My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When a vampire does blood magic and destroys the existing ward around the city, the Guild Leader tells Kit to create a new ward that doesn’t have the old ward’s weakness. No one has done a ward like this, and the only one who even knows how is an evil witch who hates Kit. Kit has to get the only notes, then study and practice them until she can use the information to create an entirely new ward.
This was fun to write because it parallels a little bit the creation processes that artists and writers go through. I do this a lot with my art, try to create something that’s never been done before, not knowing if it’s even possible. I liked to share that feeling using Kit’s magic instead of my multi-media art.
This is the sixth book in the Kit Melbourne series. It’s not necessary to have read the previous books, but it will help if you have read them, as earlier books will give you some familiarity with the characters. Kit is still in this, of course, and Fenwick. Tessali, introduced in the previous book Changer’s Turf, is a crucial character. Because she’s sharing a roof with Kit and Fenwick, her problems become everyone’s problems. I think this will resonate with anyone who has tried to help a troubled teen and had it end poorly.
Kit and Tessali have a lot of interpersonal conflict in this novel. Tessali is very young, insecure, and not terribly wise. She’s also terrified of disappointing Kit, so when Tessali makes some bad decisions which get her into trouble, her reluctance to ask for help compounds the problem. If you read the interview on my blog, I go a little deeper into the mother-nanny conflict, feminism, and what it means to be a working mother.
While there’s plenty of action, vampires, dangerous magic, deception and secrets, this book gets deeper into Kit’s character than some of the previous books. Who says fun urban fantasy can’t be real literature? I think you’ll enjoy it.
