Up until a few months ago, Cassel Sharpe has spent his whole life feeling ordinary and inferior in a family full of powerful workers. Now he knows the truth: he is the most powerful of them all. He is able to transform anything- including people- into anything else with a single touch of his hand. Cassel is still struggling to extract the truth from a life-time of lies when the Feds come to Cassel with the news that his eldest brother, a notorious hitman, has been murdered, and they need Cassel to help find the killer. Cassel isn't so sure he wants to help the police, however, because doing so would put him in a direct collision course with the area's most dangerous crime lord, who also happens to be the father of the girl he is in love with. Soon Cassel will discover the web of lies is thicker than he ever could have imagined, and he will have to use his Curse and his skills to determine the truth in a world where no one can be trusted.

This second installment in the Curse Workers series is just as good as-perhaps better-than the first. The twists just kept coming! Every chapter did that shoulder-tap thing, where they would tap me on one shoulder, and have me look like an idiot when I would glare at empty air. "Haha, gotcha!"

And the plot is intelligent too. Its not just a romance with some conflict thrown around it. Cassel is actually smarter and more informed than his reader, which as how it should be. There is nothing worst than waiting for a narrator to figure something out that you figured out 5 chapters ago.

The characters were complex, and multi-layered. I didn't exactly feel for them, but they sure were interesting. I really am starting to warm up to Cassel, though. Holly Black has succeeded in making a believable male narrator, which is often difficult for female authors to do.

I also love how original and refreshing this book is. There is no other fantasy book out there like it, I'm sure. I love how the magic has consequences, and isn't just limitless power. You wanna erase someone's memories? Say goodbye to a few of your own. You wanna kill someone? No more thumb for you. You wanna transform things? You spend a minute or two in shape-shifting hell.

I like that.

However, I still feel like something is missing. I cannot think of anything wrong with the book exactly, but, yet, it remains off my favorite shelf. Who know? Maybe the third one will break that wall.

I can't wait until the next one!!

Oh, and I love the Jace cameo, Holly. Really subtle. *winks*