The Captured Spy - Release Day Alert

This series is so cool!
Go get this book!


The Captured Spy (The Immortal Spy #3)
by K A Krantz

Sometimes the Fates give you a do-over.

Ten years ago, Bix and her team of Dark Ops agents had a mission to rescue one of their own. The mission went pear-shaped; her team died, she was exiled, and the package was never retrieved. The guilt for that failure is a weight Bix can't shake...until she receives news that the agent is still alive and in possession of technology that could destroy the Mid Worlds. All Bix has to do is break the captured spy out of a top-secret supermax facility and destroy the tech before enemy forces beat her to the punch.

Unfortunately, a prison built of potent magic to contain the Mids' worst deviants isn't on any map or radar. To get the necessary intel, Bix will resurrect a menacing identity and reach deep into the criminal underbelly where her legacy is far from forgotten. Old enemies lurk in the shadows, swift to strike. Even the darkness can betray her. As her allies fall, Bix will have to rely on the aid of adversaries to complete her mission. But supermax does strange things to the mind, and some things cannot be undone.

Gods will perish when madness descends upon a captured spy.



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The Plagued Spy - Book Review

The Plagued Spy (The Immortal Spy, Book 2)
by K.A. Krantz

What is it about:
It’s all fun and games until someone breaks out the needles.

It was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission. Go in, grab the bespelled package of evidence against some very corrupt superpowers, and get out. The mission turns sideways when a vengeful spy Bix blackballed during her time in Dark Ops crashes the job and injects Bix’s teammates with an unknown toxin. Succumbing to a horrific mutation, the dying spook whispers the Mayday protocol for a compromised covert operation involving a biological weapon.

With her friends infected and sequestered in quarantine, a mole inside the spy guild exposing its undercover agents, and the brightest minds in the Mid Worlds unable to identify the biologic, Bix picks up the mission to find the creators and the cure. She’ll square off against Fates, dragons, angels, and even the god of plagues to save her friends; yet the greatest threat might well be the darkness growing within Bix and the evil on which it feeds.

Beware the plagued spy, for wrath and ruin are sure to follow…

What did I think of it:
I loved the first book in this series and was stalking Amazon for the release of book 2 when I was offered an ARC. You bet I jumped on that chance.

And this is yet another great read!

Bix is in for a lot of trouble. Two of her friends get injected with a very nasty toxin, and she is on a race against the clock to find out what is going on and to find a cure. If that's not enough, she has to deal with her rediscovered powers, her past, and Gods who might be just a bit too interested in her.

I was totally invested and was just as eager as Bix to find out what was going on and what secrets lurk in her past. I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. There is lots of action, intrigue, and conspiracies. As Bix uncovers some secrets, more pop up and hint at things that happened and things to come.

Bix is a great heroine. She is powerful, but her amnesia makes her vulnerable. She has people she trusts and who she relies on, but at times it's unclear if her trust is justified. There are a lot of other characters in this book, still it's easy to keep track of them. I had a couple of favorites and hope to see more of them in future books.

All in all this book was everything I hoped for and you bet I'll get my trotters on a print copy of this book, and the next once it releases.

Why should you read it:
It's an awesome UF read.


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The Burned Spy - Book Review

The Burned Spy (Immortal Spy Book 1)
by K.A. Krantz

What is it about:
Gods. Always ready to screw you.

When Bix the Gatekeeper is summoned from exile a hundred and seventy years early by the goddess of the Norse Under World, the former Dark Ops agent knows there’s a catch. On the surface, the terms of the deal are simple. Someone attacked the pantheon’s ambassador to the Mid Worlds and left the ambassador in a coma. In exchange for early parole, Bix must identify the perpetrator and drag their soul to Hel.

It’d be a sweet contract, if not for the details. The ambassador is Bix’s ex-girlfriend, the lead suspect is the key witness from Bix’s trial, and the organization leading the official investigation is the same intelligence guild that disavowed Bix when a covert op went pear-shaped. Undeterred, Bix returns to her old stomping grounds where clues in the smoldering woods of Centralia, Pennsylvania, lead to the waterfront of Washington, DC, and Worlds beyond.

Once valued for her skills creating passageways as small as a capillary or as large as a continent, Bix’s success now depends on the relationships she was forced to abandon. As she squares off against friends who betrayed her and enemies keen to destroy her, Bix follows a trail of secrets, torture, and treason that leads to the very superpowers who banished her. With her freedom on the line and revenge within reach, this highly-trained operative will take on Fates, dragons, angels, and gods to get exactly what she wants.

Hel hath no fury like a burned spy.

What did I think of it:
I loved Krantz' Larcout, so when I learned about her new Urban Fantasy series I immediately ordered The Burned Spy.

And what a cool read!

Bix is a powerful heroine, but ten years of exile have taken their toll and left her with some vulnerabilities and a lot of enemies. As she tries to find out who attacked Mirri she stumbles from one dangerous situation into the next. There wasn't a dull moment in this book.

I really liked the world building. All pantheons seem to be present, although because Bix works for Hel, the Norse pantheon is most heavily represented in this book. Still, the world lends itself for lots of interesting Gods and stories for future books. I very much enjoyed learning about the workings and politics of all the different factions in this book.

Bix gets help from some really cool characters. With some it's clear why they help, others have more hidden motives. I seriously hope to see more of several of them in future books.

The story is suspenseful and full of intrigue and action. I very much enjoyed seeing Bix slowly discover more about what happened and to see things fit together.

All in all a great start to a very promising series. Bring on the next book.

Why should you read it:
It's a cool and suspenseful UF read.


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An Interview with K.A. Krantz - Author of Larcout

As you might have noticed: I loved Larcout, the first book in the Fire Born, Blood Blessed series. So I did an interview with K.A. Krantz (aka KAK) to find out more about her and her books.



Welcome to Pearls Cast Before a McPig.
Could you tell a bit about yourself for those people who don’t know you yet?
KAK: I am a three-toed sloth. No? Fine. In truth, I do have five toes per hairy foot. The rest of the description is absolutely true.

What can you tell us about your books?
KAK: The Fire Born, Blood Blessed series begins in LARCOUT, a desert nation rife with political intrigue, the rumblings of civil war, and a long festering fear of the noble family Le Sri.

When the foreign-born daughter of the most reviled le Sri suddenly appears in Court as an acolyte to the ruling Lar, those who accused the family of treason scramble to stop the strange woman’s investigations into the national tragedy that led to her mother’s banishment.

They call her the Killer of the Kastra.
Vadrigyn os Harlo has eyes that see the dead. Strength to turn bones into powder. Fangs to rend her enemies asunder. Fire in her veins. Venom in her touch... And the magic to manipulate the minds of the masses.

She will be the salvation or the demise of the nation. Their future is her choice.

Have you ever used people you know as characters in your books?
KAK: I don’t. Perhaps it’s better said that I don’t do it consciously. I may use mannerisms, gestures, tics, or tells of someone I know, but I don’t intentionally construct fictional characters from real-life characters.

Where can you be found when you’re not at your desk writing?
KAK: I rarely write at a desk. I tend to play Goldilocks and All the Chairs when I write. As for where I am when I’m not auditioning chairs, I’m usually painting…something. Walls mostly, though, my clothes and hair far too often.

What did you do to celebrate the release of your first book?
KAK: I had a 5-Way. Seriously. In Cincinnati, we have our own style of chili—a thin meat sauce with the usual spices, except we include cinnamon and chocolate. It’s typically served between a bed of spaghetti noodles and a foot of shredded cheddar. That’s a 3-Way. Add onions and beans, and you have a 5-Way...and unkissable breath. It’s totally worth it.

What authors have been an influence to you?
KAK: My first and best love as a reader is historical fiction. Morgan Llywelyn, Nigel Tranter, and Bernard Cornwell. These authors snared me when I was young and are so prolific that I still have many of their books to read and re-read (even Tranter who passed away years ago). I love the notion of taking a nugget of fact and spinning an elaborate and compelling lie around it.

And have you read any books lately that you want to share with us or have you been too busy with writing to read?
KAK: I’m indulging in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. The stories in the First Edition are the closest to the original oral tales, before Wilhelm extensively edited them for religious themes and narrative flow. In the US, we’re most familiar with stories from the Seventh Edition. It’s sort of like reading a Critique Partner’s final draft before it’s sent off to NYC publishers.

Are there zombies or pigs in any of your books or will there be any in future books?
KAK: Vadrigyn develops an alliance with a monster-hunting, shape-shifting boar in the next book, NIVURN (Spring 2016). The plethora of hyphens aside, Odosus finds that being Vadrigyn’s friend challenges personal definitions of faith, value, and glory.

As for Zombies (or bazombies as my wee nieces insist on calling them), Book Four in the Fire Born, Blood Blessed series takes place in Kethor, where the indigenous people don’t let the dead rest. That’s coming in early 2017.

Thank you for letting me stop by, Sullivan. It’s been a pleasure!

Thanks for dropping by, and for the exciting glimpse of the upcoming books. I'll be getting my trotters on NIVURN for sure!

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Larcout (Fire Born, Blood Blessed Book 1)
by K.A. Krantz

Blood-beings can be chattel or char.

Fire seethes through the veins of every Morsam, demanding domination and destruction. Combat is a hobby. Slaughtering the inferior blood-beings is entertainment. Life is a repetitious cycle in the prison fashioned by the gods. But mix-race abomination Vadrigyn os Harlo suspects the key to freedom lies with safeguarding the blood-beings; until her blood-born mother uses foreign magic to turn the Morsam against Vadrigyn. Betrayed, bound, and broken, Vadrigyn struggles against the dying of her essential fire. Yet the ebbing flames unleash the dormant magic of her mixed heritage…

The magic to destroy free will.

Seized by the gods and dumped in the desert nation of Larcout to stop history from repeating, Vadrigyn discovers her mother’s legacy of treason and slaughter still festers. To survive the intrigues of the royal court, the roiling undercurrents of civil war, and the gods themselves, Vadrigyn must unravel the conspiracy behind her mother’s banishment. But manipulating free will unleashes a torrent of consequences.

If she fails the gods, she will return to the Morsam prison, stripped of all magic and all hope.

If she succeeds, she can rule a nation.

Kasthu. Roborgu. Inarchma.
Live. Learn. Burn.



Find Buy Links to the ebook here

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About K.A. Krantz:

Blessed with a childhood rife with ogres, dragons, and castles, K.A. Krantz revels in fantasies dark and epic. To her great horror, reality occasionally insists on domination. Attempts at a business degree sent her fleeing into the catharsis of a B.A. in Writing; however, aspirations for a steady income and an emerging shoe fetish turned her into a dot-com masochist, during which time a Master’s degree in International Commerce & Policy proved useful. However, the lure of creating alternate worlds proved irresistible, so she bid fond farewell to the online communities she had nurtured via chat rooms, message boards, and dating services.

These days, K.A. Krantz splits her time between Cincinnati and the DC 'burbs with her ever faithful hairy beast. When the voices of characters impatient for her undivided attention are temporary silent, she indulges in a shoe obsession, conducts a love/hate affair with paint brushes, and pretends she has enough upper body strength to wield power tools.

K.A. Krantz writes high fantasy, urban fantasy, and fantasy romance.

Larcout - Book Review

Larcout (Fire Born, Blood Blessed Book 1)
by K.A. Krantz

What is it about:
Blood-beings can be chattel or char.

Fire seethes through the veins of every Morsam, demanding domination and destruction. Combat is a hobby. Slaughtering the inferior blood-beings is entertainment. Life is a repetitious cycle in the prison fashioned by the gods. But mix-race abomination Vadrigyn os Harlo suspects the key to freedom lies with safeguarding the blood-beings; until her blood-born mother uses foreign magic to turn the Morsam against Vadrigyn. Betrayed, bound, and broken, Vadrigyn struggles against the dying of her essential fire. Yet the ebbing flames unleash the dormant magic of her mixed heritage…

The magic to destroy free will.

Seized by the gods and dumped in the desert nation of Larcout to stop history from repeating, Vadrigyn discovers her mother’s legacy of treason and slaughter still festers. To survive the intrigues of the royal court, the roiling undercurrents of civil war, and the gods themselves, Vadrigyn must unravel the conspiracy behind her mother’s banishment. But manipulating free will unleashes a torrent of consequences.

If she fails the gods, she will return to the Morsam prison, stripped of all magic and all hope.

If she succeeds, she can rule a nation.

Kasthu. Roborgu. Inarchma.
Live. Learn. Burn.

What did I think of it:
This is a really cool Fantasy read.

Vadrigyn is an unusual, but great heroine. She's without guile and used to using her strength and the poisonous parasites that live in her body to survive. But then she is taken from the kill or be killed world she grew up in and lands in a world where intrigue and deceit are the weapons of choice. She has to learn how to find her place in this world to keep alive.

I love the world building in this book. The different Gods and races are really interesting and intriguing. This book focuses most on the Larcoutians and the Morsam, but the glimpses that were given of the other races were really cool as well. I hope there will be more of them in the next book.

The magic that is used by the Larcoutians and how their society deals with that magic is well worked out and believable. Their society is a scary and brutal one beneath the civilized surface in my opinion. I enjoyed how you slowly find out more and more about Larcout.

The story is complex and the secrets Vadrigyn is trying to uncover are dangerous. I was hooked from the start and kept trying to figure out what was going on and who was to trust. There were some really likeable characters, and some that I loathed. At times I was really nervous about the safety of my favorite characters.

The names that are used aren't common names and took some getting used to, but they were all different enough that I didn't have to track back to figure out who's who, like sometimes happens when an author uses names that sound too much alike.

All in all this is a really great Fantasy read, filled with conspiracies and cool action. I'm looking forward to reading the next book, to see what happens next for Vadrigyn.

Why should you read it:
It's a cool and very enjoyable Fantasy read.




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