Books! I write them! You can buy them and put them on shelves or employ them as part of a ritual sacrifice! Only don't do the ritual sacrifice thing! That would be wrong and creepy!
It’s 1838, Europe is obsessed with mechanical contraptions, and the "Rajah"- a chess-playing machine- is the pinnacle of entertainment. Kit has toured with the Rajah since the age of ten and knows the secret behind the machine all too well . . . just as she knows that people would rather be fooled than have their illusions stripped away.
An eccentric Countess summons the Rajah to her manor house in Vienna for a private engagement. There, Kit meets the inquisitive Eleanor, who tests Kit's ability to tell the difference between truth and illusion . . . Or is it all just another game of chess?
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~ This is a darkly funny, sexy tale with no explicit sex. It is a Gothick adventure (a mad inventor, an eccentric noblewoman, a decadent Old World castle filled with scary treasures, an abducted, imprisoned ingenue, a book-long game of chess in which the stakes are life and death) narrated by the prickly maiden-in-distress whose fate depends on whether she learns in time which opponents to trust. She's a magnetic storyteller.
~ The Ghost and the Machine is a smart, cunning, original, and well-written story dotted with dollops of droll observation, dry wit, and gripping pathos. The characters are by turns quirky, insolent, insightful, deceptive, and all together brilliantly flawed. In addition, the storyline is fresh and tight, and manages to surprise, even though the end game is revealed to the reader early in the narrative...Author Benny Lawrence has a joyously unique voice in the world of lesbian fiction, and The Ghost and the Machine is an utterly fascinating and fantastic read.
Life in a remote fishing village in the middle of a civil war is neither safe nor inspiring. So, when an opportunity comes along for village girl Lynn to be kidnapped and enslaved by a ruthless pirate queen, she takes full advantage of it. But Darren is neither as ruthless nor as piratical as she appears at first glance--and Lynn's not exactly what she seems to be, either. In between encounters with old girlfriends, a slow death involving marmalade, and bounty hunters with no sense of humour, Lynn and her new mistress attempt to work out exactly what they are to each other--and who's in charge.
2014 Goldie Award Winner- Science Fiction and Fantasy
~ Amazing. Yes, it was. It's like nothing I have ever read before.
~ It contains romance, heckling, humour, sword fights, and a girl who gets the girl. The world building is detailed and excellent. The writing itself is hard to describe - it is refreshing, original (did I mention witty), all in a very good way, and reading it you come to realize that Lawrence is incredibly well-read and wields a mean quill.
In the remote desert town of Lafontaine, Casey Prentice has been trying to survive the endtimes by keeping her head down. But that ceases to be an option when a powerful and mysterious entity known as the Anastasian League descends on the town.
Casey uncharacteristically, and unwisely, offers shelter to Pax, one of the League’s escaping prisoners. In doing so, she invites a whole new kind of danger into her life. Because the town of Lafontaine has a secret . . . and if the League discovers it, then the apocalypse will be the least of Casey’s worries.
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~ The title of this novel is brilliant, thought provoking, and puzzling all at the same time. So is the book.
~ There are so many reasons I like this story. First, the author has an awesome sense of humor and it comes through in her writing. The characters are well developed and believable...I wasn't ready for the story to end.
In this sequel to Shell Game, Darren (socially awkward, exiled noblewoman turned pirate queen) and Lynn (sorta kinda Darren's slave girl, sorta kinda Darren's life coach, and altogether the bossiest backseat helmsman that ever set foot on a pirate ship) are at it again.
Long after Darren is exiled from her ancestral home, her dying brother begs her to warn their father about a traitor. Darren would be more enthusiastic about this if her father hadn't sent quite as many assassins after her over the years. Still, she makes the choice to return to Torasan Isle and to her estranged family, because...heroism, or something.
When events on Torasan Isle spiral out of control, it's left to Lynn to fight a new and different kind of war. Along the way, new leaders will rise, people will be dreadful, dreadful people will be bonked on the head, bodices will be mercilessly ripped, and Lynn will prove all over again that if you consider rules optional, there is always a way out.
~ The pace is amazing, it is just as much of a roller-coaster read as 'Shell Game'. I don't have a single piece of criticism. Will be rereading again and again.
~ Just when you're questioning Benny Lawrence's mindset, she lets all the pieces fall together giving you one hell of a book to read! Bloody brilliant!!