Review: Forever and a Doomsday

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Of all the states, would Colorado be the first candidate for the epicenter of chaos leading up to Doomsday? Well, for a low level crystal warlock and a newly created demon, they don’t have a choice. It’s happening.

Mixing together the atmospheric flavor of the action sequences from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, airy hints of classic rock music, with a backdrop of fire and brimstone,  comes the Dru Jasper series quartet series written by Laurence Naughton.  This is an urban fantasy novel that hits the right combo the nostalgic vibes for the urban fantasy shows of the 90s/2000s in novel form. Except instead of picture perfect adults playing teenagers, this series has flawed and relatable adults doing the best they can while not ultimately freaking out.

The story so far…

With It happened One Doomsday, we are introduced to Dru Jasper, the owner of a store called Crystal Connection, where she uses her minuscule powers and knowledge of crystals to help other warlocks and witches in the city.  Other than her magic, she is pretty much like any other human being as she worries about maintaining her store and other living expenses.  Now and then she will apparently tackle things like a magic carpet (mentioned in the main series but is the focus of a novelette featured on Naughton’s website) but her powers don’t warrant her a full fledged warlock.  Using her smarts and her incredibly loyal friend/employee, Opal, Dru is able to handle pretty much anything thrown in her path. It is when a handsome car mechanic named Greyson who walks through her door that her mediocre life, boyfriend, and sanity evaporates.  We quickly learn that Greyson is more than just a very good looking man. He’s a man with fate tied to a demon car and the impending apocalypse.

This isn’t an apocalypse that is going to happen years down the road. It’s happening within a year. It is triggered by a demonic scroll created by the Harbringers that has seven seals. Each seal brings on a horrific event leading closer to Doomsday. The first brings on the four horsemen which turns four humans into demons and connects them to their mounts, which are cars. Greyson is one of them.  Greyson’s struggle to prevent himself from becoming one of the four horsemen binds himself to Dru as she uses her crystals to offset the demon powers.  She has to deal with Greyson and trying to make sense of the madness around her.

For A Kiss Before Doomsday,  it is up to Dru to truly believe in herself.  Greyson’s too-soon disappearance is more than enough to drag Dru into despair. Despite the encouragement from friends to move on, she just can’t.  Doomsday has no pause for depression so Dru throws herself into her work to learn ways to save them all. At this point, Dru has more access to her powers. We learn in the first book that although Greyson cannot perform magic, he is pretty much a much coveted catalyst for exponential power growth. When are they are linked, her powers are magnified a thousand fold and she can unleash some crazy, intense crystal magic. Without him, she still has access to that level of power but she has to work to get to to it. It is all maintenance, control, and focus. Pushing the noise of the world and her heartache to focus.

As she races to unlock the scroll’s secrets and prevent the Doom that will befall all, the danger ramps up even more in No Sleep ‘Till Doomsday. Although Greyson is back in the picture, not everyone is on board and fractures in trust begin to appear. The battles against evil beings are still being fought even as they questions the bonds between themselves.

 

Things are barely, barely fixed when we come up to the fourth and final book in the series.

Forever and a Doomsday is the final boss level and it has arrived whether the heroes are ready for it or not.   Despite sleepless nights and focus, Dru is desperately trying to what she can to solve a 2,000 year old puzzle to prevent Doomsday.  Everything else has been laid out on the table on who started it and what’s keeping it coming.  Doomsday is occurring  thanks to a life long plan of a group of angry hippie warlocks upset at the state of world. Instead of preserving the Earths beauty, they just want to destroy it all and start “anew.” This mindless mission has turned them into mindless wraiths with devastating powers.  The whole gang is exhausted and powers tested beyond capacity. No one is at their top to meet the Doom ahead but they’re going to have to.

The team that we got.

Dru is the most unlikely heroine as she has the lowest confidence of the whole group. Her lack of confidence is consistent flaw throughout the whole series. As a reader, it’s completely frustrating as you can clearly she that she is more than capable to deal with trouble head on.  As a human in real like, this is for certain. For most of us, self doubt is not a passing thought. It’s a permanent voice limiting our abilities. There is a point when  she confronts danger that Dru worries less about her limits and more about those around her that she is trying to save. Just as she has to work on focusing her mind on connecting the energies of the crystals, she has to work twice as hard to overcome that doubt.

Her knowledge of crystals is intense. It has definitely changed my perspective on these shiny rocks.  It is also very fascinating to read how she uses concise diagrams to place these crystals. For crystals are math algorithms repeated in crystalline form. It makes sense to have crystal magic correlate to diagrams and precise measurements. Love math magic.  With each crystal that she uses to wield as weapons or protections, we get to learn a lot about rock properties. Galena rocks are particularly important in these books. I can’t imagine how she is able to hold on to so many rocks as she’s running around.

With each book, we see that the relationship between Dru and Greyson deepen and become more defined.  If Dru’s self doubt is her constant, then Greyson’s calm presence is his. Even when they’re going through the pit of hell together, he is truly a rock of cold patience. As to the romance between these two, I found it less believable. We don’t really see any traditional romance elements. Only a lot of near fatal moments that cause enough of an adrenaline surge to incite confessions or confirm emotions.  They kiss quite a bit but it did seem to go from zero to sixty in romance. A question of their relationship comparability  is  brought up in one of the books with a kind of, sort of resolution. They do remain because they survive all sorts of things that hell throws at them, so that is a kind of binding glue for a relationship. It is actually a pretty cute bad boy (who’s really nice) and nerd girl (who’s pretty badass herself) romance trope.

Now, the romance that is dang strong is between odd couple, Salem and Rane.  These two were the absolute dynamic duo.  Both would butt heads but the passion them was no joke. Salem is one of the strongest warlocks in town with a flair for the emo aesthetic . He is just seriously lacking in trust or tact.  I can understand how he can be annoyed with Dru with her tendency to fall into trouble but otherwise, his “animosity” towards her is unwarranted. He is just so incredibly arrogant and stubborn but his one sweet trait is that he will absolutely do anything for Rane.

How can he not? She’s amazing! Rane has the ability to touch an element and become that element. So many fun scenes of her armored up as copper and just pulverizing the bad guys.  She is dedicated body builder and friend. Her strong exterior is equally matched in her inner strength of devotion and loyalty.  Her energy is high and can be too centrally focused but she is a hero and a lover. She’s headstrong and will do whatever it takes to protect her friends. Even at her own cost.  Rane was fantastic and it truly bugged me that Dru would be embarrassed by her antics until all hell breaks loose and she’s already auto-dialing Rane.  The friendship between the two was definitely one-sided. Dru appreciated Rane for most of the series because her abilities. It  isn’t the end that she sees Rane’s silliness. C’mon, Dru!

Even more one-sided in friendship, is Opal. Opal is Dru’s employee/friend who has hideous fashion sense  and irritating attitude. Dru can be in complete danger but Opal has the need to point out that 1. her clothes should not be damaged and 2. this was her day off.   At least, Opal will show up and she has a great encyclopedia sense of books and random bits.  Rane  is more of a friend to Dru than Opal. Yet Dru holds Opal at a higher esteem.

The true main character of the series is the speed demon car.  There is already a constant stream of  Rob Zombie  that plays predominately in my mind with the cars appearance. Particularly with the line from the song Dragula:

“Dead I am the dog, hound of hell you cry
Devil on your back, I can never die

Driving this car would pretty much require an open road and  a road trip music playlist which favors lyrics that carry the words “hot”,”devil”, “demon,” and/or “speed”.  It just wants to run and run forever. This car is tempered by being soulbound to Greyson who it recognizes as master. Just barely. That car definitely invokes some strong Stephen King’s Christine but I would go so far as it adds a bit of Transformer‘s Bumble Bee. As in, the car is definitely full of evil but it will swoop in and save them all.  This demon car is awesome. Not so secretly wishing there was a model kit to build and admire.

As much fun as you can have reading about impending doom.

Forever and a Doomsday concludes one of the most entertaining urban fantasies that doesn’t centrally star a vampire or whatever is trending.  It is a crystal Warlock who is the one to solve the puzzle and save us all.  More than that, it’s a woman who has to overcome her own hangs ups, believe in her friends, and  believe in trust.  The story has action but so much heart that these characters will linger on past the pages.

Catch up now now as the final book will be released on October 15, 2019.

You can find more on the author and the series here: https://laurencemacnaughton.com/books/dru-jasper-series/

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