“One of the best depictions of Paris I have seen,” award winning fantasy author says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

“One of the best depictions of Paris I have seen,” award winning fantasy author says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

A fresh YA urban fantasy that fans of the genre shouldn’t miss

Author Nicholas Rossis

When Boca finished her Unlemoija series, I wondered what direction she’d take next. Her Marshal series was a pleasant surprise. It continues building on her imaginative Weeia world, in a way that makes perfect sense. The story continuity alone is impressive, but Boca also manages to throw in a remarkable new heroine. One who’s only too human, despite being a Weeia – and one that emerges all the stronger because of it. From her filthy tobacco-chewing to her occasionally irrational behavior, Danni is a down-to-earth character. A flawed hero who is shaped by her struggles; quite unlike the almost-perfect Unelmoija. That alone makes it easy for readers to identify with.

To me, that was the greatest strength of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia, and I find Boca’s choice of her new heroine to be bold and exciting. If you throw in one of the best depictions of Paris I have seen in a while – warts and all – this is a fresh YA urban fantasy that fans of the genre shouldn’t miss. Can’t wait to see where Boca brings Danni next.

Nicholas Rossis, award winning author Pearseus epic fantasy series

“Author Elle Boca strikes a high chord,” reviewer says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

“Author Elle Boca strikes a high chord,” reviewer says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

The ending will blow you away

Fran Lewis

The world we live in has people that look like us but are really not. Their outward appearances when walking in the street would not alert you or anyone that they are different, possess powers that we would all like to have and are there for the sole purpose of protecting humans and Weeia alike. But, sometimes things happen and even Weeia are placed in positions of danger and although their lifespan is longer than humans, they are subject to the same dangers we are when someone or something decides to take control and end their lives.

Danni has just passed her test as an advanced Marshall after having dealt with a practical joke played on her by a group called the Purs. Astute, smart and definitely at the top of her class she and the others that passed are about to embark on their new found missions in various locations. But, Danni’s elation and excitement after sharing where her mission will take her with her best friend Marcy and her aunt and uncle is short lived. A secret meeting with the director about the circumstances of the mission, what happened to her predecessors and the reason she was chosen might make someone, but not Danni shudder and think twice before accepting the assignment. Getting her new equipment, learning how to use the new technology Ernie and knowing that she is going to miss him and everyone else, Danni manages to enter the airport, sit on a plane for more hours than anyone would care to and winds up having to find transportation approved of by her bosses and then enters where she will live to find it not quite what you or anyone else would expect to find in Paris. The building was dirty, her apartment once she found it was filled with dust, dirty linens and rodents and not livable plus no plumbing. Hoping to encourage her new boss to fix the problem she finds her way to a hotel for the night hoping to get some solace and relief. But, things are just starting to heat up for Danni and Paris is not going to be the dream job she expected.

Becoming friends with a young man who is into fixing vintage cars and motorcycles keeps her busy while the person in charge of giving her cases seems quite absent. Where is Francois and why isn’t he alerting her to anyone that needs her attention? Learning from the start that she is going to have to be assertive and dominant, she immediately lets the woman in charge of where she is staying that certain things need to be addressed and now. The rodents, the lack of plumbing and her excuses do not hold with Danni but things have not started to happen and the reasons for the deaths of the men that had her position before her still have to come to light.

Tenacious, work oriented and wondering why the list of suspects wanted was not posted she insists that the office be updated with a computer, updated wanted information and in so doing she does come across someone wanted for over twenty years for murder. Going to where this person runs an outside stand she manages to arrest him but since this is not a normal world and people are not what they seem this criminal when arrested leaves her with something deadly. Hoping to gain some respect even though Danni needs a makeover and fashion coordinator to make her appearance more professional and presentable some might say, she finds herself in need of a healer to rid her of the deadly poison this villain managed to inject in her without her realizing it.

Things change after a while and she continues to befriend Alain who allows her to borrow his scooter for transportation and the author gives readers an upfront tour of the entire city allowing us to know that not all of Paris is glitz and glam and that there are seedy parts and some amazing in a city that is special.

Going back to where she arrested the murderer she feels the presence of Weeia and understands that the vendor sold some Weeia powers to gypsies. Danni is commanded to help a man named Monsieur Peracles find out who is sabotaging his bakery business and who is causing his products to go bad. Thinking it’s his competition and with a personality that Danni find offensive she manages to get her points across as she tries to learn the truth.

Investigating she learns the truth behind the products made by the workers in Peracle’s bakery, the real company that now owns and might be responsible for ruining his reputation and the poor quality of the products. Danni springs for having the food tested by several labs and what she learns would give anyone of us food poisoning and a phone call to the Board of Health. But, Danni is not quite done yet and is approached by someone named Berthe to find her uncle who is missing. Dealing with the gypsies is dangerous, finding herself along with her friend Iaen hurt and in need of the healer again. But, Danni is strong, takes down the enemy somehow single handed, is searching for the missing man and the end result just might tie in all in together but how. Let’s not forget Bob, the homeless man and his dog Achilles, whom Danni helps with food and money but who would not take any of the goods from Peracles’s bakery. While is rival makes the best pastries in town his bread is made from old and rancid materials. Why would the new owners do that and what did they hope to gain? Who is really behind it and will the truth ever come out?

While Iaen and Danni try to outfox the gypsies she has to determine whether she can trust him or whether he is setting her up. With the Weeia is wants to rescue drugged and tied up by the gypsies, the bakery problem on hold and a boss who seems ambivalent to solving crimes and getting the bad guys in jail, Danni seems like a one woman force all her own.

As Danni and Iaen discuss the plan and she contacts Francois her boss and Patrick his friend they come up with a plan to rescue the man from the gypsies that is quite unique, clever and forces her boss to use his skills in an operation rather than spending his days having lunch with his dog Ceri. A plan quite intricate that only Danni could develop as we learn that she is a force to be reckoned with and one that I am sure author Elle Boca has plans for in the future.

The plan was quite extensive and the outcome you just won’t believe. Who can be trusted and who will live another day trying to escape the Gypsies, the illusions created by Danni, the plot to destroy the bakery as Danni proves she is smart, astute and not afraid to go that extra powerful mile and use her skills and power for justice. But, who wins and who dies? Will she remain in Paris? The ending will blow you away. Will Francois accept her the way she is and looks or will well you decide if she needs to wear a dress to get the job done?

Secrets are still hidden and the end is far from near, as the final chapter will shock readers when you learn the hidden truth behind what is the fate of one group and that of another. Will Danni survive her new job? Will her boss ever realize that she is an asset? Who is the leader of the Romany for France and what role does this person play?

Author Elle Boca strikes a high chord when she introduces Danni our advanced Marshall to readers letting everyone know she is a total force to be reckoned with and I think she has only just gotten started.

Fran Lewis, Just reviews/MJ Magazine

“Wonderful writing highlights a suspenseful read,” reviewer says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

“Wonderful writing highlights a suspenseful read,” reviewer says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

A Heroine to Want to Know Better

Screen Shot 2016-02-18 at 5.39.27 PM

From Tome Tender Book Blog – click to enlarge

A dedicated, new Weeia Marshal, the stars are still in Danni’s eyes. She has visions of capturing the bad guys and keeping the world safe while keeping humans blissfully ignorant of the Weeia around them. When she receives her first posting in Paris, she discovers there is more to the City of Lights than meets the eye, including the nightmare her new home base is. Alone in a strange country, determined to be a good Marshal and frightfully aware of her weight, appearance and gruff manner, life is a struggle for Danni as her absent boss turns out to be a pompous and judgmental, lazy and indifferent leader. Yet her Weeia senses are on high alert, in spite of the disaster she has “inherited” from her deceased predecessors. Follow one determined and internally fragile young woman as she lives for truth, justice and the Weeia way in this exciting new series by Elle Boca. Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia is one more magnetic read to add to Ms. Boca’s accomplishments.

Do you like intrigue and clearly hidden information, as well as a totally dedicated, rough around the edges young heroine? Danni is easy to love, to want to shelter one minute and then just as easily a force to be reckoned with if you are on the wrong side of the Weeia law. Wonderful writing highlights a suspenseful read as characters come and go, and who is actually a good guy is sometimes in doubt. Rarely does a character come across as so human, even if they are Weeia. Great reading, great plot, great characters…and just a little on the fresh, new and different side?

Dianne, reviewer and host of Tome Tender Book Blog

Reader shares her thoughts about winning centered on Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

Reader shares her thoughts about winning centered on Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

Guest post*

Everyone’s A Winner
by Anne Marvin
Anne Marvin

I’ve just started digging into Elle Boca’s latest Weeia novel, Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia. Fortunately for readers everywhere, this series is getting better with each installment. This most recent offering starts with a bang and hasn’t let up. Anyway, the bang that opens this novel got me thinking–and you know what that means!

As the book begins, Danni, our kick-ass protagonist, is preparing to take her field exam to progress to the next level as a Weeia Marshall. As we learn later, Danni has her share of detractors who don’t believe that she belongs at the Academy. In fact, her unpopularity with certain factions has led someone to play a cruel prank, sending a note saying the exam had been pushed back by two hours. Luckily, Danni has some good friends among the student body (and the faculty, as it turns out), and she arrives to the exam late, but nonetheless able to pass with flying colors. Her victory is clouded, however, by the malevolence of her peers and the desire of some to succeed based on her failure. For this faction – you know the type, they exist in truth as well as fantasy – someone has to lose in order for someone else to win.

Truth in Fantasy GTW screen shot

Truth In Fantasy – click to enlarge

I take issue with this zero sum view of winning, as does Elle Boca, if the characters she writes are any reflection of her life philosophy (which I believe they are, as I’ve written before). And I’ve been thinking about these very concepts since I just saw a great quote on Twitter that said, “I don’t believe in competition. I want us all to win.”

Before I get a slew of irate comments and emails about the fallacy of giving all participants participation awards and the annihilation of merit-based promotion, not to mention the equality of everyone, let me say I hear you and I don’t necessarily disagree. It’s foolish and delusional to insist that there are no such things as winners and losers in this world, Little League trophies for showing up to the contrary. But that isn’t what I’m talking about. Clearly, we can’t all win at everything.

What we’re talking about here is the ugly underbelly of competition, the one Ms. Boca illuminates with the fraudulent note intended to ensure Danni failed her test, leaving more slots and better assignments for others. That kind of competitiveness depends on the fallacy of insufficiency–that there is not enough–of anything–to go around. Of course, there are a limited number of Americans who will be our nation’s President, and as each election cycle teaches us, many who want the job. And, as we know from 50 years of Super Bowl games, not every team’s members will get one of those coveted rings, which always makes me a little sad, as they seem to mean so much to those folks. And as I watched my family and friends watching the Super Bowl, they were focused on the winners and their platitudes (“I’m just grateful to have played; I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” do these guys read off the same script?!), while my eyes were on the team that didn’t win and feeling sorry for their loss.

One of my favorite museums in Washington, DC, is called the Newseum, a museum of news. They have a gallery where all of the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs ever taken are displayed. They are all arresting, but one that particularly caught my eye was a photo of the 1992 Nigerian women’s track and field team, after the 4×100 meter race. While all the other photographers were training their lenses on the winning American team, one photographer captured the moment when the Nigerian women realized they had won the bronze–third place–medal. Their incandescent happiness was infectious and the photo is a joy to behold. No losers there.

When I was in graduate school, I studied for my PhD comprehensive exams with two fellow students. The experience of studying together created an incredible bond, despite the fierce competition between us. In the end, when the exams were graded, each of us had passed, which was a relief, but on top of that, each of us had “won” in a way: one of us had the highest scores on an individual question; one had the highest score from the first reader; while the last of us received the highest score from the second reader. We all had a claim to fame, and it made the shared success that much sweeter.

That’s what I want, for everyone to win. In Elle Boca’s book, Danni has a similar attitude, and she’s dismayed when others don’t share her generous view of the world. I feel her pain. Why can’t we all be happy for each other’s wins, big and small? Why does someone need to lose for someone else to win? Does it count if we win on the backs of our fellows? Not to me. I want the world to celebrate my successes, as I celebrate everyone else’s. And yes, I will take off my rose-colored glasses very soon. But the world is so lovely when it’s blushing. Just ask Danni.

Anne Marvin, reader and host, Truthinfantasy.com

*This article was first published on Anne Marvin’s website. She graciously allowed us to share it here. Congratulations to her on the revamped look of Truth In Fantasy. To read the original and more of her articles visit her website at http://www.truthinfantasy.com/blog/everyonesawinner/

“I really liked this book,” reviewer says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

“I really liked this book,” reviewer says of Gypsies, Tramps and Weeia

The sights, sounds, and underground of Paris plays a big part in the narrative, and it gave the story a very nice background

Kelly Smith

I have read works by Ms. Boca before, but none of her previous books can match the skill with which Gypsies was written.

We have a great female lead, Danni, who has a unique mission to patrol for fantastic creatures which masquerade amongst humans. She’s a likable character, very easy to get to know as the book wears on.

The creatures in the book are different from many other books I have been reading lately. They are interesting to read about, and their novelty is a big part of what kept me reading this book.

The main character, to me, was not Danni, but the city of Paris. The sights, sounds, and underground of Paris plays a big part in the narrative, and it gave the story a very nice background.

I really liked this book, and I am excited to read more.

Kelly Smith, reviewer

See the original review at her website http://kellysmithreviews.blogspot.com/2016/02/release-day-book-review-gypsies-tramps.html