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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:

crowyhead, November 4, 2008 (view all comments by crowyhead)
This was an Early Reviewer book from LibraryThing.

I suspected I might be in trouble when I read the author's note on the back of the book, citing Laurel K. Hamilton as her biggest influence. I don't mind some romance thrown in with my paranormal action/adventure, but Hamilton has never really struck me as the world's greatest wordsmith. Still, since I was asked to review the book, I thought I'd give it a go. I'm sorry to say I didn't like it much.

The characters are very one-dimensional; they are more like cardboard cut-out ideas than actual believable people. For example, Elizabeth Phoenix, the protagonist, has a complicated history, but it is all introduced very clumsily and flatly. Instead of giving the reader the impression that we have joined a character's life midstream, it just feels like what it is: backstory. Handeland's efforts toward creating a unique mythology for her world are well-intentioned, but jumbled, and like the backstory it feels like an excuse for how things are, rather than a believable reason.

There's a lot of explicit sex here, which is unsurprising, and which is fine if that's your thing, but I was bothered by the amount of nonconsensual sex, as well as by the role that sex plays in Liz coming into her powers (I don't want to say more for fear of spoilers, but let's just say I was rolling my eyes heavily).

Finally, and this is really nit-picky, but for all the inclusion of 21st century technology -- everyone has a cell phone, etc. -- parts of this book struck me as distinctly early 90s, which was jarring. The main character wears a fanny pack, and people actually say "Not!" Seriously, when was the last time you saw a woman in her mid-twenties sporting a fanny pack when she wasn't jogging?

Overall, I won't be seeking out the sequels, but if you enjoy sexy paranormal fluff, you can probably get a couple good hours out of this.

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Madam Pince, October 7, 2008 (view all comments by Madam Pince)
Liz Phoenix has always known she was different, but has no idea just how much separates her from the rest of mankind until she finds her foster mother, Ruthie, in a pool of blood in her kitchen, dying from wounds inflicted by an otherworldly beast. She’s quickly sucked into the battle between good and evil, populated by seers, demon killers, fairies, skinwalkers, dhampirs, berserkers and vampires, amongst many others. Along the way, she discovers the secrets lurking behind many otherwise normal faces, as well as unsavory aspects of her youthful love and fellow foster child, Jimmy Sanducci.

Having never read any paranormal romances, I wasn’t prepared for the energetic & graphic sex featured throughout. Especially disturbing was the bondage theme that emerged in the last quarter of the novel, when the story shifts to a Manhattan high-rise. However, Handeland’s descriptions never reach the explicit levels of Anne Rice’s vampire novels, and genre readers most likely expect a vivid mix of sex and mysticism.

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Julie Anderson, July 11, 2008 (view all comments by Julie Anderson)
I’m a sucker for the paranormal. The first adult-book I read was “The Exorcist” by Blatty when I was 11 and I was hooked. So the recent upswing in paranormal and urban fantasy titles has been my own little heaven and I jumped at the chance to read “Any Given Doomsday” by Lori Handeland. I’m already a reader of her ‘Moon’ series about werewolves and werewolf hunters, so I expected to enjoy this book. I was right. I absolutely devoured “Any Given Doomsday” in one sitting and am now pouting because book 2 “Doomsday Can Wait” won’t be out until May 2009! Bummer…

Reading as much as I do and with the glut of paranormal and urban fantasies on the market today, I’m delighted when I find an author that can provide a new take the same old subjects. “Any Given Doomsday” is about, of course, the end of the world (like…duh…I guess you could’ve guessed that from the title)! And, again of course, we have our hero/heroine—Elizabeth (Liz) Phoenix in this case. She’s not exactly your normal gal. She’s an orphan, never knew her parents, spent a lot of time on the street. She’s a little psychic in that she sometimes gets flashes of thought or scenes of the recent past when she touches something. And now, she has to save the world from the dark side. Oh, and did I mention that she finds out all this after finding her foster mother dead in a pool of blood and her old boyfriend is suspect #1? She’s definitely had better days.

So this is where the tale begins, and what a finely detailed tale it is. Handeland has drawn from everything and everywhere—from the Bible to Native American shamanism to create her world and it’s creatures. We meet skinwalkers, werewolves, shapeshifters, vampires, nephilim (Biblical creatures sometimes translated as giants), dhampirs (vamp + human = dhampir), witches, shamen, strigas (Italian high witch types), angels, demons, etc.--all with differing talents and requiring different methods to kill them. It’s enough to make you really pity Liz, especially once she learns that the death of her foster mom was the opening move in the Doomsday war…unless she (and, of course, ONLY she) can learn about and harness whatever powers she can get and use them to stop it. Liz really just wants to be normal. Unfortunately for her, she isn’t. She has to grow up and learn that nothing worth having is easy and anything worth having is worth fighting for. It’s a tough lesson that many in our society today seem to never learn!

I loved the storyline. I loved the relationships Liz had to struggle with (and will apparently have to continue to struggle with in the next book) and accept. There was no easy path for her. No, BAM!, she knows just what to do. Oh no, she has struggles, she feels like she’s in the dark for most of the book. Is this a romance? Well…there is sex. Pretty hot sex in fact. There are relationships and changes in said relationships and feelings and all the other stuff that characterize a romance, but the romance isn’t what drives the plot. So I would shelve this book in the ‘hot urban fantasy’ section (and why doesn’t my bookstore have that section?) with Laurell K. Hamilton, Marjorie M. Liu, Angela Knight, J.R.Ward, Keri Arthur, Sherrilyn Kenyon, etc. If any of those authors sound good to you, you should definitely check out “Any Given Doomsday” by Lori Handeland when it hits the shelves in November 2008. And be sure to let your bookstore know about that missing ‘hot urban fantasy’ section, OK?

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780312949198

Author:

Handeland, Lori

Publisher:

St. Martin's Press

Subject:

Romance - General

Subject:

Romance - Paranormal

Subject:

Romance - Fantasy

Subject:

Romantic suspense fiction.

Subject:

Supernatural

Copyright:

2008

Edition Description:

First

Series:

Phoenix Chronicles

Publication Date:

November 2008

Binding:

Mass Market Paperbound

Language:

English

Pages:

343

Dimensions:

6.84x4.08x.95 in. .37 lbs.