Tag: Kim Harrison

This Chick’s Audio Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead (Hollows #2) by Kim Harrison, narrated by Marguerite Gavin

One of my all time favorite series, I decided to see if my first impression still stands after eighteen years by slowly listening to the audiobooks, narrated by Marguerite Gavin. In this novel, Rachel is asked to investigate the disappearance of an Ley Line instructor at the local college. While investigating Rachel manages to fight off an amorous roommate, create an unwanted bond with her boyfriend, and piss off the local Master of the City. Just another day in the life of Rachel Morgan!

It’s funny how the mind works. I remember some of these earlier plots but only the cataclysmic or heart-breaking moments, so this book caught me somewhat by surprise. I didn’t really remember anything from the plot, but some of the more important storylines start in this book so it was interesting to see that groundwork laid. She has her first “romantic” moment with Kisten, starts to develop her relationship with the demon who becomes a sort of mentor for her in later books, Al, and goes through her first of many boyfriends- oh and she is of course, fighting to bring Trent Kalamack in on charges that seem pretty flimsy despite her protestations of his guilt. All of these moments are very important to the future roles Rachel plays and to the development of her character. So, it may not have been the most exciting book, it was certainly one of the most important.

Marguerite Gavin, who narrates this series does an excellent job of giving these characters life through her voice acting. Ivy is certainly more sultry than the voice in my head when I was reading, and Jinx is very pixie-like with his rapid fire, high intensity falsetto. Because I read the entire series first it’s been a little distracting that the voice in my head doesn’t match the narrator’s but by the second chapter I found myself immersed in the narrative and managed to stay in the moment and enjoy her interpretation.

One of my favorite moments from this book is when Ivy is goaded into trying to trap Rachel into becoming her psion. A role Rachel has no interest in playing but that her demon scars wants her to take. The chemistry between the two of them, although false become of those scars, is so intense! It’s amazing to me that these two characters were able to overcome their feelings of failure, relief, and horror to become the best friends they do end up becoming. I’m not sure that scene would have the same effect on me if I hadn’t read the future books but it’s definitely a pivotal moment regardless of my inside knowledge.

If you haven’t read this series, the audiobooks may be an enjoyable way to pass the time. The story is action-packed, thrilling, emotional, and fun. The narration matches the scenes, characters, and world. I am enjoying this second peek into the series. I hope I inspire some of you to do the same! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase!* The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Trouble with the Cursed (The Hollows #16) by Kim Harrison

Synopsis:

Rachel Morgan, witch-born demon, has one unspoken rule: take chances, but pay for them yourself. With it, she has turned enemies into allies, found her place with her demon kin, and stepped up as the subrosa of Cincinnati—responsible for keeping the paranormal community at peace and in line. Life is . . . good? Even better, her best friend, Ivy Tamwood, is returning home. Nothing’s simple, though, and Ivy’s not coming alone. The vampires’ ruling council insists she escort one of the long undead, hell-bent on proving that Rachel killed Cincy’s master vampire to take over the city. Which, of course, Rachel totally did not do. She only transformed her a little. With Rachel’s friends distracted by their own lives and problems, she reaches out to a new ally for help—the demon Hodin. But this trickster has his own agenda. In the end, the only way for Rachel to save herself and the city may be to forge a new understanding with her estranged demon teacher, Al. There’s just one problem: Al would sell his own soul to be rid of her. . . .

I was mulling over how to write up my own short synopsis without giving away every intricacy in the plot and decided ‘the hell with it’ and quoted it off the back of the book. Trouble with the Cursed is the sixteenth novel in the Hollows series with my favorite heroine and witch-born demon, Rachel Morgan. Rachel is back living in the church with Jenks, but that’s the only thing that seems slightly normal. Her roommates are the demon Hodin, and her friend Stef. Hodin has driven a wedge in between Rachel and the demons, a wedge that gets more complicated as this story unfolds. Rachel, as the sub-rosa for the demons, has the tough job of keeping the peace in Cincinnati. Something that she’s been able to do with the help of vampire scion Pike, but it all seems to be getting out of hand. The demons are in disarray, her boyfriend Trent’s business deal has gone awry, and Jenks is developing feelings for a new pixie. Plus Ivy is headed back to town with a DC vamp named Finnis who needs to be convinced that Cincinnati’s master vampire, Constance is still alive (she is but she’s now a mouse). Rachel is a people pleaser and wants everyone to be happy, but she may have bitten off more than she could chew with this one!

Trouble with the Cursed ties up a LOT of loose ends and I’m wondering where Kim Harrison is going to take my favorite heroine next? The “is he or isn’t he” on Rachels side when it comes to the much maligned demon Hodin comes to a head and everything quite literally hits the fan in the most wondrous and fascinating way. Rachel’s version of “I’ve got this!” does not follow a straight line and the fireworks that follow light up the city and paranormal world. This book ends with a big bang and I can’t help but think that the world as our heroine knows it will be much different in the next novel. The only things that I’m completely confident in is that Rachel’s friends have her back and she would absolutely die for them as well. I can’t wait to find out what happens next. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Trouble with the Cursed

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Million Dollar Demon (the Hollows #15) by Kim Harrison

Cincinnati has a new master vampire and she has decided to take control of the city. She is forcing people out of their homes to make room for her crew causing chaos on the streets. She’s also hassling Rachel’s allies and has kicked Rachel out of her temporary home. She wants Rachel out of Cincinnati. Rachel and her pixie pal Jenks head back to the church, their wrecked out home and a slew of homeless inderlanders follow. Everyone expects Rachel to step up and solve the problem of this master vamp who is out of control and completely insane.

Fifteen books in and I am still riveted by Rachel’s episodic life. In Million Dollar Demon Rachel just wants to find a home to live in but everyone expects her to step up and solve one of the biggest problems to hit Cincinnati in years. Candace, the new master vampire leads by making her followers fear her. When Rachel finally meets her she realizes the horrors that await her city of someone doesn’t step up to control the situation. Unfortunately for her she is the one who has to step up. She is dating the Sa’han of the elves, runs a pack of werewolves with the alpha David, and is scion to one of the most powerful living vampires in Cincinnati. Because of these relationships and her status as a demon born witch who helped save the demon realm in a previous novel, Rachel is the go-to to fix this problem.

Rachel has evolved so much through this series. She was just a young witch in the first novel and even though she still seems to stumble into trouble without a scratch despite not wanting the attention her status has totally changed. The one thing that hasn’t is that somehow she still seems slightly unsure of herself yet bullsh(t$ her way through most problems. I like sassy female protagonists and there is no one mouthier than Rachel Morgan.

There wasn’t much I didn’t like about Million Dollar Demon’s plot. There was plenty of action, heroics, and edge of your seat awareness that things might just go wrong to keep me reading rapidly. When I was younger Rachel was one of my favorite characters and I still like her a lot. Every time I read one of these Hollows novels I’m transported to a familiar place and it’s a comfort. I can easily get wrapped up in a story and forget about the outside world. I just wish Rachel had learned some confidence. She’s great at faking it but she’s still the insecure young girl she was in the first book. Maybe that was the one thing keeping it from being a five star read. I want Rachel to finally stand up and say I am here and no one is going to do that in my city, and mean it!

If you like paranormal action books this series is a lot of fun. Start with book one because I think if you haven’t read the previous novels it would be really confusing to start with book fifteen. This is urban fantasy escapism and boy this one’s a wild ride.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Million Dollar Demon (Hollows)

Copyright 2021 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chicks Audio Review: Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows #1) by Kim Harrison and Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

One of my new favorite things to do is to revisit previous favorites by listening to them as audiobooks. Kim Harrison’s Hollows series has been one of my favorite urban fantasy series and recently when she came out with a surprise novel in what was a completed series I decided to take a look back and listen to the first novel, Dead Witch Walking. Narrated by Marguerite Gavin, I was pleasantly surprised at how much the main character Rachel Morgan, still resonated with a much older me.

The Hollows series is set in a world just like ours, but where magic and paranormal beings are commonplace ever since “The Turn” when a genetically altered tomato killed a good portion of the human race. Rachel Morgan is a witch, but she’s also an investigator, and Dead Witch Walking is the start of her story and her investigative team of Ivy, a living vampire, and Jenks, a pixy. The three of them live and work out of an old church in the Hollows, the more magical part of Cincinnati. Rachel has a price on her head and in order to pay it off she tries to bring in evidence against mysterious millionaire Trent Kalamack, that shows he’s dealing in Brimstone a street drug. In Dead Witch Walking you get a lot of set up, not only to the world, but also to the characters and Marguerite Gavin does a great job at voicing all of them. My favorite voice being Jenks, who’s a small pixy (picture tinkerbell sized) and his voice somewhat matches that size. It’s too cute.

Rachel Morgan, despite her witchiness, attracts trouble. She’s somewhat of a blunderer but she has great instincts and in this case she’s taken on a bit more than she can chew in Trent Kalamack who exhibits supreme bad guy vibes in this first novel. In the end, Rachel gets what she wants by paying off her debt and getting rid of the price on her head, but it’s not exactly done in the way that she hoped. Dead Witch Walking is a mad-cap adventure story with great characters that develop into true friends and a great investigative team, and also sets the story for many of the things that happen to and for Rachel in the next 15 novels. If you love well done urban fantasy novels and have the patience to see your character grow into the kick a&$ she becomes, please pick this up, listen to it, or plug it directly into your brain in whatever means possible. This book is good, but the series is even better and I’m excited that Marguerite Gavin does such a great job with the narration because I’ll be listening to them for a while to come. (15 books! Sixteen if you count the flashback, The Turn.)

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase the audiobook!* Dead Witch Walking: Hollows, Book 1

Copyright 2020 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: American Demon (The Hollows #14) by Kim Harrison

What do you do when your favorite series (that ended with The Witch With No Name in 2016) all of a sudden has a revival? You hit the request button on NetGalley as quickly as possible and squeal in pleasure when you’re granted that book to review. Seriously guys, this was a biggee for me.

American Demon takes place where The Witch With No Name leaves off (before the epilogue that takes them into the latter years). Trent and Rachel are outted as an item, the demons are outted into the world, and the elves magic is all screwy. When a zombie gets dropped into Rachel’s back yard it starts a chain of events that finds Rachel at the center of a Baka possession. A Baka who eats away at your soul until that person does what it wants you to do. Rachel has to avoid sleep, navigate her relationship with Trent, and find the culprit and take him down. God, it’s good to be back in the Hollows!

It’s interesting to read a book when you’ve already read the final chapter and the epilogue that foretells the future. American Demon does a great job of amping up the tension between Rachel and Trent, making you think all is not going smoothly in their relationship, even though you know they end up together in the far future. I kind of liked the security of knowing while at the same time biting my nails over whether Rachel’s insecurities about Trent were actually truth, or all in her head. Ellasbeth, Trent’s almost wife who did bear his only child, makes a big appearance and puts all of Rachels’s doubts about herself into play. Despite Trent’s actions staying true to the future storyline.

Because I hadn’t re-read all 13 of the previous novels before reading American Demon, there were some small plot points that I feel I missed. Ivy saved Nina’s soul and they seem to be a couple, but then Glenn seems to have re-entered their lives and did they have a past together? I wish I knew all of the little in’s and out’s of these characters and it hadn’t been 6 years since I read The Witch With No Name. I know I’m going to go back and re-read them now that I’ve gotten re-hooked into the series.

Not to give anything away, but it does seem as if Kim Harrison is going to continue on because she leaves a couple of leads hanging in the wind that need to be tied up. I hope she doesn’t wait 6 years to write the next one! Although by that point I may have read through all of the previous novels and would hopefully be caught up.

American Demon was all that I’d hoped and everything I never knew I wanted. I’m so happy I had this chance to jump back into this series. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed these characters and am ready for another 13 to look forward to! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this ARC through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase!* American Demon (Hollows)

Copyright 2020 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you should purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads1 Comment

This Chick Read: The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death (The Hollows #0.1) by Kim Harrison

Kim Harrison’s The Turn is a leap backwards in time in the Hollows world to just before the Turn, when the human race was decimated by tomatoes. No it wasn’t the Attack of the Killer Tomato, but a genetically engineered virus that became transmitted to humans on a tomato plant.  For those of us that love and miss The Hollows, this is our chance to re-engage and learn about how this atrocity happened as well as catch up with some much loved or at least familiar characters (minus Rachel and her gang). Continue reading “This Chick Read: The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death (The Hollows #0.1) by Kim Harrison” →

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads5 Comments

This Chick Read: The Operator (The Peri Reed Chronicles) by Kim Harrison

Peri Reed is trying to lie low and live a life off the grid.  After discovering in The Drafter that the life she’d been leading was fabricated, Peri is in hiding from Bill, her ex Opti handler.  Unfortunately, Bill has other plans for her. A drug has been created that would return all of the memories she’d lost. The catch is that she’d be hooked, and Bill could control her by providing her with the drug, Evocane. Her choice between re-discovering herself and becoming, essentially, a crack addict was actually a difficult one. The Operator explores her relationship with the man she once loved but forgot, the man she loved who betrayed her and the boss she’d like to kill.  With a couple other psychopaths thrown into the game.

The Operator explored a bit more of Peri’s background. Silas, the man she loved and had wiped from her memory, is no longer content to watch things happen from the sidelines. In my opinion, he’s a big part of the success of this story. Without Silas, Peri would just be a caricature, an empty humanoid shell. The fact that she wants to remember their previous life together gives her the strength to fight for her freedom, and someone we can identify with and root for.

Kim Harrison is the author of one of my favorite series (The Hollows) and I can’t help but compare Peri to that series female protagonist, Rachel Morgan. Peri  and Rachel have a couple of things in common.  They both have an inordinate amount of talent, they are a bit insecure, and their conscious comes in the form of a sidekick (Peri’s a hallucination of her ex partner and Rachel’s a pixie named Jenks). They both have a lot of honor, even though they may use bad judgement and extraordinary means to deliver the right outcome. When I pick up a book in either of their series, I know I am in for a wild ride.  The Operator was definitely that!

❤❤️❤️❤️


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Copyright 2016 Deborah Kehoe A Chick Who Reads All Rights Reserved

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Waylaid by Kim Harrison

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

What happens when the worlds of Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison’s Hollows series and Peri Reed from The Drafter collides?  You get the chance to find out in Waylaid a novella by the author who wrote both.  Rachel Morgan is one of my absolute favorite fantasy characters and when that series ended, well, I was really unhappy.  When I heard that she would be back in a novella, I jumped at the chance to read it ahead of its release on April 4th. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Waylaid by Kim Harrison” →