Sometimes life is stranger than fiction.
After the tragic death of her parents, and with nothing left tying her to the United Kingdom, Ursula Formosa returns to her homeland and a job with the eccentrically-named Singapore firm, “The Check Your Luck Agency”.
What begins as an attempt to stave off boredom turns into a new way of life as the scales drop from Ursula’s eyes and she tentatively enters a realm that contains vengeful ghosts, toyol, demons, pontianak and curses, not to mention old-fashioned fraud and larceny. As she befriends bomohs, mediums and a young woman already centuries old, Ursula’s ideas of friendship expand into a fresh view of the world that surrounds her.
But she isn’t going to be left to ease into things. A criminal mastermind, who is also a powerful sorcerer, is gathering mythical creatures to help him possess every living soul in Singapore, and he isn’t about to let the members of The Check Your Luck Agency stand in his way!
Read an excerpt from the book:
“What made you take a job with Fiona Li?”
“I think it was Fiona who chose me,” I laughed. “She had the craziest ad in a newspaper one weekend, and I was mulling my options at the time. It was a fortunate confluence of circumstance, as she’d say.”
“You mean you didn’t train to become a paranormal investigator?” he asked with a smile. It dented his cheeks, giving him dimples to go with those liquid eyes, smooth voice and engaging manner. I swallowed. I was in serious trouble.
“I don’t see myself as a paranormal investigator,” I corrected him.
I knew Fiona’s views on the Agency’s work and my own differed markedly, but I wasn’t going to lie to the smooth-skinned, extremely handsome man seated across the table from me.
“I’ll admit I’m the sceptic of the company,” I began. “In fact, in every case I’ve handled in the past six months, not a single one ended up being attributed to supernatural causes.”
“Not one?” He was clearly incredulous.
“I certainly haven’t seen them,” I demurred. “So far, ten out of ten times, the ‘bad luck’ dogging our clients has been down to greedy relatives, unscrupulous business practices or malicious ex-lovers.”
“Not one case of hauntings or possession or things that go bump in the night? Not one instance where you’ve seen something you can’t explain?”
Yes! Tell him!
I looked him straight in the face. “No. Nothing like that at all.”
My review:
I loved the quirkiness of this book. It was different, has a different style of writing than I am used to and it was a really fun adventure. Ursala’s view of the world is unique and fascinating. Her descriptions of things make them pop off the page and you feel like you are walking beside her. It was awesome following her into a world that was waaay outside her comfort zone as she’s thrown into The Check Your Luck agency. The entire set of stories (there are 6) feature Ursala’s adventure into the paranormal world. Each story has a different threat that she is battling. It was a fantastic series and I liked that the book was split up into 6 stories so I could read them in more than one sitting and not get lost.
KS “Kaz” Augustin loves writing human stories, whether set on Earth or out among the stars. Malaysian-born, she has travelled a goodly portion of the world and lived to tell the tale! Her urban fantasy release, The Complete Check Your Luck Agency, consists of five books, exploring the myths and legends of the melting-pot that is south-east Asia. Come for the food, stay for the monsters! (Ghosts included at no extra charge.)
As if all that’s not enough, she’s also Chief Editor of the free online quarterly magazine, Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly. http://www.scifiromancequarterly.org/
Kaz’s website is at http://www.KSAugustin.com and a list of her books can also be found at http://www.SandalPressOnline.com She occasionally tweets as @SandalPress
The Complete Check Your Luck Agency is available from:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IJZQ106
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IJZQ106
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/complete-check-your-luck-agency/id836499220?mt=11&uo=4
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-complete-check-your-luck-agency-ks-augustin/1118612994?ean=9780987317483
OmniLit: https://www.omnilit.com/product-thecompletecheckyourluckagency-1325285-234.html
Tomely: http://sandalpress.tomely.com/the-complete-check-your-luck-agency
The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/04/virtual-book-tour-complete-check-your.html
Thanks for hosting!
Nice excerpt and review
bn100candg at hotmail dot com
Quirky is good. Great review thank you.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Thanks for the opportunity to drop by and for the review, Jen. I’m glad you liked the book. 🙂