To celebrate the Australian release of Corpselight last week, I’m taking part in the Corpselight blog tour! Vigil is a dark urban fantasy set in the city of Brisbane, Australia. What could be better than seeing my home converted into this paranormal fare filled with creatures and crimes alike?

5 Things I Loved about Vigil & Corpselight

1. Dry, witty, complicated heroine

Verity Fassbinder is a witty, cynical heroine with a soft side to her – she’s extremely protective of children in need. The central plot of Vigil is around children who go missing at the hands of the paranormal creatures called the Weyrd. In both Vigil and Corpselight, Verity attempts to solve the crime of missing children, which often leads her to confront her own past. I also love Verity’s internal monologue – it’s snappy, filled with dry humour, but also filled with vulnerability. Verity is part Weyrd, part human, leading to feelings of isolation as she’s often overlooked by the Weyrd community.

2. Strong family focus

No heroine is perfect, and Verity’s family leads her to preoccupations about her own childhood – her Weyrd father was a butcher of children for the Weyrd community. Now punished from his crimes, Verity often struggles with the love she craved from her parents and the justice served to her father for his crimes. I particularly loved how in Corpselight, she is a new mother and tries to avoid the same mistakes her own parents made while also protecting other children from the Weyrd. There’s a strong maternal theme running through this series, which gives it a lot of depth.

3. Paranormal crime solving

With her supernatural strength thanks to her father’s Weyrd heritage, Verity can slay demons with ease. Coupled with her hardy eye for solving crimes, Verity makes the perfect private investigator for the Weyrd Council, investigating murders and getting rid of threats to innocent humans and the Weyrd community.

4. Weyrd fantasy creatures

In both books, the trial of murders often leads to some fascinating encounters with different magical creatures – from kitsune assassins, to spellbound golems, to witches, angels, sirens and more. It’s such an interesting variety of fantasy creatures and I loved hearing how they interacted with the world, and Verity with her cutting remarks and matter of fact conduct.

5. Brisbane underground setting

It’s not often when a book is set in my city, and admittedly, this was the primary drawcard for me. I loved seeing my city transformed into this gritty supernatural underworld, featuring landmarks and places that I know dearly. They are described with a fantastic visual clarity, but also with the added layer of the Weyrd underworld which was enrapturing.

If you’re looking for a dark, gritty urban fantasy read with a sarcastic heroine, then the Verity Fassbinder series is for you! Verity is such a strong, sarcastic character with a protective instinct and an intriguing Weyrd/human heritage. With a host of fantasy creatures centered around solving crimes involving children, I loved both Vigil and Corpselight. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Verity Fassbinder has her feet in two worlds.
The daughter of one human and one Weyrd parent, she has very little power herself, but does claim unusual strength - and the ability to walk between us and the other - as a couple of her talents. As such a rarity, she is charged with keeping the peace between both races, and ensuring the Weyrd remain hidden from us.
But now Sirens are dying, illegal wine made from the tears of human children is for sale - and in the hands of those Weyrd who hold with the old ways - and someone has released an unknown and terrifyingly destructive force on the streets of Brisbane.
And Verity must investigate - or risk ancient forces carving our world apart.

Life in Brisbane is never simple for those who walk between the worlds.

Verity's all about protecting her city, but right now that's mostly running surveillance and handling the less exciting cases for the Weyrd Council — after all, it's hard to chase the bad guys through the streets of Brisbane when you're really, really pregnant.

An insurance investigation sounds pretty harmless, even if it is for 'Unusual Happenstance'. That's not usually a clause Normals use — it covers all-purpose hauntings, angry genii loci, ectoplasmic home invasion, demonic possession, that sort of thing - but Susan Beckett's claimed three times in three months. Her house keeps getting inundated with mud, but she's still insisting she doesn't need or want help . . . until the dry-land drownings begin.

V's first lead in takes her to Chinatown, where she is confronted by kitsune assassins. But when she suddenly goes into labour, it's clear the fox spirits are not going to be helpful.

Thank you to Hachette Australia for these review copies & organising the blog tour! 

Both books are available from Australian bookstores – Corpselight RRP$32.99 and Vigil for RRP$22.99.

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Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

Owner at Happy Indulgence Books

Jeann is an Aussie YA blogger and mum who loves to read and recommend books! You can usually find me fangirling about books on my various social media channels including Tiktok@happyindulgence, Instagram and Youtube.

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