Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

Description:
Rachel Morgan has fought and hunted vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter--and lived to tell the tale. But she's never faced off against her own kind . . . until now. Denounced and shunned for dealing with demons and black magic, her best hope is life imprisonment--at worst, a forced lobotomy and genetic slavery.Only her enemies are strong enough to help her win her freedom, but trust comes hard when it hinges on the unscrupulous tycoon Trent Kalamack, the demon Algaliarept, and an ex-boyfriend turned thief

My Review:
As the novel begins we find Rachel loafing around with few jobs to her name and even fewer dollars.  We find she and Ivy shopping on the far side of town, the only place where Rachel can gain access after her shunning.  Suddenly a woman approaches Rachel and without properly identifying herself attempts to drag Rachel off.  Rachel does not comply, of course, and we find ourselves in a fight.

As the novel unwinds it becomes clear that the governing body for witches, basically the council for Standards and Morals has decided that Rachel, as she exists now, is too dangerous to leave alone and must be dealt with.  They have somehow learned that if she has children they will be demons, a threat that they will not tolerate.  So they decide to kidnap her and want to give her a lobotimization or remove her ovaries.  When that fails they send faeries to attack Rachel at her home.  Unfortunately for them, our plucky heroine will have none of it.

Rachel, Janx and Ivy cook up a plan to free Rachel from the threat of the Council and get Trent to stop asking her to be his indentured servant.  This plan includes blackmailing the council and Trent, and other various dangerous concepts. 

The book is fast paced and fun as ever.  However this book rates higher than the previous ones for one simple reason, it has some emotional strength.  During the faery raid, Janx's wife Madelina is killed.  It is through his mourning and Rachel's strenght of love for him that Harrison really shines.  We can see that these characters have been thoroughly created and thought out.  They have real substance and Harrison handles the loss of Janx's wife beautifully.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy, #5) by Ilona Andrews

I received this book as an advanced readers copy from Netgalley. ★★★★★ Ilona Andrews is an author whose novels I voraciously read. This one was no different. I couldn't put this book down and finished it in one sitting. It was action-packed and the chemistry between the protagonist and her love interest was stellar. Reader be aware, this does have a love scene. Many of the author's previous novels, while they feature romantic stories, don't have explicit scenes. This novel is set in a parallel universe where due to an epidemic flu and the subsequent solution, magic has been introduced into the world. I would recommend that any reader who hasn't read the first novels in this series starts with the other series first to give them a good grounding and so they won't be confused. The universe that the authors' have created is detailed and there are a lot of moving parts. Even though I had read the previous novels, it had been a while so I couldn't remember som...
Read more

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

  ★★★★ ☆ This was a thought-provoking and very interesting novel. The story follows the trials of a woman whose ex-husband has illegally and without her knowledge created a clone of her.  While the story is set in a science-fiction parallel world, I found that most aspects of the novel don't deal with the science-fiction. Instead, it is a story of betrayal, heartbreak, growth, and the human spirit. Despite not liking the protagonist, I still ripped through this novel. It was an interesting introspection on the relationships that create us, and the many facets through which we build our visions of ourselves.  The author subtly weaves a narrative that allows the reader to consider how our upbringings shape us and whether we are defined by our natures or nurture. The end of the novel left me filled with foreboding as I felt the main character began to display traits that she had previously despised in her father. I found myself returning to the storyline and the characters m...
Read more

"Every Which Way but Dead" by Kim Harrison, (The Hollows Book 3)

Image
Description: Some days, you just can't win. Witch and former bounty hunter Rachel Morgan's managed to escape her corrupt company, survive living with a vampire, start her own runner service, and face down a vampire master. But her vampire roommate Ivy is off the wagon, her human boyfriend Nick is out of town indefinitely and doesn't sound like he's coming back while the far-too-seductive vampire Kisten is looking way too tempting, and there's a turf war erupting in Cincinnati's underworld. And there's a greater evil still. To put the vampire master behind bars and save her family, Rachel made a desperate bargain and now there's hell to pay--literally. For if Rachel cannot stop him, the archdemon Algaliarept will pull her into the sorcerous ever-after to forfeit her soul as his slave. Forever. My Review: Harrison's third Hollow's Series novel is much better than the second. The book starts off with a bang as the action pits Rachel's brain aga...
Read more