When I started reading this one, I didn’t know that it was part of a series. I read the summary and I thought it sounded interesting and I was totally on board with reading it.
I started to notice fairly quickly that I was missing some gaps in the story and I went on to Goodreads and noticed that it was in fact the second book in a series. I decided to keep plugging away at this book though rather than go back to read the first book.
While I was missing some bits of the larger story, I thought the author was doing a reasonable job keeping the reader up on the goings on of the previous book.
Summary
The coven’s under investigation. Its future is in peril. And for one troubled young psychic, the coming battle will threaten her newfound freedom—and brings back a dangerous desire . . .
Exploited as a child medium, Emily Adams escaped to grow up on the streets—and hit rock-bottom. She took shelter with the prestigious Northern Circle, intent on staying only long enough to get back on her feet. But the Circle is still reeling from a devastating supernatural attack and betrayal. And vengeful High Council of Witches investigator Gar Remillard is determined to make Em surrender the truth—and disband the Circle forever.
When Em’s psychic ability allows her to see Gar is haunted by a formidable ghost, her attempts to free him challenge Gar’s rugged French Canadian heart and rancorous loup-garou instincts. But even as their new alliance and past connection kindles into raging desire, a malevolent force rises up to destroy them—the Circle and even the High Council.
With all she’s grown to love on the line, Em must draw on her darkest nightmares and alliances with the dead to outwit and out magic a force who can imprison souls with a flick of the fingers and command legions of wraiths with one word (summary from Goodreads)
Review
Ultimately I found that this book read ok as a standalone. I mean, not perfect, as there were obviously things that happened in the former book that were influencing the plot of this book, but the author did a nice job keeping readers abreast of plot points in this one—-but it read mostly ok as a standalone.
If I had time, I would have read the first book and then this one but I didn’t schedule enough time to allow that. But at any rate, I soldiered on with this one and found it to be a fun and well written book! The focus of this book is really family and some of the issues the main character, Em, has with her own family. There is a lot of adventure and action which kept the plot moving and broke up some of the emotion of the family issues which was also welcome.
This book was a little darker than I was expecting, and while that wasn’t a turn off for me personally, some readers might struggle with some of the content. This is definitely a grittier supernatural novel that contains some heavy issues like alcohol and abuse. So it might not be for everyone, but I thought the action and plot mixed with believable characters that you can root for made this one an enjoyable read for me.
It was unexpected and different that I thought that it would be and I love when books take me by surprise. I think I will go back and read the first book so I can have a deeper understanding of the plot and appreciation for the characters in this one. Overall it was an unexpected read that might have been more serious but I found myself turning each page eager to see what would happen next.
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The Lit Bitch 
Loved your review. 🙂 The cover is pretty unusual and so is the premise. It’s good to know that despite not reading the first book in the series, the second book turned out to be a well-written for you.