On the Broomstick: January 2012

“An eye for an eye is never enough.”

Kallie Rivière, a Cajun hoodoo apprentice with a bent for trouble, learned the meaning of those ominous words when hoodoo bogeyman Doctor Heron targeted her family for revenge. Now, while searching for her still-missing bayou pirate cousin, Kallie finds out the hard way that someone is undoing powerful gris gris, which means that working magic has become as unpredictable as rolling a handful of dice. The wards woven to protect the Gulf coast are unraveling, leaving New Orleans and the surrounding bayous vulnerable just as an unnatural storm—the deadliest in a century—is born. As the hurricane powers toward the heart of all she loves, Kallie desperately searches for the cause of the disturbing randomness, only to learn a deeply unsettling truth: the culprit may be herself. To protect her family and friends, including the sexy nomad Layne Valin, Kallie steps into the jaws of danger . . . and finds a loup garou designed to steal her heart—literally.

Goodreads

I hope you have all seen the amazing giveaway and guest post from the wonderful Adrian Phoenix. In addition to the giveaway post, I wanted to do a review of Adrian's latest Hoodoo book, Black Heart Loa. Of the two books in the series, this one was my favorite.

What I liked:

The world that Adrian has created is so believable you can almost feel the Cajun spirit invading your own. The dialect she uses is right on. So are the explanations of hoodoo terms that I had never heard before. Kallie and Layne are two main characters that you can't help but care about as they continue their adventure from the first book, Black Dust Mambo. The sexual tension is palpable and the sparks fly constantly.

The adventure is never ending and totally unpredictable, so you won't ever be bored with the story. As magical systems go in fiction, Hoodoo is relatively untapped, so the series has a unique flavor that I have definitely acquired a taste for. The addition of the werewolf characters in this book made it even more interesting.

What I didn't:

At the beginning of the first book I did find myself lost before I understood that it wasn't just one POV. The story switches between characters. By mid-way through the first book I was used to it and by the second, I hardly noticed it at all.

Overall:

5/5

I love the originality of this series and can't wait for the next installment. Adrian Phoenix has crafted a world rich with characters and personality that is saturated with culture and depth.

I first came across this series a month or so ago when I downloaded it into my iPad. e-Books are my new addiction, to be sure. Reading through the first one, I couldn't put it down and the second one was even better! 5/5 stars for this series. Writing to the wonderful and amazing Adrian Phoenix, I told her how much I enjoyed the books and invited her on the blog for a guest post. She responded with the promise of a future interview and a guest post with some of my favorite characters from the books! And a giveaway!

So get yourself a moment or two and meet some of the feisty characters waiting for you in this series of hoodoo, magic and some butt-kicking adventure.

Gators Prefer Tourists in Marshmallow Suits

Don’t Feed the Gators Marshmallows.

Kallie: Seriously. Don’t. And I can’t believe I even need to say that. You’d think it’d be obvious. But every day, the Cajun tour guides take goggle-eyed tourists slathered in sunscreen and bug spray out on their swamp boats and let them snap pictures with camera and cell phones while they toss marshmallows to swimming carnivores.

Hooo-EEEE. Here, pretty Bab-BEH!

Swimming carnivores who eye the boat hopefully, wishing one of those soft, pale picture-snapping tourists would tumble right over that rail and into their bellies. Tourist nummie-nums.

Jackson: That’s ain’t true now. Them gators are beaucoup smart. They’re the ones getting free snacks, not the ones paying for the privilege to watch as those snacks are gobbled up, them.

Kallie: (smiling apologetically to the female newcomer she’s chatting with) Oh, this is my cousin, Jackson Bonaparte. And I’m Kallie Rivière, by the way. Sorry, forgot to mention that. Welcome to Bayou Cyprés Noir—and one of our many summer BBQs. My aunt told me that you bought the Bellefontaine place down on Magnolia Road and . . .

(Notices that the new resident is sliding an appreciative gaze over her cousin and rolls her eyes.)

Kallie: Think you could’ve worn a tighter T-shirt, Jacks? That one doesn’t look quite airbrushed on enough.

Jackson: (innocently) I could always take it off.

Kallie: Spare me . . . I mean, us. Spare us. Looks like our newest resident is ready for another beer. Why don’t you attempt to be a gentleman and fetch her another?

Jackson: (snorts) Yeah, that’s subtle, short stuff. (Smiles at new resident) Another Abita, chère? All right, Rosalinda, it is. With the color blossoming in those cheeks, a perfect name. I’ll be right back.

Kallie: (rolls her eyes again). Sounds like he’s been taking lessons from Dallas. Oh, that’d be Dallas Brûler. He’s a root doctor—one of my aunt’s best students, when he was leaving the Wild Turkey and women alone—but he’s been practicing on his own for some time now down in Chalmette. Anyhoo, as I was saying before my cousin and his T-shirt defined muscles interrupted us, my aunt told me that you bought the Bellefontaine place and asked me to point out the more supernatural aspects—

Belladonna: Like the loa—you don’t want to piss them off. Most of them are good natured, but like any spirit, they do not like to be taken for granted or annoyed or ignored. They tend to have nasty tempers when provoked.

Kallie: They rule these woods and bayous. So being respectful is always a good call. Some are nature spirits, elementals, but others are spirits of the dead. And if they possess you, take you for their cheval, then just go with it and have a good time.

Belladonna: (whaps Kallie’s shoulder) Stop that, Shug. Don’t listen to her, she’s full of shit at the moment. The loa don’t possess just anybody—usually.

Kallie: This is Belladonna Brown, by the way, my best friend. She’s a voodooienne, learning to be a mambo. No, I’m a hoodoo, like Dallas—a rootworker. There’s a difference between hoodoo and Voodoo, for true.

Belladonna: Mmm-hmm. Voodoo is a religion with priests and priestesses and ceremonies. Hoodoo is folk magic, practiced by people like Kallie and her aunt and Dallas. But we both know how to make poppets and lay tricks and uncross hexes. Though my favorite has got to be the shrivel package trick you laid on that idiot who was stalking you, Shug.

Kallie: (nods) Worked beautifully. He ain’t been around since. (cups a hand around her mouth and whispers): The shrivel part was only temporary.

Belladonna: There wasn’t much to shrivel anyway. Unlike that fine nomad of yours. Never saw a man who wore wet boxers better.

Kallie: For true! But Layne isn’t mine . . . not exactly . . . not yet. And it’d take one powerful shrivel-package trick to do much to him. Not that I’d want to! Do anything bad, I mean.

Belladonna: What about the naughty kind of bad?

Kallie: Tais-toi, you. Or I’ll be fixing you with a cat’s-got-her-tongue trick.

Belladonna: (laughs) Oh, girl. You wish.

Kallie: (looks at the wide-eyed newcomer) All right, some of the other things you need to watch out for are the loups-garous—the werewolves. They normally keep to themselves down in Le Nique and try not to eat people, but lapses have been known to happen.

Belladonna: (nods, her head of blue and black curls bobbing): You should watch out for Devlin Daniels, the demon wolf of the bayou. He doesn’t abide by anyone’s rules—hoodoo, loup-garou, or loa. Rumor says he was conceived at the crossroads.

Kallie: How about a little quote from my Aunt Divinity? “If a person be evil or wicked of just plain bad and leave misery and grief in deir wake, den one night de demon wolf will come for dem and he’ll rip deir black hearts from outta deir chests, He be de voice of dark retribution, him. Now, be good and eat yo’ peas, girl.”

Belladonna: Since when does not eating peas equal dark retribution?

Kallie: That’s exactly what I asked!

Belladonna: Oh, I can’t wait to hear the answer.

Kallie: She said, and I quote: “Mebbe de peas don’t, but yo’ sass certainly qualifies. Now, tais-toi, you, and eat.”

Belladonna: Did you? Eat those peas?

Kallie: (sighs) Yup.

Jackson: (hands bottle of Abita to a wide-eyed Rosalinda) What’d I miss?

Kallie: Not much, just sharing a few pointers with our newest resident. So, to recap, be careful of pissing of the loa, avoid loups-garous . . .

Belladonna: And beware of hex-laying, vengeful ghosts.

Kallie: I forgot that one! Beware of unsolicited potions and don’t do anything to a poppet if you find one—it’s most likely linked to some poor soul—eat your peas, don’t wear a marshmallow suit, and keep a broom close to hand in case you need to shoo a gator off your porch. Did I forget anything?

Belladonna: Revenge-hungry hoodoo bogeymen, maybe.

Jackson: Where’s she running off to?

Belladonna: (frowns) Maybe to fetch a broom?

Kallie: Or a for sale sign. Now, how about we organize the men into a wet boxers contest at the next BBQ? We just need to round up my luscious nomad, Layne. And no, you can’t enter, Jacks. Ew. You’re my cousin.

Here’s a link for the first chapter of Black Dust Mambo. And you can visit my website for a peek at Black Heart Loa. The third book, Black Moon Mojo, will be coming soon.

I’m also the author of The Maker’s Song series: A Rush of Wings, In the Blood, Beneath the Skin, and Etched in Bone. The fifth book, On Midnight Wings, will be out later this year.