Blog Archives
Soul of the Saviour
Soul of the Saviour drops you into a wild mix of brutal training grounds, smoky alleys, ancient magic, and the strange heat of Hell itself. The book follows Saxon Payne as he crawls back into life after years in a mystical retreat. It weaves through his past, the rise of lethally gifted assassins, demonic lovers, grim prisons, tender memories, and the looming clash between Heaven, Hell, and everything in between. It moves fast and swings between action, horror, and raw intimacy. Sometimes it feels like half spiritual odyssey and half grindhouse myth. I found myself swept up in the momentum because the story rarely slows down enough for you to catch your breath.
The writing goes for broke. Scenes in Hell’s kitchens shimmer with disgusting brilliance, and scenes of training in the mountains bristle with physical grit and stillness. There is a real commitment to showing bodies under strain and souls under pressure. The prose jumps from grim to tender in a heartbeat, and it gave me that sense of watching someone flip through different emotional filters just to see what hits hardest. The violence is bold. The sensuality is bold. The humor sneaks in with a wink. I liked how messy it all felt, because it made the characters feel lived-in and not staged.
The whole thread around becoming more than human through suffering made me uneasy and fascinated at the same time. I found myself rooting for characters who should have terrified me and shaking my head at choices that were obviously doomed. The story loves duality. Hope beside despair. Faith beside hunger. Love beside something darker and stranger. Sometimes it veers into excess, and sometimes the emotional beats come so fast I had to take a moment to reorient. But even then, I felt drawn along by the sheer confidence of the storytelling. It feels like the author trusts you to surf the chaos, and I liked that.
By the end, I felt satisfied and also curious because the book leaves a lot of questions humming under the surface. I would recommend Soul of the Saviour to readers who enjoy high-energy dark fantasy, intense character arcs, sharp edges, and worlds that bend myth with modern grit. If you like stories that mix heart with horror and beauty with brutality, this one will keep you turning pages long after you planned to stop.
Pages: 325 | ASIN : B0FCDT2J11
Mythology or Comparative Religions
Dead and Buried follows a woman learning to manage her Kitsune heritage and magic, who keeps having curveballs hurled at her from psychic attacks, supernatural creatures, and restless spirits. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
If I can quote Aerosmith, “Half my life’s in books written pages. Live and learn from fools and from sages.”
That pretty well sums up my life. Especially my younger years. I was a “surprise” baby, and my siblings were much older than I was. While I was loved, I really didn’t fit in. Then my father died when I was in grade school. By Junior High, my brothers and sister had all married and moved out of the house. So, I learned early to roll with the punches using books as my escape and humor as my armour.
Many of those books were in the Sci Fi/Fantasy realm, and I’ve always had a particular fascination with mythology or comparative religions.
I found Tai’s character to be believable and relatable; her emotions and responses felt real even when dealing with all the paranormal situations she was thrown into. Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your character’s life?
As I indicated, I had to learn to roll with the punches as a child. I kept Tai as human as she rolled with her punches. She also uses humor as armour, even though she has less of a filter on her mouth than I do.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
It is a lesson that we all need to learn – acceptance, resiliency, and personal growth.
Can you tell us where the book goes and where we’ll see the characters in the next book?
There are a planned nine books in the series – literally one for each of the nine tails that a Kitsune can have.
Book three has Tai and friends in New Orleans, where she meets distant family and makes new friends. Of course, there is plenty of growth – and it is not all for her. I hope to have the book available on Amazon in February.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Join Tai, Nico, and Magoo as they navigate contractors, heartbreak, and the undead.
All I wanted was a moment to myself. Being back in High School was exhausting. I groaned, contemplating the absurdity of the situation. Having to take summer school classes was lame at the best of times. But taking a High School class when you were eight-plus years out of school was even worse. Especially when it was a class I had technically already passed. Technically. By the skin of my teeth. Which, if I am to understand correctly, is a trait of certain gnomes. Not sure which ones, though.
Dead and Buried: The Last Kitsune Book 2
Dead and Buried picks up with Tai trying to hold her life together while everything supernatural around her spins out of control. The book follows her attempts to manage her unstable kitsune magic, the chaos caused by her two-tailed nekomata Magoo, a strange psychic attack, a dream that might not be a dream, and the frightening discovery that her supposedly dead father, Viktor, may still have a grip on the world of the living. As Tai and her friends confront new dangers, including zombie-like creatures, restless spirits, and a growing conspiracy tied to the Key of Wealth, the story widens into a mystery that reaches from woods to clubs to interdimensional threats. It all builds into a story about identity, legacy, and the messy courage needed to face old shadows.
What struck me right away was how alive the writing felt. The opening scene with undead mice skittering across the floor pulled me in with a laugh and a grimace at the same time. Tai’s voice is sharp and funny, but it carries this constant undercurrent of vulnerability that made me root for her before I even realized it. The book throws wild supernatural moments around like confetti, and yet the emotions always land. I kept feeling this push-and-pull between humor and fear. One moment I was laughing at Magoo acting like a furry little menace and the next I felt a knot in my stomach when Tai described her dreams about Sunreaver or the shock of hearing Viktor whisper that things were not over. The mix worked for me. It felt raw and very human, even when things got weird.
I also loved how the story handled relationships. Ash brings warmth into scenes that would otherwise feel too heavy, and Xunie’s mysterious and chaotic energy adds a spark that made me grin every time she appeared. The club scenes with Nico cracked me up, especially when the supposedly impossible ghost activity starts up again. At the same time, the book digs into Tai’s trauma in a way that is emotionally resonant. Her guilt about Sunreaver, her fear that she might not be in control of herself, and her anger at being treated like a fragile resource instead of a person. I felt those things right alongside her, and the writing did not sugarcoat any of it. It made the fun moments brighter and the frightening ones sharper. If anything, the emotional whiplash made the story feel more real to me.
By the time I closed the book, I felt like I had been on a wild ride through magic, danger, grief, and a whole lot of found family chaos. I enjoyed that messy thrill. I enjoyed the heart in it even more. If you like supernatural stories that mix humor with fear, action with real emotional weight, or if you simply enjoy following a character who stubbornly keeps getting back up no matter what is thrown at her, then this book is absolutely worth your time. Fans of urban fantasy, paranormal mystery, or character-driven supernatural drama will have a blast with Tai and her world.
Pages: 339 | ASIN : B0FBJ89ZZV
Take My Hand
Take My Hand follows Trina, a guidance counselor in the magical and queer-rich Dark District, as she navigates danger, desire, identity, and the messy, tender work of becoming who she is. The story swings between an attack at a local bar, her growing attraction to a new teacher named Robert, and the deeper, rawer layers of her identity as Timothy. The book blends urban fantasy, queer longing, Filipino culture, and personal history into something that feels both intimate and loud. It’s a story about wanting connection. It’s a story about fear. It’s a story about what happens when desire and truth keep bumping into each other until something finally gives.
The writing feels hungry. Emotional. A little chaotic in the best way. The scenes in the school had me smiling. The quiet moments in Trina’s office hit me harder than I thought they would. And the flashbacks to the orphanage knocked the wind out of me. I felt the ache in her voice. I felt the weight of all those years she kept her real self tucked away. The book swings from funny to sensual to heartbreaking with this almost reckless energy. I loved that the author just lets the story breathe and swell without trying to make everything neat.
There were moments that made me squirm because they felt too real. The longing for Robert. The guilt. The shame. The humor she hides behind. All of it felt familiar. The writing is loose and bold. Sometimes messy. Sometimes sharp. And the queer representation, especially around desire and gender and the body, felt honest in a way that isn’t common. I liked how the magic sits in the background. Never overwhelming. Just shaping the world the way emotions shape a person from the inside.
By the end, I felt protective of Trina. I wanted her to win. I wanted her to love someone who actually sees her. I wanted her to stop tearing herself apart just to fit into a skin she didn’t choose. The book made me feel a lot, and I liked that. I didn’t want it to be safe. I wanted it to stay exactly as wild and vulnerable as it is.
If you enjoy queer urban fantasy with plenty of heat, heart, and personal struggle, this book will hit the spot. If you like stories that mix magic with Manila vibes and real emotional weight, you’ll feel at home here. And if you want a character who is flawed, yearning, dramatic, funny, and painfully human, Trina is a character you’ll remember.
Although Take My Hand works perfectly well as a stand-alone story, it’s actually the second book in an ongoing series set in the Dark District. Readers who want the full experience can follow the chronology starting with Take Me Now, and even go further back with its prequel Sojourn. Both earlier works were previously compiled as a duology in the Dark District Primer, so new readers can choose to jump in here or enjoy the series in order for a richer sense of the world.
Pages: 400 | ASIN : B0DJ7JTG4S
The Reality of the Broken
The Demon’s Deceit follows a washed-up addict who wakes up and finds herself under the control of a wealthy, manipulative demon, and is offered a deal: freedom from pain and fear, in exchange for becoming an assassin. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
It all started with the question of what would happen if an average woman suddenly found herself with superpowers. I was getting tired of reading fantasy books with suspiciously capable and barely adult protagonists, so I wrote a book that I wanted to read about older and imperfect women like me. The follow-up question then became: how would she get the superpowers to begin with? I can’t help but challenge religion, so I created a race of twisted supernatural beings who may or may not have inspired most religions and who laugh at humanity from the shadows.
There was a lot of time spent crafting the character traits in this novel. What was the most important factor for you to get right in your characters?
I wanted them to feel authentic and unique. I’ve had the privilege of being inspired by so many people from different backgrounds and ways of life, and I wanted to represent the beauty of the unconventional and the reality of the broken.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Redemption and recovery were the main themes revealed during my writing process. Having struggled with mental illness and addiction myself, I wanted my protagonist to “win” after dealing with grief and substance abuse for so long. It’s cathartic for me and hopefully for readers.
When will Book Two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?
The Angel’s Bane (Divine Evolution Book 2) is coming early 2026:
By all accounts, Jeanie Bennett is living the dream: money, power, love—but happiness comes at a cost. A growing paranoia threatens to ruin everything she’s worked so hard to build, because loving a divine means accepting that death lurks around every corner. And another loss is not something she can endure.
In addition to protecting Sam from demons thirsting for his angelic blood, she’s juggling the launch of two non-profits, working through her unresolved grief, and battling her mental illness and addictions. When the mounting challenges become too much to bear, she goes back to her roots to find the perfect second assistant. He’s more than qualified, but his motives might not be so pure.
Now they just have to contend with demons, rival angels, kidnappers, mobsters, and a mysterious foe who gives Jeanie her greatest challenge yet. Will she be able to stop him from taking everything she holds dear before it’s too late?
Author Links: <a href="http://22 Nov 2025 13:16:47 -0800 Andria Carver GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Jeanie’s day started off like any other—hungover in a back alley after another epic bender. But the one-way ride on her downward spiral was about to come to an abrupt end. Kidnapped by a bloodthirsty demon, she is thrown into the dark world of the divines, a supernatural species living secretly among humans.
As the new assistant to a divine intent on rising through the ranks, Jeanie is given an assignment: kill an angel so her demon can take his place, or die trying. In order to achieve the impossible, she’ll have to rely on the powers given to her by her new master, along with her quick wit and talent for bluffing.
But not all divines are what they seem, and Jeanie must choose to either defy her morality or die in utter agony. A dangerous incubus steps in and promises to help her, or is he just using her too?
Wickedly funny, unexpectedly moving, and delightfully twisted. The Demon’s Deceit slashes through genre conventions with a bloody dagger in one hand and a smoldering joint in the other. Think Fleabag as Buffy the Vampire Slayer with extra helpings of humor, peril, and passion thrown in.
Contains sexual content, references to drug addiction and abuse, and probably too many curse words (definitely too many)
The Demon’s Deceit
The Demon’s Deceit is the first book in Andria Carver’s “Divine Evolution” series, and it throws you straight into a gritty, supernatural underworld where addiction, trauma, and power all mix with the occult. The story follows Jeanie Bennett, a washed-up addict who wakes up to find herself under the control of Ms. Cummings, a wealthy, manipulative demon. Cummings offers her a deal, freedom from pain and fear, in exchange for becoming her unwilling assassin. What follows is a twisted dive into the world of the “Divines,” beings who exist beyond humanity, feeding on power, blood, and chaos. The story blends dark humor, philosophical reflection, and raw, uncomfortable honesty in a way that makes you both wince and laugh.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how real Jeanie felt. Her sarcasm, her self-loathing, the way she drifts between wanting to die and wanting to live again. The writing is sharp and punchy, and Carver knows how to make even the filthiest alleyway feel alive. There’s grit under every word, and I loved that the book doesn’t try to glamorize the supernatural. Instead, it makes demons bureaucratic, vain, and disturbingly human. Sometimes the dialogue felt very real, like overhearing someone’s breakdown in a dive bar. I liked that rawness, though. The pacing dips now and then, mostly when the lore gets heavy, but the character work keeps it grounded. I found myself laughing at Jeanie’s bleak humor and then suddenly feeling a lump in my throat when her grief crept through the cracks.
Carver’s ideas about divinity and morality are what really stuck with me. The book doesn’t hand you clean answers, it muddies everything. Who deserves redemption? What’s the price of feeling nothing? And can survival be noble if it’s built on someone else’s pain? These questions hum beneath the action and the blood. I liked how Carver never lets Jeanie off the hook; she’s messy, flawed, and maddening, but she’s trying, and that made me root for her. The mix of horror, dark comedy, and emotional honesty gave the book an unpredictable rhythm that made it feel alive.
The Demon’s Deceit feels like a gritty mashup of Neil Gaiman’s dark whimsy in American Gods, Gillian Flynn’s raw, damaged characters, and the cynical bite of Chuck Palahniuk’s storytelling, all wrapped in a supernatural noir that’s entirely its own. The Demon’s Deceit is a wild story that I heartily enjoyed. I’d recommend it to readers who like their urban fantasy dark, their humor twisted, and their characters broken but fighting.
Pages: 273 | ASIN : B0FLVVHS8J
Mental Health Matters
Ancestor: The Hooded Hero #1 follows a firefighter-paramedic who gets what he thinks is a routine 911 call, only to discover that it quickly escalates into a chaotic, bloody night. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Any time Cody is on duty, if he responds to a 9-1-1 call, it is a call I’ve managed as a firefighter. Of course, they are modified for patient privacy laws. The call I used for the inciting incident was a call I responded to, and the most difficult call for me to handle psychologically in all my 21 years in the service. Cody has similar reactions to me (the echo of the father’s screams causing the taste of blood in his mouth, the callousness toward criminals, the smells of the scene, the woman’s face, etc).
I had to respond to that scene, pronounce the woman dead while her father watched, and assist the coroner’s office with the investigation. Then, when we cleared the scene, we were the only available ambulance to go to the prison and evaluate the prisoner who killed her. I could tell you how compassionate I was toward the prisoner, but you can just read the book.
This is daily life for a first responder, or a nurse, or a soldier. I wanted to highlight the things we have to see and do to keep you safe, and the impact it has on our lives and our own health. It’s important to spotlight these things, because often we take for granted that the police or firefighters just exist to serve us, but they’re people too. And they’re twisted significantly by what they see every day.
I found Cody to be an intriguing and well-developed character. What inspired you to create him and his backstory?
Cody is the quintessential fireman. He’s derived from a variety of responders, including myself, my long-time ambulance partner, and other coworkers. His own mental health and the calls he responds to reflect my own career and my own downward spiral when I had reached my darkest moment. But I’m not a special case by any means. I just wish I was built like him, haha. I wanted him to have a major presence, like gravity, whenever he entered a room. So I made him large like Jack Reacher but with the type of reputation that makes everyone notice him when he enters an area.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
First and foremost, I wanted to explore the world of mental health. It’s not normalized enough, despite our 21st-century efforts. This whole series will be an exploration of mental health through the lens of a superhero and a first responder. Sadie, Cody’s love interest, is there to ground people because she’s the ‘civilian’ but still very much entwined in the mental health struggle. Sadie is also supposed to be the calm to Cody’s chaos. She is intelligent, dedicated, goes to therapy, takes her medications, and strives toward self-improvement like no other. She’s the example of what we can all be if we manage our mental health well, and obviously the example of no matter how well we’re doing, nobody’s perfect. Cody is the opposite. He’s the example of what we could become by burying our feelings under alcohol and pressure.
Mental health aside, I’d been looking for a way to tell my “war stories” from the fire department, and I had been excited to come up with a superhero idea for a long time. This gave me the chance to do both. Hopefully people enjoy the ‘peek behind the curtain’ at first responders’ lives.
What will your next novel be about, and what will the whole series encompass?
The Hooded Hero series will explore the ups and downs of managing one’s mental health. Readers will find both allies and enemies who struggle with some mental health issue, and it’s my hope that they can relate to all of them. The next few books in the series get dark. So if you thought Ancestor was dark, buckle up.
I’ve collaborated with a horror author, Carl Bluesy, to create novellae with a more fantasy/horror theme which will fit chronologically in the series timeline and will follow Cody through supernatural challenges, which unlock new superpowers and teach him new lessons about life and what it means to be a hero.
Book 2, titled Burnout, and the first of the novellae, titled Inferno Mirage, are coming Q4 2025. Follow me on social media @authormattoz or join my newsletter to keep up with the latest news.
Author Website
Cody, a US Army veteran who now works as a firefighter, is one bad 911 call from a complete mental breakdown. Then life feeds him two bad calls, back to back.
He begins to hallucinate and hear voices. But they don’t just speak to him-they grant him abilities beyond his wildest imagination. And they have their own agenda.
Meanwhile, sinister forces wreak havoc on the city, tearing apart its infrastructure bit by bit. Will this firefighter-turned-superhero quell the burning city’s flames, or will he be the gust that spreads them?
Ancestor is a dark urban fantasy thriller which explores the daily lives of first responders and mental health topics through the lens of a superhero’s trials.
Inside you will find:Justice and vengeance dealt with a bloody, heavy hand.
Revenge. Beautiful, satisfying revenge.
An unforgettably unique romance subplot.
Insight into the daily lives of first responders, written by a first responder.
Seriously flawed, regular people. Because to be flawed is to be normal.
Jump straight into the depths of Jade City. Buy it now.
Ancestor: The Hooded Hero #1
Ancestor drops you headfirst into the life of Cody Chance, a firefighter-paramedic in the gritty near-future city of Jade. It starts with what feels like a standard emergency call, but quickly escalates into a chaotic, bloody night that leaves Cody haunted by both what he saw and something darker that seems to be following him. A comet burns across the sky like an omen, strange voices whisper from nowhere, and Cody’s grip on reality frays. Between violent calls, moral compromises, and an unshakable sense that something supernatural is at play, the book builds a tense blend of urban fantasy, first responder realism, and psychological suspense.
Ozanich writes with the eye of someone who’s lived it, pulling you into the banter, the gallows humor, and the ugly truths of emergency work. At the same time, the creeping horror threaded through the story kept me off balance. I loved that shift. It’s not just gore for the sake of it. The unease builds slowly, like a shadow you can’t quite catch. The voice of the narrator feels raw and honest, even when the things he’s thinking aren’t noble. That unvarnished humanity made it hit harder.
The violence is vivid and unflinching, and the pace sometimes lingers on procedure in a way that slows the momentum. I found myself caught between being absorbed in the detail and wanting the story to push forward. And Cody, well, he’s not always easy to like. He’s stubborn, sometimes reckless, and definitely flawed, but that’s what makes him real. There’s a claustrophobic quality to the way the night unfolds, which works brilliantly for tension.
I’d recommend Ancestor to readers who like their urban fantasy grounded in real-world grit, especially those who aren’t squeamish about violence or moral ambiguity. If you enjoy character-driven stories where the supernatural seeps in slowly, and you can handle the rough edges of first responder life, this one’s worth the ride. It’s a wild, unsettling, and strangely relatable trip.
Pages: 376 | ASIN : B0FHRQS1JW
LITERARY TITAN 