This review is based on an ARC received free from the publisher.

Exhausted by her two small children, Emma isn't sure what put-together Nina sees in her. Unknown to her, Nina remembers her from the past, and is now playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with her life. The description was intriguing, but the details and the execution were lacking.

For the first third of the book, although we learn that Nina remembers Emma from somewhere and that she orchestrated their new "meeting," Nina and Emma barely interact. Once they finally become a regular part of each other's lives, the tension does increase somewhat. But when the reader finally learns what it was that Emma did years before that makes Nina want revenge even though Emma doesn't even remember her, it's anticlimactic. It turns out that the thing Emma did wasn't deliberately cruel. She probably didn't intend to do it and it's entirely possible that she was never even aware it happened. Most of the book's chapters from Nina's perspective build suspense over how she knew Emma and why she wants revenge, and when it's finally revealed.... nothing. Then it ends abruptly without Emma apparently ever having found out what Nina was doing to her or why. This book is in need of a catharsis it's lacking.

Overall: C

Her will be available in the U.S. in January 2015.

This review is based on a free advance copy provided by the publisher. (It's well past the release date, but in my defense it was slightly past the release date when I received it so the whole "advance" thing was already moot.)

Spademan (not his real name) used to be a garbage man. He still is, in a way, but now the garbage he removes is human. He gets a phone call with a name and arranges payment, and his only rules are no killing kids and no listening to the back story. He doesn't care. He's just the bullet. He lives and works in and around a NYC that has been devastated by a second round of terrorist attacks, including a dirty bomb in Times Square, and which has been largely abandoned. The remaining rich residents seal themselves inside and spend their days "limning," meaning in a new sort of virtual reality Internet, with only the remaining service industry workers on the streets. Then Spademan is given a target that leads to his thinking of some new rules.

This story has everything that you need for a good noir; a hero whose morality it would be generous to call ambiguous (at one point early on he gives the reader a litany of rules he doesn't have - like only killing serial killers - and asks if they would think his being a hit man was forgivable then). A beautiful young woman who either is in trouble, or is trouble, or both. A stark city setting that's integral to the story. And plenty of violence. If I met a Sandman Slim fan who was into dystopias without the paranormal aspects too, I'd recommend this book.

Overall: A

This review is based on a free copy received from the publisher.

I picked up Seven for a Secret at a conference not realizing that it was the second in a series. I probably would have understood more about the characters had I read The Gods of Gotham first, but I don't think that not having read it affected my enjoyment of this book.

Timothy Wilde, copper star of the newly formed NYPD, is approached by a woman named Lucy Adams whose son and sister have been abducted by slave catchers in spite of being free natives of Albany. Rescuing him with the help of his friend Julius Carpenter and the New York Committee of Vigilance is only the beginning for all of them. Timothy is pulled into a murky world of slave traders and politics, with his brother Valentine assisting him only so far as his interests don't disturb the Democratic party machine.

This is a dark, twisty tale full of deceit and vividly drawn characters, set against New York City at a time when the city was filling with refugees from the Irish Potato Famine and tensions over slavery are simmering.

Overall: A

This review is based on a free copy provided by the publisher.

In the future, fast food chains (often affiliated with schools of philosophy) run the world. Leonard his a professional Listener of Neetsa Pizza, answering calls to their complaints number through the night and following the scripts with the goal of getting the caller to convert, i.e. accept a coupon. Then one night the regular calls stop and he begins receiving calls from Marco Polo. So begins a journey that winds up involving time travel, Jewish mysticism, and awesome karate kicks.

A Highly Unlikely Scenario is wonderfully, delightfully bizarre. The overall feel of it reminded me of a combination of Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store and the Thursday Next series, although aside from medieval name dropping (in the case of the former) and odd libraries (in the case of the latter) there isn't much concrete that it has in common with them. The pacing did feel just a bit strange, as if too much was happening and needing to be wrapped up quickly near the end, but this is Cantor's first novel so maybe that's something that will improve in future work.

Overall: A-

This review is based on an advance copy received from the publisher and not gotten to in time for that whole "advance" thing.

Flora 717 is a sanitation worker in a highly regimented dictatorship that happens to be a beehive. Through a combination of luck and unusual talents in one of her origins, she able to transcend her place and learn many roles in the hive from serving in the nursery to foraging. But when she accidentally commits a grave crime, and the hive is in trouble, she finds herself doing things she would previously have thought unthinkable.

I have to say, I think that the comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games, and even Animal Farm are out of place. Our Flora actually does appear to be biologically different from the rest of the floras; we're told more than once that it's unusual that she's capable of "speech." And I won't go into the later events of the book. Therefore I'd say that comparisons to human dystopias are off because in the case of books about repressive human societies, we are talking about people who are created equal, for lack of a better phrase, when it's clear that Flora 717 is something "better" than the rest of the floras. And even in Animal Farm, the point is that the pigs take over a society in which all creatures with four legs are supposed to be equal, and not that most of the non-pigs really are inferior and the exceptions are special.

That said, the anthropomorphic look at a beehive in trouble through the eyes of a worker is an inventive idea and wonderfully handled (particularly keeping in mind that Flora 717 does not have a human scientist's external perspective of hive function). Just look at it as an exercise in worldbuilding, don't push the symbolism too far, and enjoy the ride.

Overall: A

This review is based on a free copy received from the publisher, a bit late to be considered an advance copy (although not as late as the fact that I'm just now reviewing it would apply).

The Lion and the Rose is the sequel to The Serpent and the Pearl, a novel of the Borgias. Specifically, they follow Guilia Farnese, the mistress of Rodrigo Borgia, AKA Pope Alexander VI as well as two fictional narrators. When I read the first book, it struck me as if somebody had tried to reverse engineer historical fiction out of historical fantasy. Now, the quantity of drama and backstabbing surrounding the Borgias would be rather difficult to exaggerate. It's the two fictional narrators that have me rolling my eyes and saying "Really?" on a pretty regular basis.  There's Carmelina, a rare female chef who learned from her father whose recipes she's stolen, because of course she is, who in the first book appears at the household that employs her cousin while he's out gambling and saves the dinner, because of course she does. And then there's Leonello, the dwarf body guard. Leonello means "Little Lion." I'm not going to say anything else about that, I'm just going to let you think about that for a few minutes (if it takes that long) and draw your own conclusions about whose voice you think the author wants me to be hearing in my head while he narrates.

The second book continues in much the same vein. The Borgia intrigue is tons of fun. Carmelina's apprentice invents French fries. (He is a historical figure, so perhaps I should mention that the author's note does clarify that although potatoes were just being discovered in the "New World," he did not actually invent French fries.) And at one time or another every male character with a significant speaking part falls in love with or tries to sleep with (consensually or not) one or the other of the female narrators. Because nobody can be immune to both of their charms. All in all, it's not that it's bad, it's just that so much of the invented material is material that we have seen many, many times before.

Overall: B

Derek Hollbrook, Viscount Banfield, and Clementine Grey were betrothed when he was seventeen and she was fourteen. For him, it was love at first sight. Now it's seven years later and they're finally to be married. But Clementine is terrified that her difficult childhood with a mother who behaved abusively to her father (though not to her) and her father's drinking will make it impossible for her to be the wife he deserves, or a mother to the children he will need. She initially plans to run away with a friend, Prince Nasser, and though she tells Derek about this, it doesn't exactly help him learn to trust her.

This is not my favorite book by Delilah Marvelle. As usual, the dialogue is wonderful and all the characters are interesting. And I liked the premise itself. However, the resolution seemed rushed and incomplete. Derek and Clementine stumble into the School of Gallantry and Derek is taken on as a pupil, but we don't really see the school playing a major factor in his learning to be a better husband by being a friend to his wife. The only scene of the actual school that we see, not counting the impromptu session before his official enrollment, doesn't serve any purpose except for providing a touchstone to link this book with the others in the series. His conversation with Prince Nasser is more relevant to his development. And there's no indication of how Clementine learns to overcome her fears of repeating her mother's destructive behaviors and be more affectionate with her husband. Although the official school is for men, I think Clementine was as much in need of tutoring as Derek if not more and could have benefited from some private sessions in confidence apart from being given a bag of bondage equipment. Then at the end we go straight from her not wanting children and not having slept with her husband since their wedding night to her deciding she wants babies immediately. We haven't seen that she's feeling secure in them as a couple yet before she announces that she'd like to add some more. Yes, logically a viscount needs an heir so they aren't going to be putting that off for long, but I'd have liked to see her having learned to be a happy wife before deciding she had gotten to a point where she was ready to be a mother, especially since the practicalities of them having sex while making sure they avoid pregnancy had already been dealt with in the plot so it wasn't like that wasn't on the table. (In fact, if only the mention of being ready to have a child could have been omitted from the final chapter before the epilogue entirely, there could still have been a baby in the epilogue I would have assumed she'd gone through those stages a little more slowly and it would have felt a little more natural. Although I would still probably have rolled my eyes a little at the cliche of the epilogue baby.)  The pacing just generally feels a bit off, without enough work having been done on Clementine's part, and with her issues having been fixed all in one step. That said, I'm still looking forward to Brayton's book just as eagerly as I have been since he was first introduced.

Overall: B

This review is based on a free copy received from the publisher.

World of Trouble is the third book in the Last Policeman trilogy, following The Last Policeman and Countdown City. We're now just two weeks away from the asteroid hitting the planet. Hank Palace's police department has long since been shut down, but he still can't help but search for justice, even though it's about to stop mattering permanently. This time, while searching for his sister and her band of radicals who believe they can save the world, he finds another young woman, her throat cut and near death.

The meaning and significance of life or the lack thereof has long been a theme of detective fiction, and this series has brought a SF twist to the subject with the imminent destruction of life as we know it. Hank has coded the towns he passes through according to how people are dealing with the end: red towns, where civilization has already been abandoned; green towns, which are keeping up the pretense of life as normal, and blue towns, which appear abandoned but aren't. But he still goes on, searching for his sister and for answers, even while there's no protecting anybody and the answers won't make a difference.

There are no surprises here, either in regards to the ending we've been promised since the first book or in the case of what happened with Hank's sister and the woman with her throat cut, which I saw coming long in advance. But the ending is exactly what this series needed all the same. This quietly philosophical series is perfect for fans of detective stories with a twist or apocalyptic settings.

Overall: A

World of Trouble will be available on July 15.