Did not finish.

Attempted to read several times, a year later and not more than one chapter read I'm giving up.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A review won't be posted for this title because we did not enjoy the book at all.

This was weird. I didn't like the main cast, but still enjoyed body of the book due to the writing and plot, and I'll recommend this book to some people

This was a different UF story. The overall plot was pretty good. It was fast paced and entertaining. The thing that stood out was the MC. He's was older (late 60's). That's a first for me. I kind of liked that about this book. It's nice to see a MC that's not 20. This was a bit Dresden File-ish (which is a good thing)

I had some issues with the overall world building but for the most part I enjoyed this and will check out the next in the series.

**review copy provided through Netgalley**

A fun enough read in the UF genre, even though it dragged enough in places, and some things would’ve needed more development.

This book is packed with grit, action and magic suited to it, with a no-nonsense main character who wasn’t the most interesting ever, but likeable enough, in a sort of Noir way. This is the kind of character who’ll try to do the right thing, even if it means getting into dire straits, and I can seldom fault that: at least that’s a laudable motivation, and I’ve seen much, much worse in terms of not getting one’s priorities straight.

The novel reads a bit differently in terms of supernatural creatures involved: there’s magic, sure, but not the usual vampires or werewolves—the ‘monsters’ we get to see are more of the Rakshasa or extra-dimensional variety, which is a nice change.

Also, no useless romance, so bonus point as far as I’m concerned. Yancy’s family doesn’t exactly count, the ‘romance’ already happened—but there’s definitely something to unveil here in the next book(s), because why he had to leave them is not very clear.

On the downside, as previously said, the story itself dragged in some parts, causing me to skim more than read; some editing would’ve been good here, and same with the various flashbacks or inserts about this or that fact. (The latter made me think, ‘why not?’, but they tended to break the flow of action when they occurred during, well, action scenes, which is to say regularly.) This reflected on the characters in general: had they been more developed, they would’ve been more interesting to follow. Not to mention the lack of female characters, apart from a passing mention and a hostage.

The antagonist’s motives weren’t deep enough (so the guy doesn’t want to kill, but he still plans on having many people die to further his goal, but he doesn’t like and wish things were different, but he’s still going with it… Huh?), and when considering the plot as a whole, that was a seriously weak point. There were those serious stakes, pitching gangs against each other, trying to get Yancy killed while we’re at it, involving dangerous creatures, for a motive that didn’t hold much water and didn’t make a lot of sense because it was so likelyl to backfire anyway.

Still, I think this series would have potential, were it to give more room to its characters to evolve, so I’ll give the second book a try.

**My review will post to my blog at www.myinterdimensionalchaos.blogspot.com on 1/7/17. It has already been uploaded to Goodreads. A link will be posted to Twitter after the review goes live on my blog. **

Yancy Lazarus is a drifter, roaming here and there fixing problems for clients. In fact, he's known as The Fixer. He uses his wits and Vis, magic that uses the energy of the universe, to solve problems for his clients. But this time, someone doesn't want him solving anything. He has been told about a situation in California, but he's attacked twice before even making it out to LA. The case turns out to be quite a doozy -- Rival gangs. a massacre. Body snatchers. Monsters. Demons. This story has a little bit of everything. Think Dresden with a bit more grit, driving a souped-up El Camino rather than a VW bug.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. There were some spots where I felt it could have used a bit more editing. But, the rough patches here and there didn't really dampen my enjoyment of the tale. There was plenty of magic-slinging action, sprinkled with a bit of cheesy humor.

I have to admit that I didn't find myself really connecting with the characters in this book. The story was ok. The characters were ok. The humor was good. But.....it was all just....ok. I think the main characters just lacked depth. I was never drawn in and made to care about them in any way. The story was just a bit on the superficial side.....not really delving into the whys and motivations of the characters. Sort of like an action movie that is all shooting and special effects but no background or foundation as to why the shooting is necessary. There is very little world-building and not much in-depth characterization to draw readers into the meat of the story. It just lacked....substance.

There are four books in the Yancy Lazarus series. My guess is that the author gained momentum with world-building and characterization in the subsequent books. Yancy has great potential as a magic slinging badass....it just didn't really come out in this first book. '

Those who like urban fantasy would enjoy this series. For me, the first book seemed a bit lackluster. In the end that's just my opinion and others might really enjoy Yancy's debut adventure. I would definitely love to have his car! :) Nothing like a badass El Camino!