Showing posts with label Dark Urban Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dark Urban Fantasy. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

SPOTLIGHT - DARK URBAN FANTASY - AESTRANGEL THE FALLEN by Marie DeVivo


Aestrangel the Fallen 
The Aestrangel Trinity, #1
by Maria DeVivo
Date of Publication: September 2023
Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy
Publisher: 4 Horsemen Publications
ISBN: 1644509261
Number of pages: 240
Word Count: 63K
Tagline: Hell hath no fury like an angel scorned!


BLURB
Aestra, favorite teenaged angel of The Lord, has been sent to Earth to ensure that high school senior, Jake Parker, pursues the correct path. He is teetering between two options that may seem innocuous, but only one will lead him to positively impact the lives of millions of humans.

But what happens when the heart chooses love over responsibility? For Aestra, one fateful night will set into motion a chain of events unforeseen by even her infallible Creator.

Excerpt

From Chapter One: Learning the Ways
They tell me I should be dreaming by now, that the images and scenarios should be well-embedded into my brand-new subconsciousness, but for me, all there has been is color. No. That’s not right. When I close my brand-new eyes, all that consumes me are the shifting shades of grays and blacks, and I’m not sure if this is something I should be worried about or not. I’ve been in this human simulation environment for quite some time now, and I’m guessing that part of my “humanness” hasn’t kicked in yet. But I’ve heard the others talking and describing their dreams, and I’m getting anxious for my first one. Revalia, the closest thing I have to what humans call a “best friend,” has told me the fabulous tales of her dreams. She says sometimes she doesn’t even want to wake up. She says the images and sounds and smells are so overpowering, so overwhelming, that when she wakes up, she desperately longs to go back to that dreamy, lazy place between the conscious and unconscious mind. I wish I knew what she was talking about.
I know my lack of dreams worries Camael. He has told me many times the human experience is multi-pronged and multi-faceted, and in order for me to complete my calling, I must be immersed in the most basic of human functions. There’s no other way for me to complete my mission because there’s no other way for me to be a “believable” Guardian to the human I am assigned. And if I don’t complete my mission successfully, I will never move up the ranks and become a Guardian Angel. Camael is in a higher order of angels than I am—the Dominions. He’s my mentor, and it’s his job to prepare me for the journey that I’m about to embark upon.
Yes, I’m an angel—we all are: Camael, Revalia, the others, and me. But, my rank right now is that of angel—the lowest rung on the ladder. My goal is to move up to Guardian, and hopefully beyond. It’s the natural progression for my kind, and I’m excited to serve the Creator (or God, as the humans refer to Him) and all of His glorious wonders.
There is no time—not the way humans divide time up at least. I’ve always existed, yet there are others and elders who were here in Ilarium before I was created, and since I’ve been given the ability to communicate in human language, it seems hard for me to put into words all the thoughts and feelings that I had before. Before, there was just love and peace and a willingness to serve and please, but now there is an actual lexicon, a vocabulary of tens of thousands of words, that I’m still trying to figure out how to effectively communicate and verbalize what’s in my heart. Never having had a heart before, it takes some getting used to.
We angels who are preparing for our callings have been thrust into a human-like world in order to become accustomed to the actual life of a human. The Powers That Be have replicated the physical world and have created buildings and structures for us, given us languages, infused us with feelings, and given us body shapes all in preparation for our descent to Earth.
While angels are neither male nor female, I have the body of a woman now, and I will be assigned female attributes from here forward. I rather do like the contour of the female form, I always have, and perhaps my partiality towards women is what prompted the Creator to put me in a woman’s body. My wings are more defined too; they are heavy on my shoulders with the feathered tips almost irritating the backs of my arms and legs. As the human notion of time becomes more ingrained into our routine, the weight of my wings becomes more and more cumbersome. Camael has said that the awareness of our wings was important so when we lose them on our descent, the shock wouldn’t be so bad. I don’t know; I’m still trying to understand all my teachings. Like how we’re going to be given a set of human memories specific to us and our assignment, yet have all the knowledge of our angelic lives. The thought of blending the two perplexes me.

This leads me to right now. This time. This place. The unfamiliarity of it all. Camael says this is a school, and the human I am assigned to help goes to one. I know this. I’ve seen them, the humans. I’ve watched them from up high, but actually being in a school—the four white walls and chairs called desks filed in rows with children sitting at them—is quite an adjustment. I sit in the front of a single aisle. We’re in alphabetical order, and I’m Aestra, so that means I’m first in the row. Revalia is a few desks behind me. I turn my head to try to catch her attention, but she’s staring out the window, deep in what Camael calls a “daydream.” I look at her a few seconds longer hoping my gaze can break her trance, but she’s too far gone, mesmerized in her human thoughts. The one disadvantage to being in this human shape is we angels can no longer feel the thoughts and emotions of others without speaking them. If I had been free from this woman body, I would have been able to read Revalia’s mind, but then again, if we weren’t in these human forms, Revalia wouldn’t be having such thoughts as hypnotizing daydreams…




Author Info
Maria is the Author of the Amazon bestselling and award-winning series The Coal Elf Chronicles, the YA psychological horror series The Altered Experience, and the NA Urban Fantasy series The Aestrangel Trinity. When not writing about dark fantasy and horror, she teaches Language Arts and Journalism to middle school students in Florida. A lover of all things dark and demented, she takes pleasure in warping the comfort factor in her readers’ minds. Just when you think you’ve reached a safe space in her stories, she snaps you back into her twisted reality.

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/mariadevivo
Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3OrcyPT 
Website: https://www.mariadevivo.com
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authormariadevivo 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authordevivo/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariadevivoauthor 
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MariaDeVivo
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Maria-DeVivo/e/B00CIAYHKY/
 

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Saturday, February 25, 2023

SPOTLIGHT - DARK URBAN FANTASY - SPELLBOUND (Joe Mack Shadow Council Files, #4) by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin


Spellbound
Joe Mack Shadow Council Files, #4
by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin
Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy

Werewolves, Vamps, and Thieves!

Joe Mack and his friends head to Pittsburgh to deal with a surge of disappearances, all people with psychic abilities going missing under highly questionable supernatural circumstances. That’s enough to keep anyone hopping, but Joe can’t ignore the feeling that there’s something even bigger going on behind the scenes.

Joe, West, and Sarah Grace team up with new allies to fight a whole new level of danger—and uncover the secrets behind why people with special abilities are vanishing and who’s taking them. What they learn could change the paranormal balance of power—permanently. It’s their job to keep the worst from happening, whatever it takes.

From the steel mills to the coal mines, Joe Magarac is the man to call for supernatural problems. After all, he does have a little help from Krukis, the god of blacksmiths, but immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Magarac left his old life behind him and now lives as Joe Mack, a literal man of steel and magic.

Spellbound is full of paranormal adventure, murdering mediums, creepy circuses, a theater full of vampires, malicious mesmerists, found family, secret supernatural agencies, dark magic, and loyal friends.

It’s the fourth in the Joe Mack series of Shadow Council Archives from Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin, the duo that brought you Spells, Salt, & Steel. The Shadow Council Archives are urban fantasy novellas set in the universe of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter and featuring folk heroes throughout history.


Chicagoland
Joe Mack Shadow Council Files, #3

Haunted hotels, old gods, mobsters, molls, and monsters are abroad in Chicago, and it’s up to Joe Magarac to protect the innocents from them. But how can he protect the city when he might not be able to keep himself alive? The mad ramblings of Alastair Crowley and the tales of horror imagined by HP Lovecraft have nothing on the magic etched into the walls of a secret room below Chicago’s Lexington Hotel.

Deep in the coal and ash tunnels beneath the city, workers are being murdered, their bodies left in shreds, and with Al Capone out of the picture, the criminal underbelly in Prohibition-Era Chicago is teetering on the edge of all-out chaos. Now it falls on Joe Mack, the steelworker-turned-nigh-immortal man of steel, to bring Chicago back from the brink before all is lost for good.

Can Joe Mack, along with his companions West and Sarah, determine what mysterious creature is causing the deaths? But more importantly, will Krikus’s magic be enough to keep Joe alive when the chips are down and they go toe-to-toe with their foe?

Chicagoland is the third book in the Joe Mack Shadow Council Files by award-winning author team Gail Z. & Larry N. Martin, authors of the Spells, Salt, & Steel series and the Wasteland Marshals novellas. The Shadow Council Case Files are historical fantasy novellas set in the world of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter that tell the true stories behind the tall tales surrounding some of the world’s most famous (and infamous) folk heroes.


Black Sun
Joe Mack Shadow Council Files, #2

From the steel mills to the coal mines, Joe Magarac is the man to call for supernatural problems. After all, he does have a little help from Krukis, the god of blacksmiths, but immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially as the anniversary of his “death” looms near. Magarac left his old life behind him and now lives as Joe Mack, a literal man of steel and magic.

Now Joe teams up once again with Jack West and Sarah McAllen to fix a problem, this time leaving Cleveland behind for Reading, Pennsylvania. Witches are being murdered, secret societies are brewing more than illegal bathtub gin, and someone is trying to summon creatures from Lovecraftian lore from deep within the mines. Again.

Black Sun is the second in the Joe Mack series of Shadow Council Archives from Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin, the duo that brought you Spells, Salt, & Steel. The Shadow Council Archives are urban fantasy novellas set in the universe of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter and featuring folk heroes throughout history.


Cauldron
Joe Mack Shadow Council Files, #1

When you ask a god for favors, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Josef Magarac was a brave man, a strong man, a hard-working immigrant who only wanted a better life for his family.

Instead he got a bloodbath.

From the bloody steel mill strikes of Pennsylvania rose a true man of steel, a steelworker transformed into something more by the power of the Old Gods. Now Joe Mack is in Cleveland, and he’s working to protect those who can’t protect themselves. When a friend asks him to look into disappearances in a largely immigrant neighborhood, Joe takes an interest. When his interest leads him to a vampire stalking the streets of his adopted home, he takes more than an interest. He takes on a mission.

Cauldron is the first in the Joe Mack series of Shadow Council Archives from Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin, the duo that brought you Spells, Salt, & Steel. The Shadow Council Archives are urban fantasy novellas set in the universe of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter and featuring folk heroes throughout history.

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Gail Z. Martin discovered her passion for science fiction, fantasy and ghost stories in elementary school. The first story she wrote at age five was about a vampire. Her favorite TV show as a preschooler was Dark Shadows. At age 14, she decided to become a writer. She enjoys attending science fiction/fantasy conventions, Renaissance fairs and living history sites.

Larry N. Martin is the author of the new sci-fi adventure novel Salvage Rat. He is the co-author (with Gail Z. Martin) of the Spells, Salt, and Steel/New Templars series; the Steampunk series Iron & Blood; and a collection of short stories and novellas: The Storm & Fury Adventures set in the Iron & Blood universe. He is also the co-author of the upcoming Wasteland Marshals series and the Joe Mack Cauldron/Secret Council series.
The Martins have three children, a Maltese, and a Golden Retriever.
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Sunday, February 5, 2023

SPOTLIGHT - DARK URBAN FANTASY - C.H.A.R.O.N. (Night Vigil Novel, #2) by Gail Z. Martin


C.H.A.R.O.N.
Night Vigil Novel, #2
by Gail Z. Martin
Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy Adventure 


Your best hope to make it through the hour of the wolf.

Ex-priest Travis Dominick and former FBI agent Brent Lawson hunt demons, monsters, and supernatural troublemakers. When Brent gets a call for help from an old army buddy, he and Travis head to a small central Pennsylvania town beset by a series of unexplainable deaths and escalating paranormal activity. The murders mimic crimes from decades past, down to the smallest detail, and as Travis and Brent battle vengeful entities, rumors surface that shady government experiments helped make a bad situation even worse.

Torrential rain and rising rivers mean there's no escaping the creatures hunting the shadows, beings that take shape from people's deepest fears and feed on their terror. With the lives of everyone in South Fork at stake, Brent and Travis face their toughest case yet. They'll have to confront the town's dark secrets, the legacy of a covert supernatural psi-ops program, and their own painful memories to battle a bloodthirsty ancient creature and fight the deadly spirits that roam the night.

C.H.A.R.O.N. is a dark urban fantasy thrill ride filled with Old World spirits, legends and lore, vengeful ghosts, magic, secret government agencies, Vatican ninja-priests, found family, small-town secrets, badass bartenders, psychics, mediums, witches, small-town heroes, and an unshakable bond of friendship.

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Sons of Darkness
A Night Vigil Novel Book 1

We are the Night Vigil.

The run-down convenience store, the all-night diner, the last-ditch shelter, or seedy motel, the redneck bar and the emergency room, and all the other places open on the graveyard shift—they’re Hell’s hunting grounds, full of easy marks and desperate souls, prey for evil things out there in the dark.

We keep the Vigil, looking for the ones who can still be saved, the ones who aren’t too far gone. We’re the misfits and the muck-ups, unwanted by Heaven or Hell, given one last chance to atone for all the mistakes and missed chances, the pain we’ve caused others and ourselves, the good things we were afraid to do, and the bad things we embraced with open arms. We work the night shift because that’s when evil walks. We’re the clerk in the all-night liquor store, the server in the 24-hour diner, the long-haul trucker who only drives at night, the counter person in the convenience store, the dog shift nurse. We recognize the evil when we see it, and we use the skills we honed with blood and fire to stop it, whatever it takes.

Unfinished business ties us to the mortal world, to make atonement, find absolution, satisfy retribution, get things right. You won’t find a sorrier group of halfway house heroes. No illusions left—about ourselves, humanity, or what’s really out there in the darkness. Just a purpose, to go down fighting the good fight. Because this is our last chance.

One final chance to make it right, the thin red line of humanity against the evil that goes bump in the night, your best hope to make it through the hour of the wolf

When a series of disappearances, suicides, and vengeful spirits cause havoc and death along a remote interstate highway, demon-hunting ex-priest Travis Dominick teams up with former special ops soldier and monster-hunter Brent Lawson to end the problem with extreme prejudice.



Gail Z. Martin writes urban fantasy, epic fantasy, steampunk and more for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, Falstaff Books, SOL Publishing and Darkwind Press. Urban fantasy series include Deadly Curiosities and the Night Vigil (Sons of Darkness). Epic fantasy series include Darkhurst, the Chronicles Of The Necromancer, the Fallen Kings Cycle, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, and the Assassins of Landria.

Together with Larry N. Martin, she is the co-author of Iron & Blood, Storm & Fury (both Steampunk/alternate history), the Spells Salt and Steel comedic horror series, the Roaring Twenties monster hunter Joe Mack Shadow Council series, and the Wasteland Marshals near-future post-apocalyptic series. As Morgan Brice, she writes urban fantasy MM paranormal romance, with the Witchbane, Badlands, Treasure Trail, Kings of the Mountain and Fox Hollow series. Gail is also a con-runner for ConTinual, the online, ongoing multi-genre convention that never ends.

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