How to Ditch Your Fairy – Justine Larbalestier
Allen & Unwin, 2009
298 pages
RRP: AU$17.95
ISBN: 978-1-74175-737-8

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

How to Ditch Your Fairy is different from the other novels I’ve read from Justine Larbalestier. It’s written in the same conversational, easy-to-read style, but the world it inhabits is more removed from our own, where a person’s luck is attributed to their personal fairy. Charlie, the heroine of this novel, is saddled with a parking fairy who ensures a perfect parking spot no matter whose car she is in. This is quite annoying for her as she a) doesn’t have a license yet and b) hates cars! Her mission is to get rid of her fairy and aquire another one, hence the title of the novel.

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Succubus in the City – Nina Harper
Hachette Livre Piatkus, 2009
392 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7499-2922-0

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Succubus in the City is an interesting take on the paranormal romance genre. As the title indicates, it’s a play on Sex and the City, but our four gal-pals are demons in the service of Herself, Satan. Lily, the protagonist, is a succubus whose job is to deliver men’s souls to the devil by having sex with them. In return, she has the perfect life: lots of money, great flat, and a fabulous face and figure that she won’t lose, no matter how many servings of dessert she indulges in. In this story though, she’s starting to feel lonely and wants more than the one night she has with the men she picks up before they turn into a pile of dust on the sheets.

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