Another Local Author and Another Entertaining Book

At the last RBC meeting, Ann Bridges, who is a member of our club, and whose book, Private Offerings, will be published by Balcony7 probably in September, brought a local author to meet me.  Her name is Killian McRae, and she has written a bunch of books. Since I hadn't read any of them, I asked her to recommend one for me.  She picked Pure & Sinful, Book One of the Pure Souls series.  You know, when I read a local author, there's a certain amount of pressure.  Some of my favorite authors in the world are local.  But there have certainly been some that I didn't enjoy so much.  What do I do in that case?  Typically, I just don't review it.  It's a bit cowardly, but I'm not in the business of hurting the feelings of people I know.  It will show up in my year-end list, but not before.

The good news is that this was certainly NOT the case for Pure & Sinful.  I really enjoyed it. Ann told me that there was a lot of snarky humor.  She undersold it.  There was a ton of snarky humor and just plain old humor.  I laughed out loud a million times.  Here are just a very few examples.  I finally had to stop listing them in my notes so that I could read the darn book.

Oh, I forgot to tell you what the book is about.  Suffice it say there is a witch, a demigod, a priest(?), an angel, and good old Lucifer.  I guess you would call it a paranormal mystery/romance/suspense?  Regardless of the genre title, I liked it a bunch.  Anyway, here are some humorous moments:

-The opening lines:  "A priest, a witch, and a demigod walk into a bar.  No joke."
-"Fact:  she was a Pure Soul, one of the trinity entrusted by the Council of Archangels to ferret out and fight the minions working on Lucifer's behalf to corrupt men's souls and spread evil and hate.  She's also heard that they moonlighted at the DMV."
-"She swung her boot point blank into his demonic assets, sending him on an impromptu one-on-one with the floor.  A sound akin to a teenage girl being told 'yes, that dress does make your butt look big,' filtered through the room..."
-"Dee turned to him, one eyebrow raised, a 'What you talking' 'bout, Willis?' expression on his face."
-"What was she thinking?  Remote control?  She didn't need no stinkin' remote control.
-"Riona turned whiter than Michael Jackson in his forties."

Every page had 1 or 2 very funny/laugh-out-loud moments.  And I loved all of the cultural references.

On top of being very clever and really side-splitting, the book is well-written.  And, somehow, she made me care about the characters, even though this is not my genre of choice.  See?  It's not about genre; it's about the author and the author's writing.  She reminds me of Hannah Jayne, and her Underworld Detection Agency.  Hannah's books aren't nearly so funny, but the characters are well-developed.  So are Killian's.  And, P.S., I loved the ending.

KILLIAN'S APPEARANCE:  Killian McRae will be coming to Recycle Books on Sunday, June 7, from 9:15-12:15.  She will be right out in front of the store and will be bringing not only Pure & Sinful; and not only other books in the series; but additional books from her body of work.  Come buy a book (or 2) and get it (them) signed.  I know that that's what I will be doing!