Synopsis:
For twenty-eight years, Keira Poe has defended Chicago against creatures of the night. Armed with an array of magic weapons known as ‘magicards’, she is always eager to show trouble to the door. But when one of those cards is stolen by a ruthless mage, there’s nothing she won’t do to get it back.
In order to succeed, Keira – along with her cowardly, middle-aged faery – must follow the trail of carnage. Stopping for a battle at every turn, any hope of locating the thief only gets slimmer… until she meets Jason; the handsome shifter with a chip on his shoulder, and the only help she will get.
The war between the monsters grows greater than ever. Caught in the middle of it all, Keira must pick a side and stick with it, or risk losing her magic forever, along with anything the mage chooses to destroy.
D.S. Williams Review:
The main reasons for three stars?
1. The story is written in first person, and while this is usually not a problem to me, in this instance, there was an overwhelming amount of ‘me’ and ‘my’ in the writing, which got a little bit annoying. With a little forethought and greater consideration, I think A.C. Nicholls might have been able to cut back significantly on the usage of those words.
2. There are a few situations in which the wrong spelling of a word has been used, which detracted from the overall reading flow.
3. I found the character of Link a little bit confusing. From the very beginning, it was said that he was 5 inches tall, but there were a number of points in the story where Keira’s interactions with Link made this seem a little odd. For instance, Keira ‘wraps Link up in both arms’ when she’s hugging him… which seems a little extraordinary for a faery who is only five inches tall. That’s not much faery to use both arms on.
Overall, the story was entertaining, bringing new concepts and direction to urban fantasy and I applaud the concept… but would have like to have seen it executed just a little more smoothly.
D.S. Williams 