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Arcane Artisans #3
Enchantress Underground
The Void Union has fallen.
Adrienne and her friends have gone into hiding as Geralt’s cult tightens its hold on the city. San Francisco’s paranormal community is in anarchy. Most disturbingly, magic’s instability worsens every day.
As chaotic magic starts to rip the city apart, Adrienne seeks allies to help rebalance it. But an alliance requires trust, and trust is a scarce commodity in the paranormal world, especially when Geralt has offered large rewards for Adrienne’s capture. Betrayal lurks behind every smile.
Opposing the fledgling coalition is the cult’s vicious new enforcer, who will do anything to bring Adrienne down. Between his ruthless tactics and the treacherous diplomacy of paranormals, Adrienne’s heart begins to harden. She knows that to save the city, she must unite its magical inhabitants under her leadership. But that leadership might just twist her into someone she can’t recognize.
Adrienne and her friends have gone into hiding as Geralt’s cult tightens its hold on the city. San Francisco’s paranormal community is in anarchy. Most disturbingly, magic’s instability worsens every day.
As chaotic magic starts to rip the city apart, Adrienne seeks allies to help rebalance it. But an alliance requires trust, and trust is a scarce commodity in the paranormal world, especially when Geralt has offered large rewards for Adrienne’s capture. Betrayal lurks behind every smile.
Opposing the fledgling coalition is the cult’s vicious new enforcer, who will do anything to bring Adrienne down. Between his ruthless tactics and the treacherous diplomacy of paranormals, Adrienne’s heart begins to harden. She knows that to save the city, she must unite its magical inhabitants under her leadership. But that leadership might just twist her into someone she can’t recognize.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2019
5 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
A.C. Spahn
14 books39 followersA. C. Spahn wanted to be an interstellar starship captain when she grew up. Since nobody was hiring, she became a writer instead.
She enjoys breaking boards with her fists, organizing messy rooms, and debating the physics of fictional technologies. When not commanding imaginary starships, she lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and kids.
She is the author of the USA Today bestselling Endurance series, the “Cara Watt, P.I.” stories on Daily Science Fiction, and other short pieces published by Flash Fiction Online, Star*Line, and more.
She enjoys breaking boards with her fists, organizing messy rooms, and debating the physics of fictional technologies. When not commanding imaginary starships, she lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and kids.
She is the author of the USA Today bestselling Endurance series, the “Cara Watt, P.I.” stories on Daily Science Fiction, and other short pieces published by Flash Fiction Online, Star*Line, and more.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 3, 2019
If you think that our heroes going underground will make for a quieter storyline, I'm here to tell you that the underground is where everything goes down. The Void Union has fallen, Geralt's cult has taken over San Francisco, and magic is breaking its own rules left and right with terrifying ramifications. Adrienne's got a plan and a hope, but to accomplish anything, she'll need new allies: enchanters willing to help her experiment on how to heal magic without, you know, "sacrificing" every magic user in the world. (Funny how sacrifice isn't really a sacrifice if folks don't have a choice in it--it's just slaughter.)
Unfortunately for Adrienne, while her core group remains committed, finding new allies--and staying one step ahead of betrayal--is a tricky business. So tricky, Adrienne might just lose hold of who she is and what she really stand for if she isn't careful. Add to all that the number of cult trackers and ex-Void Union hunters on Adrienne's trail, and don't expect more than a moment or two of peace.
As a note, you'll definitely want to start this series with Book 1. It's a story that builds on itself, and gets more and more complex. By the end of this book, you'll be one-clicking the final installment to find out how Adrienne can possibly save the world, those she loves, and herself.
Unfortunately for Adrienne, while her core group remains committed, finding new allies--and staying one step ahead of betrayal--is a tricky business. So tricky, Adrienne might just lose hold of who she is and what she really stand for if she isn't careful. Add to all that the number of cult trackers and ex-Void Union hunters on Adrienne's trail, and don't expect more than a moment or two of peace.
As a note, you'll definitely want to start this series with Book 1. It's a story that builds on itself, and gets more and more complex. By the end of this book, you'll be one-clicking the final installment to find out how Adrienne can possibly save the world, those she loves, and herself.
October 13, 2022
This was a hard read. Classic third book in a four-book series means the good guys are the underdogs, hiding and struggling against the bad guys, on the run and constantly out of luck. Lots of loss (both in lives and in battles) made this book more depressing than the others and it makes you just keep hoping the tide will turn in the right direction. Fortunately for the readers, our team doesn't stay down, but gathers allies to fight the greater evil to save the city and save magic itself. I loved seeing all the other types of magical creatures as they chose sides for the inevitable war. Again, I didn't see many of the twists coming even though the structure of the book was familiar. And the ending took me by surprise too.
Maturity rating: YA. Nothing much in the drugs/alcohol or intimacy categories, but still a handful of swearing and more violence, though not too graphic. Things get pretty bleak, so hang in there. Our friends aren't giving up on magic! Now let's finish this!
Maturity rating: YA. Nothing much in the drugs/alcohol or intimacy categories, but still a handful of swearing and more violence, though not too graphic. Things get pretty bleak, so hang in there. Our friends aren't giving up on magic! Now let's finish this!
August 23, 2019
You may think I'm about to just give away the whole story, but you should know by now that I don't do that. What I'm going to do is give you reason to continue on from Enchantress Under Pressure to see where this little group goes from there. Just a taste of a tale.
Picking up where we left off in Enchantress Under Pressure, The Void is gone as an organization, Adrienne and her friends are all scared and hiding from all the forces trying to eliminate or capture them, Geralt’s cult is taking over San Francisco, and if all that isn’t enough, magic has gone truly bonkers.
When we left Adrienne she had taken all her friends and gone into hiding to regroup and recover. The epic fight with the Fleshwriters at Void headquarters, and the loss of the Void leader, Bane Harrow, had left them exhausted, heartsick and at a loss as to what to do next. Adrienne, however, is very aware that, of late, magic has become unstable and that something needs to be done before it destroys all in its path. To do that she needs a great deal more people than just her and her small group. But she needs to address the other issues confronting them all first. Like Sam having overdone her fleshwriting defense during the fight and basically frying her brain. Like Maribel chasing her down to kill her because she believes that Adrienne purposely destroyed her sanity and set her up as an enchantress (which she's not) to be captured by Geralt. Like Geralt himself building an army to take over her city while convincing as many as possible that he has the only method to fix the unstable magic. Too many things are already going wrong and need to be addressed. But, the magic going haywire is paramount.
So while mounting patrols to keep them safe, and while trying to help Sam regain her sanity, Adrienne also works on a plan to fix the magic. A plan that may just kill her, but at least the rest of the paranormal community would be safe. A plan that will hopefully win Enchanters to her side, that will convince them that Geralt’s method will kill all the Voids and Enchanters leaving the Shifters and Elementals as his sycophants, while her plan will keep them alive while stabilizing the magic.
To do this, though, she needs more willing Enchanters. And good luck with that since Geralt either has them or has them so scared they’re afraid to join in. Between Adrienne, Desmond, Kendall, Sam, Pete and Veronica they must recruit as many as possible as quickly as possible because Geralt is not stopping for anything, and the magic is just getting worse.
In this volume of Arcane Artisans we follow our friends through their desperate attempts to stabilize magic and stop Geralt. There is so much strife, so much danger and so much sheer insanity that putting this book down for any reason becomes an impossible task. We are tossed into the world of desperate paranormals and faulty magic and thrown about like trees in a tornado, just hoping to find solid ground again sometime soon. While at the same time we are embedded in the horror and loss of war with nowhere to go but through, and where coming out the other side unscathed seems unlikely.
Once again, Amy Spahn (A.J. Spahn) has grabbed us with her flowing prose, her wonderful characters and her beautifully crafted world. And once again all we can do is grab hold of the Oh Sh*t bar and hope for the best. Once we’ve made it through this volume, we’ll once again be holding on, waiting with what little patience we can muster for Enchantress Under Fire. This is one author worth waiting for!
I received this as an ARC and am giving this review in my own words and of my own volition. Not to mention I plan to buy it when it goes live.
Picking up where we left off in Enchantress Under Pressure, The Void is gone as an organization, Adrienne and her friends are all scared and hiding from all the forces trying to eliminate or capture them, Geralt’s cult is taking over San Francisco, and if all that isn’t enough, magic has gone truly bonkers.
When we left Adrienne she had taken all her friends and gone into hiding to regroup and recover. The epic fight with the Fleshwriters at Void headquarters, and the loss of the Void leader, Bane Harrow, had left them exhausted, heartsick and at a loss as to what to do next. Adrienne, however, is very aware that, of late, magic has become unstable and that something needs to be done before it destroys all in its path. To do that she needs a great deal more people than just her and her small group. But she needs to address the other issues confronting them all first. Like Sam having overdone her fleshwriting defense during the fight and basically frying her brain. Like Maribel chasing her down to kill her because she believes that Adrienne purposely destroyed her sanity and set her up as an enchantress (which she's not) to be captured by Geralt. Like Geralt himself building an army to take over her city while convincing as many as possible that he has the only method to fix the unstable magic. Too many things are already going wrong and need to be addressed. But, the magic going haywire is paramount.
So while mounting patrols to keep them safe, and while trying to help Sam regain her sanity, Adrienne also works on a plan to fix the magic. A plan that may just kill her, but at least the rest of the paranormal community would be safe. A plan that will hopefully win Enchanters to her side, that will convince them that Geralt’s method will kill all the Voids and Enchanters leaving the Shifters and Elementals as his sycophants, while her plan will keep them alive while stabilizing the magic.
To do this, though, she needs more willing Enchanters. And good luck with that since Geralt either has them or has them so scared they’re afraid to join in. Between Adrienne, Desmond, Kendall, Sam, Pete and Veronica they must recruit as many as possible as quickly as possible because Geralt is not stopping for anything, and the magic is just getting worse.
In this volume of Arcane Artisans we follow our friends through their desperate attempts to stabilize magic and stop Geralt. There is so much strife, so much danger and so much sheer insanity that putting this book down for any reason becomes an impossible task. We are tossed into the world of desperate paranormals and faulty magic and thrown about like trees in a tornado, just hoping to find solid ground again sometime soon. While at the same time we are embedded in the horror and loss of war with nowhere to go but through, and where coming out the other side unscathed seems unlikely.
Once again, Amy Spahn (A.J. Spahn) has grabbed us with her flowing prose, her wonderful characters and her beautifully crafted world. And once again all we can do is grab hold of the Oh Sh*t bar and hope for the best. Once we’ve made it through this volume, we’ll once again be holding on, waiting with what little patience we can muster for Enchantress Under Fire. This is one author worth waiting for!
I received this as an ARC and am giving this review in my own words and of my own volition. Not to mention I plan to buy it when it goes live.
September 28, 2019
Reading this was like watching a movie that deals with serious triggers but the entire cast is played by fluffy bunnies and only one of them knows how to smile. War has come and Adrienne has to take on a role that she knows means changing parts to herself that she never thought she'd have to get rid of. It was sad, but I couldn't stop watching her go through the motions. And though this is the third installment, I'm in awe of the way Spahn wrote everyone. No one was one-dimensional, and they all had their faults and quirks that made them more solid in my mind.
Sam is a powerhouse who still needs control and to forgive herself. Kendall is a happy personality who never lets anything get her down but even she has her moments of fear. Even despite her need to run, she still makes use of herself and pushes past her prey instincts. T_T Desmond is just a sweetheart by this point. I was a little bummed about the realities they had to deal with but they came together every time, thank the Lord. Adrienne... was the most changed. And it was done so subtly too, you never really realized how much she changed until she stopped herself to think about what she had just done in the name of winning a war. So heady.
It's a definite read, and considering I already read the fourth and final book before getting around to reviewing this one, I can easily say that it's so worth a read. I've never felt so in awe in a long while XD
Sam is a powerhouse who still needs control and to forgive herself. Kendall is a happy personality who never lets anything get her down but even she has her moments of fear. Even despite her need to run, she still makes use of herself and pushes past her prey instincts. T_T Desmond is just a sweetheart by this point. I was a little bummed about the realities they had to deal with but they came together every time, thank the Lord. Adrienne... was the most changed. And it was done so subtly too, you never really realized how much she changed until she stopped herself to think about what she had just done in the name of winning a war. So heady.
It's a definite read, and considering I already read the fourth and final book before getting around to reviewing this one, I can easily say that it's so worth a read. I've never felt so in awe in a long while XD
August 26, 2019
First - don't start here. We've come a long way and it's only fair to go through all of this with this merry band of misfits. We join the story already in progress. The gang is in hiding from Geralt's evil cult and all of his allies that are out to kidnap or kill Adrienne. For her part, Adrienne manages to pull up her big girl panties and become a legit leader of the resistance. The girl that was hiding from the cult all her life is gone now and in her place is a superhero-like enchantress. So what about the rest of her crew? Well they are all doing their part in their own way.
So aside from fighting the cult, Adrienne has also been working on curing an incurable illness, bridging allies that have never worked together before, and trying to be a good girlfriend and friend. There are a lot of familiar faces in this book, and we learn so much more about each and every one of them. The story culminates with *a lot* of battle, so be prepared! Not everyone makes it out alive. All of this, however, makes the story super addictive and engaging. I went from being somewhat confident in Adrienne's abilities, to believing her unstoppable like her allies. I absolutely cannot wait to see how the next (last) book goes. After an epilogue like that, how am I supposed to wait???
So aside from fighting the cult, Adrienne has also been working on curing an incurable illness, bridging allies that have never worked together before, and trying to be a good girlfriend and friend. There are a lot of familiar faces in this book, and we learn so much more about each and every one of them. The story culminates with *a lot* of battle, so be prepared! Not everyone makes it out alive. All of this, however, makes the story super addictive and engaging. I went from being somewhat confident in Adrienne's abilities, to believing her unstoppable like her allies. I absolutely cannot wait to see how the next (last) book goes. After an epilogue like that, how am I supposed to wait???
October 10, 2019
At the end of Book 2 (Enchantress Under Pressure) Adrienne and her small band were in flight, shattered by what had just happened in the Void Union Headquarters, defeated and broken, driven into hiding in a world now dominated by their enemies.
Book Three takes up the story of that small band and the desperate, uncertain beginnings of a resistance that becomes a movement. Against a background where magic continues to spiral out of control and Geralt, with all the power on his side, steadily builds towards a genocidal solution, war erupts across San Francisco and its effects finally bleed across into the normal world. The conflict will force Adrienne to do things she'd never have contemplated, and to become something she barely recognises - figurehead, general, killer - a beacon of hope to the few who trust her, and the embodiment of evil to the army of enchanters flocking to Geralt's banner.
Friends will be lost in this battle, alliances will shift, and betrayal will threaten everything the Resistance has achieved. In a heart-stopping climax, facing her greatest loss, Adrienne will make a decision that leaves the remnants of her resistance reeling.
Enchantress Underground is an epic tale of friendship and magic, war and betrayal, and what it means to remain human when death is just a finger-flick away.
Book Three takes up the story of that small band and the desperate, uncertain beginnings of a resistance that becomes a movement. Against a background where magic continues to spiral out of control and Geralt, with all the power on his side, steadily builds towards a genocidal solution, war erupts across San Francisco and its effects finally bleed across into the normal world. The conflict will force Adrienne to do things she'd never have contemplated, and to become something she barely recognises - figurehead, general, killer - a beacon of hope to the few who trust her, and the embodiment of evil to the army of enchanters flocking to Geralt's banner.
Friends will be lost in this battle, alliances will shift, and betrayal will threaten everything the Resistance has achieved. In a heart-stopping climax, facing her greatest loss, Adrienne will make a decision that leaves the remnants of her resistance reeling.
Enchantress Underground is an epic tale of friendship and magic, war and betrayal, and what it means to remain human when death is just a finger-flick away.
August 16, 2019
ENCHANTRESS UNDERGROUND (Arcane Artisans Book 3) by A. C. Spahn, continues the story where ENCHANTRESS UNDER PRESSURE (Arcane Artisans Book 2) left off. If you enjoyed Books 1 and 2 and want to know what happens next, this is it. However, it's grimmer—more people dying—and more just plain plot—First this happens, and then this, and then that—with some thought given to how Adrienne can defeat Geralt without becoming like him (Spoiler—She can't.). Even Kendall's nutty sense of humor, which was a highlight of the previous books, has been ground down. There are some new pieces to the puzzle, giving us more information about supernatural creatures such as Elementals and vampires, and an alternative to Geralt's idea as to how to save the world. I found it less enjoyable than the other two books, although after getting this far, I still want to find out how everything ends in Book 4, ENCHANTRESS UNDER FIRE.
I was provided with an ARC in order to give a voluntary unbiased review.
I was provided with an ARC in order to give a voluntary unbiased review.
October 3, 2019
This series just gets better and better. I love the author's take on magic. It's so different, and she describes it so well that I can see it all happening in my imagination. Apart from the author being a great writer in general - excellent prose, well-thought out world building, likeable and well-developed developed characters, natural dialogue, strong, plot, and perfect pacing - in this book she also presents moral dilemmas that make this book a much deeper read than many books in this genre. I found it a very satisfying read and highly recommend it.
June 18, 2020
Adrienne's character has evolved into a dynamic force. I found myself sympathizing in her struggles and cheering for her more fervently than ever. This installment takes the tension, depth and conflict of the overall story to new and interesting levels, including lots of action and more battles. The Arcane Artisans is a series that must be read from the beginning to appreciate the full impact.
October 2, 2019
The third book in this amazing series ups the ante in both intrigue and danger. Threats come from all sides for Adrienne, including and especially with new allies. With magic going haywire, the cult growing stronger, and alliances proving less than dependable, it's no wonder Adrienne worries how she'll succeed without compromising who she is. Things take a darker turn in this installment and the story had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. I'm dying to get to the finale!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews