PRIDE’S SPELL by Matt Wallace – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

PRIDE’S SPELL by Matt Wallace – ReviewPride's Spell by Matt Wallace
Series: Sin du Jour #3
Published by Tor.com on June 21 2016
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 240
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
four-stars

The nitty-gritty: Another clever, uproariously funny entry into the Sin du Jour series, with even more non-stop action and supernatural craziness.

“Tag, you know ‘half-and-half’ is a pejorative use of an ableist term,” Jett chastises. “Both the minotaur contingent and the centaur contingent find it highly offensive—”

“Oh-my-god-Jett-whatever,” Dorsky groans. “They’re a bunch of dudes with bull heads and horse bodies who have to have their annual love fest during ComicCon so no one will notice or hunt them for sport. It’s bad enough we had to prepare two menus because the centaurs get all uppity about eating horse food.”

Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour series is back with another great installment, and this time around the action is crazier than ever! If you haven’t started this series, I recommend starting at the beginning and reading the novellas in order, simply because Wallace sometimes references events in earlier books. Also, we get to know the characters better as the series goes along, and it’s fun to see each person grow and develop. In case you’re new to the series, Sin du Jour is a catering company that caters to the supernatural crowd, and while you may think that catering is a bland and safe occupation, there is nothing remotely safe about the jobs that Sin du Jour takes on. And that’s what makes these books so addictive. Each installment has the Sin du Jour gang working on a different catering job, and in Pride’s Spell it’s a movie premiere after-party. That’s right, the New York-based company is heading to Hollywood, giving Wallace a fantastic opportunity to skewer the movie business with his particular brand of snarky humor.

When the story opens, executive chef Bronko has booked his catering crew into two different events at the same time, on two different coasts. And so for the first time, we see the gang split up, as he sends Jett and Nikki to Los Angeles to handle the after-party for a top movie premiere, and leaves Dorsky in charge of the New York event, catering the TaurusCon gala.  As Nikki and Jett prepare for a lavish, over-the-top dessert experience for the actors and producers, Dorsky and his chefs are elbow deep in dishes designed for different supernatural creatures: goblins, centaurs and minotaurs. But smooth sailing just isn’t in the cards for Sin du Jour, because while the food may be unusual and delicious, someone has targeted every member of the company, and suddenly, everyone is under attack.

But who’s behind the attacks? And why? It turns out someone is out for revenge, and that revenge is coming from a direction they weren’t expecting.

Wallace gets the chance to poke fun at the movie industry, and he’s got plenty of material to work with. I loved the scenes at the party where Nikki is at first excited to meet celebrities, but later she’s bored by how boring they actually are. The action goes back and forth between the caterers and the producers associated with the movie. It didn’t surprise me at all to find out that they are making sacrifices to dead movie moguls in order to secure success for their projects:

A long deceased Warner brother is currently devouring the heart of the writer Producer Two can’t remember.

Back at Sin du Jour headquarters in New York, though, individual crew members are being attacked by, believe it or not, the Easter Bunny, Cupid and even Santa and his maniacal reindeer. This crazy assembly of demons disguised as holiday icons was waaay over-the-top, but pretty damn funny and creative. I’m still not sure where the holiday-themed demons fit into the rest of the story, but I decided to just roll with it, since Wallace has a way of making the absurd seem almost normal.

There were a few surprisingly emotional moments in the story, and we get to know some of the characters a bit better. For example, we learn that chef Cindy has a penchant for collecting designer clothes, but she never wears them. (And then something awful happens, and well, she’ll never get the chance.) There’s also a very sweet moment near the end that I can’t really tell you about because of spoilers. (But trust me, if you’ve read the first book, Envy of Angels, you’ll love this moment too!)

But mostly this story is full of action, carnage and violence, and plenty of awesome dialogue. From what I understand, four more novellas are planned for this series, and I couldn’t be happier.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Above quotes were taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.

Posted June 6, 2016 by Tammy in 4 stars, Reviews / 13 Comments

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13 responses to “PRIDE’S SPELL by Matt Wallace – Review

    • Tammy

      That Easter bunny was ridiculous but in a good way:-) Somewhere I read an interview where the author mentions the names of the rest of the books, I need to find that.

  1. I don’t think I was even aware of this series – don’t know how, I’ve probably seen other books along the way but I don’t seem to have noted it down. Sounds like great fun and I always like fun reads so will make a note (now)!
    Thanks
    Lynn 😀

    • Tammy

      I’m glad to find a series I really like and frankly proud of myself for keeping up!

  2. I read many reviews for books that are later on in series and think that I have to read them some day. But sometimes these review are for series that I HAVE the first book of the series – and when that series is doing good, I kick myself in the butt for having skipped it and reading another series instead. Sin du Jour is one of these series.

    • Tammy

      Ha ha! Well, these are fairly short and very quick reading. Try the first one and you may get hooked:-)

  3. I’m so glad we’ll get more of the characters’ backgrounds because I thought that was somewhat lacking in the last installment, which was more humorous and action-oriented. Not that I’m complaining, but if I’m going to spend time with these characters for at least two more novellas I want to know more about them 🙂 I’m hoping to start this one as soon as I finish my current book, I feel like taking a breather with a short and fun read.
    Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum recently posted…Week 1: Any Other Name Read-AlongMy Profile

    • Tammy

      I agree, although these books are still heavy on the action, but I do see more character development.

  4. This sounds really hilarious. I’m need to hunt down the first one in the series, even though that’s the one I’m least interested in. 😛 I’m excited eventually getting to this one. Love the movie theme. However, I’m most excited about Lustlocked because of the Goblin King.

  5. Penny Olson

    The idea of a supernatural catering company sounds really fun. I had not previously heard of this series. Thanks for the intro.

  6. John Smith

    This looks hugely fun. I’m glad to learn about this. Thanks for the Web site and your insight!

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