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Scarlett Bernard is used to cleaning up messes. As a human who cancels out any magic around her, Scarlett's job is to keep the supernatural world hidden--at any cost.But on the eve of the Vampire Trials, a two-day tribunal that allows the otherworldly community to air their grievances, Scarlett receives a blood-soaked message from Molly, her estranged former roommate. Molly, a vampire, had been living with twelve human college students...and in one terrible night, she slaughtered them all.Scarlett believes Molly's been set up, but no one else in the Old World agrees with her. Meanwhile, the true perpetrator is determined to make sure Molly goes on trial for the massacre--and the penalty is death.With less than two days to prove her friend's innocence, Scarlett calls on former LAPD detective Jesse Cruz to help her dig into Molly's past. But no one--Molly included--wants Scarlett and Jesse to bring the terrible truth to light.… (more)
User reviews
Scarlett Bernard is a null. That she neutralizes the magic in "old world" species if they get close to her. She is an expert on keeping the old world a secret by covering up any evidence that magic exists. But when a friend of hers who
I know this is the first in a series, but it is not the first book about this character and the "world" she lives in. But I did not know that when I started the book. So I got off to a rocky start, feeling like I had come in in the middle of the story. However, I got over it because the characters and the action drew me in. The world is pretty easy to understand so I got it pretty quick. The story is set in Los Angeles and I got a definite Hollywoodish vibe. I am excited to go back and read the books that preceded this one.
After Molly asked Scarlett to leave because Scarlett was too much of a trouble magnet for her, the two lost track of each other. Now Scarlett answers her call and finds her surrounded by her twelve roommates. It looks like Molly killed them all and gorged on their blood. Scarlett is used to cleaning up messes but this one is a little more than she usually has to handle. What makes it worse is that Molly told her that she was forced to do it.
With the Trials set to begin in just a day, Scarlett has to find out what really happened with Molly or let her go to trial where she will almost certainly be condemned to death. Molly goes to Jesse for some help though she hasn't seen him for years either. Jesse's life was also changed by his contact with Scarlett and the Old World. He is now longer with the police, married and divorced, and became a best-selling author when he wrote his story. Working with Scarlett will finally let him quit with the pity-party that his life has become.
I liked seeing Scarlett and Jesse again. I liked the action and the mystery. I liked Scarlett's unusual dog Shadow. This was a fast-paced story that kept me guessing up until the end.
I was so excited dive back into Scarlett's world. MIDNIGHT CURSE takes place 3 years after the end of HUNTERS TRAIL and it was crazy to see how much the characters have changed. Scarlett is living with her werewolf boyfriend, her ex-vampire roommate isn't in her life and is in fact living as a coed—although not anymore as we soon find out—, and Jesse—the man I wanted Scarlett to end up with—got married, and divorced, has even written a book, and is now a depressed shadow of his bad-ass self. There are more characters, but these three have always been my favorites.
I don't want to get into the plot, but MIDNIGHT CURSE is a fast paced, easy flowing story with lot's of mystery, action and suspense. Characters and their relationships are tested quite a bit, some in more ways than others and getting to see Lex, from the Boundary Magic series, was an added bonus.
The ending kind of throws things on it's head again after a book that works to smooth things out, but it did it's job of getting me to want to read more. Book two, BLOOD GAMBLE, has a release date of July 25, 2017, so at least we don't have to wait to long to find out what happens next.
* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. I would recommend listening to on audiobook if you like audiobooks.
This was a decent investigative urban fantasy. Some aspects of it were pretty typical: the heroine runs herself ragged, there are werewolves and vampires, the paranormal is kept hidden from the rest of the world. The idea of Scarlett being a null was interesting but reminded me of the Parasol Protectorate series. I also somewhat enjoyed Scarlett’s huge dog, but that reminded me of Mouse from the Dresden Files. In short this was a decent urban fantasy but not all that unique or creative; it seemed to pull things from a lot of existing urban fantasy series.
Overall this was a good, typical urban fantasy. I didn’t love the story or the characters but they were all decent. I struggled with all the background that I was missing despite the recapping, so I probably would have liked this better if I had read the Scarlett Bernard series first. However, since I didn’t love this….I don’t plan on finishing this series or going back to read the first three Scarlett books.
Digital review copy proved by the publisher through NetGalley