Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge

by Paul Krueger

Overview

In this sharp and funny urban fantasy novel, booze is magic, demons are real, and millennial Bailey Chen joins a band of monster-fighting Chicago bartenders instead of finding a “real” post-college job.
 
Bailey Chen is fresh out of college with all the usual new-adult demons: no cash, no job offers, and an awkward relationship with Zane, the old friend she kinda-sorta hooked up with during high school.
 
But when Zane introduces Bailey to his monster-fighting bartender friends, her demons become a lot more literal. It turns out that evil creatures stalk the city streets after hours, and they can be hunted only with the help of magically mixed cocktails: vodka grants super-strength, whiskey offers the power of telekinesis, and rum lets its drinker fire blasts of elemental energy. But will all these powers be enough for Bailey to halt a mysterious rash of gruesome deaths? And what will she do when the safety of a “real world” job beckons?
 
This sharp and funny urban fantasy is perfect for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, and grown-up readers of Harry Potter. Includes 14 recipes from a book of ancient cocktail lore.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594747595
Publisher:	Quirk Publishing
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	673,364
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Paul Krueger is a fantasy writer and cocktail connoisseur whose work has appeared in the Sword & Laser anthology. He lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

07/04/2016
Krueger's enjoyable light contemporary fantasy novel will satisfy fans of bars and bartenders. Bailey Chen is fresh out of business school, but she has no plan, so she's living with her parents in Chicago and working at a bar where her lifelong friend Zane—with whom she shares emotional baggage that isn't quite in the past—is a bartender. When Bailey kills an attacking demonic creature called a tremens, she learns that bartenders have a far deeper history than most people know, and that drinks mixed with a specific brand of booze can temporarily give her magic powers to fight the monsters. Nobody believes her when she notices supposedly impossible things the creatures are doing that could signal an oncoming tremen apocalypse, and some of those she trusts may be more dangerous to her than demons. The rare action scenes are brief but intense, but even a flood of tremens takes a backseat to Bailey fighting her way through the shadowy bartenders' world. The climax seems a little too easy, but the winning main characters and the occasional histories of the drinks provide plenty of fun. Agent: Dawn Michelle Frederick, Red Sofa Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Snarky, diverse, and an absolute blast."—Nerdist

“[Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge] features an appealingly sharp-yet-vulnerable heroine in recent college grad Bailey Chen, an effortlessly inclusive cast of fun supporting characters, and plenty of awesome snark. But as with the best humorous fantasies, the snark never gets in the way of the book’s big, earnest heart, which it wears proudly on its (occasionally tipsy) sleeve.”—Sarah Kuhn, author of Heroine Complex 

“Krueger’s human cast is quirky and diverse, and…[he] keeps the story grounded in such a way that the reader easily forgets that they are reading fantasy and starts to feel as if Bailey’s adventures could easily be their own.”—Tor.com

“One of the most fun urban fantasies that I have ever read, with a sharp, kick-ass heroine who faces demons, a pushy mom, a possibly unrequited love interest and a plot to take over the world. You know you should be reading this with a tall, cool glass of your favorite libation close at hand.”—San Diego Union Tribune

“Krueger’s enjoyable light contemporary fantasy novel will satisfy fans of bars and bartenders…the winning main characters and the occasional histories of the drinks provide plenty of fun.”—Publishers Weekly 
 
“The main character makes this book great, as the voice and insight are believable and fun. This book will appeal to a wide range of sf fans as the rest of the cast is believable and the hidden world of tremens (demonlike creatures) is great.”—Booklist

“Simply epic.”—BookRiot

“Hooked immediately. . . a fresh and unique premise.”—Geeks of Doom 

From the Publisher

02/15/2016
College graduate Bailey Chen is scraping by as a bar-back in her friend Zane's uncle's establishment. Bailey quickly realizes her personal demons are nothing compared to the ones she discovers on the streets of Chicago. When she learns about the demon hunters, which include Zane and a group of monster-battling bartenders, she figures out that the key to fighting these apparitions is literal spirits: vodka grants superstrength, rum provides pyrokinesis, and whiskey gives the power to move objects. Even with this mixology magic, these creatures are not playing by the rules, and it appears there are even more threats from less savory individuals. Attempts to concoct the world's most powerful cocktail—the Long Island Iced Tea—has not been successful in centuries. Can Bailey, Zane, and their group come through before that power is lost again, or worse, ends up in hands of the wrong people? VERDICT This action-packed first novel serves smooth sips of new adult angst with a twist of humor.—KC

Library Journal