Dark Arts and a Daiquiri
The Guild Codex: Spellbound/2
Annette Marie
Narrated by Cris Dukehart
Tantor, Nov 2018
7 hrs, 39 mins
Urban Fantasy/Magic
Purchased-Audible
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love this cover as with all the covers in this series, but this one especially. I love all the swirly stuff and Tori’s direct look. It makes her look up close and personal sitting in her circle holding an artifact. It looks like she’s surrounded by magic and the night! Love it! And this is exactly how I picture her.
The story was really good. A total escape from the guild bar and what’s going on in her life. Tori is talked into acting as bait by her three hunky mage buddies for the “Ghost”, the major local dark arts bad guy who’s killing people, and ends up disappearing herself. Totally unprepared for what she finds, but totally relieved to still be alive, Tori starts poking her nose into all the Ghost’s business and uncovering as many of his secrets as she can until she compromises his security and things become dangerous for him, his people, and her! It takes his and her ingenuity to save them all and get everyone to somewhere safe. And Tori has a little extra baggage, but she won’t find that out until book three. But once again, Tori has formed a bond with someone that no one else could communicate with, and he won’t forget her anytime soon. Another handsome magic-user to her credit!
The pace was pretty brisk and the tension was pretty high most of the time since Tori did so much sneaking around while she was at the farm. She really learned a lot in this book, though, so it was good for her. She came to understand a lot more about magic than what she’d learned at the guild, to see it in a different way. Not good, not bad, just different.
I’m really enjoying this series and I’m hoping to be able to afford to continue it in Audible format since it’s so great this way. I highly recommend this book and this series to all you urban fantasy readers who like nutsy but resilient female characters that are constantly in and out of trouble mostly through curiosity or good intentions. And I highly recommend listening to it, too!
a thoughtful reveal 