I loved this! Even though a lot of Gage's problems have been now solved, there's a whole other can of worms waiting for him! ( )

My absolute favorite thing about this series is the idea that vampires are so OCD that you can distract them by tossing sunflowers on the floor. I wish the rest of the story had more of this kind of humor.

One of the reasons I prefer to read urban fantasy by women is that I don't really want to hear about sexual urges from a man's POV, so I was curious to see what happened when a woman wrote a story from the POV of a main character who's a man. In some ways, Drake manages to do even more of the stuff I don't like to read about in stories written by men. I really don't want to hear about what a guy's dick is doing! Nor do I enjoy love stories that are basically based on what a guy's dick wants.

I also don't understand why the witches and warlocks are so evil and violent, which makes some of the violence hard to take.

The do like the idea of infusing tattoos with spells, but I'm not sure that's enough to make me want to listen to the next book in the series.
( )

This book was certainly better than the first book. I'm still not feeling the relationship between Gage and Trixie. There was a bit less going on in this book and that was my main gripe about Angel's Ink. I did enjoy Gage more as well since his character wasn't being pulled in a thousand different directions. I hope Bronx has more of a role in the next book. I felt like he and Trixie's character's were after thoughts with this installment. ( )

Read/Listened for Fun (Kindle/Audible)
Overall Rating: 4.50
Story Rating: 4.25
Character Rating: 4.75

Audio Rating: 4.00 (not part of the overall rating)

NOTE: I did originally get this from Edelweiss but did not download it in time for review. I purchased my own copies through Amazon/Audible.

First Thought when Finished: Dead Man's Deal by Jocelynn Drake was excellent! This series is now on my must buy as released list!

Story Thoughts: Oh Gage!You are the king of getting yourself tangled up in the most impossible situations. Granted you always do it because you want to protect those you love BUT man this time you got yourself tangled up in all sorts of madness. Dead Man's Deal is all about what would you do for the people you love! The fact is, Gage will do anything for them. There was tons of action, suspense, and moments of "oh crap". This series is shaping up to be one of my favorites!

Character Thoughts: I love the characters of The Asylum Tales. Gabe, Bronx (wasn't enough of him), Trixie, Sofie, and Gideon. They are where Jocelynn Drake SHINES! You care about them! You root for them! You cry and scream at them! Overall you just want to become part of their world and hang out with them. I really do love them all! In Dead Man's Deal though it was Sofie who made my heart grow 10x!

Audio Thoughts:

Narrated by: Michael Urie /Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

I love Michael Urie's narration of Dead Man's Deal (with the exception of his voice for Trixie). He is spot on with Gage, Bronx, Sofie, and Gideon. His pacing is fantastic and the emotion is perfectly suited to the story. Trixie, the voice for her is just a little to over the top for my taste.

Final Thoughts: I need the next one NOW! ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Fast paced dark urban fantasy with multiple stories interweaving into one final surprising outcome.

Opening Sentence: They were killing pixies.

The Review:

Gage Powell returns with a whole new set of troubles in Dead Man’s Deal. A dark elf has learned Gage’s secret and has been using him to do his dirty work, even forcing Gage into using his magic which he has been forbidden to use. If Gage uses his magic then his time as a free man is running out even though the witch assigned to Gage has known about Gage’s little magic indiscretions, he won’t turn Gage in unless he uses some powerful magic.

The world that has been created in The Asylum Tales is quite dark and depressing. The witches/warlocks/mages or whatever they prefer to be called (there doesn’t seem to be a name that they prefer to go by, even the males associate themselves as witches or at least from what I can tell or maybe I just missed something…) dominate over everyone from their Ivory Towers. They are a law unto themselves but they will take out their anger on anyone without much backlash. If the wizards kill a human it’s not a problem but if a human kills one of them there will be a manhunt that doesn’t end until that person is tortured and killed (presumably with many bodies that have fallen during that search). They even kill everyone in a major mid-western city because they don’t want one person with a secret so huge to get out that they burn the entire city to the ground.

Gage knows the secret and in order to save himself and everyone in Low Town from being destroyed he must make a deal that could potentially change his life forever. In the midst of all the chaos, Gage also wants to help lift a curse off of the elves in order for his girlfriend Trixie to be safe in case he doesn’t make it out of this “mission” alive.

Gage is a tricky fellow and sadly not much seems to go his way. I enjoy very much how Jocelynn Drake just seems to keep adding to Gage’s stress factor every few pages and keeps it a mystery as to how he is going to get out of this mess with the least amount of collateral damage possible before the puzzle starts to slowly unravel one piece at a time. Gage could so easily use magic to solve all his problems but the one where the Ivory Towers comes after his hide is very much entertaining to see what he does to get around using magic. A huge factor in the story is how if a mage kills someone using magic they will lose a year off of their lives so Gage has to come up with some interesting ways to defeat his enemies.

Dead Man’s Deal could be read as a standalone in the series. The ending of the first novel pretty much summarizes the position that Gage is in at the beginning of this novel. The only thing that readers would miss out on is the depth of the friendships that Gage has with Trixie and Bronx. They are in this novel but don’t really have much page time since a bulk of Gage’s problems are left a secret from the two of them and he has to work on his own. Although Gage does spend a lot of time with the mages Gideon and Sofie. I really enjoyed learning more about the background on those two mages. Overall, Dead Man’s Deal is a fast paced read because of all the action, so much kept happening and I couldn’t wait to find out what was next. If you like dark urban fantasy novels and a male lead character, I would highly recommend this series.

Notable Scene:

Widening my stance to keep my balance, I blanked my mind while shoving. down the nausea rising in my stomach. Adrenaline bubbled in my veins until it felt like my hair was standing on end. In a breath, I pulled up a swell of energy, and I slammed it into Greasy and Fox. I couldn’t manage all three at once. Greasy was a nuisance and Fox was dangerous. Brownie was somewhere in the middle.

Narrowing my eyes, I could feel Brownie summoning up a shield, but it wouldn’t work. With only the smallest push, I directed the energy toward him but my only thought was of peeling an apple. I was vaguely aware of him jerking one arm sharply and twisting, looking around for whatever was attacking him. His face was a mask of confusion as he stubbornly held on to his magical barrier while straining to figure out what I was doing. A second later, his scream rang out, sending shards of glass cutting through my soul. His body twisted and writhed in pain. I tapped down the revulsion while my brain locked on the vision of a small paring knife sliding around a bright red apple as it cut away the skin in a single, long coil.

With the spell in place, I turned to find Greasy staring in horror. He seemed to have forgotten about me. I lifted one hand and extended one finger, pointed down. I slowly spun it in place, imagining that I was stirring a cup of coffee. The warlock gave a surprised shout as he began to spin in place as well, but his shouts and flailing arms were quickly replaced with pain-filled shrieks.

When I took the time to magically stir my coffee, I also heated it. I should have been feeling horror, revulsion. I should have been throwing up the contents of my stomach, but I felt detached and numb as I killed them. My mind desperately clung to the images of an apple and coffee because if I thought about what I was doing, I’d go mad.

FTC Advisory: Harper Voyager/HarperCollins provided me with a copy of Dead Man’s Deal. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )