To Hell and Back by H.P. Mallory (Lily Harper #3)

4 Stars

In the third book Lily senses that something is wrong with Tallis and goes to find him.  What she finds is “Donnchadh” (not sure of the spelling, but this is the warrior that inhabits Tallis) is in control of Tallis.  It takes Lily waaaay too long to figure out that Tallis isn’t in control.  I knew it almost immediately and maybe the author was hoping to cause some suspense here, but it just makes Lily seem daft.  I still really enjoyed this scene as it shows Lily being resourceful and in control.  Eventually we get our Tallis back, but only right before Lily must leave for her dinner with Alaire.  You can imagine that Tallis is none too pleased about this news. 

Lily ends up getting another mission while she is already in the Underground City and makes her way to the Toy Store.  I remember from book 2 that Lily’s friend Saxon (from the gym) said it was his least favorite place.  Tallis and Bill both seem to enjoy themselves immensely there.  I will admit I am not really sure how it fits in with the rest of the Underground City, except maybe the author needed an excuse to put some sexy ladies in Tallis’s path to make Lily jealous.  There ends up being more drama than usual while Lily is in the Toy Story and what is left over of the book leaves Lily almost dying (more so than is typical for Lily).  Alaire ends up being the problem and conveniently the solution.  Through this Lily learns some stuff about Tallis that may end their friendship. 

I really enjoyed this book.  I hope I don’t have to wait too much longer to read the next one.  We got a lot more alone time with Lily and while I don’t always agree with her logic I can see where she is coming from in making her decisions. 

The Underground City by H.P. Mallory (Lily Harper #2)

4 Stars

In the second book in this series it takes up right where the first one left off. I mean, exactly! The same exact scene. Bill and Lily are back at their apartment from their first mission to the Underground City. Tallis has shown up and wants to continue Lily's training with her sword. She isn't long into her training when she receives her next mission. This one will take Lily to the Sewers, which is another "circle of hell". Tallis knows another shortcut which takes the group through pipes containing poo water. They retrieve their soul most easily, but find themselves summoned by Alaire.

Alaire is leader of The Underground City and bad news all the way around. He has some sort of fascination with Lily and meeting Lily only cements this weird interest.   On the way back through the Dark Wood, Tallis takes Lily and Bill to a pub/inn type place and proceeds to get “blootered”.  Lily and Bill wake up to find themselves abandoned in the Dark Wood.  Lily’s next mission takes her to the “prison” level of the underground city, but she must do this alone as Tallis has not shown his face yet.  Overall, her first trip alone (well, Angel Bill is there, but he’s not much help) is actually pretty successful, however, Lily will finds there are far reaching consequences to some of her actions in the Underground City. 

Overall, I loved this book.  I started the third book right away and had to keep going back to separate the second and third books in my head for this review.  We get to know both Lily and Bill better.  Bill is a character that grows on you the more you are around him.  He is quite protective of Lily and that is endearing.  Little by little we learn more about Tallis.  Not all of it is good, but one can certainly understand the attraction that Lily feels towards him.  One thing that keeps coming up with him though is that he obviously has a lot of self-loathing and whenever he is around Lily he pushes her away and talks about how bad he is.  The discrepancy with Tallis is that whenever he is around Alaire he defends himself and doesn’t think he is the same caliber of evil as Alaire.  Once Tallis is out of Alaire’s presence though Tallis is back to talking about how evil he is himself.  You can’t have it both ways Tallis!

Better Off Dead by H.P. Mallory (Lily Harper #1)

4 stars

I was sure I was interested in this series based on the description.  Lily Harper dies in an accident, but isn’t supposed to die.  Her guardian angel, Bill, who is an alcoholic, was MIA at the time.  As recompense she is offered a job as a retriever of misplaced souls.  Even starting the beginning of the book I wasn’t sure I was going to continue (I am not a book martyr who continues reading books when I have no interest!).  Lily described herself as short, overweight, and unattractive.  She also is prone to quoting self-help gurus.  All this did not add up to someone I wanted to read about.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not perfect, but I like to read about heroines who are physically attractive.  Unlike our heroine, I do not read books for self-discovery or enlightenment.  I read books for escapism.  However, this issue gets fixed and in a way that Lily maintains those things about herself that are endearing.  Even her quotes became something I looked forward to as they weren’t all just self-help quotes, but more inspirational quotes from a lot of historical figures as well. 

So Lily gets offered a pretty cushy job (or so she thinks) as a soul retriever.  We meet the absentee guardian angel very quickly as he is assigned to be her guide on her first mission.  This mission turns out to be in The Underground City (think hell) and she soon learns it is more of a suicide mission than a rescue mission.  She ends up finding more help in the broody Tallis Black who has a host of his own secrets.  And the rest of the story follows Lily and crew on her venture into The Underground City. 

I actually enjoyed this enough to start reading the second book right away and to buy the third book as well.  Bill, who I thought would be annoying, actually grows on you and Tallis who is initially and intermittently extremely rude starts to show some depth of character. 

Ghouls Rush In (The Peyton Clark Series #1) by H.P. Mallory

3.5 Stars

It feels like it has been an age since I have read anything by H.P. Mallory, but it is mostly my fault.  I stopped reading both Dulcie and Jolie series after “Malice in Wonderland” and “The Witch is Back” respectively.  They just lost something for me and I didn’t feel like moving on.  Jolie had gotten annoying to me and I am still mad at Knightly Vander!

I finally convinced myself to read this first book in a new series.  I really enjoyed it, but I must admit that I have a much harder time with ghost/demon stories than I do with many other types of paranormal reads.  They keep me up at night and make me nervous!  This is the only reason why I am not sure if I want to continue.  I HATE, HATE, HATE watching scary movies and refuse to do so.  They just get inside my head and I become a small child who is scared of the dark.  Thus reading  a scary-ish book like this is right on the cusp of what I enjoy.  I like suspense and fighting, but scary is not my genre.  There was enough light-heartedness in this book to keep it from terrifying me though which is the only reason why I might read on.  I am however reading the first book in the Lily Harper series so I got that going for me.

Peyton Clark is a newly divorced woman who has inherited a house from a great-aunt she never knew in New Orleans.  She meets her neighbor, Ryan and can’t stop thinking about him (even though she is newly divorced and wasn’t interested).  She needs to renovate her old house and in the process has been contacted by a ghost who used to live there.  She has found old newspaper clippings about a serial killer and is being attacked by a evil spirit. 

Malice in Wonderland by H.P. Mallory (Dulcie O'Neil #5)

I’m torn between 3.5 stars and 4 stars.  What pushes me to 3.5 stars is that Dulcie would go on these long tangents in her head about this situation or that situation and whenever Knight wanted to talk she would push it away saying she hadn’t had time to sort out her thoughts yet.  Ugh!  Shut up Dulcie!  We all wanted Knight to pay for how he treated you in Wuthering Frights, but make up your mind already!  And at time I found Dulcie to be… (Gasp) annoying.  She was always tired, she was grumpy and not the normal Dulcie.  Let her have a nap!  What pushes me towards the 4 stars was that it was still very well written.  I loved the scenes between Dulcie and Bram and Dulcie and Knight.  So you can see my conundrum.  Who’s ever heard of a 3.75 star? No one! 

This book picks right up where Wuthering Frights left off.  Knight just learns that Dulcie wasn’t willingly working for her father and actually help set up a sting on the latest and greatest potions smuggling.  He is apologetic, he is remorseful, and he wants Dulcie back!  Dulcie gets a crash course in how the resistance works.  Then not much else happens (besides Dulcie’s scenes of thinking in her head) until…something big happens and Dulcie must be moved for her own safety.  Bram is forced out of his fence straddling position (Is he good?  Is he bad?) and must make his decision and we finally learn why he was so well known in the prison in the Netherworld. 

The ending was a bit of a cliff hanger.  We got some answers to some things, but are left hanging…again. 

What was the dream about?  We never learned more about that!  I need to know…

Also only 85% of the content on the kindle version is Malice in Wonderland.  The other 15% is the short story released in “Kiss Me, Kill Me” (which I had already read) and some excerpts from Jolie’s book. 

I did have to get on Facebook to check out the pages for Dulcie, Bram and Knight while reading this to keep their images in my head.  For some reason Bram never looks as good in my head as he is intended to so I have to refresh myself. 

Wuthering Frights by H.P. Mallory (Dulcie O'neal #4)

4 Stars (only because I wanted to punch someone...read on)

I am slightly biased as I LOVE pretty much anything that H.P. Mallory writes. This is the fourth installment for the Dulcie O'neil series. It is a cliff hanger (like everyone has said), but pretty much jumped right in where the last story took off (which was a major complaint from the last Jolie Wilkens book).

I really hate watching movies or reading books where the main character gets dumped on repeatedly. This happens to Dulcie in this book. I started reading it, and then stopped because it just seemed that she was losing everyone around her and they all blamed her. At one point Dulcie gets beat up by this guy, Baron, and while Quill was trying to stop it from happening he never once says, "You are not going to wanna do that to Melchior's daughter." In my mind that is all it would have taken to stop what happened, but perhaps there is a reason for not saying that.

Dulcie didn't handle her situation the way I would have and she didn't say things to Knight that I think would have been beneficial to her case. Clearly everyone reacts differently in situations, but it makes it hard to relate to a character that seems to consistently not be able to make a choice that would help her.

Having said all that, the end of the story leads me to think that Dulcie's extremely long string of bad luck may be turning. I admit that I am mad at Knightly Vander. Dulcie is supposed to be his true mate, but he has immediately thrown their entire history out the window at the first sign of trouble. I would have liked for Knight to have seen past Dulcie's ruse and put the pieces together and try to help her. I can see that he wouldn't want to be played for a fool, but he seems to be pushing his version of what he thinks happened beyond what should be rational. But then again, who is rational when in love? But he is definitely not giving Dulcie the benefit of the doubt, and because of this, I am mad at him. I want him to think that he has lost Dulcie. My heart hurts for Dulcie in this book (yes, I know she is fictional, but the author did a good job of showing the hurt that Dulcie is going through in this book.