Blood and Mistletoe (Ivy Granger)

Publisher's Summary

Holidays are worse than a full moon for making people crazy. In Harborsmouth, where many of the residents are undead vampires or monstrous fae, the combination may prove deadly.

Ivy Granger, psychic private investigator, returns to the streets of Harborsmouth in this addition to the best-selling urban fantasy series.

Holidays are hell, a point driven home when a certain demon attorney returns with information regarding a series of bloody murders. Five Harborsmouth residents have been killed, and every victim has one thing in common - they are fae. Whoever is killing faeries must be stopped, but they leave only one clue behind - a piece of mistletoe floating in a pool of the victim's blood.

The holidays just got interesting. Too bad this case may drive Ivy mad before the New Year. Heck, she'll be lucky to survive Christmas.

©2012 E.J. Stevens (P)2015 E.J. Stevens

I loved everything about this story, look forward

to more in this series.

BLOOD AND MISTLETOE (Ivy Granger) isn't your average detective or even your average psychic detective. She's an awesome character whose part Fae. The story takes place in Harborsmouth, where all types of interesting and fun beings dwell. Some aren't so fun such as the pixies. I loved what she said about the pixies. Her friend Jinx is cool too.

It's Christmastime and it's her first Christmas with a boyfriend who's a Kelpie King who was needed elsewhere and had to cancel their date for the tree lighting ceremony. The Kelpie and Selkie tribes were fighting over fishing rights and he had to go and keep the peace and prevent a Fae war.

Meanwhile Ivy had agreed to take Forneas' case and Jinx also had her overbooked on other cases. The Fae needed her help and this kept her hopping 24/7 with emergency cases.

This was an amazingly good audiobook. E.J. STEVENS did a terrific job writing this. I loved the duel narration with Ivy and Ceff. With him being a water spirit, it was neat to hear when his voice came in. I'm looking forward to listening to more in this series. This one is up there amongst my favorite fantasy audiobooks if not my new favorite.

Melanie A. Mason and David Wilson Brown did an exceptional job narrating this audiobook. I loved their characters. They made this a really nice audio experience. I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Audiobook received as a gift from the author in exchange for an honest review.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Watch out Artemis Fowl, Ivy Granger is in town!

What did you love best about Blood and Mistletoe (Ivy Granger)?

i love being brought in to a world filled with believable characters, well written, well thought out, fun, full of mythical creatures that I really do hope exist

What did you like best about this story?

Playing with different species of Faerie, that interact with each other the way that they ought to.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene? I was received the triple listen award, for the three times in a row that I listened to this story!

Any additional comments?

The only thing that knocked the book for me, and it is very minor,was I found the switching of narrators odd and distracting. I wish that Melanie Mason had read the whole thing.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Psychic detective vs. psycho

Note: Even though this is Book 1.5 in the series, it works just fine as a stand alone.

Ivy Granger is a private detective working in Harborsmouth. And her demon associate, Forneus, requires her talents to solve a series of murders. With her psychic abilities and help from her friends, such as Jinx who runs the office, she attempts to make it through the holidays and save fae lives.

Even though this is short, plenty of awesomesauce is packed into it. Ivy herself is a lot of fun and has plenty of insightful, and sometimes snarky, remarks throughout the book. Forneus is a layer demon who I was intrigued by, but also wanted to smack upside the head on occasion. Jinx is curvaceous and clever with knives. I want to do shots with her. There is just a touch of romance – Ivy has a beau. However, her psychic abilities are triggered whenever she touches another person, so their relationship has been strictly celibate.

Then we have the plot, which is a series of fae murders Now, not all the dead fae came from the same house, so it was a bit tricky to figure out who the murderer was. But the murderer being the clever person they think they are left a sprig of mistletoe at each crime scene. Luckily for the fae community, our detective is more clever. Plus I love all her little comments about the holidays.

I was pretty amused and sometimes surprised by this little book. I will definitely be continuing my Ivy Granger adventures with the other books in the series.

I received a copy of this audiobook at no cost from the author via her audiobook tour in exchange for an honest review (thanks!).

Narration: Our narrators, Melanie Mason and David Brown, were both excellent. Mason was a perfect fit for Ivy Granger. I also loved her near-purring voice for luscious Jinx. Brown was an excellent near-evil demon attorney (Forneus). He also had some great voices for the other baddies we come upon.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Creepy Fairies & Christmas. What else do you need?

Would you listen to Blood and Mistletoe (Ivy Granger) again? Why?

Yes, it was a lot of fun and a quick listen.

Which character – as performed by Melanie A. Mason and David Wilson Brown – was your favorite?

Jinx and Ivy were my favorites, but they're very vibrant characters.

Any additional comments?

If you haven't read Shadow Sight, don't worry. There's just enough information to catch you up on book one and additional info about Ivy and her gang to make the story interesting.

This time around there were two voices in the audio book. I admit, I listened to Shadow Sight & Blood and Mistletoe back to back and Traci's voice was etched into my brain as Ivy Granger, but Melanie A. Mason does a wonderful job and I thought inviting another voice to speak for the male characters, done by David Wilson Brown, was a neat add on.

Like any good mystery, it begins with a series of deaths in the fairy world and the best detective for the case is, of course, a psychic one. Ivy has to push a few new boundaries when it comes to her relationships and her ability. Somehow, I liked that Jinx seemed more involved instead of talked about.

Action, adventure, a strong female character and a background love story are the elements that made this a great read for me. Ivy had a way of getting carried away with her sarcasm and monologues in Shadow Sight, but in this novella, it's reeled in and I was given the same vibrant, and sometimes vulnerable, Ivy Granger without losing any of the sass.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Christmas time Murder mystery in a fey setting

If you could sum up Blood and Mistletoe (Ivy Granger) in three words, what would they be?

Fey, magic, murder mystery

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blood and Mistletoe (Ivy Granger)?

The 'bad' person dancing with a skeleton.

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed the two narrators. The female voice, Melanie, is not over the top with sweetness for the characters. She voices feelings as she reads with the right amount of emotions. The male voices, David, does all the male characters as needed and narrations like the Introduction. Also, when David has to do the sexy sound of Ceff, he does it well. I liked the addition of two voices to the story, it keeps my attention.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

A great short to listen to.

E. J. Stevens writing brought to life. If you like her Ivy Granger series this Christmas short is one for you. The narration is impeccable. I can't wait for the next one.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Blood and Mistletoe

Ivy Granger is a psychic detective. She gets help from friends fae or other and sometimes enemies.This holiday season there are 5 bodies found. One for each different fae. Will she get her 'man'? Will she survive to live another tale?
Melanie Mason and David Wilson Brown do a nice job narrating ,though,I DO find more than one narrator distracting.
This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Doctor's Notes

I have really come to enjoy town of Harboursmouth and what better time to go back to it than Christmas. It's too bad for Ivy and Jinks they will be spending part of that time solving a mystery. As I said in my review of the previous book in this series I love Ivy and Jinks. They are such awesome characters and they work so well together. They also have such a bond that can't be broken by anyone. Ivy is asked to try to solve this mystery by Forneas of course and she decides to take him up on it since Ceff has to go out of town. I loved seeing Ivy work out this story and try to solve who was behind it and who wouldn't like the creep factor of knowing the killer was using the Fae to create their own mistletoe tree. I mean this is Harboursmouth and creepy comes with the territory.

As the story continues and Ivy gets deeper into solving things she finds out that Marvin is missing too. I had full confidence that even with what all she had going on Ivy would be able to handle it all with a little help from her friends and once again she pulls it off. I think listeners of this one will once again enjoy the narrators as they did a fantastic job and brought the characters to life. They managed to pull them off and make them sound like just what I would expect from them. I highly recommend this one and can't wait to listen to the next one. This series is such a fun and engaging series to listen to.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Holidays are Hell!

I really enjoyed this story. I actually messed up and ended up listening to this story first before listening to Shadow Sight, which is book #1. Once I realized what I had done I went back to listen to the first story. In all honesty I think this story was better than the first one. I think author E. J. Stevens has created a great series. I loved the characters in this series and they all have important parts to play in each story. This story is packed with excitement, action, mystery, and a unique twist. This story has folklore and Stevens uses different and various reference to mythology. The creatures and myths are perfectly written in this story. I recommend if you've read/listened to Shadow Sight, then make sure you get this novella book #1.5. and it's well worth the purchase.

Melanie A. Mason and David Wilson Brown did a great job as they team up to tell this story. They made a great duo as they bring this story to life.

I received this audio at no charge from the author/narrator in exchange for an honest and unbiased review through Audiobook Blast.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great short story. Well worth it

This is a cute short story that is set during Christmas, but isn’t really a Christmas story. Yes, it takes place during the holidays. Yes, there are gifts exchanged. That is pretty much where the holidays end.

Our demon lawyer friend (that sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it, it kinda is), Forneus returns with another case for Ivy and Jinx. Something is killing fae. The only thing that is in common, is that the victims are fae. Ivy needs to figure out who and why these deaths are happening. Ivy takes on the case as she doesn’t want people killing a bunch of fae in her town.

This is a short story, at a little over two hours, but it is a full story. We get to spend some time with some of my favorite characters in Kaye the witch, Marvin the teenage bridge troll and Hob the Brownie. There is even some appearances by Ceff, the Kelpie king and Ivy’s boyfriend. It was a great listen to fit in between some of my other listens. I do think you can go on to book two if you aren’t a fan of novellas, but this is a fun read that adds some depth to the secondary characters.

Blood and Mistletoe is the first book that I’ve listened to with different narrators the way this one was done. I have listened to different narrators that changed with chapters, but this one changed with sentences. That was a little jarring to me. The narrators were great, but everytime a male characters spoke, we went from a female to a male narrating. This was completely new to me and I don’t think it is something I would search out for. I did eventually get used to it, but I wouldn’t say that I’m a fan. I would be willing to listen to either narrator if they read the entire book. I would also mention that I like the narrator who does the full length books better for this series. This is a case of just not my style of narration.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Blood and Mistletoe ,Ivy Granger,Psychic Detective

Waaw this book just got real old school with the fae myth and legend!The research that must have gone in to this in mind boggling .This book is short but I its one of my favorites in this series because we see so much of Jenna from the Hunters Guild!I really wish those books were available in audio format.Jenna joined my personal squad of favorite heroines . She's a feisty, fierce,Smart,kick butt heroine...the best kind. I adored her demeanor, her passionate heart and her cunning, sharp mind. And her personality was truly a joy. Strong-willed, stubborn (but endearingly so) and clever, she was a refreshing main character. Loved her to bits. She and Ivy go up against a foe that had me leaving the nightlight on for a few nights ( yes ,yes I'm a big wuss )Amazing story, not to be missed.Loved the dual narration too!talented narrators.