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{Early Review} Summoning the Night by Jenn Bennett

Sarah Moon
Books

Summoning the Night by Jenn Bennett

Jenn Bennett’s debut, Kindling the Moon, was one of my favorite urban fantasy releases of 2011. Her protagonist Arcadia Bell’s world of magic, good humor, family and community are what I’ve dubbed, “Urban fantasy with heart.”

Whenever I love the first entrant into a series as much as I did Kindling the Moon, reading the sequel is rather stress-inducing. What if it doesn’t live up to the first in the series? What if it’s a one-hit wonder?

I’m thrilled to say all my worries were needless—Summoning the Night exceeded all of my expectations and firmly cemented the Arcadia Bell series as one of my favorites.  

(Note: the rest of this review contains mild, but inevitable, spoilers for the previous book in this series, Kindling the Moon. Read my review of Kindling here.)

{List-O-Rama} Three Urban Fantasy Series Worth Starting

Sarah Moon
Listorama

I don’t know about you, but I get series fatigue. (I know Laura agrees with me on this one!) And, in one of my favorite genres—Urban Fantasy—the series is The Standard. (Has there ever been a stand-alone UF novel? Seriously… it’s okay to end a story after 400 pages!) So, when a series piques my interest, I usually wait until there are two or three books before getting started, because I hate the wait for the next part of the story—especially if it’s cliffhanger-tastic at the end of each novel. 

However, I’ve succumbed to temptation and discovered a three series that are only one novel in that are worth starting! Each of these series had their first book release in 2010, and have sequels hitting the shelves this year, so you won’t have to wait too long if you enjoy the first book. 

Unbound Series by Rachel Vincent

You guy! Rachel Vincent’s books are like Pixie Stix laced with extra sugar—once I start, I cannot put her books down. She’s even made me break my, “No YA Paranormals” rule with her Soul Screamers series. But, as much as a (somewhat guiltily) enjoyed her Shifters series (it took me about ten pages to get over the WTFery of the concept of werecats; werewolves I’m cool with, werecats are another thing altogether), her new series with Mira is in an entirely different stratosphere (it’s actually what started me on my Epic Rachel Vincent Binge last fall—I read all of her books in about six weeks). 

{Review} Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

{Review} Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

Sarah Moon
Books

Whoo, boy, this one was fun!

I enjoyed the hell out of Jenn Bennett’s debut urban fantasy novel. I’ve tried so many new UF series the last few months as I tried to fill the void until the next Mercy Thompson installment comes out in 2013 (arg!) and so many have been “meh” to me—but this (along with Rachel Vincent’s new Blood Bound series and Rachel Caine’s new Working Stiff series) is an exception. I would almost give Kindling the Moon five stars, but the resolution came very quickly, and it felt jarring to me as a result.