Book Review (SERIES): Blood Moon Over Bourbon Street

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Blood Moon Over Bourbon Street series by Theresa Glover

  1. Caitlin Kelley, Monster Hunter
  2. A Touch Too Much
  3. Trouble In Mind

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for BLOOD MOON OVER BOURBON STREET

All Caitlin Kelley wanted was a vacation in New Orleans. See the sights, check out the voodoo shops, drink a hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s, eat beignets at Cafe du Monde, the whole deal. Rest, relaxation, and…well, there isn’t a good word that starts with “R” that means getting her drink on, but that was in the plans, too.

Until she saw a monster at the airport and ended up smack dab in the middle of the New Orleans supernatural underworld. Now she’s dodging black dogs, hunting nightmares, dealing with confusing feelings about a nun and a cop at the same time, and killing demon spiders. All the demon spiders. Oh, and a giant panty-stealing ape swiped her underwear.

If her vacation doesn’t kill her, Caitlin Kelley is going to need a serious break when this is over!

MY REVIEW for LOOD MOON OVER BOURBON STREET

Blood Moon Over Bourbon Street collects the three Caitlin Kelley novellas (Caitlin Kelley, A Touch Too Much, and Trouble In Mind) into one volume.

The uneven energy of the three novellas doesn’t work as well in one volume as it did spaced over several years of the original releases. Novella 1 sets up a darker than normal Bubbaverse Monster Hunter, but still rife with the humor found in this shared universe with all the fantastic monsters. Novella 2 shows Ms. Glover is a much more complicated writer – stringing together multiple plotlines and character developments, with reoccurring villains – than is normal for the Bubbaverse – but the humor still is over the top even as the darker, more complicated situations are explored. Then Novella 3 takes everything on a trip sideways where the consequences of never getting a vacation, a break, or even a moment have finally piled up beyond what the very human Monster Hunter can handle.

Ms. Glover has brought her own unique stamp to the Bubbaverse with this collected works. Her psychological horror roots show strong, even through the humor.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for CAITLIN KELLEY, MONSTER HUNTER

Who let the dogs out, indeed?!?

All Caitlin Kelley wanted was a chance to relax in New Orleans. Is that too much to ask?

Obviously so. Between the strange man/not man/something she chased through the airport and the monster terrorizing the French Quarter, this vacation is anything but Easy, Big or otherwise. Throw in her wisecracking companion Marty, a shadowy government agency that’s probably either in league with the bad guys or is even worse than the bad guys, and a creature roaming the streets of New Orleans that may or may not be straight out of the pages of Thor, and this novella is jam-packed with action, innuendo, and ass-kicking!

MY REVIEW for CAITLIN KELLEY, MONSTER HUNTER

Working my way through the Bubbaverse (somewhere over 60 short stories and novellas) and found this amazing New Templar.

A monster hunter going on vacation to New Orleans. Nope, nothing could possibly go wrong there. Except as soon as they land they run into a nightmare, and discover the monster hunter of the territory has been killed, and hired to track down a demon dog by a … old southern lady? Oh, and there may be a Collector out there too.

Much more complicated and interwoven than is typical of the Bubbaverse, Caitlin Kelley still has the humor and monsters signature of the world-universe.

Funny, action-packed, and well-written.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for A TOUCH TOO MUCH

She’s crushing on a nun. There’s a hydra in the French Quarter. And a giant gorilla just stole her underwear.

This is not Caitlin Kelley’s best day. Much to her chagrin, it’s not her worst day, either. The newly-minted official Monster Hunter for New Orleans just wanted to drink a few (okay, many) hurricanes, eat more beignets than should be humanly possible, and otherwise enjoy her New Orleans vacation. Instead, she’s found herself relocating to The Big Easy, dealing with cops and federal agents, hunting down a walking nightmare, and representing all of humanity in a supernatural conference to determine the fate of the world. And did I mention she has the ultimate in unrequited crushes – a nun?

MY REVIEW for A TOUCH TOO MUCH

Ms. Glover continues to put her own unique spin on the Bubbaverse-NewTemplars, bringing her blend of humor and story-telling on the stage of Monster Hunting in New Orleans.

Come for the food – run from the monsters.

The nightmare of the first book revisits the second book. In a shared-universe where most of the writers write “the monster of the chapter” – resolved-and-move-on (except for the season’s big guy), Ms. Glover has created layers and interweaving while still throwing more monsters at a reader than a D&D game – hydras, nightmares, goddesses, locust, flying monkeys, and sentient gorillas with underwear fetishes (don’t ask, just read).

Read for the monster hunting, stay for the storytelling.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for 

There’s a dragon in the Crescent City, and that’s not a metaphor.

Caitlin Kelley has chased literal nightmares through the streets of New Orleans, had her underwear stolen by giant gorilla, and played politics with a bunch of supernats with enough power to snuff her out like a match in a hurricane. And none of that compares to the demons she carries around inside her every day.

Now her personal demons and the monsters outside herself are all crashing down around her as she tries to hold her team, her adopted city, and herself together against all odds and all reason. Maybe the dragon isn’t the real problem after all.

Can Caitlin pull herself together in time to save New Orleans from a dragon and the evil wizard that enslaved it (yeah, really)?

Can Caitlin drag herself out of her own head long enough to hold her team together in one of the toughest battles they’ll ever face?

Can Caitlin keep the Black Dog at bay for just one more day?

Yeah, dragons are easy. Living is hard.

MY REVIEW for 

Well, that went down a dark path I completely did not expect. Come for the monster hunter, stay for the psychological evaluation.

What is horror without a complete mind f-k? If you ever wonder why people with depression, who are being swallowed by the darkness, can’t reach out, no matter how many people love them and want to help, no matter how much they know they need help, this book will help fill in the gaps.

This one is not a comfortable read. It is still laced with the humor of the Bubbaverse, contains all the amazing monsters and magic and action you could ever want. But if you have ever dealt with friends struggling with depression or heard the siren call yourself of the rocks of “you will never succeed” to bash against, the read will not be comfortable. Considering how much monster hunters see and do, the physical damage, the soul damage, they take, seeing one struggle with the big semicolon may be unexpected, but it is very real.

Come for the fiction, stay for the reality.