Black Magic Sanction read-along

So, I’m about half way through Black Magic Sanction for the read-along. Rachel has fought off a body-stealing soul (the first hints of what’s to come in a future book) been summoned to the West Coast by the Coven of Moral and Ethical Standards, sent to Alcatraz, had her prison fight, found out about the magic-suppresison amino acids, and escaped thanks to her having Al’s summoning name.

She’s also run into Nick, who did both the summoning to the West Coast, and then again back home in her church. Pierce is there to complicate matters, serving as both a distraction and realization that no matter how good he looks, how powerful he is, that he has no problem using black magic for his own ends–and that bothers her. Even Lee, who was forced by the coven to summon her into yet another trap, has shown that he’s not all bad and managed to get something from Rachel that Trent would sell his eyeteeth for–an understanding and truce.

Rachel’s world has gone gray, gray, gray. Past lovers have become untrustworthy, and old rivals become well . . . not allies, but at least not adversaries.  It’s now that it all comes to a fine point in both her mind and action as the coven sends assassins to flush Rachel out into the open. Amid the chaos, those she trusts, (Pierce and Ceri,) fight to save those she loves, (Ivy and Jenks,) with a black charm. And she can’t do it, thwarting the curse’s end, saving the lives of the assassins and making things worse by saving what she can of her soul.

Did she make the right decision? Some might say no, but I think think she did, even if it complicated her life beyond measure. As Trent is so fond of saying, easy is tasteless and it loses its shine.

More conversation over at Goodreads: