Customer Reviews

Salt and Silver

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's been sooo long since I've read a truly great book. Seriously. It's as if most of what I've been reading is like eating cotton candy when you're hungry. Sure, it satisfies your sweet tooth and your hunger, but after a few minutes and a swig of Coke, the sugary sweet rush has disappeared. And you're STILL hungry. Reading "Salt and Silver" by Anna Katherine was much more like eating your mom's good cooking...rich, comfortable, and satisfying.

"Salt and Silver" introduces us to Allie, a Brooklyn diner owner who, in her "past life" as a teenager, was a frivolous rich mallrat until her mother ran off with the tennis instructor...and all the family's fortune. Anyway, on a drunken binge night six years ago, Allie and her two best friends (Stan, an ex-skateboard geek who is now a gay club kid...and Amanda, still a frivolous mallrat and well on her way to a good case of cirrhosis) decided to dabble a bit in magic. Instead of granting her wish, the magic ended up opening a door to hell. Several moments after this new door popped into existence, a gorgeous leather-clad demon hunter called Ryan busts in to save the day - and chastise the unknowingly irresponsible Allie and friends.
Flash forward six years...Ryan has been staying at the diner in the basement near the door to prevent anything from escaping from hell. Come to find out, there are doorways to hell everywhere (including one underneath a local mall's "Bath and Body Works", which I found funny). His relationship with Allie has been mainly a complex one - him training her to defend herself in case of demon attacks mixed in with mutual unrequited longing for each other. One day, the diner's door to hell literally disappears. Gone. And no one knows why...all that they know is that it's never occured before AND that it's bad.

I really don't want to give any more away than this. "Salt and Silver" was, honestly, an excellent read. Funny, sweet, sad, and action-packed, you can't go wrong. In a genre (paranormal romance) that's lately been deluged with mediocrity (IMO, it's mostly due to NON-FANTASY and NON-PARANORMAL authors jumping on the bandwagon of the fastest growing romance genre & not being knowledgeable of the topic enough to handle the task), it's wonderful to (finally) find a truly great read.

Cheers!

Blurbs for Salt and Silver use the word "romp" often enough that I was expecting something in the vein of paranormal chick lit. I was surprised, then, by the dark places Salt and Silver goes, and Anna Katherine's ability to both scare the daylights out of me and break my heart.

Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, given that the whole story is about going to, well, Hell.

Our heroine is Allie, once a spoiled rich girl, now a waitress. In the early days after she lost her fortune, she and her friends dabbled in magic and accidentally opened a portal to Hell. Allie's been dealing ever since with the nasty creatures the Door disgorges, with the help of Ryan, a gorgeous demon hunter.

Allie is snarky and a little flippant in the beginning, but even then it's obvious that her psyche is not a happy fun place. There's a sadness in her. Much of it has to do with her friends, Stan and Amanda, who are still living the hard-partying life Allie used to live. She is loyal to them, while at the same time knowing she's watching them self-destruct and not sure if there's any way to help them.

Then Allie's Hell portal vanishes, and things really get messy.

Allie, Ryan, and a group of hunters decide to venture into Hell to find out what's going on. When they get there, that's when Salt and Silver *really* gets good. The very first thing that happens upon their arrival? I won't spoil it, but it's incredibly creepy. It makes it painfully clear that anything can happen in the underworld, at any time.

Anna Katherine leads us through a series of underworlds, drawn from many cosmologies, some I recognized, some I didn't. They're all fascinating and some of them are horrific, and the most perilous of all are the ones that are shaped by the personal baggage Allie and her friends bring with them.

Anna Katherine's world-building is well-thought-out and well-executed, and I found myself more interested in the Hell dimensions than in the love story. I really enjoyed this, and I recommend it to fans of romantic fantasy.

I should have listened to the very wise person who said "never judge a book by it's cover" (or it's back cover blurb!) and stayed away from Salt and Silver. My book allowance would have been better spent elsewhere, and I wouldn't be bemoaning the hours I wasted reading this book.
A very, very brief recap of the book --- One day 6 years ago a Allie (the protagonist)and two of her drunk and presumably drugged best friends, open a door to Hell in the basement of a diner in Brooklyn. Enter sexy demon hunter Ryan one of many hunters who guard these doors and fight whatever comes out. The factions of demon hunters are distinguished by the type of hat they wear. Six years later the doors are doing an unusual thing; disappearing and or multiplying seemingly willy-nilly. I'm sorry but there really isn't much of a story to recap---I can tell you that Allie has a crush on Ryan, her best friends are still drunks and druggies, and eventually (around 2/3 into the book) Allie, Ryan and several other hunters go on a hunt to find out what is wrong with the doors.

I am so surprised to see a book like this being marketed as adult paranormal romance---this was not a book written for adults, nor was it romantic. Allie is not a "kick-butt" heroine, as a matter or fact she spends most of the time bemoaning the fact that Ryan doesn't seem to return her feelings. Allie was more of a caricature of a junior high, or high school girl, yet she is supposed to be a few months shy of 30. The language is over done "teen-speak" (I asked the teens that I know and none of them talk this way)peppered with lame sarcasm, the story drags horribly, there is no action, it takes 2/3's of the book to have anything remotely interesting happen. There was very, very little character growth for either of the main characters and as for the secondary characters; there is very little to recommend about them.

If you are looking for a good, well plotted and written Kick-Butt heroine, then stick with books from Patricia Briggs, early Laurell K Hamilton, C T Adams & Cathy Clamp or Karen Marie Moning.

This book was everything I was hoping it would be - hilarious, engaging, and a universe that I could SEE. What surprised me (and shouldn't have) is that there are parts that are deeply touching, even sad. The best books manage to balance all of those things, just as Salt and Silver does.

The protagonist is glib, but I never read her as juvenile or ADD - rather, she read like someone who uses sarcasm as a shell.

Excellent work and fully enjoyable to read. I look forward to more from this author.

If you are familiar with the slang of the Buffyverse and the conventions of urban fantasy and like them, then this book is probably for you. Initially, I found Allie's attitude to be off-putting, but either she grew on me or I just started to understand the character better. This books takes place six years after some of the pivotal moments in the characters' lives, and that left me feeling as though I'd wandered into the middle of a series, instead of the first book about these people.

Some of fantasy elements of this book broke new ground (Katherine's versions of vampirism and lycanthropy specifically are wildly different than most novels'). I didn't feel that all of the characters had distinct voices (a problem with having dissimilar characters using the same speech patterns), but by the end of the book, I liked almost all of them. I think that Allie actually ended up being a pretty interesting heroine, as long as one was inclined to ignore the gigantic chip on her shoulder and her unfortunate habit of sounding a lot like Eliza Dushku's Faith. In all, an entertaining book.

This book was odd.

Allie and her trust-fund baby friends accidentally summon a door to hell in the basement of the diner where Allie is forced to work after her mom runs off /w her tennis instructor leaving the former rich girl pennyless. Ryan the hunter is assigned to guard the door & moves into the diner.

The world was interesting - normal society except for demons, vampires, werewolves, and monsters that occassionally escape from the doors that are all over the world. Allie is supposed to be pushing 30, but most of the time sounds like a teen-ager, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just odd. Ryan is a likeable character & the attraction and interaction b/w Allie and Ryan is, at various times, funny, touching, and sad.

The story is told in first person (Allie), present tense, which I found distracting. Also, Allie repeats herself a lot - for example, the story of her mom's abandonment is brought up over and over again throughout the book.

A great deal of the book takes place with the characters traveling through different hell dimensions. After a while I found that boring. There were some issues in the book that I didn't think were explained well and were confusing, and I had a hard time following the story at some points. The ending really made no sense to me at all.

All that being said, I read the book in about 2 days and found it entertaining, though uneven. Some books can be good even if you don't particulary like the main character. I don't think this is one of those books. If you like Allie, you'll like the book. If you don't like her, you won't. So, I'd suggest reading the teaser pages Amazon provides before buying this book.

I read this cause it kept popping up on my Amazon recommended list and based on all the reviews, it looked like everyone else loved it. I thought Oh cool... a new Urban Fantasy author to read. But the reality was oh... just another Paranormal Romance.

The didn't ever really like the heroine. I thought she was a little too wishy-washy. Someone said she had the unfortunate habit of sounding a lot like Eliza Dushku's Faith. I didn't see that. If she had been more like Faith, maybe I would have liked the book more! I couldn't see Faith pining away for a guy who lived in her basement for 6 years.

It wasn't a BAD book, but it definitely wasn't a 5-star OMG I love it book.

Based on the distinction between Paranormal Romance genre and Urban Fantasy, this is not Urban Fantasy... this is Paranormal Romance. If you like Paranormal Romance, you'll probably like this book. I prefer Urban Fantasy, hold the romance.

This whole PNR/UF category thing is not that difficult. I wish people would just say HEY THIS IS A ROMANCE in an Urban Fantasy world. Yes, some people might not read it because it's labeled PNR, but others might because they WANT to read PNR.

Does this drive anyone else crazy too??

I am currently making my way through my monstrous TBR pile. I was trying to choose which book to start with and thought I'd be very diplomatic and try out the first 5 pages of a few books to decide which hooked me.
So I picked up 'Salt and Silver', intending to give the first 5 pages a chance to pique my interest ... 3 hours and 357 pages later I was in LOVE!

The story starts right in the thick of action. When we meet her, Allie is running a NYC diner called `Sally's' which just so happens to have a Door to Hell in the basement. Yeah... a slight `hiccup'.
You see, six years ago Allie was a trust-fund baby whose biggest problem was deciding between a black Anna Sui dress or a black Givenchy dress. Then her mum ran off to Rio with her tennis instructor (also called Rio - oh! The irony!). Allie had to leave her Long Island dream-home and move to Brooklyn where she took up her first ever job waitressing at Sally's. On the night of her first shift Allie's über-rich très-spoiled friends, Amanda and Stan, bought some vodka and X to celebrate Allie's first foray into the work force. Amanda had the fantastic idea to recite some hocus-pocus she'd heard from the movie `The Craft' to try and multiply some money and POOF! Door to Hell opened up. And with the door came Ryan. Ryan in his leather duster and Stetson cowboy hat - strapped with knives, salt and shotgun, Ryan announced himself as a `Hunter' whose job it was to guard any Door's to Hell that crop up.

`Salt and Silver' starts `six years later' when Allie is now managing Sally's Diner, has a massive girl-crush on Ryan and is a sometimes killer of all the `mystical crap' that the Door occasionally spits out. But things go hay-wire when Allie's Door disappears, and other Door's start spontaneously showing up all around NYC. Now it's up to Allie, Ryan and a few other Hunter's to travel into the bowels of Hell and figure out how to stop the world from turning to mush... would you like fries with that?

I enjoyed this book so much that I was kicking myself for having put-off reading it for a whole YEAR! A year that I was denying myself this funny, fast and utterly FANTASTIC book!

How to describe `Salt and Silver'? Well.... It's a little bit of all my favourite things.
It's a little bit `Buffy the Vampire Slayer' for quick come-backs and snappy dialogue, and a Hellmouth-esque Door to Hell residing in a NYC Diner. There's also a `Supernatural' flavour to the book for all the Hellish references to creepy crawlies and excessive use of salt and shotguns. Its got a dash of `Gossip Girl' because our protagonist is a former Long-Island darling who used to match her Gucci shoes to her Prada handbag before she became poor. And the dark humour is often reminiscent of Molly Harper's `Jane Jameson' series.
To summarize in one word - `cool'. This book is so freakin cool that it hurts! It's the kind of instantly-addictive reading that makes you want to get up on a soapbox and sell copies on a street corner.

Everything about this book sucks you in - from the helter-skelter plot that demands your attention from the get-go, to Anna Katherine's unique take on old mythologies. In this world werewolves are not sexy beast-men; they are ticks that crawl beneath your skin like body-snatchers, turning you into a rampaging, slathering monster. Likewise, vampires are not sultry and seductive - they are like `evil butterflies' who use a `proboscis' (elongated appendage - like a feeding tube!) to suck your blood/soul, and they have moth wings! Eek!
`Salt and Silver' is set in modern day, but humanity is none-the-wiser to the Doors of Hell or the Hunter's who save our lives on a daily basis by killing everything that comes through the Door's. This is a marvellously creepy world and a wonderful take on old supernaturals. The NYC setting adds a certain ambiance to the Hell dimensions and keeps the book grounded in the `urban' side of `urban fantasy'.

There's also a BIG romance between Allie and Ryan. You may be sceptical of these lovebirds when you realize that they've had six years of dancing around one another. But that's six years of pent-up sexual frustration that impending doom releases. When we meet them Allie and Ryan are only just admitting their feelings for one another. None of the `frustration' is lost because these two have known each other for six years; you feel every bit of Allie's lust and Ryan's yearning. Allie and Ryan are incredibly H-O-T. Seriously, Anna Katherine writes some good sex scenes. But more than that, Ryan and Allie are incredibly sweet. It's a funny irony that Allie had to get a Door to Hell in order to have Ryan - but both the Door and Ryan really changed her outlook on life and have been shaping her character for these past six years.

When readers are introduced to Allie we get none of her previous snobbishness and all of her guts and bravado. She's a great character because she's been repenting for six years after one (MASSIVE) mistake. She's gutsy, clever and quick-witted. She's a combination of Buffy Summers, Lorelai Gilmore and Jane Jameson, IMO; utterly fabulous and impossible to dislike. Especially when she comes out with zinging dialogue and random thought-processes

`Anna Katherine' is actually a pseudonym for two women: Anna Genoese and Katherine C. According to their official bio both ladies have a background in the publishing industry (as editors?) before they decided to put pen to paper and write their first novel, `Salt and Silver'. I've got to say, based on `Salt and Silver' alone I will put Anna Katherine down as an automatic-buy for me. They don't have any other books slated for release, but I have my fingers crossed that this fabulously-magic-duo pump out more books. Please? PLEASE?!

There is so much jam-packed, heart-palpating action in `Salt and Silver' that starts from page #1 and never lets up. I cannot believe I waited so long to read this book... to say it was `worth the wait' is an understatement of gigantic proportions. Do yourself a favour and read `Salt and Silver' - you will not be disappointed!

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I bought it because it was a daily special, and it sounded different. I'm tired of all the paranormal books I read running together. That was not a problem here! Most of the creatures who are usually the alpha males (fey, demons, vamps, shifters) are the enemy here, and it worked for me! I disagree with the reviewer who said there was no character development. I found Allie, the heroine, to be a very dynamic character, changing from a selfish little rich girl to a woman who thrived on hard work and responsibility. While many of the secondary characters were static, that was the point. They hadn't learned from their mistakes and continued to repeat them. I also liked that the authors didn't shy away from killing off characters to prove how treacherous the quest the characters were on really was. As soon as I finished the book, I went to the authors' website to see what was next. I look forward to reading more from these women.

This one has been on my list for a long time now. But for some reason I was under the impression it was YA urban fantasy, which is actually not the case. The main character Allie is fast approaching 30 and, though the impetus for most of the action in the novel took place when she was a fair bit younger, her main concerns and musings are those of an adult--albeit an, at times, admittedly charmingly immature one. The author, Anna Katherine, is interestingly the pen name of Anna Genoese and Katherine Macdonald. Together these two publishing industry insiders created a snarky, lighthearted, fast-paced urban fantasy debut.

Allie used to live on Long Island and never wondered where her next dime was gonna come from. Her two best friends, Amanda and "Stan," were the height of shallow and together the three of them lazed around their posh estates indulging in pretty much whatever debauched activity took their fancy. But then Allie's mom runs off, her dad fades away, and Allie is left living above a Brooklyn diner, working her butt of for tips. One night, on a drunken whim, Allie and her two cronies try to cast a spell and end up opening a literal door to hell in the basement of the diner. Quicker than you can say Practical Magic, a dude in a leather duster and Stetson hat bursts into the room claiming he's an honest to goodness demon fighter. He proceeds to take up residence in the basement, sleeping on a cot, and guarding the door night and day from supernatural nasties. Just when she thinks she's gotten used to the new extreme version of her life, Allie's door mysteriously disappears, others start appearing all over creation, and Allie and Ryan team up to stop the underworld from taking over completely.

I had heard if you don't like Allie's voice you wouldn't like the book. This is probably true, as she has a very self-disclosing, up-front approach to narrating her life. Personally, I found her hilarious and winning, if not quite as dedicated to maintaining her own dignity as I maybe would have liked her to be. Her simultaneous pining for and territorial attitude around Ryan filled me with mirth and I was instantly rooting for them to overcome the barriers engendered by their different backgrounds (to put it mildly) and the fact that one of them is a wicked cool demon hunter and the other the manager of a diner who stumbles around opening doors to hell in her spare time. I laughed over and over again reading SALT AND SILVER and it was a rather welcome relief to read an urban fantasy with a healthy devil-may-care attitude and not so much angst and drama. Unfortunately the story and characters that sparkled while Allie and Ryan were aboveground and searching for clues, began to flag when they actually entered the hell dimensions and started their quest. Suddenly Allie's pining became grating and a little embarrassing. And Ryan never really broke out into a three dimensional character, staying hidden behind the brim of his Stetson and his tall, dark, and brooding role. I really liked them together, I just wish they had been more fleshed out, with a little more effort from Ryan and a little less desperation from Allie. Interestingly, once they were back aboveground things picked up once more for the wrapping up section. Though it didn't quite fulfill on all its promises, I enjoyed SALT AND SILVER overall for its sarcasm and light heart.