** spoiler alert ** This was a short (roughly 200 pages) urban fantasy mystery set in Albuquerque and whether you enjoy it will rest on your love for the protagonist Morrigan/Regan. We mostly get her point of view with occasional dips into other people's heads but not too many. I thought the world-building was quite interesting as was the magic system, but the characters either were cardboard or explored only as far as Regan was concerned.

I really enjoyed the exploration of the fact that Regan is dyslexic and what it means when the normal use of magic is dependent on being able to read and construct spells, and her way of getting around that - while always feeling she shouldn't be able to, and never trusting her ability there.

Breas was interesting, especially as the author did not explain but only hint at a lot of the back-story he has with Regan (for example, why does he respect her limits with regards to him, he doesn't seem to accept any other limits, having left the Brethren and all. Why did he feel the need to kiss her in the first place - thrall fascination?).

For that matter what about Regan's mum or her dad - we get allusions to her feelings at least with regard to her father, but we learn more about Cypher or Khalil. I did not understand what Lex was supposed to be good for, she did not further the plot at all, and the horse only seemed to exist because Regan should have SOMETHING living around, from my point of view, he was used so little (I expect that as the author has a horse herself the horsebits were accurate, though).

If you can only read UF where humans are appreciated as worthwhile partners, you will have troubles with this book - I could accept Regan's off-viewpoint due to her history. I thought Talis and
Breas far more interesting than Jason. He came off as a bit of wish-fulfilment and tricky obstacle combined. Regan did seem to have some fellow feeling for Eva and Sean, and even her kind but incompetent boss - but when two of three were made into mindless vampires she had no real sadness about killing them.

With a book as short as this is, I don't know if the scene with Cyrus Powell should have been so detailed, but the insight into Regan's hate of Holders was good motivation for her.

According to her website the author is working on a sequel - and with as many plot threads left hanging as there are this book really feels like a first half most of all. There is no cliffhanger, and the most obvious danger is averted in this book, but it very much does NOT feel standalone.