Sugar Spells

Sugar Spells

by Lola Dodge

Anise Wise barely survived her last dangerous encounter. She very nearly died and had to be brought back by a little dark magic. Now that dark magic is infecting everything that she does. Her recipes are deadly... literally. The death magic in her is so strong that she can't even walk near plants without killing them.

Anise must either wait for magic to fade, learn how to harness it so she can at least live her life, or both. 

Anise chooses both.

Now Anise must try to burn off the death magic and find a way to get her Shield, Wynn, out of the worst magical contract ever constructed.

Maybe she can do both at the same time.

Or maybe she'll end up worse than before.

Final thoughts: I still love Anise. It took me a bit to get back into the swing of things because it's been a while since I read the first book. But once in, I was hooked. The ending felt a bit rushed but that may be because I was enjoying myself so much that I didn't want it to end. Now that it's done, I'm curious to see what happens next and eagerly await the next story.

Rating: 4/5

ARC courtesy of NetGalley

Summoned to the Thirteenth Grave

Summoned to the Thirteenth Grave

by Darynda Jones

After saving a life when she was not supposed to, Charley is exiled to another dimension forever. It's pretty boring there. There is not even a place to get coffee, so it really may be hell. 

However, after "one hundred seven years, two months, fourteen days, twelve hours, and thirty-three minutes", Charley is mysteriously sent back to Earth and back in her own body... in the middle of the Sahara Desert. 

It seems that over one hundred years is really just about 10 days on Earth, so Charley actually hasn't missed too much (except for coffee... 10 days without coffee). 

Now Charley and her gang of misfits must figure out how to close the quickly spreading hole to a hell dimension that she and Reyes unleashed about two weeks before, before it takes over the Earth and destroys all of the human souls on it.

Oh. And they have to find a couple of kidnap victims.

And maybe stop a serial killer.

Possibly even take out a few demons.

Still figure out how to keep Beep safe so that she can defeat Lucifer in the future.

And find out how Charley's mom really died all of those years ago.

Just a typical three days for Charley, really.

Final thoughts: What the actual...! As with all things Darynda/Charley, this one has a LOT going on. In fact, after twelve other books, everything has gotten very layered and often confusing. Jones tries hard to keep it all coherent, but it's really difficult. Even after rereading the other books before reading this one, I still got lost at times. I still love Charley's wit but I was frustrated by the lack of action at times. With only 3 days left before the end of the world, she's still focused on Reyes? I mean, I know that he's pretty awesome, but don't set up such a tight deadline and then have everyone distracted by other things.

In the end, this is really just a set-up for Beep's stories, which I assume are coming next. And the ending... are you kidding me?!?!?

Rating: 4/5

ARC courtesy of NetGalley