The Saucy Wenches Book Club

"Is that all you bought?" 
His eyes shot to the left. "Um." 
I clenched my teeth. "What else?" 
"A SuperMega Juicer," he said quickly. "But, Sabina, seriously that juice is a miracle machine." 
"I'm a vampire, Giguhl. The only liquids I drink are blood and alcohol. I don't do juice."
~ Jaye Wells, Red-Headed Stepchild

Let me begin by saying I love ARCs. And I adore our favorite authors who send us ARCs and NetGalley copies of their books. Once again, the Wenches were lucky enough to view Jaye Wells' latest Kate Prospero book, Deadly Spells, on NetGalley! Woohoo! Since I adored the first two, I got to this IMMEDIATELY!

If you want to catch up before venturing into this review, here are the Wenches' reviews of Dirty Magic and Cursed Moon! (Both 4 star reads!) 


(On a side note, these books probably have some of my favorite covers! BAD.ASS!)

Click through to read the Wench review of Deadly Spells! Very mildly spoilery. (But I will assume you are up to date with the events of Dirty Magic and Cursed Moon!) 

It's time once again, Saucy Readers, to look back over our year and to whittle down our read lists to our ten favorite reads of 2014. As our TBRs continued to grow, we managed to check some books off that list, and some of those books were absolutely wonderful. New series, continuations of favorites, classics that were new to us, and Wench recommendations, all earned a place on our list.

Come with us through the jump and find out which books earned a place in our hearts, and on our "best of 2014" list.

Good thing I hadn't mentioned my little field trip to Volos's office. No doubt she would have put that under the category of psycho ex-girlfriend behavior, instead of the strategic surveillance I'd convinced myself it was.

Dirty Magic
~~Jaye Wells

Pen reached blindly for a chair and fell into it. As soon as her ass hit cushion, she crossed herself. Her inconsistent Catholicism was one of the many idiosyncrasies that endeared me to her. Right then I wished I believed in some sort of religion, too. One that would explain to me why bad things happened to innocent people. One that explained why bad people got away with murder. One that offered salvation in exchange for adhering to a few simple rules.

But religion and me? We weren't on speaking terms. Which meant all I had to guide me was the seething rage and a bottomless pit of regret. I stood on the lip of that well and looked into the inky blackness.

Dirty Magic
~~Jaye Wells

Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells

Don't you love book release days, Saucy reader? We do! We usually countdown to our much anticipated release days! And since Dirty Magic early this year, we've been waiting eagerly for the next installment in Jaye Wells's The Prospero's War series! We couldn't wait to read more about Kate, Pen, John Volos (yum), and Kate's team!

I reviewed Dirty Magic, the first book in the series, after viewing it on Net Galley before release day thanks to the lovely Jaye Wells (You can read my review here), and this time, Head Wench Barb received an ARC of Cursed Moon in the mail! Which is how I got my grubby little hands on it! We were happy Wenches!  

Click through to see what this Wench thought about Cursed Moon! (Very mildly spoilery, but I will be mentioning events that took place in Dirty Magic! So be warned.) 

In real life, things don't go back to normal at the end of the half hour. Confessing your sins more often damns you than saves you. And no matter how much you wish it were otherwise, you can't just wish away the consequences of your shitty decisions."

Dirty Magic
~~Jaye Wells

We've been fans of Jaye Wells since Wench Shau got us (or more specifically, got Head Wench Barb) started on her very amazing Sabina Kane series. One look at her review and lots of us scrambled to read the series. We've been burned in the past, so we only recommend the very best to each other. Once I heard it was a complete series, and that it was well loved, I dove in, and I loved it. I even reviewed the novella, Rusted Veins. I do love an author who doesn't do the tropes I so often bitch about (here).
So when we heard Ms.Wells was starting a new series, I was instantly intrigued! And it went on my TBR before I even found out when it was going to be released, which is rare for me in this genre. I usually need someone to tell me the series is worth the read before I invest time in it, but I trust this author. 
When I was told we were lucky enough to view an early copy of Dirty Magic, thanks to Jaye Wells and NetGalley, I was ecstatic! 
Click through to see what I have to say …

We all know how it is at the end of a year. Relief that it's over, and some apprehension and hope concerning the next one. Mostly, we're just grateful we survived with most of our sanity intact. 

Thankfully, the Wenches have had a (mostly) great 2013 when it comes to what we've been reading. At the dawn of a new year, we thought it was apt that we'd reminisce about some of the best books we've read and loved this past year. You know, the ones we fell in love with almost immediately. The ones we might have reread almost obsessively. The ones we would recommend to everyone we know.So we all got together and put them in a list for you.


Click through to see which books the Wenches picked as their favorite reads of 2013!
(There will be SPOILERS!)

...Rusted Veins, Close To You, & "High Stakes"!by: Zee the Terrible and Barbara Bones
We have been pretty lucky in our reading this year. Not only have we been getting more of (some of) our fave characters, we've even discovered some new ones! And most of our favorite authors have been kind enough to help us pass time between releases with short stories and/or novellas! Or in one case, help ease the ending of a brilliant series! We thoroughly enjoyed these forays into our favorite worlds, and being reminded of why we absolutely adore both the authors and the books. 



So we picked three of the best ones, and reviewed them just for you! Just in case you needed a reason to pick them up! 

My Top Ten Anti-HeroesIn the nearly three years that my reading list has been filled to overflowing with urban fantasy titles, I have learned several things about myself and my worldview that I didn't realize or think about before. Like my deep love of kick-ass heroines, my joy in reading profanity sprinkled in books, and how much I adore sharing a reading experience with friends. But nothing has been so crystal clear as realizing how much I love a great anti-hero.

Humans are flawed creatures, each of us containing good and bad all packaged within the same unstable wrapping, and that's what I like to see in my heroes. I don't want heroes who always know what the right thing to do is, and always do exactly that. I don't want to read about characters who have no struggle with inner demons, who always follow social norms exactly, who are always virtuous, idolize their mothers unconditionally and have equal room in their hearts for both cats and dogs. Those characters alway…

"The point isn't knowing what will happen, it's being aware that everything we do affects the whole. All of us--mages, vampires, humans, and the rest--affect the balance of life."

"If you start singing, 'Kum Ba Yah' I'm out of here."

Red-Headed Stepchild
~~Jaye Wells

"In the grand scheme of things, dying seemed like an easy way to balance the scales. Easier than the constant struggle to make the right choices and battle my doubts and navigate through the labyrinth mire of dark races politics. Easier than living." 
~ Jaye Wells "Blue-Blooded Vamp"

The Sabina Kane Series by Jaye Wells Many months ago now, Wench Angela challenged the Wenches to recommend books for each other. Many accepted the challenge, but as the year has flown by only a few of us have finished our challenge books, and even fewer have taken the time to write the review on their books. But as summer wound down and my most anticipated new releases of the year have come and gone, I've finally had a break in my reading schedule to pick up the first book in Wench Shau's recommendation, the Sabina Kane series by Jaye Wells, beginning with Red-Headed Stepchild.

Why Sabina Kane for Barb?
Well, I wanted Barb to read something that has a story that’s rounded up in one book in case she doesn’t want to read the whole series, but also something that I really really liked. I loved Sabina and her story of finding out who she is and what she’s capable of. I knew Barb likes complex heroines, the unappreciated underdogs who have a chip on their shoulder, and Sabina is jus…