Steve McHugh

No Gods, Only Monsters
By Steve McHugh
Wow, what can I say! I really loved this! Myths, legends, roll it around in Steve McHugh's mind and this is what happens! Action, adventure, fights between gods, Diana, Medusa, Poseidon, dwarves, and more. Love the world building. The battle scenes were spectacular! There are tender moments too. Medusa is actually a good character in here. (I loved that!) The characters are flawed and relatable, except some of the horrible ones, they were just flawed! 😂
Nice addition to the Hellequin series! If you haven't read that series then do yourself a favor and pick it up!… (mere)

Those Who Dwell in Darkness
By Steve McHugh
This book was so awesome! Two of my favorite series is from McHugh! If this is the start of another series then I am onboard!
It has vampires, corruption, illegal changing of people to vampires. A serial killer. An Arbiter named Miles, (who decides cases on his own, decides if they are guilty, what do do about it, then punishes), is following this case that leads him further into darker secrets.
This book has a good mystery, horror, creatures, great world building, the creep factor, and had me cheering for Miles who is a powerful being himself! I was never bored! Very exciting and fresh!
Love the cover too! Love his dog too! That's Church! Part vampire!… (mere)

This was sweet but rather short ride.

In essence this is revenge story. Main character, Celine Moro, is member of elite law enforcing agency on planet Euria. Because of her investigations into the corruption and spreading of highly addictive drug she gets targeted by the ruling criminal boss and this unfortunately costs lives of every person Celine knows or has worked with.

So when opportunity comes forward for Celine to take her revenge she takes it and oh boy does she take it with so much gusto.

All in all pretty good story. It feels like author's foray outside the other book series he authored and that shows because entire feel of the story is like a pilot episode. It is very visual and action dominates from the very start. I truly hope author continues with the series.

If story was set in current day and time it would be treated in a same way as say Terminal List - revenge porn as critics like to say for the latter. For me they are both about revenge, would not call it revenge porn because in both books protagonists are people with some very "special set of skills" and are capable of hard hitting people and organizations that cause them harm. Is this different from say Man on Fire or similar works? No, but people like to draw parallels to their worlds if story is set in contemporary times and not amongst the stars. Because, you know stories set in our times need to be "politically enlightened". Ha!

Only thing that slightly annoyed me is that man-woman relations seem to be so pre-21st century (like same sex relations never existed before) so similar to Inscape we have the oh-be-contemporary approach here. If it weren't for all the social upheaval about this I would not even notice but unfortunately it is very hard to not notice it nowadays and it seems like one of those boxes to check to be considered modern! Ha!

All in all interesting story, well paced and with interesting universe and characters. Hopefully there will be continuation in some form or other soon.

Recommended to all fans of SF action.… (mere)

Was looking for a good urban fantasy book, and this was just what I was looking for. This was my Kindle First pick for March.

First off, absolutely gorgeous cover! The story starts off with a bang, and with the exception of a few slower parts in the middle, grabs you and never lets go until the very end. A fun ride with plenty of action and thrills, friendships new and old, and an interesting cast of characters. I liked Layla, the protagonist, right away, and connected with her. As the story progresses, you learn a lot of new names, but I didn't have much trouble identifying who was who. Everyone had their own unique personalities and quirks.

All kinds of mythological creatures are featured here: Redcaps, demons, spirits, ogres, werewolves, and jikininki, just to name a few.

The book is told in third person, in both Layla and Elias' (the main antagonist) viewpoints.

Four stars only because I didn't really care for the writing style, though I loved that it was told in third person (I'm not too fond of first person POV). Some parts were very "telly" (vs. showing), and the author seems to like to overexplain things, and the bad guys seemed very one dimensional. And I assume because this is the first of a series, there were a lot of introductions to the world and the characters, and lots of setup.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading the next installment when it comes out later this year. Recommended for anyone looking for a fun, quick read with lots of action and thrills, and plenty of mythology.… (mere)