Giveaway winner selected and February plans
The Excel gods have spoken! And the Mind Games novel will go to…
Deb Novack!
Congrats, Deb!! Let me know how you like it! Please check your email and twitter so that we can get in touch regarding your contact information.
Again, I want to thank you ALL for your continued support of Your Urban Fantasy! I’m still a bit new at this, so thanks for letting me work out the kinks. I’ll keep my monthly giveaways going and next month is definitely no exception. I think a large number of us know that February is going to be a VERY exciting month! I’ll let you all take one wild guess as to why ~_^. I’ve got a lot in store and will need your help, so stay tuned!
Giveaway + Review: Mind Games - A Solid Start to This Trilogy
Giveaway Details:
It’s that time of the month! As I am gearing up to read the final book of the Disillusionist Trilogy I figured I could do a little house cleaning. Up for grabs is my copy of Mind Games, Book 1 of this great series. The giveaway will last until Thursday, January 26, 2012. The winner will be announced and contacted on Friday the 27th. If you participated in my prior giveaway you might know the drill, but please see below as I have tweaked a couple of things.
How to Enter (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY): This giveaway is only open to followers of Your Urban Fantasy. In order to enter YOU MUST COMMENT ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT POST! If you’re a new member, sign up on the right panel to follow my blog via email and/or Twitter. (Make sure you check your email to confirm your subscription. You should receive a notification immediately, so check your spam folder if you don’t see it right away). Current followers can just say so in their post and your entry will be added. Overall, there are up to 3 chances to win:
- Follow this blog via email (THIS IS REQUIRED)
- Follow me on Twitter (bonus entry)
- “Like” Your Urban Fantasy on Facebook (bonus entry)
While I do appreciate RSS subscribers, I cannot confirm your status as a follower so your entry will not count (sorry!); however, you are welcome to sign up by email and Twitter or Facebook. Winners are randomly selected through a raffle. I ship to international winners!
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Review:
Mind Games, Book 1 of the Disillusionist Trilogy introduces us to Justine Jones. She’s a bit of a hypochondriac-to put it mildly. She freaks out that she’s going to die any day now and it affects her life and interactions with those around her in so many ways. That is until she stumbles into a bar, meeting this mysterious bar tender named Packard. He seems to have all of the answers to solve Justine’s little problem. Little does she know what she is getting herself into when she takes him up on his offer. It turns out Justine can use her neurosis as a weapon, passing her fear into criminals instead with a process called “zinging”. Better them than her, right? She joins Packard’s vigilante crime fighting team that uses their own powers to re-program these bad guys and make them into more upstanding citizens. But of course nothing is that easy, right? Is the law usually on the side of vigilantes? And exactly how bad ARE these bad guys? (I’ll give you a hint: VERY bad)
There’s a fair amount of originality here. It’s definitely interesting to use people with heightened senses more so than the usual super natural creatures like vampires, werewolves, demons, etc. It’s quite difficult to stand out in the urban fantasy genre with those staple species, though I admit those are usually my preference when well done.
I also want to forewarn you to be prepared for first person present tense. It is an extremely jarring adjustment to make and I found it distracting for most of the book, though I finally adjusted towards the end. Considering that this is a modified review I can say that initially I planned to avoid this style like the plague, but after reading several titles in this tense more recently, it’s no longer an issue.
While there is some gore, overall this book has a lighter urban fantasy feel to it, which is usually more up my alley. It’s plenty descriptive and there is plenty of suspense as Justine isn’t a seasoned crime-fighter and all of these experiences thrust upon her are new, so it’s up to her to use her wits to figure out how she’ll survive. I’m usually pretty sensitive to annoying protagonists, but Justine wasn’t so bad. She’s a little quick to jump in the sack, but I think that she more or less handles the situations as best as she can at the time. She’s definitely no Mary Sue.
Considering that this isn’t your everyday run-of-the-mill urban fantasy tale, I’m not sure if this is what every fan would be looking for, but if you’ve read lots of stories and want to give something different a try, this is worth the time.
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