Tag: Vampires

Book Review (SERIES): These Marvelous Beasts

Erin Penn

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These Marvelous Beasts: The Complete Frost & Filigree Series by Natania Barron

  1. Frost & Filigree
  2. Masks & Malevolence
  3. Time & Temper

This is the collected works of the Frost & Filigree series which I read and reviewed as the individual novellas came out. I love Natania Barron’s voice as a writer – so rich and detailed.

While These Marvelous Beasts is an adventure throughout the United States and Europe from the Victorian era through the Roaring Twenties, the story never strayed far from the central questions: What makes a monster? When does one become a monster, and when does one stop being a monster? Using mythology from around the world, Ms. Barron explores this question in this historical Urban Fantasy. If deeper questions aren’t your cup of tea in reading (and really, they aren’t mine – I read to escape), there are battles, and romance, and monsters, and gods, and family, and vampire galore.

The first book of the series is the “weakest” of the lot. Ms. Barron works better in a novel format, and she needed to figure the pacing difference of the shorter format.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for FROST & FILIGREE – BEASTS OF TARRYTOWN

Vivienne du Lac and Nerissa Waldemar — a.k.a. la belle dame sans merci and the lamia — have been living among the elite of Tarrytown for quite some time, undetected but for the trail of goats in their wake (one must eat, after all). But just as their eccentricities begin to raise eyebrows, a dark evil arises, intent on murder. They meet a with a young woman named Christabel Crane and a group of bumbling cultists calling themselves the Circle of Iapetus, who beg for help combating the creature.

As they plunge deeper into the mysteries surrounding the New York elite, old flames rekindle, and old grudges, too. Vivienne and Nerissa agree to help fend off the darkness, but will spilled blood mean the end of their reform? And if not, at what cost?

MY REVIEW for FROST & FILIGREE – BEASTS OF TARRYTOWN

Much more complicated set of characters than I normal find in the Shadow Council shared world – almost doesn’t fit in the novella (which is a complete story). A couple of the transitions between chapter/scenes have abrupt jumps; a problem with the extremely short format of novellas.

The language is beautiful. I bet this will be an amazing audiobook.

What makes a monster? When does one become a monster, and when does one stop being a monster? The monsters in this book are not that introspective, and they know what they are and what they have been capable of in the past. But in the here and now, they want to be part of society. For Vivienne du Lac, it is because she feeds on emotions of people. The higher and brighter the better, and this was a time of high society parties. For Nerissa, well, keeps her from backsliding.

She doesn’t want to be that monster in the swamp eating people; she wants to be better than that. But when a group of humans set off a bomb at a party to maximize blood (but not death), Nerissa and Vivienne need to face their baser selves, deal with the humans willing to risk the two monster setting off a blood bath, and fight the real monster in the area. All the while being distracted by the return of an old flame of Vivienne’s who she thought was dead. Is he the new monster – or is the new monster pretending to be him?

Action packed, but turn of the 18 to 19th century beauty. A good read in the style of an urban fantasy Victorian romance.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for MASKS & MALEVOLENCE – BEASTS OF CAIRO

Our monstrous heroes — Waldemar, Goodwin, & Crane — have suffered an unimaginable loss. Vivienne du Lac, the powerful sylph and their dear friend, has been captured, eluding all attempts at rescue for ten years.

The trio finds themselves in Cairo, Egypt, the crossroads of the old and new worlds, grasping at the limited clues they have to Vivienne’s whereabouts. As they pursue the trail, they come face to face with new monsters, new enemies, and a host of ancient gods wreaking havoc.

The hunt for Vivienne leads ever downward, to the very gates of the Underworld. Will Nerissa, Worth, and Christabel manage to stay alive, let alone keep their wits? After all, a lamia, a Questing Beast, and a unicorn, draw a certain amount of attention in a big city like Cairo… especially when one of them needs blood to survive.

With the help of new friends — including a kitsune named Kit and a Nith dwarf named Alma — the heroes launch an assault to the very gates of the Great Pyramid.

MY REVIEW for MASKS & MALEVOLENCE – BEASTS OF CAIRO

Natania Barron writes books as beautiful as her covers. This time we follow our beasts to Cairo, where the marsh-based snake, the lamia Nerissa, is less than happy about leaving the moist country-side of Tarrytown. She only left it to find her lifelong companion Vivienne, however strained their relationship might be and often was, on some level she needs the fey – who has been kidnapped by their former slave-butler Barquan, a dijinn. Joining her in the search are Worth (a, the?, Questing Beast) and Christabel (a unicorn), and a new person they pick up cheap in the bazaar (more about that little one will be spoilers except for the fact she adds much needed energy to the beastly dynamics).

Masks & Malevolence captures the time and sensibilities of the flapper era, and provides an even more complicated narrative than Frost & Filigree. The novella again packs so much into so little space yet completes the story it is telling.

Well worth the read!

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for TIME & TEMPER – BEASTS OF LONDON

It’s been two decades since Vivienne du Lac, powerful night sylph and mysterious monster of fashion, was abducted from Tarrytown New York in a display of strange magic. Her friends Nerissa Waldemar, the lamia; Worth Goodwin, the Questing Beast; and Christabel Crane, a unicorn, have chased her shadow across two continents, down the winding streets of Cairo, and indeed, into the Underworld itself.

Just when they’re about to give up, a surprising letter indicates that Vivienne might still be alive, and closer than they think. Aided by a kitsune named Kit, a reluctant angel named Ophaniel, a dwarf named Alma, and a host of gods, goddess, monsters, and miscreants, Waldemar, Goodwin, and Crane dash through London and into Spain to try and unite with Vivienne once again. But an army of void creatures greets them, and alongside their deadly attack clues to the insidious villain who’s been lurking in the shadows for thousand of years.

Once again, it’s up to the team to sort through their own interpersonal challenges of love, jealousy, and inner desires, as they race against the clock — and time and existence itself — to rescue Vivienne, or else perish trying. Will Nerissa beat her addictions? Will Christabel get over her lost love and find her place in the world? Will Worth ever cease being a sartorial nightmare?

Tempers rise and adventure awaits in the final installment of the Frost and Filigree series.

MY REVIEW for TIME & TEMPER – BEASTS OF LONDON

With the third, and final, book of a series, one always waits with baited breath. Will the author do the voice justice? Will my investment as a reader be fulfilled? Can everything be drawn together in a satisfying manner?

Never question if Natania Barron can draw anything – whether cover art or a conclusion to a beloved series. The richness of her voice, the complicated characters, everything in Time and Temper is as gratifying as one might hope.

If you love a rich voice set in Victorian times through the Roaring twenties, with everything from angels to lamia, this is the series for you. Start at book one. I *think* Time and Temper works as a stand-alone, but you will be shorting yourself if you don’t read the whole series.

 

Flash: Southern Fried Vampire Smut

Erin Penn

Photo by Wyxina Tresse on Unsplash

A friend on FaceBook posted: “I have given myself permission to write vampire smut tonight.” and I asked if I could play too. The following wrote itself. If you live in the South, you understand.

It was a hot sultry summer night. You know, those nights when even after the sun sets, you drip sweat. I knew what Jameus was. Hell, I was there when we put him in the ground the first time, but he kept to his types and I kept to mine. They tell you that vampires are cold. Scientists think vampires are room temperature; they don’t produce heat. But truth to tell, they are the cold of the grave. Their personal grave. Soil six foot down, which is a dang slight less heated than the dry brown blades of grass he was passing through on the way to my house. I didn’t invite him in. I’m not stupid. But you bet I did the horizontal tango on the porch with that iceberg body. Better than an AC blowing on the bed.

(words 140; first published 1/30/2025)

Flash: Punch a Nazi

Erin Penn

Photo by BENCE BOROS on Unsplash

“They’re back.” Rick had his back to the door as he whispered low enough no one beyond the bar could hear thanks to the additional enchantments the owner had added after the incident last week.

Drawing a deep draft for a half-giant, I glanced toward the door where the new bouncing staff held up their hands trying to deescalate the situation. Four to one wasn’t good odds. “Tats,” I spat, darkening my skin further, drawing up my hair into elaborate braids. “Take care the Pix’s top, could you?” I jumped over the bar and slid down the other side. “I got some lessons to teach.”

“Sure thing. Should I let the boss know?”

“Not going to matter.” I didn’t have the patience to be polite and play by human rules. My long stride ate the distance between the bar and the door.

“Look man, your club ain’t allowed here anymore since you guys broke sanctuary last week.” The fae bouncer kept their hands visible. Even wearing their male aspect, the winter Seelie was over a foot shorter than the lead vampire.

“Whatcha gonna do about it, fairy?” The vampire crowded the bouncer toward the wall, confident the three jackets he came in with would guard his back.

I scented with my tongue. The groupie vampires had been turned in the past month, and the were of the group had at most three moons since being bit. The lead vampire pushed a decade but wasn’t the sire of the babes. Smith really needed to clean up his coven or I would clean it for him. With an egg to consider, all unnecessary dangers in my territory needed to be eradicated soon.

“They are going to let me take care of it.” I crossed my arms over the black cropped shirt the wait staff used as a uniform. I shifted my mobility from the human appearing glamour to normal flight, then I pulled some extra weight from the plane where I stored my excess. Just six percent should be enough; it wasn’t like my present body presentation could handle more than that, especially since I restored the shape to slimmer version for work.

The vampire didn’t even turn around at my words, foolishly thinking after a measly decade and a nip of the teeth he now qualified as an apex predator. Cockily, he held out a heavily tattooed arm with a finger up. “One fucking minute doll and I will get to you.”

“Nah.” I grabbed the finger and pulled it down, along with the muscular arm, then yanked him toward me. The vamp had been a weight lifter in life, and at over seven foot, he weighed a meager three hundred pounds. I had moved 1,500 pounds of extra mass from my main form.

He moved, I didn’t.

I dead-palmed the punch he threw as he turned, wrapping my fingers around it.

His eyes grew round, before narrowing at the negroid features I had started wearing since Massey agreed to be my egg carrier. He tried to yank his hand away from my grip, and I let him succeed. I watched as his bigoted brain downplayed my danger because of the color of my skin and the shape of my nose, and maybe even the size of my breasts. Supremists often came with a side of misogyny.

“Fuckin’ cunt.” He gripped and ungripped his hand, testing the mobility.

“Tell you want, let’s do a one-punch contest. You win, we serve you. Hell, I’ll even buy the first two rounds. I win, y’all leave and never come back.” I spread my arms. “I’ll even let you go first.” I smiled with teeth showing, maintaining full human appearance. The expression didn’t seem to faze the gang members, but the crazy grin made the bouncer take a step back. Fae understood crazy. I nodded to Seelie. “Just hold up the line for a couple minutes if you can, this won’t take long.”

“You got that right.” The lead vampire growled. “It won’t take long at all.”

“You agree? You tats leave and don’t come back, ever, if I win?” I carefully adjust my stance to make it look like I was bracing for a punch. Looking like you are walking while you are actually flying isn’t the easiest thing, but I had plenty of practice in a variety of forms and glamours.

“Yeah, sure.”

He blinked as the magic covenant slid into place.

“Sanctuary grounds. Don’t make contracts you don’t want enforced.” I smirked. The regulars quickly learned never to stiff a bill or skimp on a promised tip. Roderiguez didn’t run tabs. “Be sure to make the first punch count.”

“Oh, I will, bitch.” The huge undead took a step and swung hard. The power of his punch pushed him back a few steps, and he curled around his hand.

I was disappointed when I didn’t hear bones crunch. “You pulled your punch, that was stupid.” I moved to close the gap. “My turn.”

“Jump her.” The elder grunted at the younger vampires. But they weren’t his spawn, so they had the option to back off, which they took. I memorized their faces. Smart vampires made good neighbors, if they remembered to be smart and not try to be clever. Only the werewolf responded, transforming to full lycan shape and leaped at me. Either the lead vampire had were- control, a common enough ability, or the furry hungered for a pack and answered to an alpha orders. Hurting him would be like kicking a chained puppy. I backhand him gently into the babes. The two younglings grabbed him and hold him back.

To control the slap, I had turned toward the werewolf. The owner of Bar None frowned on killing customers, even unwanted ones.

The pack leader used what he thought was a distraction to jump at my back at vampire speed. At a mere decade, his speed was a joke. I easily spun, brought across just a minuscule portion of my talons into this form, and punched through his chest, holding his black heart hostage, before he understood what happened.

“That wasn’t part of the agreement. Ordering the fledging like that. It was to be you and I.” I stared up at him, letting a bit of my golden lizard pupils shine through my human appearance, and curled back my lips. “You broke Sanctuary.”

I squeezed my fist closed, then dropped the decaying corpse on the ground.

Wiping the blood turning into dust over my bare stomach, I turn to the remaining tats and jackets. “You were part of the agreement. You understand that right?”

The two vampires nodded their heads vigorously. The transformed wolf growled groggily, his broken jaw healing with audible snaps.

“Don’t come back. Let the rest of the gang know too.”

I dropped my chin to stare into the vampires’ black eyes, breaking the common-sense rule of never making eye contact with vampires. They were too young for it to matter. The werewolf tilted his neck, exposing his throat.

“You come in while I’m here, anyone with your colors, and I will remove you.” I kicked the shrinking dust pile to indicate how I would remove them. I taught lessons but only once. Supernaturals either had a learning curve or they didn’t. “Got it?”

They nodded.

“Go.”

The three children rushed out the door.

“Alphin, do a better job and sweep up this mess.”

“No problem. Sure thing.” The fae stumbled over their words. “On it.”

I turned around, forgetting for a moment to make it look like I wasn’t flying, the spin raised me an inch or so off the floor. Sighing, seeing about half the customers with their eyes wide staring at me, comparing the rumors of what they heard about last week against what they just witnessed, I shunted my talons and weight back to the other side and landed on the floor light enough not to crack the tiles. “What?” I asked the crowd, “Boss said no more tats. We are a Sanctuary. Anyone got a problem with that?”

People shook their heads and dropped their heads to their drinks.

“Remember to treat your waitresses with respect, because if you think I’m scary, you should see an annoyed witch.”

The wait staff chuckled at that one, all of them apprentices of the owner, a thousand-year-old wizard capable of maintaining a Sanctuary in a large metropolitan area, and one of the few being on the planet who remembered what it is like to hunt dragons. Some of the regulars joined in the laughter. By the time I made it across the club to slide across the silver-trimmed bar, conversations were restarting around the room.

(words 1,449; first published 1/19/2024)

Flash: Promotion

Erin Penn

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

“So are you going to try for it?”

Grabbing the edge of the metal from of the drop ceiling, I glanced down at Mark where he is holding my ladder steady-ish. The accounting department had not moved the desks to the new layout for the upgrade to their printers, so the ladder straddled between two cubicles as I pulled down the wires. “Try what?”

“Eric’s position.”

“He’s leaving the company?” I put my head back in the ceiling. We were on a tight schedule this morning; contactors were coming by in the early afternoon for the installations of the new equipment and we needed all the wires in place, preferably before the day crew showed up. “I didn’t think he could.”

“Nah, but he got promoted nearly twenty years ago. He’s going to go down for his first topor any day now.”

“Incoming.” I yanked the heavy weight of the long cables we ran between the computer floor to accounting, dumping the coils below me.

“So how about it; you going to try? You have the seven-year minimum time in company, and, man, I would be happy to answer to you compared to Lynn or David.”

Leaving the ceiling tile out of position, I climbed down the ladder, dusted off my hands, and started separating the wires into the pair we needed. “It wouldn’t be a good fit for me.”

“Come on, you got everything man.” Mark kept his eyes on me as he pushed, barely paying attention as he tied the matched sets to a weight. He punched my arm as he passed by, taking the first two sets to the primary print station. We will need to run the other three pairs through the ceiling to the third secondary station and the two manager offices, but the weights will make it easier to grab while also keeping all the heft of the cable from pulling them back down the two floors to the computer department. “The experience, the master’s degree, employee of the month for our department more than any other.”

“That’s because I have no home life.”

“Which they love.” Mark said, his voice raising at the end in emphasis, as he did that head bob thing with hands, I guess from some television show, that I was never home to watch.

“Yeah, but vampire? That is a commitment.”

“You already been here for ten, which was longer than your marriage.”

“Yeah, but there is that eye contact thing.” I glanced his way before climbing back up the ladder, rotating on it until I had line of sight to Abigal’s office, her blinds wide open for the rising sun over the many skyscrapers she admired at night, then poked my head back up through the hole. I put a hand down for Mark to hand me the next neatly paired cords and the extendable pole to direct the materials to the right locations.

“Right, you are like autistic, autistic. I keep forgetting.”

“Can you imagine me trying to hypnotize someone?” I shove the Abigal weight to her office, extending the pole to its maximum of forty feet. “Look into my eyes.” I said with the cheesiest accent ever, then switched to a slightly hyper scared voice. “Nope, don’t do that. Never mind.” I got diagnosed in third grade and had wonderful therapy all my life, but certain things remain damn near impossible like crowds (I love my job where I keep things going during the day while everyone else works nights) and staring deeply into the eyes of the woman I loved.

We had two great years, two increasingly bad years, three wonderful children, and enough hell when she couldn’t take my quirks anymore to traumatize all five of us. The kids were teens now. Being a vampire wouldn’t be bad in relation to the family since the first torpor wouldn’t set in for another twenty and only lasted two years.

Still, I wouldn’t want to deal a bunch of neurotypical vampires for eternity. Trying to keep them up on the latest technology had been hard enough.

(words 680; first published 12/25/2025)

Book Review (SERIES): Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 5

Erin Penn

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Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 5 (SERIES) by John G. Hartness

  1. Born to be Wilds
  2. Swamp Music
  3. Houses of the Holy
  4. Blaze of Glory

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for BLOOD, SWEAT, & TEARS

Bubba’s back from Fairyland, and sometimes it feels like they shoulda just stayed there!

Man, coming back to the real world sucks. Bubba and his whole team have been fired on account of going MIA for a year and a half (yeah, time moves differently in Faerie. Yay.), and now they’ve got to…get jobs? Oh, this is going to go well.

Blood, Sweat, & Tears tracks Bubba, Skeeter, Uncle Father Joe, and Amy as they re-enter society, get new jobs, almost burn down down the bar stupid enough to hire Bubba, end up owning a shifter crossfit gym, travel to Florida to learn way more about Uncle Father Joe’s new girlfriend than they ever thought they wanted to know, and then end up dealing with Quincy F’n Harker?!?

Yeah, that’s right. The Quincy Harker/Bubba crossover that you’ve all been waiting for happens right here, and the results are explosive, to say the least. No really, I’m not exaggerating. A lot of shit blows up. Because, well, Bubba.

MY REVIEW for BLOOD, SWEAT, & TEARS

Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 5 collects four novellas into one volume and hits a story out of the ballpark.

Born to be Wild – the perfect reintroduction of the cast after the year among the fairies. Gets our favorite redneck and his friends back on the saddle of doing what they do best – being in bars and blowing things up … sometimes both at the same time.

Swamp Music – another blast from the past where Father Joe’s girlfriend reaches out for help and Bubba delivers.

Houses of the Holy – Hartness writes two strong series which he said were placed in the same universe. Fans wanted a crossover – so Bubba goes to the Queen City. It’s not often Bubba is the backup team, but to stop an apocalyptic level spell he’s all for letting the wizard taking the lead. He’ll just sit back and guard a sword in a church. How hard can that be?

Blaze of Glory – Takes everything up a notch. Mr Card – sometimes known as Dracula – has gone off the reservation. One of the people the vampire cared deeply about died, and monster that he is, he normally doesn’t react well when that happens. For most beings, that might be a drinking spree — and for someone once called Vlad, a drinking spree has a very different connotation. Can Bubba find him in time? Or will something else find Bubba and his team first?

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for BORN TO BE WILD

He lost his job because he’s not exactly human. His girlfriend got fired just for dating him. His best friend…well, Skeeter’s okay, actually. It ain’t like this is a country song or anything.

Bubba the Monster Hunter is back from Fairyland and trying to figure out how he fits into the normal(ish) world again. He’s got a job as a bouncer at the Don’t Drop Inn, but that all goes up in smoke (way too literally) when his newest case comes waltzing in the front door with a mini zombie apocalypse in tow!

Bubba has to save a vampire from zombies and figure out who wants to make Caufield Evers Oglethorpe IV dead. Again. That investigation will involve magic, werewolves, rogue government agents, subcutaneous tracking devices, and crossfit. Just another day in the life of Bubba the unemployed Monster Hunter!

MY REVIEW for BORN TO BE WILD

4/21/2019 First Readthrough – At last, Season Five begins and we see Bubba back in his element.

Friends – including Skeeter’s high pitch voice in his ear!
Starting the story at a Bar!
Beating on people for fun and profit, killing bad things with high explosives, and deciding some bad guys just need talking to (after slugging a couple times).
Humor and wild tangents.
Taking his girl out to lunch and then visiting a necromancer for dessert.

Classic Bubba. I’ve missed you. Like fire ants in the Spring, makes me want to shout “Come and get some”.

2/27/2022 Second readthrough
Season five is complete and I carved out time to read it. This book is the perfect setup to the four novella series – reintroducing the characters, establishing their styles and methods, human and horror, blowing things up. The perfect beginning.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for SWAMP MUSIC

Bubba’s facing off against the most fearsome creature in history – Florida Man!

Well, not really. But kinda. Bubba’s hitting the road to to help a friend when Uncle Father Joe calls for aid. Bubba rolls into Orlando to help out the defrocked priest and his scientist/were-gator girlfriend, and ends up stumbling into something much bigger than even that giant lizard’s cloaca! Somebody’s hunting cryptids, and it ain’t him, so he needs to find out what’s going on back in them swamps, and why suddenly everybody is named Director Shaw?!?

Bubba will battle foes both human and cryptid, and some a little of both in this hilarious horror comedy novella. Season Five of Bubba the Monster Hunter continues with Swamp Music!

MY REVIEW for SWAMP MUSIC

This novella published in May 2020 – and is the perfect homage to the first half of the COVID, while still ALSO being the perfect Bubba book for crazy no-shit mayhem, while still ALSO being a continuation of character building and story progression of the overall story for the Bubba universe in the fifth season.

Born to Be Wild reestablished our hero and his team back on earth – reminding us what Southern Region Monster Hunting looks like. It was fun and lively, but not so deep on the characters.

Swamp Music picks up the action a pace, gives us additional depth and history of this long-running series when Father Joe needs help when his girlfriend’s cousin gets kidnapped. Now that he is an ex-priest … what is gonna happen with GF if the rescue is successful.

And that depends on Bubba dealing with a bunch of Florida weirdness including animal theme parks, were-gators, and keeping an eye on Geri who may still be itching to do a killin’.

Pitch perfect Bubba story. This is why we read Bubba stuff.

 

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for HOUSES OF THE HOLY

The long-anticipated Bubba/Quincy Harker crossover starts here!

Bubba is hired by the Department of Homeland Security to guard some relics in Charlotte, but there’s more going on than there seems. Doesn’t DHS have Quincy Harker, a mostly capable wizard type, right there in Charlotte? And Isn’t Bubba blacklisted from working for the government after DEMON decided they wanted to kill him? And didn’t he smear vampire guts all over College Street that last time he was in Charlotte?

Find out all this, and learn more about the nefarious Director Shaw’s plans for DEMON and world domination as Bubba the Monster Hunter meets up with members of Quincy Harker’s crew to stop the ultimate evil from going down in the Queen City!

Events in Houses of the Holy take place simultaneously with the Quincy Harker novel Conspiracy Theory.

MY REVIEW for HOUSES OF THE HOLY

The third novella of Bubba’s fifth season starts the core of the season’s story. In Born to be Wild and Swamp Music, Bubba was a little out of shape … okay, a lot out of shape. But he now owns a cross-fit gym so he started working out a bit and getting down to a fighting weight (if when you are “down” and still over 300 pounds can be counted as such – when you are over six and a half, it can). And good thing too.

Because Mr. Hartness, the author, did a fan service thing and had his two favorite characters meet. Quincy and Bubba in the same room.

Bubba is called to the Queen City (Charlotte, NC) from his Georgia stomping grounds to operate as the backup team during a little bit of apocalypse.

Normally Bubba is the “A” team, but he is okay to let this slide. Demons and spells and ending the world is more a Quincy thing. He and his team are happy to take the government paycheck … and sweet, sweet equipment.

Of course, being Bubba, he manages to get himself banned from a bar the first day. Next assignment has him guarding a sword inside a cathedral. Hope his day gets better – or EVERYONE’S day is going to get a lot worse.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for BLAZE OF GLORY

The stunning conclusion to Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 5 is here!

Bubba and the team have been called to Charlotte to help the Department of Homeland Security on a job. Since being in North Carolina, Bubba has been tased, kidnapped, beaten silly, and met DEMON agents, actual demons, and an angel. Now he’s been hired to hunt down the literal most famous monster in history – Count Dracula.

Only problem is, Dracula’s nephew, the wizard Quincy Harker, doesn’t like the idea of Bubba hunting his family in his city.

Will Bubba and Harker finally throw down? Will Bubba get kidnapped and beaten up again? Will the be explosions?

That last one was a trick question. Of course there will be explosions! Get your hands on the thrilling conclusion to Bubba the Monster Hunter Season 5, because this one changes things forever!

MY REVIEW for BLAZE OF GLORY

Fourth and final novella of the fifth season of Bubba. This story overlaps with Mr. Hartness’ Quincy Hartness series but can be read without knowing all the background of the Quincy-verse.

What matters is the man the world once knew as Dracula just lost one of his favorite humans. When normal beings lose someone this close to violence, they go on drinking sprees. “Drinking spree” takes on new meaning when applied to the world’s most famous vampire. Bubba’s job is to bring him back before that becomes a problem.

But can he? Especially when while Monster Hunting, something is hunting him and his team. Can they all make it out alive? (or undead in one case.)

This is a masterpiece of a book with the laughter and tears only possible with a long-running series where you KNOW the characters.