Seventeen-year-old Ace is running out of time. Any day now, he will become a Flesh Faller. Just another teen fallen in the seventy years since it began. With each generation, hope slips further for humanity. Then Ace’s long lost father returns with a message. He may have found a cure. Ace leaves the safety of his hometown of Lakelan to travel through many dangers. Facing gangs who sell Vaxxers, Flesh Fallers and waiting to turn any day… will he find a cure in time? Will he find a cure at all? Find out, in Vaxxers.

The premise for Behn’s zombies in her novel Vaxxers felt stretched. Choosing this medium for spreading awareness of Chiari Malformation though was quite a surprise. (It certainly made me do my research.) There was a lot of word confusion in the novel as well as grammar errors that really brought the reader out of that world, and for all of these reasons above, it did lose stars. The progress of the story also seemed to be largely driven by testosterone and convenience. For example, the main protagonist, Ace, is close to turning eighteen, and becoming a teenager is the supposed trigger for turning into a zombie at the start of the novel. With this in mind, he notices that he is the only person of his age in a small community (something that has obvious answers provided the backstory that the reader has up to this point) just before the community leader explains that he will be locked up for the night in order to protect everyone. In general, Ace is an angry person, and many of the actions that he takes in the book are motivated by temper, like storming into a neighboring city where he meets a few of the lesser characters in the novel. Things like this happen periodically throughout the book, and again, the convenience of it is a bit disorienting. Outside of that, there is comic relief in the fact that parents name their children after technology from “Before”. Ace is short for Acer, like the computer, and Acer’s brother’s name is Ap, short for Apple. There is a lot of excitement, and the scenarios move quickly. Similar to The Walking Dead, there is just about enough time to get attached to a character before the character is gone again by one literary mechanism or another. By and large, Behn has talent, and the writing is solid even if the story arc could use work. By the end of the book, it was worth the read. I would call it a good snowy weekend project and give it three stars.

It’s one year until the apocalypse of 12.21.12 is supposed to take place.

Burning buildings, screaming babies, and death will surround us.

It will be the end of the world.

That can’t be allowed.

When six powerful women come together with one goal—to save humanity—they’ll get much more than they bargained for. They join forces and learn to use the gifts hidden within themselves to battle a monster feeding off something too many of us feel in our souls: Hate. But they must first learn how to forgive—themselves as well as others.

Hate is birthing a creature dwelling under Central Park in New York, and the fiend is eager to burst forth and sink his fangs into the Earth.

The Fury, The Visionary, The Beguiler, The Siren, The Prophet, and The Mystic are our last hope, and even they aren’t sure if they can win.

The end is coming, but with it, there may be a new beginning.

The Siren represents book 4 in the Hate Apocalypse series and continues with Markaza’s race against time to bring together the women she has envisioned helping her in battling the big bad festering in Central Park.  Melody, the siren, brings forward another manifestation of a way in which we as humans self destruct. Having suffered for most of my life with body dysmorphia, this episode in the series hit home hard for me. As usual with the books we got a flash forward of a potential future for Melody in The Beguiler, which hangs as a constant fear throughout this book. It also continues well with my comments from The Beguiler where no matter what gravity the reader attaches to each of the women and what they are going through – it’s all equally weighty to the person involved.

Again I felt that well researched and thoughtful prose was hampered by the short format of these books. It’s often a trade off with one major point and in The Siren, this was how quickly Melody agreed to go with Markaza. This time I did feel that this was justified to be able to spend the proper amount of time with her recovery.  A big bugbear of mine is when characters who have been starving, through whatever circumstance, tuck into a slap up meal with great abandon and lick their lips with glee.  No, if your body is starved you need to start slow and The Siren really shows the painful side of recovery from malnutrition. There were so many points where such care was taken to give great attention to detail to the illness that it really brought back a lot of memories – not for the first time, this series has really given me pause.

What stood out for me in this episode is that we start to see the starts of the strain on Markaza and also a hint of her story. Juggling bringing these women together is a big deal against the backdrop of a finite amount of time to achieve what she needs. I did very much enjoy the way the reader is drawn into how Markaza is thinking. When Melody’s ability comes through it gave me a start of understanding how things will unfurl and also a sense of hope. I do worry for Lily though but I get the feeling that until she learns not to hide behind her glamour her true potential will not be met, we’ll see.  It’s not long now until the apocalypse and I can’t wait to see where the series goes next, I get the feeling it’s going to be another thought provoker.

Whilst I give The Siren 4* it’s with a strong feeling that this series in totality will be end up being a 5!

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No one believes in them. But soon no one will forget them.

It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood.

Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history–but only if they can stay alive.

So I’m going to get the elephant in the room out of the way first and then it’s done and we can move on. Yes, this book is very similar to Six of Crows. To be honest it was that that kind of drew me to this book in the first place, and whilst there a number of direct comparisons, when I read Six of Crows for the first time all I thought about was Ocean’s 11.  A group of misfits banding together, plotting to steal an item is not a unique concept so please accept that fact and enjoy the book for what it is, you’ll be seriously missing out if not.

The characters are all strong, each with their own skillset and emotional baggage. There is so much potential back story for each of them which would be perfect to explore further in future books in the series, but we’re given just enough about each in this book to keep our interest piqued. Laila is certainly a character I would love to delve further into, especially when we learn her history! Her ability to transform from daytime baker to nightime darling of the burlesque is fabulous.  The enigmatic Severin, denied a birthright, slowly simmers until the perfect opportunity arrives to take back what is his.  He is the architect of the piece, and darkly complex. Zofia is wonderful, and as a sufferer of anxiety myself I totally identified with her and the quirks of her behaviour, her ability to force herself to adapt even when the introvert in her tries to drag her back down. I loved the beauty of the friendship she has with Laila, this story has a number of powerful moments but one that stands out most for me is when Laila set out 3 dresses for Zofia to choose from each with it’s own trait to help her with whatever anxiety she was feeling.  Hypnos provides the much needed comedy relief at times when the story becomes too heavy and he really did remind me a bit of Magnus Bane!

The concept of the power of forging was great and covered pretty much all the bases when it came to the fantastical world and what they were able to achieve. Imaginative devices and wonderful potions and poisons, really gave me a feeling of steampunk. Exciting scrapes and tangles, bringing to mind thoughts of raiders of the lost arc and similar tomb raider style puzzles to be solved. The Gilded Wolves is an amazing race against time, I found myself holding my breath a number of times as each part of the plan (and sometimes the unplanned) unfurled – there is a ton going on and if you get distracted you’ll miss something important, such is the volume of information. This is a story with a pace that rarely lets up and will have you devouring the pages with it’s exciting set pieces. One of my favourite parts of this book is actually the small pockets of flash back where Severin recounts the families he stayed with during his childhood, giving each “father” a corresponding deadly sin – this is a poignant change of pace and also a valuable insight as to how he became shaped to be the man he has become.

There were minor issues with the storyline, minutes after warning Enrique not to taken in by Hypnos’ tricks I found Severin’s blind faith in what he witnessed jarring, I accept that was the pivotal point of moving the story forward but I think it could been captured without such a continuity issue. The beginning chapters really had an infodump feel, I found that I initially struggled to get to grips with The Order, The Houses, Forging and getting to know the characters and setting, the writing does fall into a natural rhythm with it though and it does become quickly familiar. I don’t feel that these points overall impacted my enjoyment of the book in totality though.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Gilded Wolves and despite the small issues I still give this 5 Stars, with thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

The Gilded Wolves will be available on the 15th January 2019