Genre: Urban Fantasy
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.45 out of 5 stars
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Catherine Baker hasn’t been very attached to the magic world for years, aside from her witch friend Morgan, her fairy cousins, and her boss who’s a librarian AKA magic historian.
But who needs the magic world after what it did to her? Her boyfriend, Alexander, outted her to the witch community for using forbidden magic to defend herself. And the martyr-loving jerks outcasted her for it. And needless to say, her relationship ended.
But she’s fine with that. She’s scraping by with her waitressing job and has two cats that she loves. If only she can quit smoking so her bank account would be a bit fuller.
But when Morgan dies, Alexander shows up in her life yet again to urge her to run for Morgan’s job as Titania– the ambassador between the fairy world and the magician community on Earth.
Catherine would have just told him to go to hell if her boss and cousins also didn’t want to her to become the next Titania. She eventually agrees.
But complications ensue when her estranged father runs against her, sponsored by necromancers who put a price on her head.
As she fights to become Titania, Alexander is appointed as her bodyguard to keep her safe. Catherine has convinced herself that things with Alexander are completely over, but slowly it becomes very clear that things are just getting started.
I liked this book a lot. The protagonist is a great character, full of strength and wit, even if she’s got an anger problem. I really didn’t like how she could be a damsel sometimes, though.
Granted, she’s a damsel because she’s a witch and not a woman. Witches frown upon self-defense, which is why she’s bad at protecting herself. But when she needs to be protected from necromancers, it’s her cousin Tybalt and Alexander protecting her. If it was Portia instead of Tybalt, I would feel a lot better at it.
Portia is a fairy, like Tybalt, which means she’s a secret badass who doesn’t see killing in self-defense wrong (because it’s not). However, cute is the best way to describe her. Yeah, she dresses in ripped jeans and sweatshirts, but she gets so excited watching The Price is Right, she flutters her wings and sprinkles frost on Catherine’s couch. She’s adorable and I love her for it. But I would have liked it if we saw even more of her badass side than we did, especially when Catherine is ultimately a sly, hot-headed damsel.
As for Tybalt… he’s all right. There isn’t much to say about him honestly. He’s a good guy but his character didn’t feel that fleshed out.
The character I was deeply unsatisfied with, however, was Catherine’s father. He’s so one-dimensional, he’s practically a cartoon villain. He made a comment about how he wasn’t responsible for Catherine’s mother’s death, but that was apparently forgotten about because it was never really brought up again.
As for Alexander, I have mixed feelings, but mostly my feelings are negative. He’s too protective and a tad misogynistic. When they needed information from a Chronicler (vampire historian) to help Catherine, he was more than willing to pay in blood. But when Catherine realized what the price was and volunteered to pay it instead, he got absurdly angry at her. In fact, he wouldn’t even talk to her until she apologized, even though she didn’t do anything wrong.
The double standard is justified because the Chronicler made her orgasm while taking her blood and he wouldn’t have done that with Alexander. But that’s blaming the victim, pure and simple. And even if the consent hadn’t been so iffy, Alexander and Catherine weren’t dating at the time. He has no say whatsoever with who she gets off with.
However, I’m totally on Alexander’s side about giving up his Guardianship to be with Catherine. There’s no law that says he can’t be a Guardian and be in a relationship with Catherine. His family has been Guardians for generations. He loves being a Guardian and believes in following his duty. So naturally, when it’s suggested that he gives that up to be with her, he needs to fucking think about it.
But Catherine gets angry and offended about how he’s apparently choosing his job over her again, even though, again, nothing says he can’t be in a relationship with her while being a Guardian.
Now, granted, his obligation as a Guardian is what caused him to turn her to the witches, which made her an outcast. So I can see why she doesn’t like his job. But if it was the man telling the woman to give up her career to be with him, it would be completely unacceptable.
I almost like Harrison, sexy vampire billionaire, better than Alexander, because at least no one’s pretending he’s a paragon of morality. He does a lot of questionable things and fucks around with the rules of consent even though I really do believe he cares about Catherine. But at least everyone’s calling him out on that bullshit.
In general, though, I found this book really entertaining and I’ll probably read the rest of the series sometime. It’s a good book that’s definitely worth reading and it’s free on Smashwords. (So there’s no reason not to read it.)
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