Title: Any Given Doomsday
Author: Lori Handeland
Series: Phoenix Chronicles #1
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Angels, Demons, Fae, Paranormal fantasy
Dates read: 11th – 19th July 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Lori Handeland
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: I ran toward the approaching vehicle.

From the author who brought you The Nightcreature Novels comes the first installment in an original urban fantasy series.

Psychic ex-cop Elizabeth Phoenix finds herself thrust into saving the world, one demon at a time. Unaware of the supernatural battle that has been raging since the beginning, Liz becomes the untaught leader of the Federation, a collection of seers and demon killers. She’s soon pointing out monsters of Biblical proportion to her ex-boyfriend Jimmy, a half-vampire battling an army of Nephilim intent on bringing about doomsday.

Unable to control her new powers, Liz travels from Wisconsin to New Mexico where she meets with Sawyer, a powerful Navajo shape-shifter whose secrets frighten her and whose sexuality tempts her.

Caught between two worlds and two men, Liz must juggle it all in a spiral toward Armageddon. She will need all her powers, and those of her friends and lovers, to battle an enemy that could be indestructible.

Any Given Doomsday has been sitting on my shelves for about a year now. I bought it when I read the short story Here There Be Demons and then promptly completely forgot about it. Until I read Dead Man Dating in another collection of tales. And then I remembered that I seriously enjoyed Handeland’s writing. I figured I may as well pick this up and see what it was like. And boy am I glad that I did. Now I just have to wait to order and receive the next few books in this series…

Stories of lost loves and tales which are complicated by the past are always good bait for me. Especially when they are tied into tales of battle and urban fantasy. What makes this incredibly different is that it also deals with ideas of God and demons. And the apocalypse. There are many theories about the fact that we are on the eve of an apocalypse, but surprisingly few books on my shelves which actually deal with such an idea. The use of seers and DKs (demon killers) is also just a little bit different, whilst still fitting into some well-loved tropes. It made me fall head over heels into this world and feel incredibly disappointed that I have to wait another two weeks before I can buy more of this series.

Most of the time when a love triangle is building in a story, I have a clear favourite. From the very beginning. There is something that always draws me to one character or another. Yet, with this story, I don’t have a serious favourite. I don’t know who I prefer and which couple I think will work best. I mostly just know that I want these stories to end with Elizabeth’s happiness. Whether or not that involves Sawyer or Jimmy, I’m actually not sure. This is the first time that I’m not even sure the potential love interests are good matches. But I’m sure that this series will start to sway me one way or another as it develops.

This is a fantastic novel that starts a fantastic series. It has all of the entrapments and marvellous snares of a great urban fantasy. With a beautiful love triangle, a tragic past and a heroine who is destined to lead the world to a better future. If she can only figure out how to accept her future and revel in it… I just can’t believe that it took me this long to get my literary teeth into this, and how much longer it will take me to collect the rest of the books in this series.

Image source: Amazon

Title: In the Beginning
Author: Lori Handeland
Series: Phoenix Chronicles #0.5
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Angels, Demons, Fae, Paranormal fantasy
Dates read: 11th July 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Lori Handeland
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: His broad shoulders obscured any light from the distant street or even the minuscule moon.

Liz Phoenix does her best not to let anyone on the Milwaukee Police Force know that she’s psychic. But her partner, Max Murphy, suspects. She’s had one too many spot-on hunches.

When they’re sent to the scene of a murder, Liz’s latest psychic flash leads to disaster.

In the Beginning reveals how Liz came to be an ex-cop and started on the road to becoming the Leader of the Light.

This is one of those short stories that kind of stands alone. But doesn’t really. It’s almost like a prologue that gives a little more history and insight into Liz’s choices and history as a cop than you would otherwise get. Which is, of course what I loved the most about it. I love every extra little bit of information and history you can glean from a character’s life when you are about to sink into the depths of a new series.

A good character always has a bit of tragedy in their past, it’s a great way to add an extra layer of mystery and characterisation to them. There’s not many tales in which I actually read about one of these past tragedies. It actually broke my heart a little. Even though this is an incredibly short (16 pages) tale and I don’t often bond with characters that quickly, there was something so tragic about the misfortunes which befall Liz and Max.

As soon as I read this origins story, I delved straight into Any Given Doomsday. The foreshadowing in this tale is absolutely fantastic and it made me want to discover what was likely to happen next. And how her discovery of the demons was going to play out throughout the rest of the tale.

Image source: Goodreads