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Jan. 17th, 2006 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickwriterI'm totally verklempt. I just got a great review in the Well-Red Coyote's e-newsletter:
MATTERS OF THE BLOOD By Maria Y. Lima (paranormal fiction)
Reviewed by Kris Neri
I like magic realism -- the blend of real world and fantasy elements that we often see in fiction today. I like it in theory anyway. In actuality, I usually find the supernatural elements so overshadow the realism that while I may enjoy the tale, I never buy into the idea that it could really happen.
Until now. I've just read -- devoured, really -- Maria Y. Lima's MATTERS OF THE BLOOD, and it's the first of its kind that felt real to me. At 37, protagonist Keira Kelly is starting to go through "the change." No, not that change. The change Keira undergoes is the one that will turn her into the paranormal being she's destined to become. In the course of the book, while Keira's senses become heightened, her sexuality charged, and she experiences brutal prophetic visions, we don't know what kind of being she's going to become. Keira's guess is that she'll become a shape-shifter like her brother, which in MATTERS OF THE BLOOD translates into a werewolf. But there are a variety of entities represented by her family and we'll learn whether her guess about her own evolution is correct in
future installments.
While Keira is a trust fund baby, she always has some kind of job. She used to work as an escort. That's not a euphemism for a call girl -- but the individual who helps the immortal beings in her clan, who tire of eternal life, to move onto their rest. Now all her family requires of her is that she watch over her noodgy cousin, Marty Nelson, a throwback in her supernatural clan, since he was born an ordinary moral. When Marty is brutally slain, and in a way foretold by Keira's vision, the police pursue a pair of local, human, thugs. But the suspicious bite marks on his neck make Keira look to her own kind. In the course of her quest, she unearths unexpected, long-hidden secrets.
Lima's MATTERS OF THE BLOOD is a seductive gem, with a soul of darkness that's as soft and sensuous as black velvet. Her choices are more imaginative than many writers in the paranormal genre, yet readers will find themselves buying into all of it, from Keira's evolution, to her 2000-year-old brother, to the dishy neighborhood vampire who is nothing like any blood-sucker you've ever read before. Her voice is mature and commanding, especially remarkable for a first novel, with just the slightest trace of "otherness," evidence that this butt-kicking protagonist isn't like you and me. Author Dana Cameron has written of it: "Maria Lima writes hot action and spicy romance with a biting sense of humor, all deep in the heart of Texas. You'll be sucked in." I sure was.
The Well Red Coyote - Books on the Rocks A Real Bookstore for Real Book Lovers
3190 W. Highway 89A, Sedona, Arizona 86336
(928) 282-2284
MATTERS OF THE BLOOD By Maria Y. Lima (paranormal fiction)
Reviewed by Kris Neri
I like magic realism -- the blend of real world and fantasy elements that we often see in fiction today. I like it in theory anyway. In actuality, I usually find the supernatural elements so overshadow the realism that while I may enjoy the tale, I never buy into the idea that it could really happen.
Until now. I've just read -- devoured, really -- Maria Y. Lima's MATTERS OF THE BLOOD, and it's the first of its kind that felt real to me. At 37, protagonist Keira Kelly is starting to go through "the change." No, not that change. The change Keira undergoes is the one that will turn her into the paranormal being she's destined to become. In the course of the book, while Keira's senses become heightened, her sexuality charged, and she experiences brutal prophetic visions, we don't know what kind of being she's going to become. Keira's guess is that she'll become a shape-shifter like her brother, which in MATTERS OF THE BLOOD translates into a werewolf. But there are a variety of entities represented by her family and we'll learn whether her guess about her own evolution is correct in
future installments.
While Keira is a trust fund baby, she always has some kind of job. She used to work as an escort. That's not a euphemism for a call girl -- but the individual who helps the immortal beings in her clan, who tire of eternal life, to move onto their rest. Now all her family requires of her is that she watch over her noodgy cousin, Marty Nelson, a throwback in her supernatural clan, since he was born an ordinary moral. When Marty is brutally slain, and in a way foretold by Keira's vision, the police pursue a pair of local, human, thugs. But the suspicious bite marks on his neck make Keira look to her own kind. In the course of her quest, she unearths unexpected, long-hidden secrets.
Lima's MATTERS OF THE BLOOD is a seductive gem, with a soul of darkness that's as soft and sensuous as black velvet. Her choices are more imaginative than many writers in the paranormal genre, yet readers will find themselves buying into all of it, from Keira's evolution, to her 2000-year-old brother, to the dishy neighborhood vampire who is nothing like any blood-sucker you've ever read before. Her voice is mature and commanding, especially remarkable for a first novel, with just the slightest trace of "otherness," evidence that this butt-kicking protagonist isn't like you and me. Author Dana Cameron has written of it: "Maria Lima writes hot action and spicy romance with a biting sense of humor, all deep in the heart of Texas. You'll be sucked in." I sure was.
The Well Red Coyote - Books on the Rocks A Real Bookstore for Real Book Lovers
3190 W. Highway 89A, Sedona, Arizona 86336
(928) 282-2284
