My thirteen-year-old is privately distraught over a possible apocalypse next year. At his age, I was terrified of the impending rapture that my zealot relatives had convinced me would happen before I graduated high school. I will be forty next month, and fortunately I no longer live in fear of end-time scenarios. But to be honest, I’m dreading the election year, because no matter what a person’s political leanings are, there are the others out there who we get sucked into believing it’s fair game to speak badly about in order to bolster our own beliefs and WIN.

The entire political process makes my gut ache.

Illegal immigration is one such topic we’ll be hearing a lot about in the coming months, so I’ve decided to immerse myself in a story about “Amexicans” (the original working title) from the perspective of someone not running for political office.

The Madonnas of Echo Park is a literary novel by Brando Skyhorse. A Pen Hemingway winner, this book also includes a reading group guide; a plus for Book End Babe chapters. (Publication date June 2010.)

We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours.

With these words, spoken by an illegal Mexican day laborer, The Madonnas of Echo Park takes us into the unseen world of Los Angeles, following the men and women who cook the meals, clean the homes, and struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream.

When a dozen or so girls and mothers gather on an Echo Park street corner to act out a scene from a Madonna music video, they find themselves caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting. In the aftermath, Aurora Esperanza grows distant from her mother, Felicia, who as a housekeeper in the Hollywood Hills establishes a unique relationship with a detached housewife.

The Esperanzas’ shifting lives connect with those of various members of their neighborhood. A day laborer trolls the streets for work with men half his age and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; a religious hypocrite gets her comeuppance when she meets the Virgin Mary at a bus stop on Sunset Boulevard; a typical bus route turns violent when cultures and egos collide in the night, with devastating results; and Aurora goes on a journey through her gentrified childhood neighborhood in a quest to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican Americans dream of, “the land that belongs to us again.”

Like the Academy Award–winning film Crash, The Madonnas of Echo Park follows the intersections of its characters and cultures in Los Angeles. In the footsteps of Junot Díaz and Sherman Alexie, Brando Skyhorse in his debut novel gives voice to one neighborhood in Los Angeles with an astonishing— and unforgettable—lyrical power.

Lilith Saintcrow is one of my favorite authors. I knew of her from her Dante Valentine series, but was late to the game due to being seriously behind on my TBR, so I never opened the door to that world. When Night Shift (Jill Kismet series, Book #1) debuted, I thumbed through the blue and white paperback about a nightside Hunter and was hooked before purchase with the anonymous quote that set the tone for the series, “The most terrible thing to face is one’s own soul.”

So I let the hunt begin.

A dark urban fantasy/horror mix, Angel Town is the sixth and final book of the series. It’s been an unyielding and emotional ride that I’m sad to see come to an end. When I began this journey with Jill, anti-heroine extraordinaire, I was unaware that it shared similarities with the Dante Valentine series, and from what I’ve gathered from goodreads, if you like one series, you’ll like the other. (I’ve purchased the Valentine omnibus for future reading.) I do believe that if you’re a fan of the television show Supernatural, you would probably enjoy Jill Kismet as well.

Lilith’s prose is lyrical, vivid, fierce, and holds nothing back. She also writes Young Adult urban fantasy under the name of Lili St. Crow. Her Strange Angels series is also wrapping up this month, so if gritty, strong heroines are your bag and if Lilith is a new-to-you author, you can read her popular (and complete) series without the painful wait that falls between publishing dates.

Highly Recommended.

Praise for the Jill Kismet series:

“Packed with nonstop action, it’s a compelling tale…Jill is a tough cookie with a surprisingly mushy center, and Saintcrow captures these seeming contradictions in her character with aplomb and believability.” — Romantic Times

By blood, by word, by magic…

Most can’t touch the power. But Liv Warren is special— a paranormal tracker who follows the scent of blood.

Liv makes her own rules, and the most important one is trust no one.

But when her friend’s daughter goes missing, Liv has no choice but to find the girl. Thanks to a childhood oath, Liv can’t rest until the child is home safe. But that means trusting Cam Caballero, the former lover forbidden to her.

Bound by oath and lost in desire for a man she cannot have, Liv is racing to save the child from a dark criminal underworld where secrets, lies, trauma and danger lurk around every corner…every touch…every kiss.

And more blood will be spilled before it’s over…

Blood Bound is one seriously twisted and inventive read. It’s the first in a new trilogy by urban fantasy author, Rachel Vincent, and it does not disappoint. Liv Warren is a strong and purposefuly stubborn heroine with a complicated moral compass that points to a hidden, tender heart. Morbid and dark, romantic and emotional, the reader is willingly bound until the end. Rachel Vincent is an amazing talent, crafting with a clarity that only keeper-shelf authors possess, and an author I highly recommend.