Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Deacon Chalk and his team must face a trio of witches who will hurt anyone who gets in the way of their plans and it is up to Deacon to stop them before they hurt too many people.

Opening Sentence: I should have known.

The Review:

Deacon Chalk has fought the occult ever since his wife and kids were killed by a psycho trying to bring a demon into our world. Now to save were-dog triplets he must face off against a trio of witches who will destroy anyone who stands in the way of their plans. With the help of his friends Deacon takes on the witches multiple times, but does he succeed in stopping them before their demonic plans are complete?

I have to say this is not a book I would have picked up for myself, but I do have to say it was better than I expected. I enjoy books featuring the occult or anything supernatural, but I have never read one that featured a male lead character. This was the hard part for me. Especially, the parts of the book that were very detailed in their gruesomeness. Also, the parts where Deacon talks about how hot he thinks his one-eyed girlfriend looks. I personally have a hard time picturing that.

Once I got over this though the storyline was well written and I actually enjoyed it for the most part. One of the best parts was that even though this was not the first book in the series and I have never read any of the others I could understand what was going on. This made it so I could relate to the characters and could sympathize when things did not go the way they wanted them to. I wanted to see Deacon and his friends succeed and rescue the boys and the world from the evil the witches were trying to create. Another thing I liked was a reference to one of my favorite series. I love the Anita Blake series and in this book the author, James R. Tuck, mentions this series and acts like she is a real person that Deacon knows. I find that to be really cool.

I personally will probably never read another of these books because I prefer a female lead but I did like this book. I do recommend this to women who do not mind a male lead and definitely to men who love the supernatural and the occult. Also to anyone who does not mind a bit of gore. This book is not for those who have a weak stomach.

Notable Scene:

A wide smear of blood started on the wall next to the ladies’ room. It wiped along the glassed-in movie posters for six or seven feet before turning sharply up, climbing the wall, and spilling onto the ceiling tiles.

It looked like a psychotic Jackson Pollock mural.

FTC Advisory: Kensington provided me with a copy of Blood and Magick. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

I adore ADORE this series and was thrilled to get a review copy of the third. James R. Tuck did not let me down what so ever. I ended up re-reading the second one and though it is not necessary (Tuck does a great quick recap without tons of info dump), it made my experience even more intense.

Lately I have read a bunch of Kim Harrison female-centric UF books and usually male orientated ones leave me bored, but for some reason Tuck manages to balance just the right of compassion, action, snark and bad-a$$ery you don't want it to stop. Plus, his car? And he is a tattoo artist? (oh in real life too) and and.. and he is NICE TO KIDS and girls and is just awesome! GO get the series and you won't be disappointed!

Oh BTW? None of these guys sparkle ............ at all! So wear a splatter jacket on your brain! *GRIN*

If you have not had the chance, check out his special short story from Deacon on my blog James R. Tuck gives Deacon some “FRESH INK” (Fourth-Wall Friday) ( )

Deacon Chalk can’t even enjoy a quiet dinner out with his friends and loved ones without witches swooping in and ruining the meal.

Witches are a pretty new one to face, especially witches as powerful of these, transforming demon witches, witches that raise the dead and witches that can kill with a word. And they have one target in mind – the Trinity, Sophia’s baby triplets. If they get them, they may have power enough to end the world.

And Deacon Chalk faces conflict in his own inner circle as people close to him try to find their own solutions.

There are elements this book that continue the improvement of the writing style we saw in the second book. It’s cleaner, the descriptions less inclined to be too overwrought and there’s less of the utter melodrama – the writing style is definitely improving.

We’re also having a sense of meta-plot. Not just repeating characters and growing power on Deacon Chalk’s part, but the new connection with the government, Sophia’s 3 mystical children are definitely going to lead to more in the future.

We have a lot of the women growing as well, Sophia is ferocious in defence of her children – yes, an old trope. But we also have Tiff growing into her own, becoming a capable and dangerous hunter in her own right and seeking her own place and own career in monster hunting in her own right. While, naturally, very much under Deacon Chalk’s shadow still – and certainly never in a position to challenge him (because no-one is ever allowed to do that ever – Kat tried in this book and is suitably punished for daring to question Deacon Chalk).

We continue to have a diverse range of antagonists and powers suggesting the world is extremely broad which is always something I favour. The story itself isn’t complicated or difficult – being a rather linear “protect the prize, kill the enemies” with no great mystery or twists. The enemies are known pretty much from the beginning, what is needed to be cone is known from the beginning. What they’re after is pretty much known from the beginning. It’s another action-film type book, it’s there for fighting and action and adventure and taking hits and keeping moving and overcoming all the odds.

All pretty good so far. And it was a book I couldn’t put down until I’d lost rather a lot of sleep – but not because I was enjoying it, but because I was angry at it – too angry to put it down in case it somehow managed to either redeem itself or damn itself thoroughly. And it damned itself.

What broke me? Deacon Chalk is an arsehole. He’s a self-righteous, judgmental arsehole. He’s right, everyone else is wrong. It’s been growing through the books but this one was the straw that snapped the camel in two.

When people argue with him he intimidates them. He beats his fists against tables, walls, cars. Even with people he’s supposed to love – Tiff presumes to argue with him and he’s slamming his huge fist into car roofs and walls and whatever. He threatens them – in the last book he’s threatened Charlotte, he threatens Larson, he’s threatened nearly everyone around him. He’s a huge man, we’re constantly told this, a leather clad massive man, a thug as he calls himself. He’s huge, he’s intimidating, he’s strong, he’s dangerous – and he uses that to force people to obey him. He’s a bully. He’s a violent, angry bully. Are we supposed to be impressed by what a big, hard man he is that he loses his temper and has tantrums unless everyone does everything his way without question?

The one shred where him insisting everything go his way would make a fragment of sense if he actually had ANY kind of plans or even relevant experience of, well, any of the encounters we’ve seen in the book. But he doesn’t – his plan is constantly “show up and kill stuff”. That’s the fullest extent of his planning – he hopes he’ll think of something and, ta-da, by authorial fiat he comes up with something on the spur of the moment, usually after he’s had some dramatic “ugh, my rib has been cracked for the 11 thousandth time, oh it hurts but I’m so manly I’m going to keep going!” moment. They even make a joke of the fact he never ever has a plan – but everyone has to obey him and follow orders?

The only reason this character isn’t a shining beacon if arseholery is because author will makes him right all the time. He is the ultimate Gary Stu, he is never wrong, he is never mistaken, his lack of plans never go wrong because he always comes up with just the right solution on the fly

He decides all magic is evil. Does he know all magic is evil? Have we any indication that he can be sure about this? It doesn’t matter – Deacon Chalk says it so he must be so.

Read More
( )

4.5

Book source ~ Many thanks to Kensington for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Deacon Chalk is an Occult Bounty Hunter taking care of the monsters so they don’t eat people. When a trio of witches comes to town and wants the Blood of the Trinity, the special blood belonging to mixed shapeshifter triplets, all hell breaks loose. The triplets should never have been born with a werelion for a dad and a weredog for a mom, but there they are, weirder than all get out and apparently badly wanted by the Wrath of Baphomet, no doubt for nepharious purposes that will be very horrific for humans. It’s up to Deacon and his crew to stop them, but he never suspects the evil selfishness hidden amongst those he trusts.

Once again James R. Tuck starts a book off by burning rubber off the starting line roaring at high speeds down the stretch and around the curves until crossing the finishing line tires squealing and smoke billowing up as the car does a 360 in a fancy flourishing end. In other words, don’t blink or you might miss some action.

Deacon gets some help from an unexpected quarter in the form of a government agent. Whether it will prove to be a continuous positive help remains to be seen in future books. Personally, I like Agent Heck and hope he sticks around. There is also loss and betrayal in this book. I think Deacon made a mistake when dealing with Larson and I have a feeling that is going to come back and bite him in the ass big time.

One thing that kept this from being a 5 star for me is Deacon himself. He is dead set against magic, calling it all bad yet he doesn’t hesitate to use the magic in himself when the situation calls for it. Everything isn’t always black and white and I’d like to see Deacon realize that or risk being a hypocrite. He admits that not all shapeshifters are bad, so he needs to take that extra step with magic.

The other thing that kept this from being a 5 star is the repetition. It’s easy to see that James R. Tuck is a fan of the Anita Blake series, but I would hate to see Deacon become a one-dimensional character like Anita, have pages and pages of filler about what everyone looks like or what they are wearing, rehash ad nauseum every detail that happened in previous books or have the wheels fall off the plot in the middle of the story. I’m begging Tuck not to fall into the pattern that LKH has fallen into because I already love Deacon. I’m heart-broken over the crappy writing LKH has churned out recently and I certainly don’t want to see the same from Tuck. So far, so good though. I’m still 100% with Deacon and looking forward to seeing what happens next. ( )

Book Info: Genre: Urban Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of darker, action-oriented, male-centric Urban Fantasy
Trigger Warnings: mass murder in various, gory ways, children in danger, torture

My Thoughts: So, this is the latest of the Deacon Chalk books. I'm sure there will be more, but I have no information about when or what form they will take.

I keep forgetting to mention how badly I lust over Deacon's car. I had a Ford Maverick in high school, which is essentially the same car as a Mercury Comet, and I loved that thing.
I've always loved hot rods and high-octane cars, so it only makes sense.

I spent a lot of this book screaming, “No! NONONONONONO!!!” I mean, it was terrible what happened... but I can't tell you. It's full of things that could be spoilers. I'm interested to see where things go with O.C.I.D.; it was a really interesting twist.

Speaking generally about the series, since this is the last one (for now: more on the way), I was less-than-impressed with the editing. I would recommend the author review my blog posts Department of Redundancies Department and We Gotta get Out of this Habit (both posted on Now is Gone in April, 2013 if you're reading this on a site where formatting is not allowed and the links aren't there as a result). The abuse of “got” and “get” as well as redundancies was often very irritating.

However, overall I have enjoyed reading these books. It's awesome to have high action and low romance for a change, although—like Joss Whedon—James R. Tuck is not afraid to kill off characters, which some people find very upsetting. Still, if you've been wanting some urban fantasy that isn't clogged with sex and romance, this is the one for you. There is some sex, but it's not all over the place.

So, fans of male-centric, action-oriented urban fantasy should definitely check out the Deacon Chalk series. You can step into it wherever you want, since Tuck is very good about giving small segments of background information as the stories go along, but I'm sure if you start you'll want to read the whole thing. I know I'll be looking for new books in the series.

Series Information: Blood and Magick is Book d in the Deacon Chalk series
Book .5: That Thing at the Zoo, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 1: Blood and Bullets, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 1.5: Spider's Lullaby, review linked here where formatting allowed
Book 2: Blood and Silver, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 2.5: Circus of Blood, review linked here where formatting allowed

Disclosure: While I was accepted for this with NetGalley, I actually purchased my own copy. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Taking out hellish creatures—not a problem. Armed with blessed silver hollow-points and the ability to manipulate magick, he’s ready for anything—except betrayal he never saw coming…

Deacon Chalk knows the biggest danger in fighting monsters is becoming one. Just another day at the office for your friendly neighborhood occult bounty hunter. If keeping three helpless were-dog children safe means battling a malevolent trio of witches by any means necessary, so be it. If that means partnering with a ruthless government agent to stay one step ahead of the allies and friends he must now suspect, he’s not going to cry about it. The only way Deacon can save humans and shape-shifters alike is to embrace a power beyond his imagining, putting his team at stake—and his soul on the line… ( )