Review: Dark Arts and a Daiquiri - Annette Marie
Series: The Guild Codex: Spellbound Series #2
My rating: {★★★★★}
Urban Fantasy Paranormal
Expected publication: November 16th 2018 by Dark Owl Fantasy Inc.
Source: ARC sent by Publisher
When I found myself facing down the scariest black-magic felon in the city, practically daring him to abduct me, I had to wonder exactly how I ended up here.** I voluntarily read and reviewed a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
It all started when I accidentally landed a job as a bartender—but not at a bar. At a guild, populated by mages, sorcerers, alchemists, witches, and psychics. Good thing this lame-o human is adaptable, right?
Then my favorite guild members—three sexy, powerful, and intermittently charming mages—asked for my help. Did they want access to my encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails? Oh no. They wanted to wrap me up in a pretty ribbon and plunk me in the crosshairs of a murderous rogue to lure him out of hiding.
So that's what we did. And that's why I'm here. About to be kidnapped. Oh, and our grand plan for safely capturing said murderous rogue? Yeah, that completely fell apart about two minutes ago.
Why did I agree to this again?
Honestly I can't believe I was so apprehensive about this series when I first heard about it on Annette Marie's Website. I have never been disappointed by one of her books and if the five star rating on this one wasn't evidence enough - read on for further gushing and general fan-girling (in a non-spoilery way) about this series.
This was just the perfect follow up to a series that started with such a bang.
"Meet Tori. She’s feisty. She’s broke. She has a bit of an issue with running her mouth off. And she just landed a job at the local magic guild. Problem is, she’s also 100% human. Oops."
Tori is the main character and books one and two have followed her on her adventures in a world where mythics (basically people with magic) live amongst humans in secret. Tori's three new friends are Mages which is a class of mythic that wields elemental powers. Tori is definitely hotheaded however this is balanced with vulnerability that she does her very best to hide and also courage and loyalty. In this second book her character has been fleshed out a lot more and we're getting to know her better and better. I loved learning a little more about her background and delving into some of her motivations as a character.
In this second installment, the entire world grows bigger and bigger and we are introduced to different mythic classes and various other spiritual beings (wyldfae, darkfae including DRAGONS! I knew AM had to include them somehow and I'm thrilled to find them here).
The titular three mages from the first book I am loving getting to know more and more and each has their own unique character and fully developed backgrounds as well is little individual quirks. The rest of the supporting cast also became more fleshed out and we were also introduced to new characters (who I am really hoping show up more in following books!).
Apparently I'm a sucker for hot guys with magical powers, anti-heroes and of course, dragons and ALL of them are in this book. Do yourself a favour and try this series!
There are storylines and threads that are pulled through from book one so I couldn't recommend reading these as standalones however each book has it's own self contained plot which is fully resolved in each book - no cliffhangers! And yet I'm always left wanting more and never ready to say goodbye to these characters.
Above all this series is just so fun and entertaining and while I might have only picked it up because it's written by one of my favourite authors, I'm now left sitting and thinking about these characters and their stories over and over and I'm wondering just how fast Annette can write so we can get book three even faster. February suddenly seems like it's too far away.
