Review: 4 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 7, 2013
When I first started reading this book, I said (to myself because no one was close enough to over hear me) "this is sort of like Hellboy meets the talking cat from Hocus Pocus."I stand by this assessment.Even though I'm pretty sure when I made this announcement, it wasn't as complimentary as it was at the end.Listen, there's a lot going on... and when I read the first novel in the series and there's this much crammed in, I worry.  It could have gone so tragically wrong.  Thankfully, James Ramsey is a stellar author, so it ended up being oh so right.Plus, the cat familiar never turned into a person who then boned Joss.I'm not going to lie, that was actually my biggest concern.Not that it couldn't happen in later books, but I was glad that in this first book Mateo can't take a humanoid form and that Joss didn't want up to a suddenly naked man who was all like "surprise, I'm that animal that's seen you naked... let's do it."Okay, actually, random acts of nakedness was my second biggest concern.My first was how quickly Joss accepted her fury familiar.  Mainly because I was still waiting for the "SURPRISE, HERE'S MY HUMANOID BONER."Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I had one concern with two bullet points.(I really wanted to work in a joke about how that would have made it less like the PG fun of Hocus Pocus and more like the X rated parody "Hocus Poke-Her" but I couldn't work it in.)(So I put it in quotes.)Aside from the quick acceptance (and my unfounded fear of vaguely fury luvin') the pacing was great.  And really, since Joss was always a little bit special (not like that, you're a monster for giggling) it's not really a shock that she would've accepted the reality of talking cat familiars.  Plus, even if it was totally out of left field I would have let it slide.  First because Joss was exhausted and having a toddler I can fully attest to the fact that lack of sleep makes way more s*** plausible.  Second because the world was Bad.Ass.Remember when I said James Ramsey was stellar?  Well this is what I meant.  The world was stunning and included all the super natural critters that you love. And some that don't get nearly enough stage time in this day and age.  Brownies for example.Which was all just the back drop for a good mystery complete with religious zealots.  Oh, and the setup for what I suspect will be everything that the Meredith Gentry books should have been, if they weren't too busy trying to put as many D's in Mery's V as possible.Good show, Ms. Ramsey, good show.4 stars.I can't wait to see what happens next.