Publishers Weekly: Bedford mixes romance and intrigue in this promising debut, which opens the Psi-Tech space opera series. Like other psi-techs, long-range telepath Cara Carlinni has a brain implant that enhances her powers. It also leaves her indentured to Alphacorp, the company that paid for the implant. On the run with data that links her ruthless former boss and lover, Ari van Blaiden, to a deadly pirate attack on a colony world, Cara convinces navigator Reska “Ben” Benjamin to add her to his team of psi-tech troubleshooters. They’ve been contracted to help the fundamentalist back-to-basics Ecolibrians establish a colony on the planet Olyanda, but it won’t be easy. Hardcore Ecolibrians hate psi-techs and punish “fraternization” brutally. Worse yet, Ben discovers mineral deposits on Olyanda that make the planet a target for pirates—just like a previous colony-building job whose failure still haunts him. Bedford builds a taut story around the dangers of a new world, the Ecolibrians’ distrust, and treachery from Ari and Ben’s home office. Readers who crave high adventure and tense plots will enjoy this voyage into the future.
Oct 102014
October 10, 2014
RT Book Reviews: This posthumously published collection of Lake’s short stories, spanning decades, was planned and put together by Lake himself. At first I was worried that I’d be unable to disconnect the emotion of Lake’s personal story with the impartiality required of reviewing, but Lake’s fantastic writing and worldbuilding made that worry irrelevant. This collection is well worth the time and investment; even the weakest story stands out. Readers will find themselves justifying the read of one more story before bed and discover they are awake well into the wee hours of the night. None of the stories are less than well-written and Lake’s voice is strongest in the stories where he ties in military roughness with his impressive imagination.
Library Journal: Solid psychology and a wealth of helpful knowledge and rapier wit fill these pages. Highly recommended. The main problem with etiquette books is that the people who need them don’t read them. Alkon, who writes the award-winning syndicated column “Ask Amy,” not only tells readers what good manners are but also provides useful suggestions for politely calling offenders’ attention to their rudeness. And she does this in a ferociously funny style–it’s worth a read for the laughs alone. There is nothing here of the proper arrangement of table settings, nor of how to address a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury; rather Alkon deals with modern problems in interpersonal relationships, such as how civilized people should act when standing in lines, on airplanes, online and elsewhere. In addition, she offers very dependable, sensible, caring advice to those whose friends or family are coping with terminal illness.
Washington Post: Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs is a delightful urban fantasy that travels through a city full of Escher-like staircases and alternate realities.
Starburst Magazine: (9/10) The world of 
Library Journal: This hot, heady title excels in both porn and plot. Recommended for those seeking a solid BDSM-tinged M/M romance with plenty of backstory. Embittered, overworked Michael Sebastian tries to escape the grip of his sinking engineering company for just a week, fleeing to the gay-friendly town of Curacao. He finds himself still living in his head, overthinking and woefully unattached until he meets Sam, a mysterious well-dressed stranger who ends up needing just the punishment Michael has been desperate to give (and then some).
Vogue: Mean Girls meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is basically a long-winded way of calling it perfection in book form. It’s from the POV of the “third most popular girl in school” who’s a self-described freak at heart, and it takes a funny, relatable look into the intricacies of high school social hierarchy.
Romantic Times: Priest takes the epistolary format H.P. Lovecraft was fond of and uses it to far better effect, both in terms of characterization and horror. Her protagonists (Lizzie, her sister, her lover Nance O’Neil and the friendly Dr. Seabury) are extremely well drawn even as the nerve and mind-shredding events of 1895 drive them apart. Priest skillfully makes the menace around them specific and concrete while also remaining shadowy and unknowable, achieving maximum impact. Putting real historical characters in genre settings is an idea that’s seemed tired for a while, but this novel shows how compelling it can still be in the right hands.