Tag: Tate Hallaway

Guest Review: Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway

Posted January 9, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Publisher: Berkley, PenguinGenres: Urban Fantasy

Tracy’s review of Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway

Recent college grad Alex Conner is thrilled to have landed a job as the Hughes County coroner/medical examiner in Pierre, South Dakota. But when her first day on the job ends with a missing corpse, Alex starts to wonder if she would have been better off collecting unemployment…

When the cops made some cryptic comments about being careful with the body they brought in, Alex just thought the boys in blue were messing with her. That is, until something freaky happens that no amount of med school could have prepared her for. By the time Alex gets herself together, the body has disappeared and the other residents of the morgue start talking her ear off.

After working up the courage to report the missing body, Alex is transferred to the mysterious Precinct 13 where she discovers that her new co-workers—including a cute technomage named Jack—are paranormals just like her. Now, Alex is being encouraged to use her ability to speak to the dead to solve crimes. And despite being in the middle of nowhere, Hughes County sure does have a lot of paranormal activity…

Alex Conner is liking her new job as county coroner in Pierre, South Dakota but she’s a bit more than bored. It’s been 3 weeks and she’s not had a body yet. When the cops do bring in a body she’s told not break the rib cage while doing the autopsy which of course is impossible. Actually one of the cops mentions magic as well but since Alex has, as she puts it, a complicated relationship with magic she chooses to ignore the cop. As she’s doing the autopsy not only is she attacked by a snake that comes out of the body but then the body reanimates and walks off. When she heads to the Chief of Police she expects to be thrown out and thought crazy but strangely he believes her and sends her to a place called Precinct 13.

Precinct 13 is part of the police but they are mostly magical beings. Alex has a hard time grasping the facts because she’s been told that all the times she thought she saw magical things that she was hallucinating. It all turns out to be true though and Alex soon gets involved in the case of the missing corpse as well as another one involving cows – hey, this is South Dakota!

The story tells us of Alex’s initiation into the magical community, the fact that she herself is magical and that her boyfriend, Valentine, isn’t who she thought he was. She is, however, still in love with him despite who he is and she discovers that he has more feelings for her than she thought.

The book starts off really good but I must admit that I was definitely confused when Alex started thinking about her back story. I actually stopped and had to look both on Goodreads and the authors website to see what number book this was in a series. I was surprised when I found that this was book 1 in a new series. While I eventually got all the info that made sense I have to say that that first part wasn’t my favorite.

As the story went on I got more into it all with all the many characters. I really liked the sense of humor that was dry and a bit self-effacing on Alex’s part, as well as her obvious intelligence. I liked that others in Precinct 13 were just as intelligent and that Alex wasn’t the only one who could figure things out.

As Urban Fantasy goes this was a decent read. It had lots of fantasy/paranormal characters and an interesting story. There was a bit of a romantic element between Alex and her boyfriend, Valentine, that was quite sweet but definitely nothing over the top. (FYI – no descriptive sex scenes.) I’ll be interested to see if Hallaway writes more stories set in Alex’s world.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

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Tagged: 3.75 Reviews, Berkley, Berkley Trade, Guest Reviews, Reviews, Tate Hallaway, Tracy's Reviews, Urban Fantasy

What I Read Last Week

Posted January 7, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 5 Comments

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a safe and fun New Year’s Eve. We stayed home with the kids and ended up making cookies at 10:00pm! It kept me awake that’s for sure. lol I wish you a healthy and happy 2013!

This past week was nice. I had Monday and Tuesday off and only had to work 3 days last week which is always nice. It was a relatively quiet week as the kids were gone on Wed. & Thurs. as they spent it with my parents. I think I’d forgotten how quiet the house could be with just hubby and I (and the cat) in it. 🙂

Anyway, on to what I read this past week which was, except for one glitch, a really good reading week:

I started off the week with Live and Let Love by Gina Robinson. This story is about a spy who works for a division of the CIA. Jack was in an explosion two years prior and pronounced dead. He lived however and got plastic surgery and a new name. He was married though and one of his enemies is “courting” his wif, Willow, to try to draw him out because he apparently doesn’t believe that Jack is dead. Jack heads to Willow’s town to thwart the bad guy but he doesn’t plan on getting close to Willow as he can’t stand the pain of getting close and then having to leave again. This was a good story that was funny and serious in parts. I had a bit of an issue with Jack being able to leave his wife for two years but the author did a good job of making that seem insignificant. You can read my full review here at Book Binge. 3.5 out of 5

Next up was Quid Pro Quo by LA Witt and Aleksandr Voinov. This is story about 2 rent boys who work at a place called Market Gardens. Jared has had a crush on Tristan for months but doesn’t think that Tristan even knows who he is. When a client wants to watch Tristan and Jared together Jared gets to finally put his hands on Tristan the way he’s been dying to. Good story – hot and sexy. You can read my full review here. 4 out of 5

Blessed Isle by Alex Beecroft is the historical story of a captain of a ship and one of his lieutenants. It’s kind of a Murphy’s Law book of sorts as at one point there was nothing that wasn’t going wrong. It was a wonderful yet completely unexpected story that I loved reading. You can read my full review of it here. 4.5 out of 5

My next read was Secrets of a Wedding Night by Valerie Bowman. The story is about a Countess who writes pamphlet about the secrets of a wedding night in order to try and stop the man she loves from getting married. It stops it but he’s pissed and swears that he will get revenge…by seducing her. There were huge trust issues from when they originally fell in love 5 years prior, there are honesty issues and frankly I found the heroine to be completely manipulative. In the end it was just an ok read. 2 out of 5

Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway was an unexpected surprise. The story is about a woman who has been thought crazy – even put in lockdown because of her hallucinations. Turns out everything she though she saw was real and that she’s a witch. She doesn’t figure this out until she becomes a county coroner and on her first autopsy the body gets up and walks out. It’s crazy as she and the members of Precinct 13 try to find out where the corpse is and what the heck is going on. The story is a bit confusing at the beginning as it felt like there was a previous book – but there’s not. It got better as it went and I found myself laughing out loud more than once. Overall a good read. 3.75 out of 5

Inseparable by Chris Scully is the story of Adam who is hit by a car and logically ends up in the hospital. When he awakens he finds he can’t remember a thing – including his best friend, Joe. Though Joe acts more like a boyfriend Joe tells Adam that while Joe is gay, Adam is not. As Adam learns more about himself though he finds that things aren’t exactly as Joe said they were. This was a fun story. I loved the slow awakening of Adam in several different ways. It was a great Christmas read. 4 out of 5

Fourth and Long by Chris Scully is about Eric who is heads to his high school reunion with trepidation. Eric thinks about all the various things that happened during his senior year and specifically Prom Night but we don’t get the whole story at once – it slowly unfolds. That happens when Eric is sent back in time to his senior year and he realizes he has the opportunity to change things. A very good read that I really enjoyed! 4 out of 5

Last was Seduction of a Highland Lass by Maya Banks. This is the story of Alaric McCabe who is hurt and ends up at the cottage of Keeley McDonald. She heals him to a point but then they are found by Alaric’s brothers and Keeley is taken back to McCabe lands to continue healing him. She is also to oversee the birth of the Laird’s baby. Keeley was thrown from her clan over something that she didn’t do and so being in the McCabe clan gives her a sense of family that she hasn’t had for years. She and Alaric also fall deeply in love but he is promised in marriage to the daughter of the McDonald clan and cannot break that promise. It’s a heart wrenching story that was oh so good. I just love Banks’ historicals so much! I can’t wait to read the next in the series to find out what happens with brother number 3, Caelen. 4 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Live and Let Love by Gina Robinson
Chance of a Lifetime by Jodi Thomas

Happy Reading!