Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312949198
ISBN: 0312949197
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2008-11-04
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date: 2008-11-04
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not for Me
Comment: This review will be short, but not-so-sweet: Any Given Doomsday was a very disappointing book. I kept hoping the story would get better if given a chance, but that didn't happen. Surprised to see the book has a sequel, Doomsday Can Wait. Think I'll wait till Doomsday to read it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 3.5 stars - Mixed start to a new UF series for Handeland
Comment: Responding to a psychic call from her foster mother, Liz Phoenix arrives just in time to watch Ruthie die and, mysteriously, Liz falls into a coma. Upon waking, Liz discovers that there is a whole hidden world of paranormal creatures including her former first love, Jimmy who is half vampire and a demon killer. Now Liz must return to her dreaded former teacher Sawyer - an ancient being straddling the edge of light and dark, who both frightens and attracts Liz. Liz must have Sawyer's help to learn to use the seeress powers that she inherited from Ruthie. And Liz better learn quick so that she can assume Ruthie's place as leader for the forces of good in the battle against evil- Armageddon is at hand.

The basic world building in Any Given Doomsday was interesting, with Nephalim, werewolve, vampires and a plot that looks to build-up to big battle with Liz as a warrior seeress. Also I enjoyed Handeland's writing style, she gave Liz a good 'voice'. But I had a major issue with the story which dropped my rating for this first installment in the series -- if you want to avoid spoilers, you might want to skip the next paragraph.


Let me preface my next comments by saying this is an urban fantasy series and not a paranormal romance like Handeland's Night Creatures series. Liz does a lot of lusting after the two main male leads and she has sex with both of them and, as others have mentioned, the sex wasn't entirely consentual on Liz's part - with one she is drugged and thinks she's dreaming and with the other she's at first under the threat of death and later enthralled. From a plot prospective it was necessary for her to sleep with both men, but parts are hard to read - even though in both cases Handeland attempts to have Liz take back her power by having her choose to sleep with the men again later. Since one of Liz's new abilities is to acquire the supernatural powers of her lovers during sex, you can bet she's going to be sleeping with lots more paranormal guys in upcoming books - hopefully those will be by her choice.

So overall, I am a bit mixed on this first book in the Phoenix Chronicles, I didn't love it but there was enough potential to give the next one a try - though if the emphasis is just on Liz notching her bed post to gain more super powers, I'll be sadly disappointed.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Overall, I really enjoyed this book
Comment: I received this book as an advance reading copy from Shelfari. I can't tell you how exciting it is to find a free book sitting on your porch just waiting for you to explore. Any Given Doomsday is a paranormal romance about an ex-cop with a gift who finds herself thrust right into a supernatural battle to save the world.

What I liked - The characters were well thought out and interesting. Sawyer was definitely my favorite. While this book seems to follow the usual Supernatural Huntress type of story line, there were some original twists that made it an interesting read. And let's not forget the "romance". There is definitely some of that in there as well.

What I didn't like - The beginning and end of the book felt a bit rushed to me. It seemed as though the important and exciting parts of the story flashed by in a few short pages.

Final thoughts - Overall I really enjoyed this book. Since it was an ARC I didn't really know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. You can find this book on shelves November 4, 2008. I am looking forward to the second book in the Phoenix Chronicles titled Doomsday Can Wait which comes out May 2009.

Reviewd by Christel

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Customer Rating:
Summary: supernatural
Comment: A dark and erotic supernatural thriller. A psychic ex-cop turned bartender finds herself thrust into a dark world of un-humans in the midst of the biblical war between good and evil. Dream, magic and legend are the strands that weave this tale. Faced with losing a beloved friend, and dealing with an ex-lover that is full of surprising secrets, Elizabeth Phoenix is forced to find her way through a world she never would have believed existed. A steamy, action packed romp through an alternate reality. For fans of the supernatural, it is well worth the time. I look forward to the series.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Looking forward to more!
Comment: I wasn't sure what to expect when Any Given Doomsday hit my doorstep, but I found it to be a pleasant surprise.

It contains all the hallmarks of a good Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal - a kickbutt Buffyesque slayer heroine, a love triangle, magical creatures, shapeshifters/vamps, the WHOLE works- AND it added an entire new mythos of it own- the Nephilim. (Okay not so new, but that the author decided to play in this field is new!)

Elizabeth Phoenix is an ex-cop who has a little secret. Besides the fact she feels guilty over her partners death and has quit the force- she's psychic. It's not really a secret, all the cops in her neck of Milwaukee know about it, but she likes to keep it under wraps none the less.

One day she receives a psychic message from Ruthie, the lady who raised her. When she arrives at the home she grew up in, she finds the lady she loved as mother dying in a pool of blood, leaving Elizabeth with cryptic words and a horrible sense that something decidedly unearthly was going on. But before Ruthie dies, she passes on a gift that will change Elizabeth's life- and which promptly puts her into a coma.

Elizabeth awakens days later in the hospital only to find the events that transpired before she passed out were indeed not a dream and that the cops are now looking for her ex-lover Jimmy, also raised by Ruthie, to pin the murder on.

When Jimmy arrives he sets things straight, but he also leads Elizabeth into a world she never knew existed and drops the biggest bomb of all on her- she's the one. The Chosen One to lead the army of good against the forces of evil, known as the Nephilim, in one final battle called Doomsday.

In this the first chapter of what I'm assuming is going to be a series, Jimmy takes Elizabeth out to the desert to meet up with the one man who can teach her how to be that leader- or at least unlock her powers. Lizzie isn't too happy about being dumped off with Sawyer, a mystical Navajo Ruthie had once sent her to before. But unlock her powers he does- in a decidedly LKH/Anita Blake way I must say ::roll eyes::- and none to soon, for Jimmy, whom she still has strong feelings for, has fallen into some big time trouble and she's the only one to get him out of it.

I really liked this story! Not only does the author create a great backstory, building a world that hooked me from word one, but she's developing some cool, if a tad "done before" characters, that never-the-less I'm anxious to revisit. The love triangle thing always works for me, although this time I'm not sure who I'm looking to see Elizabeth with. (Usually I know right off the bat!) Both these guys are hotties and both are ambiguously moral enough that I'm just not sure who to cheer for!

Although much of this book is for setting up the series, it contained a tight enough plot line involving Elizabeth unlocking her powers and Jimmy getting caught up into some bad business- business which leads him far from Elizabeth by the end of the book- that served to move the characters through their paces and keep the pages turning.

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