Naomi Clark (1)Recensioni

very good novella! I really enjoyed it!

4.5 of 5 Stars Review Copy

I am not a fan of jumping into a series of novels mid-stream. That being said, I was well into Undertow: An Ethan Banning Novel before realizing this was book three in an established series. But, by that time I was having so much fun, I couldn't put it down.

The previous books in the series are Ungrateful Dead and Demonized, just in case you want to start at the beginning. I will say this, it's not necessary to read those books first, as Naomi Clark does a nice job in getting the reader up to speed, it's just that every once in a while, I found myself wishing I had more on Ethan Banning's back story.

Undertow: An Ethan Banning Novel is told in a first person narrative with a super-snarky attitude and very colorful language. Ethan Banning is a Private Investigator and he's possessed by a demon who is constantly telling him what to do, sometimes out loud.

In this story, Banning and his dog, Mutt, take a job from a professor who may be able to help rid Ethan of his unwanted guest, but first he must find a missing person. The trail leads them to Beacon's Point and an apprentice necromancer who guards a portal to the other side and there are people in this town who are trying to bring over a sea demon to demon to do their bidding.

"Corey was young and shiny and full of idealism. It was kinda sweet. Me, I was...well, not young, rusted, and full of antipsychotics, so I figured my opinions on anything, never mind necromancy, didn't count for much."

It is a fine line that is walked when writing the fantastical and Naomi Clark walks it well, making the unbelievable believable. In Ethan Banning she has created a wonderful anti-hero who often does as much harm as good, but you can't help but cheer for the guy. At some point I'm going to have to go back and read the earlier books in the series and yes there are more adventures on the way.

Undertow: An Ethan Banning Novel is published by Ragnarok Publications and is available through Amazon.com.

Highly recommended.

Ah, drug addicted werewolves. Alright, so that's not all the novel has in it though. It's about Ayla, a werewolf, and her female partner Shannon, a PI, but not a werewolf. In the universe werewolves are cautiously accepted by most humans, there are even overgrown parks for them to run and hunt in. And changing booths on street corners. They're also not just moon wolves, but can change (or not change) at will.

Shannon starts the mystery off by being hired to look for a missing werewolf girl. The mystery of what in the world is going on spirals from there.

It wasn't a bad novel. It seemed obvious to me that the whole novel could have been a metaphor for most peoples who have encountered bigotry here on Earth (including but not only homosexuals).

On the other hand, some of the grammar, or maybe it was the copy editing, wasn't great. Every once in a while a sentence that made absolutely no sense would stop me cold and pull me out of the story.

Not a bad book, and I'd be interested to see a sequel. Solid three stars.

This was so blech I cant even be bothered to review it.

This was so blech I cant even be bothered to review it.

Yasmin Stoker, a ghost tour guide who also happens to be a 600-year old wraith who feeds on the souls of revenants, sees a man get pulled into the netherworld by a ghost. Soon, she’s both investigating the incident and trying to deflect someone else in their investigation, while the complications pile up. Afterlife serves up a potent urban fantasy story that weaves plots and subplots without ever getting tangled up. P.I. Ethan Banning, a secondary character in this one, steals just about every scene he’s in. Shoregrave, the fictional setting of the novel, had a subtly dangerous feel that crept in and lingered.

You would think that feeling no pain at all would be a blessing, but it's one of those double edged sword type of blessings. A blessing around a curse. Because if you can't feel pain, then you're susceptible to over doing things, or not knowing when to stop. Stop mouthing off, stop moving, just stop.

Theo Kane, the lead character, has just finished a "job". Only now, the people she worked against are strongly suggesting she steal this item back. Refusing would be very bad for her continued health. So what follows is Theo's adventure in getting back the item she stole in the first place. And it seems no one is being straight with her, she keeps finding out just a teeny bit more...

In short time Naomi Clark not only delivers some wonderfully snarky dialogue, but she creates a world without falling into the infodump black hole. She gives just enough background to allow the story to unfold. The story was short and sweet, adventerous with a couple of chuckles to round out the danger. And I was left wanting more. Which is what a short story should do - leave you feeling like you read a fun adventure, but also leave you wanting to know more about the world and character in this story.

Ms Clark is good at dialogue, narration and story. I'm hoping for more about Theo Kane and the mysterious Launen- a people who have been segregated, and have a certain power.

Naomi Clark has written many stories - She is the author of Silver Kiss - a story with GLBT main characters (not just the usual gay side character) as well as other urban fantasy/horror stories. Very interesting array of writing, everything that I've read, I've enjoyed.

Lizzie, the protagonist of Naomi Clark's Wild, is not unlikeable, but starts in a place where she seems that way. Addicted to hard drugs, trying to maintain in an abusive relationship on the verge of bottoming out, living for the next party--she inspires sympathy, and pity, but did not strike me as someone I'd want to get to know. But there are sides to Lizzie that have, it turns out, not seen air in a long time, and after a werewolf attack changes her body and her life, they come out. Along the way, she meets weres who encourage her baser instincts, and others who encourage her finer ones.

Naomi Clark presents this struggle with an unflinching realism that makes effective use of the fantasic elements of dark urban fantasy and werewolf lore without losing focus and wandering off into those elements. I ended up liking Lizzie more and more as the book progressed, and will be looking forward to see where she goes in the next book, and how she fares in facing the consequences of her decisions in this one.

First, let me just say that I really enjoyed this book. I felt I really got to know the characters, the town, everything in it.

In this story we meet Yasmin Stoker, a 600 year old wraith – a soul thief. But she isn’t the “bad” kind of wraith that ghosts should fear, but rather a wraith with a sort of conscience. She only feeds on the souls of Revenants, newly made vampires. Yasmin lives in the coastal town of Shoregrave, which inhabited by many paranormal beings: a wraith, Revenants, Lich Lords, cambion (half breeds), ghouls, and of course, ghosts.

One night, on one of her feeding hunts, she comes across a little girl who basically pulls a mortal man through an iron fence and into the ground, never to be heard from again. Who is this girl? How does she do this? And why isn’t anyone doing anything?? Yasmin decides she needs to get to the bottom of this and accidently enlists the help of many people along the way. She finds heroes and friends where she thought there were none. She trusts the wrong people, and she helps those who truly deserve some help.

Yasmin works for Nicomedes, a Lich Lord – a very power paranormal being. He is described as tall and skinny, with very white skin, and long white hair. And his eyeballs have been removed and eyelids sewn shut. Now of course, I can’t tell you why. But the way Naomi Clark describes him… well, to me, he may be evil and scary and a “bad” guy, but he sounds beautiful. Ethereally, painfully, scarily beautiful. In fact, there is a scene with Nicomedes and Lucretia (another Lich Lord) when they are in the Pale World (the plane between here and the Netherworld) that just seems so eerily beautiful and terrifying, I would love to see an artist’s rendering, to see if they saw what I saw.

I’m not sure what country this book takes place in, but to me it has the feel of Ireland, or UK, or Scotland. Not that I’ve been to any of these places, mind you. But the descriptions to me, seem vivid. Spots that were very traditional and old world styled, with areas of modernism. There were gallows and modern clubs with fetish shows.

Something I found interesting and looked forward to at the beginning of each chapter was that there was a blurb. Sometimes it would be an advertisement from a tour book, or an excerpt from a book written by a psychic. But it was a bit of foreshadowing and entertaining, too.

I hope this is a book destined to be turned into a series. I would love to see what happens next, how everything turns out for everyone. I like the characters, and I will be a bit sad if this is all we get to hear from them! I do see on her website there is a kind of prequel type of short story for one of the characters, Ethan Banning, so I will be sure to check that out.

www.booksforcompany.com
www.booksforcompany.com
‘Wild’ mixes drugs, difficult relationships and werewolves’ altogether that is most definitely something new and unique that l think Naomi was very right to try out! Being honest, this book didn't live up to my expectations in a few ways but l still found this a good read with potential.
One of the main reasons this book didn't live up to my expectations is the main character, Lizzie, who l failed to have a lot of sympathy for at parts l most definitely should have. I hate drugs, like l am sure you do, but l find it hard to feel sorry for people who do this to their body. I just see it like they are the ones doing it to themselves and although l am sure it is VERY hard, almost impossible, to get off drugs there is a lot of places that can help and Lizzie actually have a family who is ready to support her. Sadly l also found some parts in Lizzie's journey with drugs unrealistic, especially when she’s trying to get off the drugs. I think l would have liked Lizzie more if less of the book was about when she’s into drugs and more about the werewolf side of her as l found that much more unique and refreshing.
Aside from Lizzie l found this book kind of slow paced and like it was dragging along until the werewolf side of things came into it.
Ok, putting aside my negative feelings, this book does have good qualities too and they definitely shouldn’t be took away from this book. Naomi definitely added unique aspects to this book which made for an interesting read, including the different ‘statuses’ of the werewolves. Lizzie also isn’t all bad with how she is trying to be strong and can imagine it must be hard for her to know who to trust and l think that’s why at some points she seemed strong and at others she seemed weak.
I am still undecided about the mix of drugs and werewolves but l think Naomi did a good job of it and really shown the fact of how bad taking drugs just once can be!
Overall this is a good book but l would strongly recommend that people under 16 shouldn’t read this. There is a lot of swearing (A LOT!), abuse and drugs.
Wild ends in a great way which could lead to a great new series with a second book which is faster paced than ‘Wild’. Give this a go because it may just be your favourite werewolf book!

This was one of those reads where I loved the beginning, didn’t like the middle so much and then liked it again towards the end.

The story really does start off with a bang. Ryan is already fighting for her life and is clueless about why. Great start right? I loved how she got out of the situation in that it tells the reader what the story is basically about in the most exciting and engrossing way. It was great.

I loved the plot. The storyline was great. Really different to anything I have ever read before. The idea of experiments gone wrong was great and it worked really well.

I loved the characters too, especially Ryan and Van – Ryan’s former lover. They had great backstories and worked really well.

The only thing I had a problem with was the way events were explained to Ryan. Since she had run from APTT and hadn’t been back for six years she had obviously missed out on a lot of key events. So, of course, she had to catch up.

I just felt that maybe the whole story of what happened with APTT was told in a bit too much detail all at once. It kind of sucked the mystery right out of the story. Don’t get me wrong, what happened with the APTT was intriguing, but I thought it would have been even more mysterious if I, as the reader, was told in bits and pieces where I needed to know to understand it all. To break it down a bit.

Like I said though, the ending was great. Totally unexpected. Plus it ended with a great cliff-hanger. I do really want to find out what happens as soon as possible!

Reviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com

Some books wrap themselves up in the trope of a genre like a comfortable blanket, and others seem to transcend genre and theme with their very nature. Silver Kiss is one of these. Labeled an "urban werewolf novel" not true urban fantasy it's the tale of Ayla, a werewolf, and Shannon, a human, together trying to make a new life with Ayla's Pack and family. Except the recent murder of Ayla's cousin Adam (which drew her back to the Pack in the first place) might not be an isolated event. To top it off there's a new street drug out there that's highly addictive to werewolves and triggers their animal instincts, making them rage filled animals ready to fight. Sure enough Shannon and Ayla get dragged (and blackmailed) in, ending up way over their heads.
Silver Kiss is a werewolf mystery, not an urban fantasy or paranormal romance, with a strong overlying theme of community and family acceptance, how it relates to humans, werewolves, and lesbians. Ayla is a high strung character, possibly the book's only flaw as her nervous energy infects a book that otherwise has very much normalized the concept of werewolves and werewolf culture. Her emotionality does, at times, distract from the main plot, or close it down as her independent streak leads her to not trust the people around her, not even family and friends. However Clark has spun an interesting balance of world elements, the paranormal and the struggle for normalcy in what's considered deviancy even in our supposedly modern and accepting culture. Highly recommended for library collections, with a good mystery and moments of surprising depth, Silver Kiss is the sort of stand out, inclusive fiction that more collections should be proud to have on their shelves.
Contains: sex, violence, cursing

After many years as a lone wolf, Ayla decided to return home and rejoin her Pack. Her return seems to be going well at first, but then her partner, Shannon, signs onto a missing persons case and Ayla can't help but get involved. As a feral wolf, a violent anti-werewolf group, a new designer drug, and Pack politics complicate things further, Ayla begins to question whether coming home was a good idea after all.

The concept of Pack as a social construct has been interesting to me. It resembles a large extended family full of its own rules, gossip, and internal conflicts. Coming home to that kind of structure can be rough, and Naomi does an excellent job of showing the awkwardness and the internal struggle between the need for independence and the obligations of belonging to the group.

The slowest part of this book for me was the first few pages. The getting-ready is just not a strong opener for me. I mean I get why it's there, introducing the characters, setting up the world, letting you in on her doubts and insecurities, and so on. However, it's kind of dull as far as intro, and I think things could have started off right at the ceremony, but that's me.

Right after that, however, I quickly settled into the story. Naomi has a crisp, clean prose style that makes this world seem vivid and real, as though I could just head on down the highway and meet up with Ayla and her friends. It was easy to care about them, easy to want to get to know them, so that when the dangers start to stack up, I wanted to keep reading to not only what was going to happen, but to make sure they were all okay.

Each plot point seemed to hit the right note at the right time, allowing the story to unravel at a comfortable pace. Ayla was given room to actually think about her actions and the dangers involved, so that their choices, for good or ill, had greater impact when made.

This books totally absorbed me, and I started to get annoyed when anything -- ya know, like work, family, chores, eating, going pee -- got in the way of my finishing. It was a great read, and I would definitely recommend it.½

Afterlife by Naomi Clark—vampire paranormal novel
$5,95 287 pages ISBN: 978-1-61572-053-8
Yasmin Stoker is a ghost tour guide who spends her days showing tourists around Shoregrave’s haunted hotspots. She also happens to be a wraith who spends her nights hunting Revenants, newly-risen flesh-eating vampires. On one of her regular hunts, she witnesses a mysterious ghostly girl pulling the body of a teenage boy underground. Who and what is this girl, and why is she attacking men around the city? Yasmin investigates, but it quickly becomes clear that somebody wants to keep her from finding the killer and they’ll do anything–including ambushing her with ghouls and cacodaemons–to stop her.

With only a persistent private eye and a taciturn vampire (one of the Immaculate, no less) to help her, Yasmin must deal with fanatical necromancers, crazed ghosts, and a sexy history teacher in her quest to solve the mystery. And along the way she uncovers some heartbreaking truths about her own existence.
http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615720538
also available in print isbn 9781615720521