Erin Banks, an assassin and private investigator with arcane tattoos, is suddenly released from a Brighton jail after six months of a three year sentence. A demon known as the Long Man wants Erin to hunt down a man who reneged on a deal and claim the soul he's rightfully owed. In return, the Long Man promises Erin will receive a clue about who kidnapped her younger brother when she was a child, and introduced her to the Uncanny world in the process. The offer is too good to resist, despite the dangers of dealing with hungry wraiths lurking around the schism caused by the broken deal and a back-stabbing ex-boyfriend's charms.
 
Erin ticks all the boxes for readers who like their Urban Fantasy heroines snarky and jagged around the edges, with the added bonus of her being a true anti-hero. Her relationship with the no-good wizard, Kirklander, veers away from the standard soppy masochism into something more akin to frenemies with benefits and it works so well. The dialogue throughout Bad Soul is witty with just enough British vernacular to ground the reader in the setting. Entertaining, quirky characters seem to be the norm in the Uncanny world. The fully realised magic system takes some delightful turns into the surreal with forests of screaming soul-trees and magical pathways while also delivering satisfyingly dark creatures and magical beings. Bussel and Stott deliver a dark and gripping read in Bad Soul, marking Uncanny Ink as a must read series for Urban Fantasy fans.

Reviewed for Reader's Favorite

The Drowned Tower is destroyed, sunken into the Zexin Sea. While many of the surviving magic practitioners who called the institute home linger near the ruins, Sylvie Sirx and Jack Dace search for the hidden entrance to the Red Veld institute. Here, they must play politics before setting off for a treacherous mine where the pair finds another clue about the nature of Elementalists and the entity trapped inside the Heartstone. Political manoeuvres by various players are shifting towards final outcomes that will ripple across Ferus Terria as Jack and Sylvie stumble across an ancient journal that hints at a horrifying secret.
 
The Red Veld continues the Heartstone series shortly after the events of book one, the Drowned Tower. This novel starts slowly with the story switching between multiple characters but the gradual pace of events proves to be well worth enduring as Rinth ramps up the tension and action towards the middle. The ending made me ache for the next Heartstone book. Jack and Sylvie have a dynamic relationship that's a lot of fun to read and their slow-burn romantic tension will leave readers happily unsated as Rinth includes just enough tenderness between these two strong-willed practitioners to leave you wanting more. A thriving black market slave trade adds a darker edge to this epic fantasy and introduces interesting thematic questions. Despite the slow beginning, The Red Veld is a solid follow up to The Drowned Tower, with an abundance of tension and intrigue to carry through to the next instalment of the Heartstone series.

Read my review of The Drowned Tower

Reviewed for Reader's Favorite

The first documented case of a zombie was in 1987 and in the thirty seven years since then humanity still hasn’t found a cure for the mysterious infection. These are not the mindless, ravaging zombies of popular fiction, despite the negative media they receive, but unfortunate souls with a heavily stigmatised illness. Forced to live on the fringes of human civilisation, the humanz, as they call themselves, try to eke out an existence while campaigning for equality and rights. When the leader of the humanz receives a report that a group of humanz have stolen a nuclear warhead from a Russian base she knows that this may be the ultimate test of her leadership. One wrong move could lose the humanz what few allies they have but a bigger question hangs over this dilemma: who is behind the theft?
 
Ljubuncic’s focus on the humanz remaining humanity without glossing over the messy facts of rotting flesh and a bloody diet makes Decay a uniquely contemplative zombie story. The compassion and level-headedness of the unnamed leader of the humanz makes her easy to relate to while her dark humour adds bite to the narrative. The various methods employed by the humanz to extend their lives and the grim realities of their condition adds interest as Ljubuncic builds tension around the mystery of the stolen weapon. There are no clear and obvious ‘right’ choices in Decay, not when there are so many threats and character motivations to untangle. Decay tells a riveting story while adding an original take on zombies to this genre.

Reviewed for Reader's Favorite