Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge: A Novel

I’ve been super excited to read this book, y’all, if only because the premise is magic mixed drinks. You read that right: Magic. Mixed. Drinks. Screwdrivers that give you super strength, Mai Tais that turn you into a walking talking bonfire, martinis that render the drinker invisible, and more. Oh and don’t forget the mythic Long Island Iced Tea thought to give you ultimate power and immortality (assuming it can be successfully recreated from lost bartending lore.) Seriously, this is one of the cleverest takes on superpowers that I’ve read in a long, long time; plus, the handbook pages explaining the drinks and the history behind each of them totally appealed to my researcher side.The main character, Bailey Chen, was possibly the most relatable character I’ve read in quite a while: totally driven and great at school all the way through college only to graduate and have to figure out how the hell to make money in the real world. Stuck moving home to her old bedroom and getting a job at a bar thanks to an old high school friend while still trying desperately to get interviews somewhere with a dress code and dental. Replace “bar” with “receptionist” and good lord I LIVED that part of this book. I felt so so much for Bailey throughout all of that, and can I just say that if anyone deserves to stumble onto a secret society of super heroes tied to alcohol, a struggling recent college grad definitely would be it LOL.As I said before, the magical/superpower system was fantastic here, but my fave part was all the different, delightfully diverse characters from Bailey’s Chinese American heritage, to dark-skinned, dreadlocked Mora, to trans man Bucket, to Vincent, the badass, blind older bartender with a boyfriend not much older than Bailey. It was a rich world of a book without feeling like a diversity checklist and I loved that so much, y’all.As much as I enjoyed this book, I will say that there were two things that annoyed me a bit. First off, the romance was the only part of the book that felt forced and out of place. Honestly, the love interest was the character I cared about the least in the main group of friends, and I would have loved to see Bailey remain single and badass while she finishes figuring out who she is and settling into her bartending role, or hell, even end up with Bucket instead. I can understand where the author was coming from with the eventual romance, but it just didn’t feel satisfying for me.The other thing that hit one of my pet peeves pretty hard was the way Bailey being legitimately uncomfortable with her high school stalker showing up and her friends basically laughing it off/thinking it wasn’t a big deal, and later even LEAVING HER ALONE AND UNCONSCIOUS WITH HIM. I get that he was supposed to be harmless as a character, but as someone who had a “harmless” stalker for a while, that just wasn’t fun to read. That was the one part of the book where my skin started to crawl and I almost put the book down. I kept reading and it was still a blast of a book, but yeah, not a great thing to be treated as a non-issue.Overall still a fun read, probably a 4 star for me. I will definitely be on the lookout for Krueger’s next book – I just figured I’d give a little bit of a warning in case someone had some of the same issues I did.

Fast paced, funny story of the magic bartenders perform to protect unwary humanity against demons of the night. Filled with magic and jocularity.

Interesting setting, but I just couldn't get involved with the characters. Likely better for YA reader. I did enjoy the cocktail "histories" and recipes.

I do so love when a book almost makes me laugh out loud on the bus. That is the sign that I'm having a great time with a fun read. This book made me do this not once. Not twice. But three times! I absolutely loved this book and the world it takes place in. I want to more books like this! I also want to know what magical abilities my favorite drink, a Scurvy Medic, would grant me!It's not often that I read a New Adult book, but I was interested in this one by some of the book trailers from QuirkBooks YouTube page and decided to give the book a try (seriously, look them up. They're really cool!) There were so many good characters, too. Bucket and Vincent were, hands down, the best two characters in this book! I kinda wish they were main characters, but then, that might take away some of their charm. Seriously, Vincent almost had me crying and Bucket almost had me crying tears of laughter. You gotta love it!And the story was not predictable to me. It was very well thought out and well paced. There were plenty of non-forced or plot-hole-driven twists that kept me guessing about the outcome. This story and this world are wonderful to read and I really want more!So, here's why it only gets 4 stars, not 5. Relationship drama. Every time the main character did something stupid, it was because of relationship drama. She wasn't even that interested in Zane until she found out he had moved from his crush on her high school and gotten a girlfriend. This aspect of the story literally had me putting the book down a few times and completely kicked me out of the book. If it weren't for the other characters and the interesting world, I may have not liked the book at all.That being said, I did enjoy the book. A lot. That's how awesome the rest of the cast of characters are. That's how interesting the world is. I absolutely love that bartenders are protecting their patrons and baristas are healers to the bartenders. Coffee really does cure all that ails you. So, if you can get past the relationship drama, I highly recommend this book. Be forewarned, though, it may make you want a drink or two.

Like all novels, urban fantasy lives and dies on whether you can believe the world that's being created, whether that's one where magical P.I.s solve crimes or where child wizards go to a school unknown by most of the world. This is a world where bartenders fight demons when they pop out for a cigarette break, gaining magical powers by drinking specially mixed cocktails. This was stretching my credulity a little but I was into it, until a major plot point was trying to rediscover the lost Long Island Iced Tea recipe. That's where it became a little too much for me. I think that if the book had gone a little further into the demons that would have been ok (instead of just 'does exist, is threat') but as it was I fast found myself losing interest.The writing was fine and the plot was ok, if a bit predictable. The main character was a little annoying but not in an 'I want to see her die in a fire' kind of way. If you want a fun and quirky urban fantasy definitely go for this. Its pleasant enough reading. It just wasn't for me.

I did really enjoy this. I thought it was fun, it was full of action and it was a quirky take on monster hunting. At times this gave me some similar vibes to the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, which I adore. All of the characters were interesting and there was a fair amount of diversity in the book, which was a bonus.It made me laugh and I enjoyed myself when reading it, but I just felt like it was lacking something and I can't quite put my finger on it. I'd still recommend picking this up, but I think I'd set my expectations too high so felt a tad disappointed.

I LOVED this book. I put off reading it for a long time because I'd seen a lot of hype about it and was worried I'd be disappointed, but it completely lived up to my expectations.The writing is clean and precise, and I whizzed through it effortlessly. I loved the world building, I loved the magic system, and I didn't always love the characters but they were always interesting. The cast were (almost) all really well-developed, even if they didn't show up for very long, they were a really diverse group, and they all obviously had things going on outside of the main story/main character's story.It's not perfect--there were occasions when one of the characters referred back to something and I couldn't remember it (although I think that was my fast reading, and not being able to flick back on an e-book, more than the writing), the main villain's motivation wasn't particularly clear, and the prologue was a bit weak--but I'd really recommend it and I'm going to be keeping an eye out for this author's next book :)

I liked the concept of alcohol as a magical ‘spirit’ and particularly liked the end-of chapter Dictionary excerpts. Although I wanted to slap at least 2 of the main characters, I was almost planning to buy the next book. Then the author committed, in my sight, a cardinal sin. He murdered the dog. That’s it. No more.

I tried this book because the blurb made me give it a chance. I'm so glad I did. Well written, original, great characters, funny... More please! Highly recommended.