Vigil…

About the Book:

Verity Fassbinder has her feet in two worlds.

The daughter of one human and one Weyrd parent, she has very little power herself, but does claim unusual strength – and the ability to walk between us and the other – as a couple of her talents. As such a rarity, she is charged with keeping the peace between both races, and ensuring the Weyrd remain hidden from us.

But now Sirens are dying, illegal wine made from the tears of human children is for sale – and in the hands of those Weyrd who hold with the old ways – and someone has released an unknown and terrifyingly destructive force on the streets of Brisbane.

And Verity must investigate – or risk ancient forces carving our world apart.

VIGIL is the first book in award-winning author Angela Slatter’s Verity Fassbinder series.

My Thoughts:

I used be a huge reader of urban fantasy and paranormal fiction, but I’m a tad fussy on what I do and don’t like when it comes to the genre, so it’s dropped back a bit for me in recent years. I don’t like it if it’s YA focussed, and let’s face it, more of this type of fiction is geared to the YA market, more’s the pity. When it comes to urban fantasy for adults, it often seems to cross over into the romance/erotic zone, and I’m not into that either. But this! The Verity Fassbinder series! I haven’t had as much fun with an urban fantasy series since reading JR Ward’s Fallen Angels.

Verity Fassbinder is the bomb! She’s quickly become one of my favourite urban fantasy characters of all time. With her sarcastic wit, her deadpan humour and her sharp as a tack intuition, not to mention her resilience in the face of injury, near death and disgusting encounters, well, she really is a heroine worthy of some serious book stalking. The interactions between her and the other characters she deals with in the Weyrd world were all so on point and effortlessly entertaining. I liked the little bit of romance that wove its way in for Verity, nothing too steamy, just meaningful and nice. Her relationship with Ziggi, her driver/bodyguard/cake eating and thinking out loud companion, along with the whole my ex-boyfriend is now my boss angle, provided many chuckle worthy moments.

There is a lot going on in this novel, events occurring that are all seemingly unconnected until all at once they’re not. My attention never wavered, this is one novel that held me captive from beginning to end and I am so keen to get cracking on the second instalment. The setting of Brisbane really grounded this novel for me, with the familiar landmarks and local lingo. I just felt like I was able to connect so much more to the characters and the story than what I ever have before in an urban fantasy novel. If Vigil is anything to go by, this is a series I am going to willingly lose myself in. Fingers crossed Angela has plans to keep it going beyond book three.

Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Vigil for review.

About the Author:

Angela Slatter is the award-winning author of eight short story collections, including A Feast of Sorrows: Stories, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales. She has won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award and five Aurealis Awards. Her short stories have appeared widely, including in annual British, Australian and North American Best Of anthologies, and her work has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Polish, Romanian, and Japanese. Vigil was her first solo novel, and the sequel Corpselight was released in July 2017, with the third instalment, Restoration, released in August 2018. Angela lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Vigil
Published by Hachette Australia
Released July 2016
Available in Paperback and eBook