"In Laura Resnick's Doppelgangster, the New York actress is 'resting' between roles by working as a singing waitress at a Manhattan mob restaurant because wiseguys tip well. Then duplicated gangsters appear, bullets start flying, and it's up to Esther and her friend Max the Magician to fight Evil by stopping the gang war before it starts killing the wrong people. And if she has time, maybe Esther can actually keep a hot date with her hunky detective friend Lopez, who doesn't believe in magic. Yet. Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read." --New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney

From Publishers WeeklyResnick, who has written 11 romance novels under the pseudonym Laura Leone, breaks into historical fantasy with this lengthy chronicle of the land of Sileria's quest for freedom. This island nation has been oppressed for a thousand years by one conquering neighbor after another because the various segments of its population can't unite against a common enemy, currently the merciless Valdani Empire. Rising from his humble hovel to challenge the Imperial Roman-like overlords, the messianic Firebringer, Josarian the peasant, allies with the exiled arch-warrior Tansen, the cunning courtesan Elelar, the fire-Guardian Mirabar and the wizardly waterlord Kiloran. Gathering steam for a united Silerian rebellion requires enough pages to allow Resnick to concoct a rich brew of conspiracies, simmer several juicy romantic entanglements in a heady broth of blood feuds and massacres, and baste her conventional sword-and-sorcery plot with spicy rituals and trendy psychobabble. Resnick's most convincing figures are Josarian and Tansen, each haunted by shattering past mistakes and losses, but her principal women, the mouthy teenager Mirabar and the all-for-the-cause leg-spreading Elelar, come off as contemporary romance heroines whose fantasy costumes seem to be chafing them raw. Big and brawly, this first installment of Silerian history dangles in midair, screaming for its announced sequel. (Aug.) FYI: Resnick, daughter of award-winning SF author Mike Resnick, won the 1993 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalDetermined to free their country of Sileria from its Valdani conquerors, a freedom fighter, a noblewoman, an exiled warrior, and a vengeful mage put aside their personal vendettas to follow the lead of a young seer whose visions promise an end to slavery. Romance author Resnick makes her fantasy debut with a smoothly narrated, intricate tale of revolution and the human heart. The characters' efforts to overcome the barriers that divide them and discover their common bonds provides a welcome depth to this series opener and sets the stage for future titles. A solid choice for most fantasy collections.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers WeeklyResnick brings her outstanding two-part fantasy saga, which began with White Dragon: In Fire Forged, Part One (2003), to a fully satisfying conclusion. After the defeat of the Valdani conquerors, the land of Sileria faces a threat from its most powerful caste, the Waterlords, who through their control of the water supply can extort obedience from a thirsty populace. Tansen, Sileria's greatest warrior, and Mirabar, a prophetess and fire wizard, lead the rebellion against the water cartels. Mirabar's visions suggest that for Sileria to be truly free, water magic cannot simply be vanquished-it must remain a part of Sileria's future. Tansen, with his deep-seated hatred of Waterlords, may find this notion hard to accept, she realizes. Fast-paced, witty and full of action, the book is a marvel of storytelling, but it's the credible, complex relationships among the characters that elevates this far above the usual fantasy standard. One of the book's greatest accomplishments is the humanization of the mad Waterlord Baran. At its heart, this is a story of family ties-those we choose, and those that choose us. Resnick fans have cause to rejoice.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistResnick completes, for the moment, at least, the stories of Sileria begun in In Legend Born (1998) and continued in The White Dragon (2003). Sileria, whose patron deity is Dar, the volcanic goddess of destruction, has known one conqueror after another. In The White Dragon the rebel Josarian, with the aid of the wielders of fire magic called the Guardians, defeated the most recent overlords, the Valdani. Josarian was killed shortly thereafter, and now his heir, Tansen, must deal with the Waterlords, who control the precious resource for which they are named. The rivalries and feuds continue fast and furious, not to say bloody, and Tansen nearly loses his life. But a mysterious boy from the ranks of the Waterlords saves Tansen to continue his struggle to a breathless and satisfactory conclusion. The tale will certainly keep its series audience industriously turning pages and make them hope Resnick has more in store for them. Frieda MurrayCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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In the days leading up to Christmas, and in accordance with the rituals of a religion which is not her own, struggling actress Esther Diamond is working as a singing-and-dancing elf at Fenster & Co, a major Manhattan department store. Meanwhile, Detective Lopez, Esther's former almost-boyfriend, is investigating a series of mob-related truck hijackings of Fenster's costly merchandise. Lucky Battistuzzi, a semi-retired hit man in the Gambello crime family, is also investigating the thefts, since the Gambellos, who didn't commit the robberies, are being inconveniently implicated in these events. Esther becomes aware of mysterious and alarming events at Fenster's, quite apart from lurking wiseguys, squabbling shoppers, and half-naked elves. Alerted to her concerns, her friend Dr. Maximillian Zadok, Manhattan's resident mage, soon suspects that Evil is afoot in the crowded department store.Before long, Max and Esther realize that the famous shopping mecca has become the planned staging ground for the rebirth of a voracious ancient demon that's plotting to take advantage of the winter solstice, when darkness prevails, to escape its amorphous mystical prison and commence a reign of terror in New York City. Can Max and Esther protect their city, save Detective Lopez from a sex-starved ancient entity, and survive Christianity's most exhausting holiday?Review"Fans of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series will appreciate this series' lively heroine and the appealing combination of humor, mystery, and romance."(Library Journal, Starred Review (for Esther Diamond series) )"Esther Diamond is the Stephanie Plum of urban fantasy! ...Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read!"(Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author (for Esther Diamond series) )"This is one of my all-time favorite urban fantasy series and I highly recommend it to any fan of the genre. Light-hearted, zany, suspenseful, surprising, and romantic."(Sci Fi Chick (for Esther Diamond series) )"Dopplegangster is a joy from start to finish.... It's a wonderful blend of comedy and surprising suspense. If you haven't met Esther Diamond yet, then you're missing out on a lot of fun."(Linda Howard, New York Times bestselling author (for Esther Diamond series) )"Gleeful, clever... [Resnick] spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine. Sexy interludes raise the tension between Lopez and Esther as she juggles magical assailants, her perennially distracted agent, her meddling mother, and wiseguys both friendly and threatening in a well-crafted, rollicking mystery."(Publishers Weekly (for Esther Diamond series) )"Esther is a witty and charming heroine to follow. For anyone who enjoys a bit of paranormal with more than a dash of humor and a great mystery."(Parkersburg News & Sentinel (for Esther Diamond series) )"This is an unforgettable book. If you love vampires, humorous situations, and intrigue, go out and read it!"(Night Owl Reviews (for Esther Diamond series) ) About the AuthorLaura Resnick's previous fantasy novels include The White Dragon, which made the "Year's Best" lists of Publishers Weekly  and Voya, and The Destroyer Goddess, which Publishers Weekly describes as "a marvel of storytelling." Under the pseudonym Laura Leone, she is the award-winning author of more than a dozen romance novels, including Fever Dreams, which Romantic Times named as a "Top Pick," and Fallen From Grace, which was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America's Rita Award. She is also the Campbell Award-winning author of more than 60 short stories. The Esther Diamond series is her first venture into modern urban paranormal fantasy.

Esther Diamond's year gets off to a rocky start when NYPD's Detective Connor Lopez, who slept with her and then didn't call, shuts down her current place of employment and gets her arrested. Once she's out of handcuffs, and with no paying work on the frigid horizon, Esther takes a small role in a grad student's film project in Chinatown—where her friend semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi, who escaped Lopez's sweep at the Little Italy restaurant where Esther works between acting jobs, is hiding out in a Chinese-Italian mortuary. Esther and Lucky soon realize that something strange is going on in Chinatown, where beautifully handcrafted fortune cookies are inflicting deadly mystical curses on the hapless victims who receive them as gifts—and before long, Esther learns that Detective Lopez is one of the recipients. As preparations for Chinese New Year heat up in the ice-covered neighborhood, when the streets will be filled with costumed lion dancers, firecrackers, and dense crowds, Esther and Lucky summon the help of their friend Max, a semi-immortal mage and semi-solvent bookseller, to help them save Chinatown and Lopez (with whom Esther is not on speaking terms) from a mystical murderer of maniacal menace.