| by Heather  | Rainbow Reading is our new weekly series focusing on book reviews with a geeky/sci-fi/fantasty/supernatural flair with LGBTQ characters. Once a month, we will highlight an entire book series. |
| This week I will be highlighting Black Dog Blues by Rhys Ford -it was recently re-released by Dreamspinner Press on February 3rd. I admit I love every single one of Rhys Ford’s books - from her contemporary series to the supernatural. This is a standalone book, but I hope that it expands into a series. This is also somewhat unique in her books as it is primarily urban fantasy instead of primarily romance. |  |
Kai Gracen is an elfin outcast raised by humans. He was actually the pot in a poker game when he was won by Dempsey, a human Stalker. The book is set on earth in San Diego after a merge of Earth and Underhill caused a war to erupt between humans and elves. They are now forced to live side by side and deal with the monsters that are in their world. Stalkers are bounty hunters/police that help to rid the world of these monsters.
| Kai Gracen learned all he could from the human Dempsey who won him in the poker game, but now works for the SoCalGov depot tracking down these monsters. It was a difficult life, but one Kai seemed uniquely suited to as he could understand the human side, and the monsters that he needed to neutralize. Kai also has to deal with the daily bigotry of humans. He is an elfin that identifies as human, and most humans hate the elfin race. | In a recent interview for the book Rhys Ford said “I wanted to write about the conflict of self versus social perception.” |
The conflict in the book centers around a sidhe lord named Ryder who forces Kai to help him do a job for the Dawn Court. The mission is to retrieve a pregnant human woman seeking sanctuary with the court. The only issue is it is Dragon mating season, and all of the pertinent information has not been provided to Kai by Rhyder. The situation is further complicated by Rhyder wanting to enter into a more personal relationship with Kai. Kai is pushing back on anything other than business occurring between him and Rhyder.
This book is only 246 pages long, and yet I got a true sense of the world in which the characters live, an understanding of the main character and the secondary characters, and a yearning to know more about the history of the world and how the characters will continue to grow.
| Title: Black Dog Blues Author: Rhys Ford Publisher: DSP Publications Pages: 246 Genre: Urban Fantasy Format: Paperback/Kindle | If you want an urban fantasy book, that is light on romance and heavy on action, I highly recommend Black Dog Blues by Rhys Ford. If you have other books/series that you would like highlighted, please comment below. I am always looking for new books to read! |
