Lustlocked by Matt Wallace

The staff of New York's premier supernatural catering company, has their work cut out for them in this outrageous follow-up to Envy of Angels. Love is in the air at Sin du Jour. The Goblin King (yes, that one) and his Queen are celebrating the marriage of their son to his human bride. Naturally the celebrations will be legendary. But when desire and magic mix, the results can be unpredictable. Our heroes are going to need more than passion for the job to survive the catering event of the decade! Sin du Jour Book 1: Envy of Angels Book 2: Lustlocked Book 3: Pride's Spell Book 4: Idle Ingredients Book 5: Greedy Pigs Book 6: Gluttony Bay Book 7: Taste of Wrath Praise for Sin du Jour: "Funny and demented . . . I'll read anything this guy writes." — Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds and Zer0es, on Envy of Angels "No one makes me think, 'Dammit, I should have thought of that!' like Matt Wallace. The Sin du Jour series is something I read with equal amounts of envy and delight." — Mur Lafferty, Campbell Award winning author of The Shambling Guide to New York City At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

I had a feeling I would regret my excessive enthusiasm over book one, but oh well, it's nice to get excited about things sometimes. This book is pretty good, just not as good as the first.

Warning for sexual assault used as a plot device, to humorous effect, (sort of) in the manner of the sex pollen trope. It didn't bother me, but it is there, and I feel like it would've been a seriously traumatic thing for the characters to experience, which is not really addressed.

It does have similar over-the-top antics, and some of it was funny to me. Unfortunately, though, a decent amount of the kind of humor I dislike can be found in this book, and (relatedly) Lena has sex with the guy she pegged as a douchebag in book one (this is not because of the sex pollen, either). I understand that having characters make sexist/racist jokes does not mean that the author supports those views, and in fact, the other characters mostly mock the ones who make those remarks. Lena has some thoughts about the topic, too, but I feel she is too forgiving. Anyway, I can definitely imagine readers liking those jokes and those characters, which makes me uncomfortable.

I was glad that some depth was added to the characters and their backstories, especially Nikki, who was a real star. Cindy got some development, as well, and I look forward to learning more about her in future stories. Of course I also really liked the appearance of David Bowie and Iman.

I mostly enjoyed this book, and I'm still curious about where the series will go next.

This is some seriously funny shit!
I adore everyone who works at Sin du Jour and can't wait for more novellas, short stories, or maybe even a novel set in that world. Whatever he'll give us next, Matt Wallace has a new fan in me. Thanks for making me laugh, man. :)