{"id":2390,"date":"2016-05-06T19:51:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T19:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2016-05-06T19:51:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T19:51:44","slug":"urban-fantasy-review-grim-haven-by-jen-rasmussen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/2016\/05\/urban-fantasy-review-grim-haven-by-jen-rasmussen\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban fantasy review: ‘Grim Haven’ by Jen Rasmussen"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t read a whole heap of urban fantasy, being more of an epic sort of reader myself, but this is a fun, just-one-more-chapter type of read. It\u2019s my kind of book – quirky, original, with a surprise round every corner. When I tell you that the scene that sent shivers up and down my spine involved the bad guys simply walking around a building, you\u2019ll understand that this isn\u2019t your average let\u2019s-hurl-thunderbolts-around urban fantasy. This is Hitchcockian (is that a word?) levels of tension.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the plot: Verity has her own form of magic, a quiet type that involves writing spells on paper, which she uses for self-protection. She likes to keep a low profile, but an accidental encounter with some unpleasantness of the non-human variety draws her into a centuries-old war. She seeks refuge in her home town, where she\u2019s just inherited an old hotel, but this is not your average American town. Cue all sorts of magicky weirdness.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Cooper. Yes, let\u2019s talk about Cooper, who\u2019s hot, has muscles in all the right places, is very cute and – is a chef. OK, that\u2019s unusual but boy, isn\u2019t this better than werewolves and demons and all that other bad boy stuff? What could be sexier than a man who can run up a steak diane and a pavlova at times of crisis? Or, let\u2019s be honest, at any time. And if he happens to be good in bed, too – result!<\/p>\n

OK, Cooper is distracting me from the plot\u2026 actually, I\u2019m OK with that. The plot unfurls in the usual way, with plenty of twists and turns and a finale that had me holding my breath, it was so tense. And the romance weaves in and out of it all beautifully. Sigh. And there\u2019s a neat twist at the end that sets things up for book 2 in the series rather well. This is a solid, entertaining start to the series, with enough intriguing backstory to both the main characters to keep me reading. A good four stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t read a whole heap of urban fantasy, being more of an epic sort of reader myself, but this is a fun, just-one-more-chapter type of read. It\u2019s my kind of book – quirky, original, with a surprise round every corner. When I tell you that the scene that sent shivers up and down my spine involved the bad guys simply walking around a building, you\u2019ll understand that this isn\u2019t your average let\u2019s-hurl-thunderbolts-around urban fantasy. This is Hitchcockian (is that a word?) levels of tension. Here\u2019s the plot: Verity has her own form of magic, a quiet type that involves writing spells on paper, which she uses for self-protection. She likes to keep a low profile, but an accidental encounter with some unpleasantness of the non-human variety draws her into a centuries-old war. She seeks refuge in her home town, where she\u2019s just inherited an old hotel, but this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[188],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2392,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions\/2392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}