Book Review: Queenpin by Megan Abbott

What does it take to make a Queenpin fall?

A nameless female narrates the story of her rise from accountant for a dive bar to the right hand of notorious femme fatale Gloria Denton, Queenpin of the underworld.

Set against a gritty noir backdrop, Abbott takes the reader along with her narrator as she leaves home to take on a new job and life with Gloria. Within weeks, she advances from small time criminal acts to money laundering at the racetrack. 

When Gloria kills the narrator's boyfriend, she realises that it's only a matter of time and a game of wits if she is to get out unscathed, as Gloria seems to be looking to pin the murder on the narrator.

Rating 3/5

Book Review: My Life in Black and White by Kim Izzo

Clara's life is falling apart. Her husband has just left her for a younger woman and she's been arrested for a mysterious crime.

So, she tells the police what happened, in her own words...

After her husband leaves her, she returns home to spend some time with her mother watching film noir movies, including one that starred her late grandmother in a bit part role.

She realises that she wants her husband back, so she follows him across to London, armed with only a vintage suitcase filled with her grandmother's clothes from the film noir era.

She finds not only the clothes in the case but also the beginnings of a screenplay written by her late grandmother, which inspires her to complete the story and try to get it produced while she is in Endgland.

Then, one day she wakes up and life is a film noir movie. People are dressed in clothes from all the movies she's seen, not to mention their manner of speaking.

She realises that, somehow, she has been pushed back through time, to a few days before her grandmother's mysterious death near the Hollywood sign. She reaches out to her grandmother (who is still in America) via telegram, hoping to change her grandmother's destiny.

As she works on the script and tries to think of ways to win back her ex's love, she realises that maybe it is okay to act as the femme fatale of film noire at times.

A light read that takes its reader through time and leaves them wondering if they should, at times, release their own hell cat within.

Rating 4/5

Book Review: Succubus Revealed by Richelle Mead

Succubus Georgina finally has what she wants: the man she loves at her side publicly, but it has come at the cost of losing her human friends and a job she enjoyed.

She can't do anything about the friends she's lost, but she does have a new job, working as an elf for an alcoholic Santa Claus in a mall.

Her life is almost perfect, but there are two problems marring it. In his sleep, Seth calls Georgina by her mortal name, one that he has never been told. The other problem? Hell is transferring her to Las Vegas away from everything she knows.

Since she can't do anything to stop the transfer, she turns her attention to Seth and the mystery of how he knows her mortal name. With the help of her demonic friends, Seth is hypnotised and relives 9 of his past lives where he is searching for his beloved, the first life bring the one where he knew her as a mortal, and and that Hell has a contract for his soul.

It's Georgina versus Hell in a court room fight, not only for Seth's soul but her own. If they win, they'll both get their deals revoked. If they lose though, it's straight to Hell for the both of them.

Book Review: Written in Red by Anne Bishop

When Simon Woldfuard offers Meg the role of Human Liaison for the Lakeside Courtyard, the last thing he expects her to do is accept it. After all, the courtyard is a place where human laws do not apply and Meg is a perplexing one to Simon, who like most of the courtyard's residents, is terra indigene.

What Simon soon learns is that Meg is a blood prophet, someone who can see visions by cutting her own skin, either on purpose or accidentally, and her visions will change life in the courtyard for everyone.

Meg must learn how to work alongside the shape shifters, vampires and other beings that reside in the courtyard. They in turn become a amused at the changes this one human brings to their world.

But someone is looking for Meg, and they'll do anything to get back what she stole from them.

Then Simon is called away and he entrusts Meg to look after his nephew Sam. Sam is trapped in wolf-cub form after witnessing his mother's murder. Throughout their time together, Meg helps Sam to become less timid and helps him to break free from his confines and earache the shifter within ohm again.

While Meg becomes more confident in her abilities as a blood prophet, she openly shares her latest vision: trouble is coming to the courtyard and it will start with the poisoning of the delivery horses and end in the revelation of the most terrifying terra indigene of them all.

Rating 4/5