This was a difficult book to review since it seems to be full of contradictions. The characterizations are flat and mostly two dimensional. The dialogue is often clunky and the character motivations are illogical and contradictory. The writing itself is extremely variable with flashes of real brilliance side by side with rough narrative which feels unpolished and would likely be improved by ruthless editing. The romance is tacked on (lots of smoldering looks and sub-vocal lust going on but not much else) along with dialogue driven drama which left me wanting to smack the characters involved with a big stick. However... however....
This is a heck of a premise. The world building is -good- with magic, necromancy, shadow corporations and evil guys, demon possession, white magic wielders, and cookies. The author is quite young and shows an amazing amount of promise. I am impressed that this is her second book (and being 100% honest here, there are -super- well known urban fantasists who have fabulously successful careers at this point whose journeyman efforts weren't as good as this book). Definitely an up and coming author to watch for.
Even though this is ostensibly the second book in this world, it works perfectly well as a standalone. It will likely appeal more to the YA/NA crowd. The language is about par for the paranormal urban fantasy genre (that is to say, lots of snark and 'f'-bombs') . There is a graphic scene of domestic violence between a BF/GF (but he was possessed at the time, if that makes it better(?)).
Three and a half stars, rounded up for the undeniably good world building and creativity.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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