for a big, sprawling story with multiple points of view, each character richly drawn and deeply flawed—yet still heroic. It’s arguably the first modern dystopian novel—99.4 percent of the world’s population dies quickly from a pandemic virus, and the remaining .6 percent quickly divide into good and evil. With a supernatural element, of course.

2.     All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg

I adore Rick Bragg, and from his books All Over But the Shoutin’ and Ava’s Man, I learned what it meant when people spoke of an author having a voice. Hearing Rick’s voice helped me find mine—or at least recognize that I had one. Shoutin’ and Ava are both memoirs but read like the best fiction. And he grew up in my neck of the woods, in the Appalachian foothills of north Alabama, so his people and his family customs are not so different from my own, for better or worse.

3.     Cashelmara by Susan Howatch

I spent my teens reading these huge gothic multigenerational family sagas by Susan Howatch—Penmarric, The Wheel of Fortune, Sins of the Fathers, The Rich are Different. But my favorite was always Cashelmara, which is set in Ireland during the Potato Famine and afterward. I’ve probably read that book at least twenty times. In fact, I’m eyeing it as I type this. It’s been quite a few years, and I wonder if it would still hold the magic for me. Susan Howatch was the first author whose work I obsessively collected in hardcover.

4.     1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose

If you are going to read one book about what life was like in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, this is the one. You should read it. Before Katrina, Chris Rose was an entertainment writer for the Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ newspaper. During the storm, he camped in primitive conditions and wrote about his city every day for four months, providing a heartbreaking lifeline to those of us scattered around the country, evacuated from our homes and desperate for news. He fell into a very public depression and that, too, is on these pages as he chronicles the trauma we all went through and gave us a voice. This is a collection of his daily columns, and it still makes me weep to read it. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer. He should have won it.

5.     Storm Front by Jim Butcher &  

Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

Okay, this is two books so I’m sort of cheating, but after years of reading literary fiction and nonfiction, I stumbled across two urban fantasy series in 2008, started reading them, and fell in love. I’d read a few Anita Blake books years ago but hadn’t kept up with the genre, so it was like discovering a new world. I devoured all the Dresden and Nightside books back-to-back. I’d been toying with the idea of trying to write a Katrina novel to exorcise my own demons from the experience, and after reading these two series, I knew I wanted to write urban fantasy and its close cousin, paranormal romance.  

MY CHARACTERS ARE READING…

DJ Jaco would claim her favorite is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but in reality (she’ll deny this), it’s the Harry Potter series. She adores the Potter books in private, but in public enjoys making fun of how easy everything is for the fictional wizards.

Alex Warin reads a good bit of military history, but when he wants to relax he pulls out a Harlan Coben thriller such as Tell No One.

Jake Warin is not a big reader, but he has taken to studying books on wolf pack behavior.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR SUZANNE…

The third book in the Sentinels of New Orleans series, Elysian Fields, will come out next August, and I’m working on a digital short that’s sort of a “Misadventures of Jean Lafitte” and should be out in the spring.

I just released a digital short that is a standalone paranormal, Christmas in Dogtown.

Omega, the third book in my Penton Legacy series written as Susannah Sandlin, will be out on February 5.

And I’m working on a couple of proposals for new projects!

5×5 Giveaway – Suzanne Johnson

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Excerpt from River Road

The minute hand of the ornate grandfather clock crept like a gator stuck in swamp mud. I’d been watching it for half an hour, nursing a fizzy cocktail from my perch inside the Hotel Monteleone. The plaque on the enormous clock claimed it had been hand- carved of mahogany in 1909, about 130 years after the birth of the undead pirate waiting for me upstairs.

            They were both quite handsome, but the clock was a lot safer.

            The infamous Jean Lafitte had expected me at seven. He’d summoned me to his French Quarter hotel suite by courier like I was one of his early nineteenth-century wenches, and I hated to destroy his pirate-king delusions, but the historical undead don’t summon wizards. We summon them.

            I’d have blown him off if my boss on the Congress of Elders hadn’t ordered me to comply and my co-sentinel, Alex, hadn’t claimed a prior engagement.

            At seven thirty, I abandoned my drink, took a deep breath, and marched through the lobby toward the bank of elevators.

            On the long dead-man-walking stroll down the carpeted hallway, I imagined all the horrible requests Jean might make. He’d saved my life a few years ago, after Hurricane Katrina sent the city into freefall, and I hadn’t seen him since. I’d been desperate at the time. I might have promised him unfettered access to modern New Orleans in exchange for his assistance. I might have promised him a place to live. I might have promised him things I don’t even remember. In other words, I might be totally screwed.

            I reached the door of the Eudora Welty Suite and knocked, reflecting that Jean Lafitte probably had no idea who Eudora Welty was, and wouldn’t like her if he did. Ms. Welty had been a modern sort of woman who wouldn’t hop to attention when summoned by a scoundrel.

            He didn’t answer immediately. I’d made him wait, after all, and Jean lived in a tit- for- tat world. I paused a few breaths and knocked harder. Finally, he flung open the door, waving me inside to a suite plush with tapestries of peach and royal blue, thick carpet that swallowed the narrow heels of my pumps, and a plasma TV he couldn’t possibly know how to operate. What a waste.

            “You have many assets, Drusilla, but apparently a respect for time is not among them.” Deep, disapproving voice, French accent, broad shoulders encased in a red linen shirt, long dark hair pulled back into a tail, eyes such a cobalt blue they bordered on navy. And technically speaking, dead.

            He was as sexy as ever.

            “Sorry.” I slipped my hand in my skirt pocket, fingering the small pouch of magic-infused herbs I carried at all times. My mojo bag wouldn’t help with my own perverse attraction to the man, but it would keep my empathic abilities in check. If he still had a perverse attraction to me, I didn’t want to feel it.

            He eased his six-foot-two frame into a sturdy blue chair and slung one long leg over the arm as he gave me a thorough eyeraking, a ghost of a smile on his face.

            I perched on the edge of the adjacent sofa, easing back against a pair of plump throw pillows, and looked at him expectantly. I hoped what ever he wanted wouldn’t jeopardize my life, my job, or my meager bank account.

            “You are as lovely as ever, Jolie,” Jean said, trotting out his pet name for me that sounded deceptively intimate and brought back a lot of memories, most of them bad. “I will forgive your tardiness— perhaps you were late because you were selecting clothing that I would like.” His gaze lingered on my legs. “You chose beautifully.”

            I’d picked a conservative black skirt and simple white blouse with the aim of looking professional for a business meeting, part of my ongoing attempt to prove to the Elders I was a mature wizard worthy of a pay raise. But this was Jean Lafitte, so I should have worn coveralls. I’d forgotten what a letch he could be.

            “I have a date after our meeting,” I lied. He didn’t need to know said date involved a round carton with the words Blue Bell Ice Cream printed on front. “Why did you want to see me?”

            There, that hadn’t been so difficult—just a simple request. No drama. No threats. No double- entendre. Straight to business.

            “Does a man need a reason to see a beautiful woman? Especially one who is indebted to him, and who has made him many promises?” A slow smile spread across his face, drawing my eyes to his full lips and the ragged scar that trailed his jawline.

            I might be the empath in the room, but he knew very well that, in some undead kind of way, I thought he was hot.

            I felt my face warming to the shade of a trailer- trash bridesmaid’s dress, one whose color had a name like raging rouge. I’d had a similar reaction when I first met Jean in 2005, two days before a mean hurricane with a sissy name turned her malevolent eye toward the Gulf Coast. I blamed my whole predicament on Katrina, the bitch.

            Her winds had driven the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into the canals that crisscrossed the city, collapsing levees and filling the low, concave metro area like a gigantic soup bowl.

            But NBC Nightly News and Anderson Cooper had missed the biggest story of all: how, after the storm, a mob of old gods, historical undead, and other preternatural victims of the scientific age flooded New Orleans. As a wizard, I’d had a ringside seat. Now, three years later, the wizards had finally reached accords with the major preternatural ruling bodies, and the borders were down, as of two days ago. Jean hadn’t wasted any time.

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