4.5/5
Lyn Benedict is such an understated author, and her books are awesome! They are everything I love about urban fantasy: a hard, kick ass, smart heroine, wonderful sidekicks, plenty of villains of magical variety and non-stop action.

If you haven't read previous two books, please do it first, because this review will contain spoilers for book 1 and 2.

The book literally starts where the previous left. Odalis is in prison and Sylvie takes on a seemingly easy case of disappeared wife. Aha! She thought her previous case would be boring, and we all know how it ended.

While investigating her case, Sylvie discovers that her client's wife is one of the several kidnapped victims, whose life energies are being drained by a sorcerer in a really bizarre ritual. The women look dead but they walk and they turn into wild animals.

The case quickly becomes extremely dangerous, what with the sorcerer mixed with gods, certain people bent on magical revenge and stupid ISI agents taking closer look at miss Shadows.

As usual it takes famous Shadows willpower to set things right, and apparently there is the new Lilith in town...

I loved it! The book is packed full of action and crammed with tension, with Ghoul and Marco playing Sylvie's sidekicks, and even my favorite Fury making a star appearance.

I also admire that Lyn Benedict isn't afraid to kill one of the characters in every book she writes. This just make the plot more real and the writing much more intense. The ending had such amazing possibilities that I can't wait to get my hands on the next book!

I would recommend it to any fan of urban fantasy. Just make sure you read first two books in order. ( )

Well, that's a heckuva thing...

Book three picks up a month after book two, just long enough to clear most of the debris and bring in some new elements. This is definitely a "keep building" series, as opposed to a purely episodic "another book, another case" setup. If you aren't up to speed with both earlier books, this one will leave you pretty much lost, dazed, and confused. This series does not spend a good deal of effort on explaining That Which Has Gone Before, and as I noted in my review of the first book, even it just hit the ground running and left the reader to scramble to catch up. Luckily, I just finished book two and have book four waiting; that's the best way to read these.

Oddly enough, in retrospect this feels a lot like a Cthulhu Mythos book. Sylvie is very much a small fish in a very big sea, and it is made excruciatingly clear here that One Does Not Attract The Attention Of Gods. All of the classic Mythos literary elements are present - by which I don't mean that Dagon or a certain Mad Arab or a university in New England show up, but that there are loads of parallels and elements that serve the same purpose. An ancient god, arcane sigils in the hands of a mad sorcerer, warped monsters, misguided researchers, corrupted and/or transformed people - it's all here, complete with reality-shattering side effects. Heck, there's even an archaeologist who stumbles across...well, that would be telling.

And yet...it's not depressing. That's the big drawback of so much Mythos fiction, that everyone knows Things Are Hopeless and so there's this crushing sense of despair that pervades the whole story. That's not the case here, at all. Maybe it's just that Sylvie stays too busy to reflect on much, but there's an admirably utilitarian sense of Get Things Done that chases the gloom away. (Well, most of it, anyway.)

While I can't recommend this unless you've read the first two volumes, it's an excellent entry in the series. Especially if, as mentioned, you like a side of otherworldly indifference and collateral damage with your higher powers. ( )

The premise: ganked from the publisher's website: Sylvie Lightner is no ordinary P.I. She specializes in cases involving the unusual and unbelievable. When she finds the bodies of five women in the Florida Everglades, Sylvie believes them to be the work of a serial killer and passes the buck. But when the bodies wake and shift shape, killing the police, Sylvie finds herself at the head of a potentially lethal investigation.

My Rating: Good Read

It took me a wee bit longer to get invested in this book than it did Ghosts & Echoes, but that's because Benedict always starts her books out in the middle of something, which means the reader has to run a bit to keep up, metaphorically speaking. But the case is an interesting one, and there's no easy answers to solving it either, which makes for a very engaging read. We don't know how this is going to end, and it seems that with every step she takes, Sylvie's job just gets harder and harder. The climax is a little overwhelming because so much is happening, but it's fascinating, especially seeing how Sylvie responds to what's thrown at her. The book resolves nicely, but there's enough going on in Sylvie's world that I can't wait to see what Benedict plans next. All of that being said, don't even think about reading Gods & Monsters, book three in the series, until you've got the first two under your belt. You'll be lost without them. Yet if you're an urban fantasy fan who simply wants something darker, something that isn't dominated by a romantic storyline of any sort (or maybe you want a teeny-tiny-barely-there romantic sub-sub-plot), this series is definitely one to check out.

Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. It's a new book and an on-going series, so I don't want to spoil anything in this latest release. However, that does not mean the previous two installments won't somehow get spoiled, so read at your own risk if you aren't caught up. The full review is available in my blog, which is linked below. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome!

REVIEW: Lyn Benedict's GODS & MONSTERS

Happy Reading! ( )

Reviewed by http://urbanfantasyinvestigations.blogspot.com/

Sylvie has been through a lot and learned a lot about her self since book one in the Shadows Inquiries series. I'm going to start out by saying I really missed having Demalion by her side and I really hope he returns in book 4. Wales from book 2 comes back and helps a ton with the case that Sylvie is working. He was a great addition to her team and I hope that he stays on. There is also the return of another character from a previous book but I cant tell you who as it would give away the surprise. The plot has many layers that are pealed back as the story progresses. The pacing gave the right amount of information at the right times. The mysteries remained mysteries until the perfect moment of reveal. GODS & MONSTERS was a great addition to the series, I would recommend you start at book one SINS & SHADOWS though as there are continuing story lines within the new events and you might have a hard time following along. ( )

While the Urban Fantasy genre is no stranger to dark and twisty heroines (think Dante Valentine and Anita Blake), Sylvie Lightner’s inner engine of anger isn’t powered by horrific abuse or childhood trauma, but rather the preternatural legacy of her bloodline. Of all the magical “super powers” to grow into, Sylvie’s is an unyielding will that just will not give in to some magics. I love how Benedict juxtaposes glimpses Sylvie’s happy childhood and family with the Magicus Mundi. The Magicus Mundi is our world’s magical underbelly, where defeating bad guys sometimes means hiding a body from the cops, you're usually better off if the gods don't hear your prayers, and no fight is won without a cost.

GODS & MONSTERS reminded me afresh that Lyn Benedict has a gift for intertwining the fantastic with the mundane and creating a story that stops me in my tracks. Sylvie’s world is dark, dangerous, and as magically treacherous as it is realistic. Though I enjoyed the first two books in the series, GODS & MONSTERS is definitely my hands down favorite thus far.

Given the growing pains and events Sylvie has muscled her way through in books one and two, I would not recommend trying to jump right into the series with GODS & MONSTERS. New readers should not be put off of the series by the losses Sylvie suffers in prior books, however. Benedict certainly puts her readers through the emotional wringer, but that makes the victories all the sweeter when they arrive.

Case in point would be Sylvie’s love life, one of the most complex I’ve ever encountered. While she and Demalion are separated by distance (and a lot of heartbreaking emotional baggage) for this entire book, I finished the last page eager to pick up where they left off. I finished GODS & MONSTERS with a victorious smile on my face and hope in my breast. Sylvie's world doesn’t get any gentler, but her indomitable will makes it easier and easier to believe in some hard brand of happy endings.

Sexual Content: Threat of sexual violence. ( )