Tag Archives: witch

Queen of Diamonds (by Mark Henwick)

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Urban Fantasy

The first six books in the Bite Back series are books of becoming. Inside Straight (book 6) felt very much like an end to that part of the story. Amber Farrell has grown into her three parts, her athenate (vampire), were and adept (witch). 

Queen of Diamonds is a new chapter. Her house, her pack and her coven are all united and now she must move forward with uniting the werewolves and the athenate of North America while fighting a secret war against their enemies. 

Amber travels from Denver to New Mexico and then on to Louisiana battling House Matlal. But there are rumours of a powerful witch in New Orleans, a witch who is the goddess of her own world. 

It really is difficult to talk about this book. The entire series has been 4 or 5 Stars for me, and this is probably my favorite book in the series. It has everything you expect from an Amber Farrell book but the ending is a complete mind f––k. I finished a week ago and I still don’t really know what just hit me. I suspect I will need the next book before I start to understand what just happened. 

Black Arts (by Faith Hunter)

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Urban Fantasy

Background

 Jane Yellowrock is the last Cherokee Skinwalker. Using bones and teeth as her template she is able to transform into any animal, but on top of this ability, many hundreds of years earlier she took the soul of a mountain lion into her in a life and death battle.  That mountain lion is named Beast and she lends to Jane the skills of a predator, a powerful sense of smell and super agility, not to mention some not altogether welcome advice on mating.

Jane works as a vampire hunter and the acting enforcer for Leo Pellissier, the vampire master of the city of New Orleans. 

Black Arts

Jane’s oldest and dearest friend, Molly Trueblood has disappeared, and she was on her way to see Jane when it happened.  When Evan, an air-witch and Molly’s husband shows up with their two children he brings with him a tornado and a whole truckload of worry.

Jane quickly learns that his worries are well founded, it looks like Molly has been taken by a vampire. And with the strange scent of witch and vampire showing up, she is worried that Molly is being used to power blood magic…and blood magic always demands a life.

Black Arts is book seven in the Jane Yellowrock series and in some ways I think it’s the best yet. Certainly the best since book one, Skinwalker.  Some of my favorite characters, characters who have been absent for the last couple of books have returned and things which have been bubbling away in the series are finally resolved, for both good and bad.

This book really feels like a fresh start and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for proving me with this ARC.

The Coven series (by Trish Milburn)

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Book 1, White Witch

Jax is no ordinary high-school girl. She’s a witch with a powerful darkness inside her. After fleeing from her coven she finds herself in the mountains of North Carolina where she can hopefully live a peaceful life. But Jax knows more than anyone what the coven will do to someone who leaves.

As she attends school she makes a couple of friends and actually starts dating. But things are never that simple especially when her boyfriend, Keller, comes from a family of supernatural hunters.  Keller and his father have dedicated their lives to killing her kind, and she is struggling to keep her burgeoning powers under control.

Book 2, Bane

 

The darkness inside her is starting to assert more control and Jax travels to Salem in search of answers. She desperately needs to find the Bane, a shadowy group of witches who might just hold the secrets to containing her powers. But they are elusive and she’s not sure what kind of welcome she will get from them even if she does find them.

While she hunts for answers, somebody is hunting her. A supernatural hunter who is seen as a zealot even by other supernatural hunters. And her coven is suspiciously quiet which can only mean storm clouds are on the horizon.

Book 3, Magick

 

The Coven Series is Young Adult Urban Fantasy at its absolute best.  It does everything I expect from books in this genre and does it superbly. The series is great fun and completely addictive.

The best urban fantasy I’ve read since Carolyn Crane’s The Disilluionists trilogy.