Stay tuned below for a review & excerpt of Junkyard Bargain by Faith Hunter!

Series: Junkyard Cats #2
Author: Faith Hunter
Narrator: Khristine Hvam
Publisher: Audible Original
Released: October 19, 2021 (ebook), February 25^th, 2021 (audiobook)
Warnings: Kidnapping, assault, sexual assault, torture

Pardon me as I squee, but I’m so excited to have Junkyard Bargain in my hands! Junkyard Bargain is the second novella in Faith Hunter’s Junkyard Cats series. If you love post-apocalyptic stories and cats, you’re just going to love it.

Shining Smith is a survivor. She’s survived no less than three situations that would have killed the average human, and the odds are good that she’s going to go through worse before it is all said and done. Especially as she hunts down her enemies.

However, she’s not going to have much time to prepare for that battle. Not when her enemy holds one of her allies. So she’s on a timer to get things done, and that includes getting her hands on a powerful weapon. Naturally, that task is easier said than done.

“The Law as uncertain, vengeance wasn’t.”

I have been waiting for Junkyard Bargain from the instant I finished Junkyard Cats. Which means I have been waiting a little over a year to read this beauty. Was it worth it? A hundred times yes. Though now I find myself already eagerly awaiting news of the sequel. I’m sure that one will be worth the wait as well.

There’s so much to love about Junkyard Bargain, and the series in general. As a cat lover, I especially adore the inclusion of Shining’s dangerous Feline’s. Their personalities (and abilities) take the whole setting to a new level. Then again, I’m a crazy cat lady, so I am probably being a bit biased here. Oh well.

Naturally, Shining herself is another big reason to love this series. She’s been through a lot of trauma, and has become the epitome of ‘what does not kill me makes me stronger.’ It’s going to be interesting to see where her story goes from here, especially where her allies are concerned (I’m trying to hard to be vague here, to avoid spoilers).

This dystopian future is a dark one, and in many ways it feels like the sort of world that only Faith Hunter can dream up. I love seeing her tackle more of a science fiction take, though she still captures human nature in horrifying detail.

Long story short – once again I have fallen in love with a world and story created by Faith Hunter. I can’t wait to read what happens next, but unfortunately I am going to have to practice at being patient.

Thanks to Let’s Talk Promotions (LTP) for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

JUNKYARD BARGAIN Part TWO

I climbed out of bed. It was two hours before dawn, in the cool perfection of a desert morning, and I had work to do. I let the two cat queens of the junkyard prides out of the airlocks, used the waterless personal toilette compartment, yawned, scratched my fingernails through my short hair, and smeared on the first layer of moisturizers and sunscreens.

I sniffed my work clothes from the day before yesterday and decided they weren’t too rank, so I pulled them on. Draping clothes across hot scrap metal in the midday sun helped to make the stench bearable, though nothing got rid of stains and sweat stink like detergent and water. But water was pricy. I lived quarter-to-quarter, which meant I was always broke. Decent now, I poured a cup of coffee and turned to face the airlock hatch, waiting.

Exactly five minutes and fifteen seconds after I rolled from bed, Cupcake tapped on the office door. Just like every morning. After the first couple of mornings, I figured she had learned how to access the chrono and the supply inventory functions of the office to better serve me, so she could get here with my food faster. I hated losing my morning private time, but I hadn’t figured out what to do with my unwanted guest, and Cupcake needed to be useful. A thrall’s desire to please was a little like having a dog that needed to herd, or fetch, or guard. Cupcake needed a job, and when I didn’t give her one, she gave herself one. She had taken over half the meal prep and gardening from Mateo. She cleaned my living area. She had begun organizing the business’s financial records. She was making a detailed map of the property and what scrap was where. She was organizing everything. She was driving me crazy.

I pressed a small spot on the command board to unlock the hatch and said, “Come.”

Cupcake entered through the outer, then inner, airlock doors, backing in with a breakfast tray. “Good morning, Sunshine!” she called. “We have pancakes with stevia, an MRE of fake scrambled eggy goo made with habanero peppers, and roasted beets with garlic. And you got a package in the mail! Look!” She waved a padded brown envelope that crinkled from the pressure of her fingers.

I held in a sigh and a curse. Cupcake was one of those repulsive morning people, and when I didn’t appreciate her efforts, she was also weepy. She was mentally and emotionally geared to ruin my morning, every morning, and nothing I had done except stay silent had stopped her tears.

“It smells kinda funky, but it sat in the hot mailbox all day yesterday,” she informed me, smiling happily, the envelope and flimsy hemp-paper fliers in one hand, the tray in the other.

“Funky how?” I asked, sniffing the air. The only thing I smelled was the habaneros and garlic.

“Rotten meat funky,” she said, waving it again.

My eyes landed on the envelope.

Cupcake placed the food tray and mail on the dinette bench, snapped open a tablecloth, and unloaded the china and sterling silver onto the cheap laminated table. I had no idea which outer shed she had raided for the expensive fancy dinnerware and the sterling, but on the final day of her transitioning to a thrall, I was eating off fancy porcelain. “Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit,” she said, holding out the package. Gingerly, I accepted it, and caught a whiff of stink.

In dark blue marker was my name. My real name. Shining Smith