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Heaven & Earth #1
The Tenants of 7C
On a back alley in Toronto’s Kensington Market, above the Heaven & Earth Bakery, there’s an apartment with a room for rent. The rent is negotiable. The location varies. Humans need not apply.
For Nick, who calls 7C home, real life can be a lot weirder than his friends’ role-playing games. Between regular stints at his job delivering bread and cinnamon buns to the otherworldly population of the city, these days he finds himself dodging attacks from vampire-hunting tourists, possessed pigeons, and his boss’s unborn child. He really shouldn’t waste time worrying whether his roommate Takehiko likes him—dude’s not even human.
Come to think of it, neither is Nick.
Welcome to a world of obnoxious fairies and bored vampires, satyrs who love ’80s music and demons who play video games. Welcome to 7C. Good luck finding the bathroom.
This collection contains the first three Heaven & Earth stories: “The Tenants of 7C,” “The Siege of 7C,” and “7C Goes Down,” plus bonus pages.
For Nick, who calls 7C home, real life can be a lot weirder than his friends’ role-playing games. Between regular stints at his job delivering bread and cinnamon buns to the otherworldly population of the city, these days he finds himself dodging attacks from vampire-hunting tourists, possessed pigeons, and his boss’s unborn child. He really shouldn’t waste time worrying whether his roommate Takehiko likes him—dude’s not even human.
Come to think of it, neither is Nick.
Welcome to a world of obnoxious fairies and bored vampires, satyrs who love ’80s music and demons who play video games. Welcome to 7C. Good luck finding the bathroom.
This collection contains the first three Heaven & Earth stories: “The Tenants of 7C,” “The Siege of 7C,” and “7C Goes Down,” plus bonus pages.
226 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2014
8 people are currently reading
449 people want to read
About the author
Alice Degan
11 books35 followersAlice Degan is an academic and novelist (who also sometimes writes short stories). She studies and teaches medieval literature, and writes urban fantasy and something she likes to call metaphysical romance. She lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 12, 2023
Well, that was differently different.
Alice Degan is perhaps better known to the M/M community as A.J. Demas. She writes in a wonderful alt-universe version of ancient Greece. I've generally liked those stories, and she's gotten better with her pacing in them as the years go by.
This series was written before those others, and from this short story alone, I have no idea if there are going to be any LGBT characters later on or how much that will matter to the story if there are. This is certainly not romance. It's pure urban fantasy, and it sets up a very weird world.
You've got Clare, who is newly promoted at her job at Stake Inc (it's vampire focused, though there are no vampires in this story) and she comes to find out that there is more to the company than the "family-friendly" fake hunts they set up. She also may not be fully human herself, since she can sniff out paranormal activity - literally. She uses said powers to find the Heaven & Earth café and the apartment above it, simply called 7C, full of tenants of the non-human variety.
This ends on quite a weird note since And it ends sort of mid-scene, even mid-paragraph. It's rather abrupt.
The second I saw vampires were a part of this world, I wavered on my interest, but I did want to see how they would be used. And then there are no vampires in this one (but apparently, they're mostly harmless in this world). There are other creatures like werewolves, fauns/satyrs, yokai and fay, for starters.
I did get the second one while it was free, so I'll probably read it at some point to see what trajectory she goes in from here. But I'm pretty lukewarm about this series at this point.
Alice Degan is perhaps better known to the M/M community as A.J. Demas. She writes in a wonderful alt-universe version of ancient Greece. I've generally liked those stories, and she's gotten better with her pacing in them as the years go by.
This series was written before those others, and from this short story alone, I have no idea if there are going to be any LGBT characters later on or how much that will matter to the story if there are. This is certainly not romance. It's pure urban fantasy, and it sets up a very weird world.
You've got Clare, who is newly promoted at her job at Stake Inc (it's vampire focused, though there are no vampires in this story) and she comes to find out that there is more to the company than the "family-friendly" fake hunts they set up. She also may not be fully human herself, since she can sniff out paranormal activity - literally. She uses said powers to find the Heaven & Earth café and the apartment above it, simply called 7C, full of tenants of the non-human variety.
This ends on quite a weird note since And it ends sort of mid-scene, even mid-paragraph. It's rather abrupt.
The second I saw vampires were a part of this world, I wavered on my interest, but I did want to see how they would be used. And then there are no vampires in this one (but apparently, they're mostly harmless in this world). There are other creatures like werewolves, fauns/satyrs, yokai and fay, for starters.
I did get the second one while it was free, so I'll probably read it at some point to see what trajectory she goes in from here. But I'm pretty lukewarm about this series at this point.
January 1, 2018
I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review
I was stuck between 3 and 4 stars on this but ultimately I decided to go with 3. I think what was throwing me off was the formatting of the story. From what I can tell this was originally published as a serial and then put together into this book as what is essentially two novellas, but it's not really presented that was so when the story abruptly changed halfway through it took me a minute to get my bearings again. I was wondering what happened to the girl from the first story for quite awhile before I finally figured it out.
Other than that these are some pretty fun stories. I love urban fantasy worlds that combine a lot of different types of mythologies, and I also love things set in buildings with rooms that change themselves around so this was a lot of fun for me overall. One thing I am kind of uncertain about at this point is Nick's sexuality - to me it's being implied that he's bisexual but there are also a few things that make me think it's more a case of queerbaiting. BUT I'm not sure so I'm going to hope for the best in that area and plan to continue with the next book.
I was stuck between 3 and 4 stars on this but ultimately I decided to go with 3. I think what was throwing me off was the formatting of the story. From what I can tell this was originally published as a serial and then put together into this book as what is essentially two novellas, but it's not really presented that was so when the story abruptly changed halfway through it took me a minute to get my bearings again. I was wondering what happened to the girl from the first story for quite awhile before I finally figured it out.
Other than that these are some pretty fun stories. I love urban fantasy worlds that combine a lot of different types of mythologies, and I also love things set in buildings with rooms that change themselves around so this was a lot of fun for me overall. One thing I am kind of uncertain about at this point is Nick's sexuality - to me it's being implied that he's bisexual but there are also a few things that make me think it's more a case of queerbaiting. BUT I'm not sure so I'm going to hope for the best in that area and plan to continue with the next book.
December 5, 2015
There is something about urban fantasy that takes place in a city well-known to the reader that adds a level of charm and attraction. The Toronto setting of The Tenants of 7C was a bonus for me, but even without knowing the Kensington Market district, this is a delightful collection of connected short stories.
Above the Heaven & Earth Bakery, in an obscure back alley, the tenants of apartment 7C are an eclectic mixture of decidedly non-human characters: a young werewolf, a Japanese demon, and a very young satyr. They share the rooms of 7C: rooms that aren't in the same dimension as the actual building, and frequently don't stay in one place. The bakery itself isn't really meant for humans either, its breads and cinnamon rolls providing sustenance to a wide range of supernatural creatures. How these three co-exist and survive in a their dual world, both with other “others” and with humans are the central conflict of each story.
While in some ways reminiscent of Charles deLint's books, especially his early work set in Ottawa, The Tenants of 7C focuses on the lives of the 'others', not the lives of humans who interact with them. The characters of the werewolf Nick, Takehiko, the Japanese demon, and Yiannis, the satyr child, are not just stereotypes, but dimensioned individuals whose personalities develop over the collection. Nick, who is the protagonist, is especially well-realized, completely believable as a seventeen-year old who doesn't fit in but is doing his best to manage his life, attending an alternative high-school, worried about his relationship with his parents, wishing his life were easier. It's just that his problems, unlike most troubled adolescents, involve him turning into a wolf.
Degan's writing is polished and competent and the tone and structure fits the action and mood of each story appropriately. She can switch the mood from light-hearted or contemplative to frightening in a few sentences, and uses enough manga, gaming and Doctor Who connections to make the stories attractive to a young adult/new adult audience (I verified this with a early-twenties friend), but the stories are also deeply rooted in, and consistent with, older traditions of fantasy. Degan blends these strands of different fantasy genres and traditions well, not an easy feat.
I had only a couple of niggles. Because the stories in The Tenants of 7C are not a linear narrative, but rather vignettes and episodes in a larger world-under-construction, there are some loose ends, sub-plots that arise but are not completed in this volume, and some inconsistencies. I wanted to know what happened in those subplots and to those characters that are introduced but disappear. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next book!
Overall, 4 stars. If you're a fan of urban fantasy, The Tenants of 7C is definitely worth your time.
The author provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions here are mine alone.
Review by Goodreads Author Marian Thorpe Empire's Daughter
Above the Heaven & Earth Bakery, in an obscure back alley, the tenants of apartment 7C are an eclectic mixture of decidedly non-human characters: a young werewolf, a Japanese demon, and a very young satyr. They share the rooms of 7C: rooms that aren't in the same dimension as the actual building, and frequently don't stay in one place. The bakery itself isn't really meant for humans either, its breads and cinnamon rolls providing sustenance to a wide range of supernatural creatures. How these three co-exist and survive in a their dual world, both with other “others” and with humans are the central conflict of each story.
While in some ways reminiscent of Charles deLint's books, especially his early work set in Ottawa, The Tenants of 7C focuses on the lives of the 'others', not the lives of humans who interact with them. The characters of the werewolf Nick, Takehiko, the Japanese demon, and Yiannis, the satyr child, are not just stereotypes, but dimensioned individuals whose personalities develop over the collection. Nick, who is the protagonist, is especially well-realized, completely believable as a seventeen-year old who doesn't fit in but is doing his best to manage his life, attending an alternative high-school, worried about his relationship with his parents, wishing his life were easier. It's just that his problems, unlike most troubled adolescents, involve him turning into a wolf.
Degan's writing is polished and competent and the tone and structure fits the action and mood of each story appropriately. She can switch the mood from light-hearted or contemplative to frightening in a few sentences, and uses enough manga, gaming and Doctor Who connections to make the stories attractive to a young adult/new adult audience (I verified this with a early-twenties friend), but the stories are also deeply rooted in, and consistent with, older traditions of fantasy. Degan blends these strands of different fantasy genres and traditions well, not an easy feat.
I had only a couple of niggles. Because the stories in The Tenants of 7C are not a linear narrative, but rather vignettes and episodes in a larger world-under-construction, there are some loose ends, sub-plots that arise but are not completed in this volume, and some inconsistencies. I wanted to know what happened in those subplots and to those characters that are introduced but disappear. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next book!
Overall, 4 stars. If you're a fan of urban fantasy, The Tenants of 7C is definitely worth your time.
The author provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions here are mine alone.
Review by Goodreads Author Marian Thorpe Empire's Daughter
February 16, 2023
I got this urban fantasy short story for free from the author's newsletter. Under the pen name A.J. Demas, she writes gay fantasy fiction inspired by ancient Greece. I liked her entire Sword Dance series, and I enjoyed her novels Honey and Pepper and One Night in Boukos. So of course, I jumped at the chance to read her earlier work.
I didn't like this short story overmuch, but it was a nice quick read. I won't be pursuing this series, but I'm eagerly awaiting her next book by A.J. Demas.
I didn't like this short story overmuch, but it was a nice quick read. I won't be pursuing this series, but I'm eagerly awaiting her next book by A.J. Demas.
April 29, 2025
Another Alice Degan book, this time a collection of linked short stories. I’m not entirely sure I liked this one. It’s urban fantasy, set in Canada. It takes a rather unusual tack of introducing the main characters by starting with a short POV by someone who’s working for a company that literally hunts magical beings for sport. Which is not at all a sympathetic perspective. Of course, this way the character can get the worldbuilding explained to them, but I wasn’t very fond of it.
Not entirely sure the Japanese demon character or the setup for the gay romance was handled well at all either. Degan still has a touch for writing characters engagingly, but I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel.
Not entirely sure the Japanese demon character or the setup for the gay romance was handled well at all either. Degan still has a touch for writing characters engagingly, but I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel.
December 16, 2017
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The synopsis did absolutely not do this book any justice. Everything from the plot lines to the characters to the setting were all such original ideas that I couldn't help but be surprised and enthralled at every turn. From the moment that the apartment (7C) was described I was completely hooked. I wanted to be there, exploring it. I wanted to talk to the characters and ask them questions, get to know them. All except for Claire, who is the most unlikeable character in the book.
The book was short, and was surprisingly full of conflict for a book of it's size. It didn't dwell on any one thing in particular or drag anything circumstances out, so there were no dull parts in the book. It was a nice smooth, descriptive and interesting read that I enjoyed far more than I expected to. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
To read my full review please go to https://opinionatedbw.blogspot.ca/
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The synopsis did absolutely not do this book any justice. Everything from the plot lines to the characters to the setting were all such original ideas that I couldn't help but be surprised and enthralled at every turn. From the moment that the apartment (7C) was described I was completely hooked. I wanted to be there, exploring it. I wanted to talk to the characters and ask them questions, get to know them. All except for Claire, who is the most unlikeable character in the book.
The book was short, and was surprisingly full of conflict for a book of it's size. It didn't dwell on any one thing in particular or drag anything circumstances out, so there were no dull parts in the book. It was a nice smooth, descriptive and interesting read that I enjoyed far more than I expected to. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
To read my full review please go to https://opinionatedbw.blogspot.ca/
August 13, 2017
I am a lifelong fantasy fan and am always looking for something new and different. The Tenants of 7C by Alice Degan is exactly that! She takes many of fantasy’s tropes, including elves/fairies, werewolves, vampires, satyrs, and other mythic creatures and mixes them with modern-day Toronto (one of my favorite cities in the world). Most humans are in denial about the presence of Others, but some are evil enough to know the human world won’t miss a few Others killed for sport. The ensuing conflict allows all to demonstrate their true natures, both good and bad. There are enough issues left unresolved for future stories set in this well-imagined world. Also in the book are a few vignettes that provide some background on the characters, enriching the already vibrant cast. I look forward to reading the next in the series, Attack of the Metaplot!
September 8, 2017
I was incredibly entertained as I read this book. Fantasy, magic, paranormals all combine to make this a page turner. Nick is a young werewolf, with only one desire and is to fit in and finish high school. Tacky is a japanese demon who was magicked out of a picture and now resides and is the protector of 7c. Bakery goodies that have different functions and makes you feel good. Rose, a pregnant young woman who does the baking and fixes everyone's problems, a young vampire, a child satyr magic pencils and you have an entertaining book that breaks up into different smaller stories, but carries the thread of the same characters and 7c throughout the book. I truly enjoyed the book and know if others pick it up, they will enjoy this book too. Now on to the next one in this series.
September 17, 2025
I was having withdrawal symptoms after bingeing AJ Demas, culminating in the stellar Boy Bride (not on Goodreads; I have alerted the Librarians). Find it here: https://sextonscottage.com/products/the-boy-bride
So I read this supernatural urban novella by the same author under a different name. I don't like books with werewolves and such in them but this one was actually a compelling read. I enjoyed the characters, the strange atmo, found family, business model, Toronto setting, the ambivalent and ambiguous pov character and the sexy bat-like boy. Quite page-turnery. Might read the rest of the series.
So I read this supernatural urban novella by the same author under a different name. I don't like books with werewolves and such in them but this one was actually a compelling read. I enjoyed the characters, the strange atmo, found family, business model, Toronto setting, the ambivalent and ambiguous pov character and the sexy bat-like boy. Quite page-turnery. Might read the rest of the series.
September 7, 2020
The Tenants of 7C was a good urban fantasy collection. Admittedly I like it when stories are set in Canada, and this book felt very Canadian in terms of location and language/word choice. The characters were interesting and I enjoyed the pop culture references. All of the stories were good, but I was a bit confused by some of the details in "7C Goes Down."
October 19, 2017
I was a little annoyed at first because this book consists of short stories that read like chapters. Sequentially, the stories are not in order, but they are well written. I honestly feel they could be basis of a true novel instead of a collection of mini-adventures.
December 31, 2017
An interesting and exciting story! I was pleasantly surprised by it. A good UF story that perhaps is leaning more towards YA readers, I enjoyed it nonetheless.
November 11, 2022
I enjoyed this book, but I would have enjoyed it more if I realized at the beginning that it was a series of short stories. I thought it was a novel and kept waiting for the plot to circle back around to characters in the first story. I loved another book by the same author “from all false doctrine“, and by comparison thought this book was just light entertainment
November 26, 2014
Clare is a new field agent for Stake, Inc., an urban adventure tour company offering hunts for paranormal creatures: vampires, werewolves, and the like. Some of these hunts are staged, faked by actors and staff. Others are very, very real, especially if you have enough money. Based in the now, everything falls into place with a malfunctioning smart phone app meant to find magical energy signatures, a hidden bakery where everything is described as the best pastry ever, and a crazy apartment where the doors don't always lead to the same rooms.
I enjoyed the mystery of getting to know the characters and who - or what - they are. This is just the first in the Heaven and Earth Series, each revolving around the residents of Apartment 7C above the Heaven and Earth bakery. The reader instantly gets a feel for Clare as a person and how she views her perceived place in the world. She as a few quirks even she isn't quite aware of.
I give this one 4 Stars and recommend it to those who like reading about a variety of paranormal types or anyone who likes a short fantasy read. I felt just a tab bit confused in the first few pages as to what job Clare was working on due to what I felt were vague references, but everything clarified after that and ended with a great lead-in to the next book. I look forward to reading the next installment as time permits.
I enjoyed the mystery of getting to know the characters and who - or what - they are. This is just the first in the Heaven and Earth Series, each revolving around the residents of Apartment 7C above the Heaven and Earth bakery. The reader instantly gets a feel for Clare as a person and how she views her perceived place in the world. She as a few quirks even she isn't quite aware of.
I give this one 4 Stars and recommend it to those who like reading about a variety of paranormal types or anyone who likes a short fantasy read. I felt just a tab bit confused in the first few pages as to what job Clare was working on due to what I felt were vague references, but everything clarified after that and ended with a great lead-in to the next book. I look forward to reading the next installment as time permits.
May 24, 2023
I labeled this "currently reading" because I subscribe to A.J. Demas's newsletter, Demas is Alice Degan's alter ego, and a revised version of the first novella of the three in this no-longer-available edition came as a newsletter freebie the other day. I gobbled it up and now I'm here to say it! was! so! much! fun! (though there's a bit toward the end that made me cry, because of course there is) and I can't wait for AJD/AD to re-release the whole thing. SOON PLEASE.
ETA: the first 6 novellas are out now; I have read the first 5, bought the 6th, and gotten my wife hooked on the series as well.
Also, if Takehiko and Nick don't get together I may die.
ETA: the first 6 novellas are out now; I have read the first 5, bought the 6th, and gotten my wife hooked on the series as well.
Also, if Takehiko and Nick don't get together I may die.
April 11, 2017
The Tenants of 7C is a unique paranormal plot that includes a cast of human-like mythical creatures. While Degan’s often-humorous scenes are rather refreshing, aficionados of this genre may find themselves frustrated with her weak character development.
Read the rest of this review at UndergroundBookReviews.org
Read the rest of this review at UndergroundBookReviews.org
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews