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October Daye / Inheritance - Essay Series Part Five: Long Series and How to Read Them

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. [Full Audio Available Here] This is the fifth and final entry in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth boo...
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On the Prowl - Anthology

Four stories of inhuman passions from four of the hottest authors in paranormal romance...

"Alpha and Omega" by Patricia Briggs

The werewolf Anna finds a new sense of self when the son of the werewolf king comes to town to quell unrest in the Chicago pack--and inspires a power in Anna she's never felt before.

"Inhuman" by Eileen Wilks

Andie has a secret gift of sensing thoughts and desires. What she senses in her neighbor Nathan could be dangerous. Because he has a secret gift too, and it's about to be let loose...

"Buying Trouble" by Karen Chance

A Lord of the Fey crosses paths with a fiery red-headed mage named Claire in a New York auction house. But in this strange underground society, the rarity up for sale is Claire herself.

"Mona Lisa Betwining" by Sunny

Among the children of the moon, Milady is of mixed blood--part Mon re, part human, and destined to be alone. Until she meets a man who could be her salvation--or her downfall.

TITLE: On the Prowl
AUTHOR: Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, Sunny
PUBLISHER: Berkley Books
YEAR: 2007
LENGTH: 352 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Recommended

ON THE PROWL brings together four stories from four paranormal romance authors.

“Alpha and Omega” by Patricia Briggs takes place during the events of MOON CALLED, and answers what Charles was doing after Mercy alerted Bran about problems in one of the Chicago packs. It stars Anna and Charles, and is the prequel to a full novel, CRY WOLF, which is the first in the Alpha and Omega companion series in the same world as the Mercedes Thompson books. It’s my favorite one in the collection, and the story which draws me to re-reading this book. Highly Recommend.

I don’t like “Inhuman”, it feels unfriendly to casual readers. Last time I read it I was reading a lot of Eileen Wilks’s work alongside it and I found it just as confusing and impenetrable then. It’s set in the World of the Lupi series (of which I’ve read at least five books), but fails to sufficiently explain whatever is happening. It seems to assume I already know these characters. At this point I don’t know if something is just not connecting for me or if it’s the story itself, but I’ve never liked this one. If you’re reading the World of the Lupi books, this goes right before NIGHT SEASON. Not Recommended.

“Buying Trouble” starts out well and the middle is good, but the ending was weird and included the main character having a body-shaming relationship with her own second form which newly manifested. That soured how much I had been enjoying the story. I do like it overall, but that one issue was frustrating, however brief, and served to highlight a bunch of very troubling implications of the worldbuilding. Not Recommended.

“Mona Lisa Betwining” is part of the Monère series, but I have not yet read any of those books. It immediately refers to a character having died who seems like they were probably important in one of the full novels, so this might spoil some plot points. It mostly makes sense on its own without having read the other books, but that’s because it’s one-third conversation, one-third backstory, and one-third explicit sex scenes (split between two of them), so there isn’t a whole lot of plot to worry about. Recommend.

“Alpha and Omega” - CW for ableist language (brief), racism, sexism, mental illness, confinement (backstory), pregnancy (backstory), miscarriage (brief mention), emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual harassment, blood, violence (graphic), gun violence, rape (backstory), self harm (backstory), suicide (backstory), death (not depicted). 

“Inhuman” - CW for sexual content, grief, xenophobia, ableist language, mental illness (brief mention), kidnapping (backstory), child abuse (backstory), excrement (brief mention), blood, violence, injury detail, medical content, self harm (brief), suicidal thoughts (backstory), genocide (brief mention), child death (backstory), death (backstory).

“Buying Trouble” - CW for ableist language (brief), sexual content, infidelity (backstory), bullying (backstory), body shaming, blood, violence, injury detail, fire/fire injury, medical content, trafficking, slavery (brief mention), animal death, parental death (backstory), death.

“Mona Lisa Betwining” - CW for sexual content (explicit), grief, kidnapping (backstory), blood (brief), body horror, cannibalism (not depicted), rape (backstory), death (backstory).

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