Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney

Synopsis

Trapped between two very different worlds, newly made vampire Moth is struggling to find her place in either. Not only does she have to answer to her strict Irish-Catholic Dad, but her over-protective maker, Theo, is intent on making her the star attraction in his powerful Boston vampire clan. Moth will have to pull off the double-act of the century to please both of them...

Adding to her problems is the dangerously attractive Jason Murdoch, a trainee vampire hunter who loves to play cat and mouse in his spare time (Jace = cat; Moth = mouse). But when the teenagers of Boston’s wealthiest families start to disappear, it forces Moth and Jace into an uneasy truce. Will they be able to solve the mystery behind the disappearances—before someone winds up undead?

I'm on a roll at the moment having read a number of fabulous books. September's been a bumper month and I've been struggling to decide what to read next but have been so looking forward to Falling to Ash that it was an easy decision to start it straight away. I've always loved vampires but for me they have to be the deadly dangerous sort. I was intrigued by Moth since I read her short story in the Kiss Me Deadly anthology back in 2010. Moth is not the sort of vampire that we've become used to in recent years. She's newly made - only a year into her undead existence - and she's yet to come into her powers fully. Still able to walk in the daylight but she's swapped a life of misery with her alcoholic father for suffocatin with an over-protective maker. Her comings and goings are restricted and she has to learn the ways of her new family. She's also had to drop out of college and rarely gets to see her much-loved little sister.

These aren't her only problems. Police turn up on her doorstep wanting to know why a murdered boy has her address in his pocket. When she goes to investigate his body she finds Jace the vampire hunter and together they discover that the boy has transformed into a zombie. They team up to find out who is doing the killing and must do it quickly before more teenagers are taken. Moth is a fabulous character - she's both gutsy and foolhardy but also touchingly trusting and vulnerable. Her tragic family background gives her a sorrowful, serious air but she's also sharp-witted and mistress of the eye roll. 

Moth and Jace are a brilliant partnership and I was praying for them to get together. I won't give anything away but they have some wonderful moments together. Jace has his own problems - a totally single-minded vampire hunting father and zombies a-plenty. Jace is a great believer in research and has a huge library at his disposal. I like to think of him and Moth as a sort of Giles and Buffy combo - but well matched in age and sexy and … oh dear, you know what I mean. Jace is all wise and thinks things though while Moth acts instinctively and goes with her gut. They are the perfect duo!

The story is a wonderful whodunit and it breezes along to an explosive ending. The world of Falling to Ash is rich with folklore. I loved discovering the rules that the vampires must live by and how zombies are created. I sense that there's much to be revealed in the next book. Also available is the Moth Tales  webcomic (brilliantly illustrated by Candace Ellis) which is updated every Monday and Friday and I urge you to check it out in all its awesomeness. 

The Wood Queen by Karen Mahoney

Spoilers for The Iron Witch!

Synopsis

Donna Underwood is in deep trouble. An ancient alchemical order is holding her accountable for destroying the last precious drops of the elixar of life. Never mind the fact that Donna was acting to free her friend, Navin, from the dangerous clutches of the Wood Queen at the time. But what the alchemists have in store is nothing compared to the wrath of the fey. The Wood Queen has been tricked and Donna must pay. Get ready for all hell - quite literally - to break loose..

I adored The Iron Witch, every little tiny bit of it, so was ridiculously pleased to get my hands on the sequel. I wanted to throw myself back into the world of Ironbridge as quickly as possible. The opening finds Donna in a whole load of trouble. I mean, she did do something awful with the elixar at the end of the last book but it was all in a good cause - to ensure that Navin and The Maker were kept safe and surely this would be enough to help her cause, right? Wrong, as far as the alchemists are concerned she's got to be punished and a full-on trial is the result. But while the wheels of justice seem to turn painfully slowly the rest of Donna's life is out of control. First her mum's health deteriorates then the wood queen herself makes an appearance and a demand that cannot be ignored. Donna is left trying to placate the alchemists whilst doing what needs to be done. As the book progresses, Donna's priorities change as she makes some shocking discoveries.

I noticed a slight change in this book from The Iron Witch. Both the dialogue and Donna's inner monologue is much more snappy and snarky. I liked this as it shows she's changing, going from being the unfortunate victim of past events to a young woman who can make life-changing decisions. Navin was a brilliant as ever. His and Donna's friendship is really touching - you can really feel the longstanding bond between them. I still love Xan, I can't wait to see what happens between them in book three - he is a hot boy and no mistake. He's also got some secrets of his own in this book and I'm excited to find out if he gets what he wants. The alchemists' trial does bring something potentially intriguing and this is two members of the London group. I loved them both and am also extremely excited to see what this might mean for Donna. As for Donna herself, she's starting to find out some interesting and long-hidden secrets about herself and those magical tattoos ...

I feel like I haven't done this book justice with this review, I'm bubbling over to tell you about this bit or that bit but don't want to spoil it. Karen did this wonderful blog post a while ago about the middle book syndrome. It's brilliant, in fact I replied to it saying it was the Best. Post. Ever which it is (please read it, there are Star Wars references). But more than that Karen outlined what a middle book should provide and what it cannot. It can't give you a big showdown (although the ending of The Wood Queen is pretty damn explosive) but what it can do is take you further into the world the author has created and show you more than the first book. It sets things up for the end but when done well you feel as if you're being guided to your destination with thrills along the way. The Wood Queen manages this in spades, no - in shed-loads. There are only two books on my Best Books of 2012 shelf on Good Reads and this is one of them. Bravo. This book both kicks ass and yet is full of beauty.

Book three, The Stone Demon, is out in February 2013. 2013!!! *tears at hair* However, to make up for this Karen's novel about the teen vampire Moth, Falling to Ash, is out in September of this year.

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

Both Sarah and I felt the need to read and review Ms. Mahoney's book for various personal reasons and so we thought we'd both read it and do a combined review a la Booksmugglers.
Our first ever combined review:

Synopsis:

FREAK. That’s what her classmates call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood. When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed her father and drove her mother mad. Donna’s own nearly fatal injuries from the assault were fixed by magic—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. The child of alchemists, Donna feels cursed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane and grounded is her relationship with her best friend, Navin Sharma.

When the darkest outcasts of Faerie—the vicious wood elves—abduct Navin, Donna finally has to accept her role in the centuries old war between the humans and the fey. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous half-fey dropout with secrets of his own, Donna races to save her friend—even if it means betraying everything her parents and the alchemist community fought to the death to protect.

Liz’s Thoughts:

The Iron Witch starts with a party. Donna doesn’t like parties, she’s not too keen being at one, but then her best friend Navin had asked her to come with him, and honestly, she couldn’t really so no to him.

At the party, Donna meets the mysterious Xan who acts pretty much the idiot. He is the host of said party but when she meets him, he’s sitting on the roof of the house, hiding out. from his guests. Xan however is not the idiot he acts to be. He realises he’s screwing up by being weird towards Donna and in the end he apologises and sees her off home with Navin. Navin, of course, ends up in a bit of a huff. He doesn’t think much of Xan but Donna finds herself strangely attracted to him - admittedly he’s handsome and when he wants to be, he’s sweet, but she senses that there is more to him than that. But how can she tell this to Navin who seems set on not wanting to understand?

As the opening chapters progress, we learn that Donna is a special girl indeed. When she was small, creatures attacked her and basically destroyed her arms and this was when she lost her dad as something killed him as he tried to protect her. She doesn’t recall why she was in the bizarre forest of Ironbridge or why these creatures were after her either or why she was attacked. What she does know is that now she is a freak. She’s not entirely human. The metal that keeps her arms together is some kind of magical construct put together through alchemy and who knows what else? She has the mysterious Maker to thank for her silver implants and for saving her life.

She now lives with her aunt who is someone high up in a group of alchemists. Both Donna’s parents were alchemists too. And Donna is undergoing training as an alchemist herself. This of course means that the reader is quickly brought up to speed with all things alchemical necessary for the importance of various objects to make sense later in the story. There is a lot of medieval lore about alchemy and I take my hat off to the author as you can tell how much hard work has gone into the research. And yet, she walks a thin balance, showing us just enough alchemical lore to keep us interested and to progress the story without inundating us with it and boring us.

Donna meets with Xan a few times and as their hesitant friendship grows we have the opportunity to learn more about Donna (and Xan) and we realise that Donna’s a wonderfully intelligent, amusing and conflicted main character. But it is when Donna is with Navin that she really shines and we see her relaxed and at ease. But even Navin, her best friend, doesn’t know the extent of the Donna’s secrets.

The story is set in Ironbridge, a town in America that is entirely fictional. It allows Ms. Mahoney great leverage and she has the opportunity to create a lot of interesting settings, including the deeply mysterious forest of Ironbridge. And with the forest come the wood elves. Awful twisted creatures from our deepest nightmares. They add an extra level of menace and darkness to The Iron Witch. Tied in with them we find out a bit about Xan’s background and it’s not pleasant and we surmise a few things about Donna’s own background.

It’s when Navin gets taken by these creatures that things kick off into a new level of scary and it is up to Donna to face some of her own fears, break all the rules she knows, and push herself to the limit to do everything she can to save her friend.

Overall thoughts:

I’ve waited a long time to read The Iron Witch. I am pleased to say that it was worth the wait. Ms. Mahoney gives us a fresh new voice, interesting characters and above all, interesting rich lore - and I’m not just talking about the alchemy either. Her dark elves are deliciously menacing and their leader, The Wood Queen a really interesting villain. I couldn’t help but feel intrigued by her - she is on a knife’s edge of going either way as the villain - is she really bad or is she only bad because we don’t know her full story? I loved the ambiguity in this instance and although the story ends well, with several strands tied off, there are enough questions left over to make us wait (im)patiently for The Iron Witch’s companion novels, The Wood Queen and The Stone Demon.

Sarah’s thoughts

I’ve also been keen (okay – champing at the bit) to read The Iron Witch. Ages ago I remember Karen Mahoney using a lovely icon on her blog of a girl walking down a narrow path, mist surrounding her, and saying she thought it was the perfect icon for her book. I couldn’t wait to find out more about this mysterious world so was excited to get my hands on a copy. Immediately the reader is thrust into the action through an extract from Donna’s journal and we know that something extraordinary has happened to her in the past. Next, we’re straight into the present with her meeting with Xan at the party. I loved aloof Xan immediately (oh dear, that’s not a good sign as he definitely should have a sign saying, “Bad Boy,” hanging over his head). The first chapter crackles with the underlying feeling that everything is not what it seems. I love this feeling; when you’re at the start of a book that you’ve been looking forward to and you know you’re on the brink of falling into a new world.

The town of Ironbridge met my expectations and more. It has that glorious dual feeling of being a normal place with high schools and coffee shops but underneath it’s sizzling with mystery; elves, hidden Old Paths, workshops and shadowy houses. It provides everything I love about urban fantasy – the feeling that just a hair’s breadth away is another world waiting to be discovered. Ironbridge provides the perfect platform for the events of The Iron Witch.

Aside from the setting there are a wealth of great characters. Donna is instantly likeable by being both vulnerable but with an inner strength and strong belief in what’s right and wrong. Her relationship with Xan enables her to break out of the semi-cloistered world she’s been stuck in. She finds herself able to let go a little with him and the scene where she takes off her long gloves for him in a coffee shop is both touching and intimate. As their relationship grows Donna finds herself drawn into a world where she’s lead to question her beliefs.

Underlying all the action is a great deal of research into alchemy which serves to make the story all the more rich. As Liz has said, there’s just enough detail to intrigue the reader and I loved Donna’s investigations into the Frost estate, which is both beautiful but strangely threatening. To sum up, The Iron Witch is quite simply a gorgeous read. I was pulled in and bewitched by it but now I have to wait for the sequel. I wonder if tapping my fingers on the desk will make it come any quicker?

Find Karen Mahoney's website here.

Competition Time!

We are so excited about The Iron Witch that we bribed Random House to PUHLEASE let us give some copies away.  And, of course, they totally agreed. (ah, the power of cake)

Here's what we've got to offer:

FIVE copies of THE IRON WITCH to give away.  FOUR to UK people and ONE to a lucky international entrant.

Rules: comment below if you'd like to enter and tell us what it is about urban fantasy that appeals to you.  Remember to make sure we know how to contact you if you enter - i.e. twitter name / link to website etc. Oh, also tell us if you're UK or elsewhere.

The competition will run till 20th January and I'm diarising it now so that we can Random.org the winners on the day.  Good luck!

What are you waiting for?  Get entering!  

Saturday Ketchup

Thursday night Mark and I and our friend Kaz Mahoney pulled outselves together to go and meet the legend that is Raymond E Feist at Forbidden Planet in London.

It was amazing - he is a lovely erudite gentleman with a lovely speaking voice and a keen sense of humour - he shushed us a few times after we got our various books signed by him - we were standing chatting to the lovely Danie Ware from FP - BUT he did it with good humour and told several funny stories. There were many fans, some of whom clearly met him in the past.

Here's a pic of him signing a nice chaps proof copies.





He also posed with Mark but I shook too much to take a decent photo - so although you could tell it was Mark and it was Mr. Raymond E Feist, they all look a bit blurry. So, apologies for that!

This week has also been a very busy week at work. The only thing that kept me going insane was knowing I had parcels waiting for me at our neighbour, Ray. Our postie knows the drill and drops all our parcels with him. Cool, isn't it? In return we make sure the postie is supplied with wine and chocolate during the year - this keeps him happy lugging all those parcels around. And his wife thinks he's very thoughtful...


Anyway, here's a pic of a selection of the books we received this past week.

An exceedingly choice selection of books. I've already started on two of them. *beams*

I have two very hearty recommendations on books I've recently read - one review I can't post as yet as it is not yet published for a few looooong weeks yet but trust me when I say this, it's going to be big and it is going to rock your socks, especially if you are a fan of young adult urban fantasy.

The book is called Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda. I'm not saying a single thing more except for: make a note, pre-order it and read it. Or, stick around till closer the time, in May, when it's released and I'll be running an interview and a competition to win copies of it. Made a note in your diary.

Secondly, lie, cheat, buy or steal yourself a copy of the newest Felix Castor novel, Thicker than Water by Mike Carey. It is mindblowing. A non-stop actioner in which Fix comes up against a big bad, that makes even his demon-mate Juliette think twice. The review should be up early next week.

Today I got myself wiped out by the mother of all migraines. I've had several of them now, quite badly, these past few weeks. Having said that, today has also been an incredibly productive day writing-wise. I popped enough pills to fell an elephant and by midday I could actually make sense of what was going on around me. I had a burning need to write. And I did. 2000 words, people! My little piece of WIP which I am studiously working on, grew by 2k. I am very proud. I even re-read some of it and it all makes sense! I then went back upstairs to recharge and slept till five. If you were wondering where Mark was, well, he took himself off to the misty beaches of Kent looong before sunrise today and went fishing. He came home at around three with some lovely little pieces of fish. I'd show you the pics but I'm not all that into showing dead things on the blog.

So, watch out for a few upcoming reviews in the next few days. A lot of young adult stuff, a bit of fantasy (okay, maybe a lot) and some fab literary stuff too. Oh, and comps.

Murder One - Robin McKinley Signing

It always amazes me how many people can fit into Murder One's Romance and Paranormal Romance section. And it is small, as can be witnessed by these pictures from the MO website of previous events.

I arrived (fashionably) late (due to having to work till 6pm) for Robin McKinley's reading, talk and signing at Murder One last night. And after hugging the stuffing out of Karen and Trisha (who run this ever expanding department and who are absolutely amazing, btw), I sidled in to listen to a bit of Ms. McKinley’s readings. She has a lovely strong voice – I have found that there is nothing nicer than listening to an author reading their own work. They know the nuances, where to pause to create drama or hesitate that one bit when reading out loud to create a comedic rejoinder. She read from Chalice and gave us hints on her current work in progress. Pop over to her website and read her blog about that.

I slipped away when more people came in for the talk and spent some time chatting to the crazy and fun members of the M1 Book Club™ who were meeting up for the second time only (– if anyone is interested, and in the London area, new members are welcome, contact Trisha at Murder One for further information –) and they were gearing up to talk to Ms. McKinley and discuss the newly republished Sunshine. I will definitely be joining the book club – for now they will be focusing on Romance (read urban fantasy/supernatural romance with a bit of crime, murder, and butt-kicking thrown in) and I get the distinct impression the club will grow because they are so passionate about books and authors and all of them seem to love reading unreservedly.

I also got a chance to slip away downstairs and was there for maybe forty minutes examining all the bookshelves. All I can say is: sooo many books, one pair of eyes is not enough!

Back upstairs many of Ms. McKinley’s fans had had their books signed and were slipping away into the dark drizzly night. I bought my copy of Spindle’s End and had her sign it before moving on to give her some space to chat to others in the queue.

I was ready to go home but got lured into staying for the informal and hilarious chat with the book club and I'm so pleased that I did. Ms. McKinley’s agent decided to stay too, after we waved our Dear Author farewell, and she had us wrapped around her elegant finger, as she chatted to us about some of the authors they published, what she was currently doing here in the UK and in turn we gushed at her this stream of information about how much we loved some of the authors’ she had mentioned and asked her numerous questions. Eventually we unbarricaded the doors and allowed her to leave to meet up with a friend.

Trisha had made her amazing shortbread spider biscuits which were consumed at a rapid rate, along with other treats bought. Eventually we all packed it up and shimmied off into the night with calls of: see you next month, at seven!

It was an amazing evening, with such a buzz about it. I really do forget how much fun it is to get together with like-minded book addicts who are interested in the broad aspect and range of publishing and writing.

I also think that Murder One has hit the nail on the head with this Book Club of theirs – admittedly, it is early days still, but as one of London’s most iconic stores, and an independent bookseller, they can encourage this type of thing, thanks to the largess of the owner, Max. From a reader’s, author and editor’s perspective, as well as a shop owner, he must have seen the benefits immediately – where else can those interested in reading and talking about books go, without feeling a bit self-conscious, to be a bit rowdy and talk books, characters and have a bit of wine? As Trisha pointed out: he didn’t have to agree to having the book club have their meetings at the shop but he is forward thinking enough to realize that having a bunch of passionate readers in the shop will generate more interest in the stock they currently carry, along with more income and Murder One will get yet another tag added to its illustrious image.

So, what the above paragraph is really about is: start your own book club or join M1 Book Club, even if you are hesitant about the books being read, it will open doors to new books and experiences – and like it was pointed out last night: book clubs have the carte blanche to read anything they want from pure literary, to feminist poetry, to romance and science fiction – the core thing is: to read. And to support your indie bookshops! We can’t afford to lose them!

This post has turned out much longer than anticipated, and for sticking with me, I’d like to offer up a competition. I have somehow managed to order two of Katherine Neville’s astonishing novel, The Eight, and therefore have one spare copy and would love to give it away to someone. My original copy of The Eight I had bought when I first moved to the UK to replace the one I left behind in South Africa, has gone walkabout with someone else, hence the new copy.

The challenge is: in your entry, tell me how books have influenced you - have you taken up martial arts because of reading Bruce Lee's biography, have you decided to become a writer, learn to play chess, become a Nascar fan, a PI or a ghostbuster...let us know how . Email me the answers and your contact details – am prepared to post anywhere on the planet – and I’ll do a lucky dip at the end of next week, Friday 14th November 2008 first thing in the morning and announce the winner and have the winning reply posted on MFB - so if you run your own blog, LJ or Wordpress site, let me have the link and we can link it back.

We have a winner!

No, it is not me in the photo.

We have a winner in the competition the newly agented, talented and all-round good girl Karen Mahoney ran on my site as part of her interesting and fun guest blog (here).

The Winner:

Brian Ohio

Congratulations Brian! Remember to stop jumping up and down and to make sure you let Karen have your snailmail address.

Writing My Way to Sanity - Guest Blog by Karen Mahoney

Karen erm..Who, you may ask!? Well, Karen is a young Urban Fantasy writer who I managed to convince that it might be a good idea to give us a "behind the scenes" tour of well, a bit about her. She's not yet published, but she has managed to land a fantastic agent so more good news and general squeeing will be happening - watch this space.

Here she is, in her own words:

When Liz invited me to write a guest blog over here I was excited, despite wondering, “Why me? I haven’t even sold a book yet – let alone published one!” But then I thought: Well, I just took a pretty big step on this writing journey, and maybe people would be interested to know how I got here. My agent (yeah, I still get chills saying those two words *g*) is Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency in New York. So how did a London-based girl like me hook up with a major player like her?

Let’s back-up to October 2007. I wasn’t in a good place in my life. At all. My 3-year relationship had come to an end, the day job wasn’t going so well and I’d moved house 3 times in 6 months. I was tired and ill and I hadn’t written in a couple of months. And then two of my online friends and I decided to do our own mini-version of the NaNo writing challenge, where we’d aim for writing 30,000 words in a month: 1,000 words a day, I thought, would surely be manageable.

It gave me focus and a goal – something to aim for and to feel positive about. I picked up the notes I’d made back in June for a Young Adult urban fantasy called THE IRON WITCH, inspired by an essay by Midori Snyder in the Endicott Studio’s Journal of Mythic Arts: ‘The Armless Maiden and The Hero’s Journey.’

"Table Suréalisme" by Alberto Giacometti

And I just got sucked into the story and carried away by my own characters, something that had never truly happened to me before. As I wrote, one of my cats slept beside me every day, recovering from having a back leg amputated after an accident – we honestly didn’t know if he would make it through. Each day I laid down more and more words, and each day my cat looked brighter and his strange post-op behaviour became less disturbing. During that first month, I know it sounds stupid but I honestly believe we were healing together.

I ended up writing far more – and far more quickly – than I ever imagined I could, and THE IRON WITCH was complete in early December. I let it rest before revising and getting critiques and revising again. And then in January I began querying agents in the US – I knew that YA urban fantasy had more of a market over there and I was determined to find an audience for my work, and for this book in particular. I didn’t know if I was good enough to get an agent yet, but something told me I might be onto something with this project so I persevered through the rejections and close calls.

There were a lot of rejections, but there were also a lot of requests for my full manuscript. As my hopes grew, I revised again – and then again – and I waited and hoped some more. Then I began writing another book, something new to take my mind off the continual rollercoaster.
I’d first queried Miriam back in January – she was one of the very first agents I wanted thanks to her reputation as an advocate for urban fantasy. The fact that she represents some of the best authors in the genre (Lilith Saintcrow, Vicki Pettersson, and Rachel Vincent to name just few) certainly didn’t hurt. By March I still hadn’t heard anything, but another agent sent a very kind rejection with the magic words: “I think you should query Miriam Kriss. You can use my name as a referral.” Here was my opportunity to ‘status query’ whether or not my original email had been received, and just hours after I wrote to Miriam she replied requesting the full manuscript of THE IRON WITCH.

Three more months later – where there were yet more close calls with some wonderful agents – Miriam offered representation. I screamed the house down when I read the email requesting a phone conversation. I couldn’t believe it – honestly couldn’t believe that this thing I had wanted to do since I was 12 years old was coming just a little bit closer. I have so much to look forward to in terms of improving the manuscript before submissions to publishers, while getting on with my next projects. I am dedicated to becoming a better writer, supporting other writers, talking about urban fantasy and one day seeing my words in print.

Oh, and my cat – the one who is currently running around the garden on three legs – is doing absolutely fine.

Contest: Anyone who comments over here on My Favourite Books telling me what their favourite urban fantasy book is (either adult or YA), will have their name entered into a ‘hat’ and a winner selected at random will receive a copy of Lilith Saintcrow’s latest offering – the just-released NIGHT SHIFT, first in the Jill Kismet series. I’m reading it right now and it ROCKS! You have until the end of the day Wednesday 9th July to comment. I’ll ship to any country.

Cheers, Karen.

You've met her here first folks!

To keep up to date with Karen and her writing, feel free to visit her over at her LJ site.