Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Semper Fae

SERIES: Endangered Fae #3

AUTHOR: Angel Martinez

PUBLISHER: MLR Press

LENGTH: 176 pages

BLURB:

Zack thought he had a strange job before. Working as a Marine medic in a secret government installation was odd, but working as a human liaison to the /fae/ and as the personal assistant to a sidhe prince is downright bizarre. Throw in the fact that he’s pretty damn sure he’s fallen in love with his boss, and things are close to unmanageable.

Of course, around the fae, one never says ‘things can’t possibly get any worse.’ Unexplained events plague the human world. Strange sightings, spontaneous magical explosions, and odd bends in reality crop up. When Finn falls ill and a monstrous creature attacks Zack, things quickly slide into disaster. Lycanthropy, loose-cannon mages, and Lugh conspire to make a hellish mess of things—but the real peril begins when Diego loses an important piece of his mind.

REVIEW:

As expected things are chaotic for our boys! The last book had a nice, calm ending, so there was no way we’d have much of a break before drama gets going again….

Former Marine (not ex-soldier! Never call a Marine an ex-soldier…) Zachary Morrison has been drug in to the world of the fae, somewhat accidentally. We met Zack in the last book, he was a medic in the nasty government facility that was torturing our favorite fae Finn. He was really a good guy though, just doing his job, not understanding the creatures he was seeing were magical not alien in nature. But he did make the right call when it counted and went with Diego and crew. He finds himself hip deep in fae, taking a position as Diego’s personal assistant, then Lugh’s bodyguard. He’s tried to be a good boy, but there is one small, tiny, itty bitty problem. Lugh.

Lugh is a big bad-ass fae, he’s a sweetheart, cries at the drop of a hat, willing to help anyone, but he’s also a man whore. Or a fae whore I suppose! He was all over Diego in the last book, just barely taking no for an answer. After all, they had been together during one of Diego’s former lives, why not this life? Uh… FINN! He eventually gives up. Then he sees Zack and has a new goal in life. Zack.

So Lugh is after Zack, Zack is still mostly in the closet (or basement as Finn says), when some bad stuff goes down. A photo of Lugh, the Fae Ambassador, pinning Zack up against a wall outside of a night club goes out on the entertainment news shows. This leads to Zack’s parents finding out he is gay, a trip home to Missouri, and a wild animal attack that puts Zack in the hospital near death. Lugh rushes to his side,  the calvary is called in and Zack’s life is saved. This whole mess actually causes some drama between the two of them, but also seems to move them forward in their non-relationship. And Zack finally gegets is cherry popped!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… There are several issues going on; Finn has a cold. Which leads to him randomly shifting every time he sneezes! Elk, moose, salmon, rat, cormorant, orca, you name it, Finn shifts to be it! It isn’t fatal, but Finn sure seems to behave as if it were going to kill him. Poor Diego has to care for and baby his sick man. It’s quite pathetic really. There are odd magical things happening around the world, Diego is beginning to be concerned. He’s also overwhelmed with day to day crap, emails, phone calls etc. Plus we have the continuing saga of Zack and Lugh. Diego and Zack go on a quest and meet some horny beings. Then some shit goes down with Diego himself that REALLY messes with things…

It’s a fabulously complex plot, lots of characters, both fae and human, some good stuff, some bad stuff, it’s a mess but in a good way. Somehow Angel keeps it all together and moving forward. We get new characters, a pack of humans that cause trouble then help sort it out, and the dragons that were mentioned briefly in the last book make a more substantial appearance. They were really cool! Things do happen for Zack and Lugh, good things and bad, but it’s fun to watch them grow. I wish they had spend a little more time together though… Their romance is a smaller portion of this story, it’s really about the Big Drama going on.

As usual with a review we have to be careful and not give too much away. So I’m very carefully stepping around the plot here. I tend to have a hard line between good guys and bad guys, good guys need to stay good, bad guys can redeem themselves with effort. But it fucks with my head when they get mixed up. That happens in this book. I appreciate the need for it to happen, I really do, but it broke my heart a little bit to watch it. Angel writes it as she sees it, it’s not her fault I didn’t like what happened, but I didn’t! It was well done, a great plot, if I could step back and just read it without getting emotional it would have been fine. But I couldn’t do that! I cried and I was pissed. Which is fine, I like it when I get emotional about a book. That’s the sign of a great writer, creating an emotional response in a reader, of whatever sort. So there were ups and downs in this one, it’s a total roller coaster ride, on one hand I loved the emotional impact, but on the other hand I hated what happened! One thing I feel I do need to mention that just started to bother me was the excessive use of “bud” and “hon”… I didn’t notice that in the first two books, but it was a bit much in this one. Not enough to ruin the book, but I did notice it.

But overall this was a great book. Angel continues with this creative, amazing world and characters, adding more to it with each book. She writes with a light hand, even with a darker story line, adding just the right amount of humor without being cheesy. This one had a deep and scary message about control and fear, and government involvement, also handled quite well. Even though I had issues with part of the plot, that is purely a personal thing, it was still a very enjoyable story!

RATING:

BUY LINKS : None at the time of review…