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Nola O'Grady #2
Water to Burn
Just when Nola O'Grady thinks she has it all...
Nola's the new head of the San Francisco branch of the Agency, the Psychic organization so secret that even the CIA doesn't know it exists. What's more, for some mysterious reason, Interpol has assigned her lover, Israeli secret agent Ari Nathan, to her new bureau as her permanent "bodyguard."
But everywhere she looks she sees a Chaos manifestation spying on her. Inexplicable "rogue waves" are sweeping innocents to a water death before she can save them. She has two increasingly dangerous searches on hand, for Reb Ezekiel, the supposedly dead prophet from Ari's past, and for the mysterious "Brother Belial," head of the Chaos cult they had managed to take down.
To top it off, her brother Michael is dragging Nola and Ari into his attempt to rescue his girlfriend from a radioactive alternate dimension.
How is Nola supposed to serve the forces of Harmony and maintain the balance between Chaos and Order when she can't even keep her own family under control?
Nola's the new head of the San Francisco branch of the Agency, the Psychic organization so secret that even the CIA doesn't know it exists. What's more, for some mysterious reason, Interpol has assigned her lover, Israeli secret agent Ari Nathan, to her new bureau as her permanent "bodyguard."
But everywhere she looks she sees a Chaos manifestation spying on her. Inexplicable "rogue waves" are sweeping innocents to a water death before she can save them. She has two increasingly dangerous searches on hand, for Reb Ezekiel, the supposedly dead prophet from Ari's past, and for the mysterious "Brother Belial," head of the Chaos cult they had managed to take down.
To top it off, her brother Michael is dragging Nola and Ari into his attempt to rescue his girlfriend from a radioactive alternate dimension.
How is Nola supposed to serve the forces of Harmony and maintain the balance between Chaos and Order when she can't even keep her own family under control?
325 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 2, 2011
10 people are currently reading
494 people want to read
About the author
Katharine Kerr
69 books1,641 followersBorn in Ohio, 1944. Moved to San Francisco Bay Area in 1962 and has lived there ever since. Katharine Kerr has read extensively in the fields of classical archeology, and medieval and dark ages history and literature, and these influences are clear in her work. Her epic Deverry series has won widespread praise and millions of fans around the world.
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June 11, 2011
Last night, I stayed up until 2am finishing my ARC of Water to Burn, the second Nola O’Grady novel by Katharine Kerr. Despite being set in San Francisco and following the exploits of Nola, a psychic employed by a secret government agency on the side of Harmony, it’s not quite accurate to describe the series as urban fantasy. For one thing, an ongoing plot point from book one, License to Ensorcell, focuses on the discovery and exploration of deviant world-levels – that is to say, alternate and parallel realities both similar and dissimilar to Earth – populated in some instances by doppelganger inhabitants raised under vastly different circumstances. This puts the flavour closer to SF than fantasy at times, raising questions about the setting’s scientific theories and contributing to a rich sense of narrative possibility. The series is also distinguished by its strong sense of Earth politics: Nola’s offsider, bodyguard and love-interest since book one, Ari Nathan, is a high-level operative with both Interpol and the Israeli government. While some writers might be tempted to mention this merely by way of exotic background detail, Kerr actively incorporates it into events, not only in terms of Ari and Nola’s respective efforts to balance duties and secrets with their personal relationship, but also as a source of cross-cultural commentary and plot relevance. Just as Nola’s character is defined in large part by her family ties, psychic gifts, religious upbringing and Irish-American heritage, so too is Ari defined by his family ties, martial gifts, religious upbringing and Israeli heritage. Kerr has done her research, and if ever Nola lapses into forgetting that Ari, despite his perfect English, was raised in a different culture, neither she nor the reader is allowed to keep that ignorance for long.
Plot-wise, the events of Water to Burn follow closely on from the end of License to Ensorcell: the Chaos masters who orchestrated the events of book one are still at large, though their influence is being felt in difference ways. A twelve-year-old girl drowns when a freak wave seemingly pulls her from the shore; Reb Ezekiel, the self-professed prophet who ran the kibbutz where Ari spent his childhood, has been sighted in the city, despite having been thought dead for some years; and a shady businessmen appears to be blackmailing Nola’s affluent brother-in-law. Though seemingly disparate at first, these separate occurrences all begin to tie in with the mysterious Peacock Angel cult and its Chaotic adherents, increasing in intensity as Nola and Ari get closer to the truth.
There are several satisfying differences that set this series apart from other UF works. Firstly, the romance: though Nola and Ari flirted and danced around each other for a significant portion of License to Ensorcell, by novel’s end, they’d reconciled their attraction and embarked on an actual relationship. There is no mysterious third wheel waiting in the wings to try and turn things into a love triangle; nor did Water to Burn begin with either party calling things off, thereby restoring a default state of unresolved sexual tension. Instead, they look for a new apartment and move in together, while Nola wrestles internally with her fear that ‘picket-stakes of domesticity’ are dropping into place in her life, confronting her past issues with commitment and abandonment. Given the fact that her other novels have cheerfully featured romantic, sexual scenes, the fact that Nola and Ari’s encounters are always hidden by a cut-to-black suggests that Kerr has made a conscious decision to differentiate the O’Grady books from the plethora of sexy, paranormal crime series already available. In this instance, the romance isn’t about wild, passionate tension, but rather about two defensive, similarly wounded people struggling to turn chemistry into love, with all the pitfalls, doubts and self-recriminations that involves.
The series also places a tremendous significance on family. Again, this runs counter to the usual intuitions about urban fantasy: Nola’s gifts are genetic and certainly contributed to her childhood woes, but she is neither an isolate orphan nor an only child. Instead, we’re introduced to the loving-yet-complicated network of brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles – most of them similarly gifted, though in different ways – that make up Nola’s family. We know her mother is in deep denial about her own magical gifts, let alone everyone else’s, while her father, for reasons that are slowly being uncovered, was forced to leave his wife and children while they were still a young family, with consequences that are still being felt in the present. Nola has seven siblings, one of whom was murdered before the start of the first book; a strong relationship with her caring, religious Aunt Eileen; and a plethora of other such kinships, each one uniquely complicated in the way that only extended family can be. So far, we’ve only been allowed to glimpse Ari’s history, but his own upbringing has already proved crucial to the plot, and with Nola fixing to secretly contact his mother, it seems plain that sooner or later, his family secrets will be subject to just as much scrutiny as Nola’s.
Finally, there’s the issue of Nola’s eating habits. As the books are narrated almost exclusively from her POV, the fact that both Ari and her family members are concerned about her having an ‘eating disorder’ is brushed off in her thoughts as meddlesome paranoia. And yet, we also see exactly how much calorie-counting Nola really does: scrimping her portions, foregoing meals, declining various dishes at family gatherings, and generally keeping herself half-starved. It’s both a refreshing and a confronting move on Kerr’s part: refreshing, in the sense that so many heroines are described as meeting society’s physical ideals without any conscious effort on their part or narrative criticism about the value of said ideals, and confronting, because by the end of Water to Burn, we’re left in no doubt that Nola really does have a problem. Happily, our heroine seems to understand this, too, but issues of esteem are never easy to overcome, and we’re left with the knowledge that Nola has a long road yet to travel.
Water to Burn is an immensely satisfying second installment in the Nola O’Grady series. Rather than relying on sexual tension and violence as the backbone of her series, Kerr has instead built a rich, original, complicated world of politics both real and magical, parallel worlds, family ties, cultural clashes and work-in-progress relationships that cannot help but suck the reader in – and I can’t wait to read book three.
Plot-wise, the events of Water to Burn follow closely on from the end of License to Ensorcell: the Chaos masters who orchestrated the events of book one are still at large, though their influence is being felt in difference ways. A twelve-year-old girl drowns when a freak wave seemingly pulls her from the shore; Reb Ezekiel, the self-professed prophet who ran the kibbutz where Ari spent his childhood, has been sighted in the city, despite having been thought dead for some years; and a shady businessmen appears to be blackmailing Nola’s affluent brother-in-law. Though seemingly disparate at first, these separate occurrences all begin to tie in with the mysterious Peacock Angel cult and its Chaotic adherents, increasing in intensity as Nola and Ari get closer to the truth.
There are several satisfying differences that set this series apart from other UF works. Firstly, the romance: though Nola and Ari flirted and danced around each other for a significant portion of License to Ensorcell, by novel’s end, they’d reconciled their attraction and embarked on an actual relationship. There is no mysterious third wheel waiting in the wings to try and turn things into a love triangle; nor did Water to Burn begin with either party calling things off, thereby restoring a default state of unresolved sexual tension. Instead, they look for a new apartment and move in together, while Nola wrestles internally with her fear that ‘picket-stakes of domesticity’ are dropping into place in her life, confronting her past issues with commitment and abandonment. Given the fact that her other novels have cheerfully featured romantic, sexual scenes, the fact that Nola and Ari’s encounters are always hidden by a cut-to-black suggests that Kerr has made a conscious decision to differentiate the O’Grady books from the plethora of sexy, paranormal crime series already available. In this instance, the romance isn’t about wild, passionate tension, but rather about two defensive, similarly wounded people struggling to turn chemistry into love, with all the pitfalls, doubts and self-recriminations that involves.
The series also places a tremendous significance on family. Again, this runs counter to the usual intuitions about urban fantasy: Nola’s gifts are genetic and certainly contributed to her childhood woes, but she is neither an isolate orphan nor an only child. Instead, we’re introduced to the loving-yet-complicated network of brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles – most of them similarly gifted, though in different ways – that make up Nola’s family. We know her mother is in deep denial about her own magical gifts, let alone everyone else’s, while her father, for reasons that are slowly being uncovered, was forced to leave his wife and children while they were still a young family, with consequences that are still being felt in the present. Nola has seven siblings, one of whom was murdered before the start of the first book; a strong relationship with her caring, religious Aunt Eileen; and a plethora of other such kinships, each one uniquely complicated in the way that only extended family can be. So far, we’ve only been allowed to glimpse Ari’s history, but his own upbringing has already proved crucial to the plot, and with Nola fixing to secretly contact his mother, it seems plain that sooner or later, his family secrets will be subject to just as much scrutiny as Nola’s.
Finally, there’s the issue of Nola’s eating habits. As the books are narrated almost exclusively from her POV, the fact that both Ari and her family members are concerned about her having an ‘eating disorder’ is brushed off in her thoughts as meddlesome paranoia. And yet, we also see exactly how much calorie-counting Nola really does: scrimping her portions, foregoing meals, declining various dishes at family gatherings, and generally keeping herself half-starved. It’s both a refreshing and a confronting move on Kerr’s part: refreshing, in the sense that so many heroines are described as meeting society’s physical ideals without any conscious effort on their part or narrative criticism about the value of said ideals, and confronting, because by the end of Water to Burn, we’re left in no doubt that Nola really does have a problem. Happily, our heroine seems to understand this, too, but issues of esteem are never easy to overcome, and we’re left with the knowledge that Nola has a long road yet to travel.
Water to Burn is an immensely satisfying second installment in the Nola O’Grady series. Rather than relying on sexual tension and violence as the backbone of her series, Kerr has instead built a rich, original, complicated world of politics both real and magical, parallel worlds, family ties, cultural clashes and work-in-progress relationships that cannot help but suck the reader in – and I can’t wait to read book three.
November 24, 2011
Yawn. This is like reading about a supernatural CSI Miami with less action and more eating disorders and ridiculous acronyms. I've enjoyed Kerr's Deverry series immensely but Urban Fantasy is genre she should stay away from. Boring, borderline annoying characters (Nola's weird eating disorders and she's the least exciting magic practitioner I've read about) plus her boyfriend Ari, who is supposed to be a hot Israeli operative is about as exiting as root canal. A snoozefest from start to finish. I won't be picking up any other books in this series.
August 24, 2011
Katharine Kerr’s License to Ensorcell was an uneven but unique entry into the urban fantasy subgenre. It began as an interesting paranormal whodunit with some annoying acronyms, then took a sharp turn and became a story of alternate universes (also known here as deviant world levels). The addition of the alternate-universe material made License to Ensorcell more original than many of its peers and introduced a poignant subplot involving the heroine’s teenage brother, but also made the mystery make less sense. When I finished, though, I was certain that the Nola O’Grady series had a lot of potential. Water to Burn, the second installment in the series, expands upon the characters and concepts introduced in the first book, and lives up to the aforementioned potential.
Again we have a murder mystery — and this time, the murder weapon is the Pacific Ocean. “Rogue waves” have been hitting the coast, and several people have died. Nola learns that this is related both to the coven she investigated in book one and to some shady business that her brother-in-law has gotten involved in.
Meanwhile, the deviant world level is playing a larger role in Nola’s life. Her brother Michael decides he needs to rescue his girlfriend, who is a prostitute there. Then, in a touching series of scenes, Nola and Ari learn more about the UFO-obsessed rabbi who ran the kibbutz where Ari grew up, and about the long-ago disappearance of Nola’s father. The alternate universe concept introduced in License to Ensorcell comes to fruition here in a major way, and I can tell there are more great things to come on this front.
Another meanwhile: Nola and Ari are examining their relationship and trying to figure out whether they’re in it for the long haul. This involves a ton of fighting, and it’s sometimes exhausting, as it’s not witty banter but deep (and often hurtful) hashing out of big philosophical differences. Yet it leaves me with more hope for them at the end, because if they can disagree this much and still want to stay together, I think they may well have what it takes! They’re also both wrestling with Nola’s eating disorder. After book one, I was worried this was going to be dealt with in a flippant way, but thankfully it’s not.
I had mixed feelings about License to Ensorcell, but it piqued my curiosity. Water to Burn is a better book and has cemented my interest in the series. Nola O’Grady has a creative take on the supernatural, intriguing world-building, a loud and quirky family, and a down-to-earth, sparkle-free type of romance. (But I must confess that I still skim over the acronyms.)
Fantasy Literature's Katharine Kerr page
Again we have a murder mystery — and this time, the murder weapon is the Pacific Ocean. “Rogue waves” have been hitting the coast, and several people have died. Nola learns that this is related both to the coven she investigated in book one and to some shady business that her brother-in-law has gotten involved in.
Meanwhile, the deviant world level is playing a larger role in Nola’s life. Her brother Michael decides he needs to rescue his girlfriend, who is a prostitute there. Then, in a touching series of scenes, Nola and Ari learn more about the UFO-obsessed rabbi who ran the kibbutz where Ari grew up, and about the long-ago disappearance of Nola’s father. The alternate universe concept introduced in License to Ensorcell comes to fruition here in a major way, and I can tell there are more great things to come on this front.
Another meanwhile: Nola and Ari are examining their relationship and trying to figure out whether they’re in it for the long haul. This involves a ton of fighting, and it’s sometimes exhausting, as it’s not witty banter but deep (and often hurtful) hashing out of big philosophical differences. Yet it leaves me with more hope for them at the end, because if they can disagree this much and still want to stay together, I think they may well have what it takes! They’re also both wrestling with Nola’s eating disorder. After book one, I was worried this was going to be dealt with in a flippant way, but thankfully it’s not.
I had mixed feelings about License to Ensorcell, but it piqued my curiosity. Water to Burn is a better book and has cemented my interest in the series. Nola O’Grady has a creative take on the supernatural, intriguing world-building, a loud and quirky family, and a down-to-earth, sparkle-free type of romance. (But I must confess that I still skim over the acronyms.)
Fantasy Literature's Katharine Kerr page
May 31, 2012
I enjoyed this quirky contemporary fantasy from Katharine Kerr, the sequel to License to Ensorcell. Psychic Agent Nola O’Grady works for a very special agency, one of those ones even the CIA doesn’t know exists. Born into a large Irish-American Catholic family of eccentrics, Nola came into her power in her mid-teens, and discovered that nothing would ever be the same again. Now she works for the preservation of Harmony – balance in the Universe. It’s not working for Good – it’s recognizing that things can go seriously wrong in the universe when there is not a balance.
Nola has managed to keep her distance from her crazy, enthusiastic family for years, but now her agency has returned her to San Francisco, her hometown. They’ve been referring to her tiny outpost as the Apocalypse Squad, but the joke may have seeds of truth. Chaos sightings have increased on the Pacific coast, multiple doors into another world have been discovered, and someone is creating “rogue waves,” sudden, unexplained walls of water that have swept several to watery graves. Nola has only two minimally talented stringers as assistance, as well as Ari Nathan, an Interpol and Israeli secret agent who has been reassigned to be her bodyguard. Two searches obsess Nola – for Reb Ezekiel, the supposedly dead prophet from Ari’s youth, and for the enigmatic “Brother Belial,” leader of the Chaos Cult Nola and Ari have previously damaged.
Psychic Nola and skeptic Ari are still learning to work together, to trust each other, and finally face things that even her agency is not sure exist. They’ve surrendered to the strong pull of Qi between them, and even decided to move in together. Nola is astonished that Ari has actually stayed around more than a month – she’s used to men being unable to accept her strange work and eccentricities. But Ari is hanging in there, and these two disparate souls are discovering that they make a good team – when they’re not arguing about the steps needed to solve their cases.
Kerr has chosen two rampant individuals as her protagonists. Nola is a deep introvert, both entangled and feuding with her family, anorexic in her desire to control her relationship with food, while Ari is hyper focused on his calling, has serious control issues, and has managed to alienate the majority of his working associates with his blunt micro-managing. They weave their way through a San Francisco that is both familiar and strange even to folk who know the city. We’re talking definitely contemporary fantasy/noir here.
The world Kerr has created continues to open up, with deepening relationships with Nola’s complicated relatives and the possibility of dealing with alternative worlds beckoning. Kerr makes me want to see what happens next in her world. If you like contemporary fantasy, look for it!
Nola has managed to keep her distance from her crazy, enthusiastic family for years, but now her agency has returned her to San Francisco, her hometown. They’ve been referring to her tiny outpost as the Apocalypse Squad, but the joke may have seeds of truth. Chaos sightings have increased on the Pacific coast, multiple doors into another world have been discovered, and someone is creating “rogue waves,” sudden, unexplained walls of water that have swept several to watery graves. Nola has only two minimally talented stringers as assistance, as well as Ari Nathan, an Interpol and Israeli secret agent who has been reassigned to be her bodyguard. Two searches obsess Nola – for Reb Ezekiel, the supposedly dead prophet from Ari’s youth, and for the enigmatic “Brother Belial,” leader of the Chaos Cult Nola and Ari have previously damaged.
Psychic Nola and skeptic Ari are still learning to work together, to trust each other, and finally face things that even her agency is not sure exist. They’ve surrendered to the strong pull of Qi between them, and even decided to move in together. Nola is astonished that Ari has actually stayed around more than a month – she’s used to men being unable to accept her strange work and eccentricities. But Ari is hanging in there, and these two disparate souls are discovering that they make a good team – when they’re not arguing about the steps needed to solve their cases.
Kerr has chosen two rampant individuals as her protagonists. Nola is a deep introvert, both entangled and feuding with her family, anorexic in her desire to control her relationship with food, while Ari is hyper focused on his calling, has serious control issues, and has managed to alienate the majority of his working associates with his blunt micro-managing. They weave their way through a San Francisco that is both familiar and strange even to folk who know the city. We’re talking definitely contemporary fantasy/noir here.
The world Kerr has created continues to open up, with deepening relationships with Nola’s complicated relatives and the possibility of dealing with alternative worlds beckoning. Kerr makes me want to see what happens next in her world. If you like contemporary fantasy, look for it!
August 4, 2011
I'm loving Katharine Kerr's "Nola O'Grady" series. The second book, Water To Burn, is just out. In this urban fantasy, the heroine works for a supernatural Agency "so secret, the CIA doesn't know it exists". This takes place in an alternate San Francisco, one in which magic and the clandestine agencies to regulate it are real. This world is not the only one; there are alternate, weirdly dystopic worlds (and a gateway in the attic of Nola's aunt's house). Not only do the Agency and its people hide in plain sight, Nola's family, Irish illegal immigrants with past ties to the IRA, live with secrets, low on the radar. Nola herself may or may not have an eating disorder. And Nola's lover, Israeli agent Ari Nathan, does not always see the world the way she does, and I don't mean just his inability to sense supernatural elements. At one point, he says, "That's what we've got on our hands, a war..." Nola asks, "We? You mean Israel, right?" His response, "Of course. I always mean Israel," perfectly demonstrates that although he may cherish Nola, although their goals may be complementary at times, and although they make excellent team mates, he is the hero of his own parallel story. (I love the implication that there might come a time when he has to choose, and I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing how Kerr develops this potential conflict.) Everything in the book does not revolve around Nola's Agency assignments, or her family's immigration worries, or her brother trying to rescue his girlfriend from radioactive-wasteland San Francisco; the book is more like an orrery, plotting the orbits of many planetary systems. That complexity is one of the things I love in a good yarn, and nobody does it better than Kerr.
April 12, 2020
It's a pretty solid book as Kerr starts to build out her Nola O'Grady series, and there's a number of really good things working for it.
First, Nola is a good heroine who is likable and effective (there's an odd subplot about her being too skinny and not eating which reads a bit odd; not exactly sure what Kerr was really going for there. It felt like there should have been a bigger payoff and there really wasn't much of one.) with an interesting past and a compelling future. Second, is her partner Ari. He fills a number of roles here: partner, bodyguard, lover, and receptacle of information about the psychic world (which gives Nola and others a good reason to do exposition dumps as needed). Their relationship drives much of the book and it's a pretty compelling one.
Kerr has done a lot more to build out her supporting cast, especially Nola's family. They're an interesting bunch and really help lend a lot of color to the world. Unfortunately, this is also where one of the bigger flaws of the book come in: the B-plot with Nola's family is more interesting than the A-plot with the psychic killer. I always think it weakens the book as whole if the ongoing story thread is more compelling and interesting than the book's contained plot and here I think it is.
The other nagging bit is a carryover of the abbreviations to Nola's psychic katas. While it might make sense for people in the agency to use these terms, at least in reports, they're a bit of a pain to read and shortening things doesn't do much to integrate the reader into the world, especially if you have to keep flipping to the back to look one up in the glossary. I get the idea, just not sure it's a great move.
It's still an enjoyable book: the characters are good and the concepts with world-walkers is very interesting and worthy of further exploration. Lots of good ideas to play around with in here, so it'll be worth grabbing the next one too.
First, Nola is a good heroine who is likable and effective (there's an odd subplot about her being too skinny and not eating which reads a bit odd; not exactly sure what Kerr was really going for there. It felt like there should have been a bigger payoff and there really wasn't much of one.) with an interesting past and a compelling future. Second, is her partner Ari. He fills a number of roles here: partner, bodyguard, lover, and receptacle of information about the psychic world (which gives Nola and others a good reason to do exposition dumps as needed). Their relationship drives much of the book and it's a pretty compelling one.
Kerr has done a lot more to build out her supporting cast, especially Nola's family. They're an interesting bunch and really help lend a lot of color to the world. Unfortunately, this is also where one of the bigger flaws of the book come in: the B-plot with Nola's family is more interesting than the A-plot with the psychic killer. I always think it weakens the book as whole if the ongoing story thread is more compelling and interesting than the book's contained plot and here I think it is.
The other nagging bit is a carryover of the abbreviations to Nola's psychic katas. While it might make sense for people in the agency to use these terms, at least in reports, they're a bit of a pain to read and shortening things doesn't do much to integrate the reader into the world, especially if you have to keep flipping to the back to look one up in the glossary. I get the idea, just not sure it's a great move.
It's still an enjoyable book: the characters are good and the concepts with world-walkers is very interesting and worthy of further exploration. Lots of good ideas to play around with in here, so it'll be worth grabbing the next one too.
October 9, 2017
This is the sequel (2nd book) of Nola O'Grady series. Lot's of happenings at one go, therefore there're a few things/mysteries to focus on and needed to be solved by Nola and Ari.
There was the hunt for Reb Ezekiel (the supposed to be dead prophet from Ari's past), there was 'Brother Belial' from the cult, there was Caleb always on the run, and there was Sophie (Michael's girlfriend from the deviant level) whom they were bringing into our world.
Too many happenings and characters this time, unlike in the first book, therefore I took a longer time to 'digest' each and every focus.
There was the hunt for Reb Ezekiel (the supposed to be dead prophet from Ari's past), there was 'Brother Belial' from the cult, there was Caleb always on the run, and there was Sophie (Michael's girlfriend from the deviant level) whom they were bringing into our world.
Too many happenings and characters this time, unlike in the first book, therefore I took a longer time to 'digest' each and every focus.
October 9, 2017
From Magnolia Reviews: Three Petals
The characterizations really took flight in this story, which gave the book a nice amount of depth and helped move it along in the series. I really enjoyed reading the story and that is why I recommend it.
Read the full review on Maggie's website: http://magnoliareviews.weebly.com/rev...
The characterizations really took flight in this story, which gave the book a nice amount of depth and helped move it along in the series. I really enjoyed reading the story and that is why I recommend it.
Read the full review on Maggie's website: http://magnoliareviews.weebly.com/rev...
March 20, 2022
In this well-written, fast-moving action-adventure, psychic secret agent Nola O'Grady must defeat a serial-killing sea demon invader murdering innocents with rogue waves on Pacific Coast beaches, search for a supposedly dead rabbi from her Israeli lover's past, & help her youngest brother rescue his girlfriend from a radioactive alternate dimension.
December 12, 2017
Very entertaining i wanted to be there in the story.
March 22, 2020
Decided to give this series another chance. Book two is much better with the possibility of alien creatures other than alternative world drug dealers. She also dialed back on the Satanic Panic BS.
July 17, 2011
In Water to Burn, the second Nola O’Grady Novel, Katharine Kerr hits the page with a well written story that takes off from the first word written.
After bringing down a dangerous coven and ending an inter-dimentional drug ring run by agents of Chaos, Nola finds herself in charge of the Agency’s newly established San Francisco office. However, setting up shop comes with its own set of troubles, which range from a lack of furniture to a stream of Chaos spies and the assignment of forbidding Interpol agent Ari Nathan – who also happens to be Nola’s boyfriend. The pressure is on for them to learn how to live and work together. If they don’t, more than just their lives will be at stake when a mysterious element controlling Chaos Master begins using water to kill innocents, deaths that the San Francisco PD can’t explain and have no chance of stopping. Now, the Chaos Master is after Nola and she’ll need to draw upon every resource available to survive.
Water to Burn jumps right into the story, spending only a modest amount of time explaining Kerr’s unique new world and how psychic powers work. While readers of License to Ensorcell will feel right at home, new readers who are starting the series with book two shouldn’t have a problem keeping up with the action since Kerr does a good job of providing the right information at the right time and in the right way to keep readers comfortably following along even with the accronyms. That said, this is a series that deserves to be read from first book to last.
One of the great things about the Nola O’Grady Novels is that you get a mix of political thriller, mystery, urban fantasy, and romance. Even if you’re not inclined toward one of these genres, Water to Burn provides such a nice mixture that you’re likely to label these books according to whatever genre you love best.
As with the first novel, Nola’s family continues to generate the most interesting storylines and keeps you turning page after page because you can’t help but to care about them. However, much of the novel focuses on the hunt for the Chaos Master and tracking down some dangerous characters who are aiming to harm others. The good news is that the primary storylines that are focused on Nola’s work with the Agency seem to be mingling and merging with her family’s storylines – an exellent sign for things to come.
Nola’s relationship with Ari continues to develop. In Water to Burn, their relationship feels much more real and solid than in the first novel. However, that is largely due to the fact that readers get to know their characters on a much more intimate level in this book. This deepening of their characters has the effect of establishing a believable pace for their relationship’s development as interest and passion deepen to love, binding them together and giving them a reason to risk their own safety to protect each other.
All in all, Water to Burn is an excellent addition to the Nola O’Grady Novels. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy a thoughtful reading experience, who like fast paced investigations, and quirky magical families. From start to finish, Kerr deftly propels the story forward through clever twists and turns that will leave readers wanting to pick up the next book in the series.
After bringing down a dangerous coven and ending an inter-dimentional drug ring run by agents of Chaos, Nola finds herself in charge of the Agency’s newly established San Francisco office. However, setting up shop comes with its own set of troubles, which range from a lack of furniture to a stream of Chaos spies and the assignment of forbidding Interpol agent Ari Nathan – who also happens to be Nola’s boyfriend. The pressure is on for them to learn how to live and work together. If they don’t, more than just their lives will be at stake when a mysterious element controlling Chaos Master begins using water to kill innocents, deaths that the San Francisco PD can’t explain and have no chance of stopping. Now, the Chaos Master is after Nola and she’ll need to draw upon every resource available to survive.
Water to Burn jumps right into the story, spending only a modest amount of time explaining Kerr’s unique new world and how psychic powers work. While readers of License to Ensorcell will feel right at home, new readers who are starting the series with book two shouldn’t have a problem keeping up with the action since Kerr does a good job of providing the right information at the right time and in the right way to keep readers comfortably following along even with the accronyms. That said, this is a series that deserves to be read from first book to last.
One of the great things about the Nola O’Grady Novels is that you get a mix of political thriller, mystery, urban fantasy, and romance. Even if you’re not inclined toward one of these genres, Water to Burn provides such a nice mixture that you’re likely to label these books according to whatever genre you love best.
As with the first novel, Nola’s family continues to generate the most interesting storylines and keeps you turning page after page because you can’t help but to care about them. However, much of the novel focuses on the hunt for the Chaos Master and tracking down some dangerous characters who are aiming to harm others. The good news is that the primary storylines that are focused on Nola’s work with the Agency seem to be mingling and merging with her family’s storylines – an exellent sign for things to come.
Nola’s relationship with Ari continues to develop. In Water to Burn, their relationship feels much more real and solid than in the first novel. However, that is largely due to the fact that readers get to know their characters on a much more intimate level in this book. This deepening of their characters has the effect of establishing a believable pace for their relationship’s development as interest and passion deepen to love, binding them together and giving them a reason to risk their own safety to protect each other.
All in all, Water to Burn is an excellent addition to the Nola O’Grady Novels. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy a thoughtful reading experience, who like fast paced investigations, and quirky magical families. From start to finish, Kerr deftly propels the story forward through clever twists and turns that will leave readers wanting to pick up the next book in the series.
August 14, 2011
As the second book in the Nola O'Grady series (number of books as yet undetermined), this continues the story of Nola's psychic investigations into multiple realities, as well as more of the story involving the Chaos forces she fought in the previous book, License to Ensorcell. I'll start off by saying that I love this series and can't wait to read the next one when it comes out next year.
What I love about these books is that they don't take themselves too seriously. A lot of writers get so wrapped up in what they're trying to say that they forget to let the story do the telling. Water to Burn isn't especially lighthearted, but it's not dark enough that you are left feeling you just read a heavy mystery novel. Overall, it's a pretty quick and easy read, but it gets you involved enough in the characters and the story that you don't mind.
Nola is a pretty complex character for this kind of urban fantasy, and her relationship with Ari becomes more involved in this book. Let me get something straight here: The person who did the cover art totally got Ari wrong. Do you know who I picture when I read Ari? This guy. Right there. Yep, that's Ari in my head. And when I imagine him protecting Nola, and being her bodyguard, and being such a MAN, I admit I get a little lightheaded. So I can see why Nola would be totally hot for him, because hell, I am totally hot for him myself!
...Anyway...
Another thing I love about this book was that, since you really need to have read LtE first, the explanations of the backstory were short and sweet. I didn't get long-winded explanations of what happened a few months before, and could just move on in the story. It probably would have helped if I had re-read the first book before reading this one, but I still remembered enough of it that reading this one wasn't confusing. There are a lot of acronyms in the book, but they are spelled out in the back.
I'm curious to see if Nola will follow the doctor's advice and put on some weight, because quite frankly she's way too skinny, and I've only "read" her!
I look forward to reading the next installment, in the hopes that the storyline with Michael and Nola's father will be delved into next. It was a great plot surprise to find out that their father opened the portal in the house, and I can't wait to see how Michael's powers will manifest themselves. Also, I wonder how Sophia will adjust to the world she's entered and if she will be able to cope with her new surroundings.
This was a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who (a) loves Kit, (b) loves fantasy, and/or (c) loves a great read that won't take up a lot of time. In fact, if I'd put my mind to it, I could have very easily finished this in a couple of days instead of the approximate week it took me.
What I love about these books is that they don't take themselves too seriously. A lot of writers get so wrapped up in what they're trying to say that they forget to let the story do the telling. Water to Burn isn't especially lighthearted, but it's not dark enough that you are left feeling you just read a heavy mystery novel. Overall, it's a pretty quick and easy read, but it gets you involved enough in the characters and the story that you don't mind.
Nola is a pretty complex character for this kind of urban fantasy, and her relationship with Ari becomes more involved in this book. Let me get something straight here: The person who did the cover art totally got Ari wrong. Do you know who I picture when I read Ari? This guy. Right there. Yep, that's Ari in my head. And when I imagine him protecting Nola, and being her bodyguard, and being such a MAN, I admit I get a little lightheaded. So I can see why Nola would be totally hot for him, because hell, I am totally hot for him myself!
...Anyway...
Another thing I love about this book was that, since you really need to have read LtE first, the explanations of the backstory were short and sweet. I didn't get long-winded explanations of what happened a few months before, and could just move on in the story. It probably would have helped if I had re-read the first book before reading this one, but I still remembered enough of it that reading this one wasn't confusing. There are a lot of acronyms in the book, but they are spelled out in the back.
I'm curious to see if Nola will follow the doctor's advice and put on some weight, because quite frankly she's way too skinny, and I've only "read" her!
I look forward to reading the next installment, in the hopes that the storyline with Michael and Nola's father will be delved into next. It was a great plot surprise to find out that their father opened the portal in the house, and I can't wait to see how Michael's powers will manifest themselves. Also, I wonder how Sophia will adjust to the world she's entered and if she will be able to cope with her new surroundings.
This was a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who (a) loves Kit, (b) loves fantasy, and/or (c) loves a great read that won't take up a lot of time. In fact, if I'd put my mind to it, I could have very easily finished this in a couple of days instead of the approximate week it took me.
July 20, 2016
Is it better then the first?
Marginally. Maybe.
Will I be reading the rest of the series?
Let me put it this way - the physical copy is already on it's way to Goodwill and while I'm not going to wipe it's existence off my computer and could foresee one day flipping through it/them again if bored, it's not something I want to waste already strained shelving space over. Which is too bad. The premise behind the series is a really intriguing one, one that in the right hands would have been totally up my alley for a fun read. But instead... it frankly feels like Kerr lost interest in the whole project but because she had already sold the series AND cashed the check she was just gritting her teeth and doing what was required to hit agreed upon word counts. It makes me wish authors could sell their worlds when they just can't muster up the enthusiasm to continue on themselves. Build the world, set the framework, and then hand it over to someone who will love and make something beautiful out of it, instead of just treating the whole thing like a gray joyless grind to crank out a finish project. Good ideas, great concept, seriously uninspired middle of the road to the point of nonentity finish. Which is why, even though it's possibly a bit better then the first book, I'm taking it down a star. Unless she had a gun to her head demanding she continue this story, I don't understand why a talented writer didn't just scrap this entirely, or at least put the work down, slide it into a drawer for a year or three until the passion came back.
Writing is what makes me me. It's something that defines who I am, even if I never personally sell a book and only get the odd bit of ghostwork, editing, or articles published. Even if all THAT never happens again, I write because when I get up in the morning and when I go to bed at night, the first thing that makes me - ME - is the need to live in a world of words. It's a skill I spend more and more time trying to perfect and the things I write are my children, just as much as if they were physically alive and a part of me. So this kind of insipid 'meh' writing makes me crazy, and is worse in a lot of ways then just outright terrible writing. Write or don't. But don't half ass it. And this series feels like a massively half-assed shrug of an attempt.
Marginally. Maybe.
Will I be reading the rest of the series?
Let me put it this way - the physical copy is already on it's way to Goodwill and while I'm not going to wipe it's existence off my computer and could foresee one day flipping through it/them again if bored, it's not something I want to waste already strained shelving space over. Which is too bad. The premise behind the series is a really intriguing one, one that in the right hands would have been totally up my alley for a fun read. But instead... it frankly feels like Kerr lost interest in the whole project but because she had already sold the series AND cashed the check she was just gritting her teeth and doing what was required to hit agreed upon word counts. It makes me wish authors could sell their worlds when they just can't muster up the enthusiasm to continue on themselves. Build the world, set the framework, and then hand it over to someone who will love and make something beautiful out of it, instead of just treating the whole thing like a gray joyless grind to crank out a finish project. Good ideas, great concept, seriously uninspired middle of the road to the point of nonentity finish. Which is why, even though it's possibly a bit better then the first book, I'm taking it down a star. Unless she had a gun to her head demanding she continue this story, I don't understand why a talented writer didn't just scrap this entirely, or at least put the work down, slide it into a drawer for a year or three until the passion came back.
Writing is what makes me me. It's something that defines who I am, even if I never personally sell a book and only get the odd bit of ghostwork, editing, or articles published. Even if all THAT never happens again, I write because when I get up in the morning and when I go to bed at night, the first thing that makes me - ME - is the need to live in a world of words. It's a skill I spend more and more time trying to perfect and the things I write are my children, just as much as if they were physically alive and a part of me. So this kind of insipid 'meh' writing makes me crazy, and is worse in a lot of ways then just outright terrible writing. Write or don't. But don't half ass it. And this series feels like a massively half-assed shrug of an attempt.
November 21, 2012
It took me two tries to get into this book. I started rereading it after I had read the first 100 pages or so a few weeks earlier, and could not understand a thing. But when I started again, it made more sense to me. Or as much sense as such a very strange story can make.
A San Francisco as we know it, a battle between Chaos and Order, where Balance is the most important thing. Order would mean stagnation of growth, of live. And Chaos would just mean more chaos. Alternate realities or dimensions, apparitions, divine interventions, and psychic powers, mix that up with secret government agencies, politics and murder, and you have it all. Just like Ari, Nola’s boyfriend and bodyguard, I have a hard time understanding and believing it all. Still, the story just comes together, and is filled with Nola’s quirky family.
I’ve come to like Nola for the straightforwarded but also very strange person she is. She does have an eating disorder, even though she doesn’t really believe it, she really needs to eat more. She is afraid of relationships, and how Ari has gotten to her in such a short time. She hates weapons, while Ari is a sharpshooter, and loves his guns. But then, she doesn’t need weapons to defend herself, she has a license to Ensorscell.
Nola’s brother Michael is growing up, and he wants his girlfriend to come to this world, I really liked how all the difficulties are portrayed realistically, as well as the results of her “job”. I am actually looking forward to reading the next book, but it won’t be soon. You need to be able to concentrate to be able to understand it all, or at least the biggest part of it.
If you like really different urban fantasy stories, with a strong romance thread, but with very little real smexy times, you will like this. I really cannot compare it to anything I have read before. I do recommend you read this in order, or you are totally irrevocably lost in the story.
A San Francisco as we know it, a battle between Chaos and Order, where Balance is the most important thing. Order would mean stagnation of growth, of live. And Chaos would just mean more chaos. Alternate realities or dimensions, apparitions, divine interventions, and psychic powers, mix that up with secret government agencies, politics and murder, and you have it all. Just like Ari, Nola’s boyfriend and bodyguard, I have a hard time understanding and believing it all. Still, the story just comes together, and is filled with Nola’s quirky family.
I’ve come to like Nola for the straightforwarded but also very strange person she is. She does have an eating disorder, even though she doesn’t really believe it, she really needs to eat more. She is afraid of relationships, and how Ari has gotten to her in such a short time. She hates weapons, while Ari is a sharpshooter, and loves his guns. But then, she doesn’t need weapons to defend herself, she has a license to Ensorscell.
Nola’s brother Michael is growing up, and he wants his girlfriend to come to this world, I really liked how all the difficulties are portrayed realistically, as well as the results of her “job”. I am actually looking forward to reading the next book, but it won’t be soon. You need to be able to concentrate to be able to understand it all, or at least the biggest part of it.
If you like really different urban fantasy stories, with a strong romance thread, but with very little real smexy times, you will like this. I really cannot compare it to anything I have read before. I do recommend you read this in order, or you are totally irrevocably lost in the story.
April 22, 2014
Still liked it but incredibly enough not as much as the first. The characters are evolving and I'm not sure I like that change yet. I always thought Ari's job was going to come back and bite them and I'm pretty sure that's what's happening now. It also annoys me like crazy how everyone assumes that because a relationship is working out marriage is the next step and, of course, the girl just has to accept. People talk about freedom of choice all the time but there's always some standard everyone expects people to follow. Hidden guidelines. If a woman doesn't marry until she's forty or fifty it's implied she's a bitter spinster, if a woman doesn't marry her boyfriend it's implied she doesn't love him enough and so on...and while this novel doesn't really rely heavily on said assumptions, I still got upset by Ari's thoughts on how Nola should never leave or go to a place without him or how he assumed she would follow him to Israel if he was called to go. Not to mention how everything is slightly dysfunctional considering both their lines of work. Theoretically Nola is Ari's boss while he's in the US but it seems pretty clear Ari doesn't like receiving orders from her and always tries to turn things around to his way of thinking. Not to sound like a government flunky but there will be times when he may need to follow her orders to the letter and I'm wondering if he'll be smart enough to do it. Of course I also see the level of ridiculousness of said situation considering the different level fields of work and how Nola doesn't seem to have an ounce of self-preservation 'cause she'd have started physical and weapons training otherwise already. While I understand her reluctance I also see how her Chaotic forces manipulate humans and humans do tend to strangle and shoot people. In that respect Ari is so much advanced that, like I said, it's ridiculous he has to follow her orders.
On that note...I'm not sure I like where this is going.
On that note...I'm not sure I like where this is going.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 12, 2012
Second in the Nola O'Grady books, where she lives in San Francisco with her motley extended Irish family and her new, Israeli lover/bodyguard.
The story follows on from book 1, which if you havent read (like me) it's a little hard to catch up on, but generally the story is ok. She is following up in chasing the missing members of the coven that was broken up in Book 1. Meanwhile there are entities coming over from an alternate dimension, her brother is trying to get his new radioactive girlfriend over from this alternate dimension (where she has been working as a prostitute), a new business partner of her brother in law is blackmailing him and is in far too deep. There's also a small mystery of Nola's missing Irish father, who in this book she finds out why he's missing, that he's not really as dead as everyone thought, and some of the reasons he left Ireland in the first place.
Nola has psychic powers, which now places her at the head of a really really secret agency. She is following up the other people from the coven she broke up in book 1, an investigation that leads her to more deaths, more visitations and surprises from alternate worlds. I dont know the background behind the "not wanting to eat" issue - she's not anorexic, just never seems to be hungry and is always being told to eat - and there are detail descriptions of what she's wearing (I dont know why). They seem to change clothes more often than they eat, which is a little strange (and of course, no visits to the bathroom)!
The story follows on from book 1, which if you havent read (like me) it's a little hard to catch up on, but generally the story is ok. She is following up in chasing the missing members of the coven that was broken up in Book 1. Meanwhile there are entities coming over from an alternate dimension, her brother is trying to get his new radioactive girlfriend over from this alternate dimension (where she has been working as a prostitute), a new business partner of her brother in law is blackmailing him and is in far too deep. There's also a small mystery of Nola's missing Irish father, who in this book she finds out why he's missing, that he's not really as dead as everyone thought, and some of the reasons he left Ireland in the first place.
Nola has psychic powers, which now places her at the head of a really really secret agency. She is following up the other people from the coven she broke up in book 1, an investigation that leads her to more deaths, more visitations and surprises from alternate worlds. I dont know the background behind the "not wanting to eat" issue - she's not anorexic, just never seems to be hungry and is always being told to eat - and there are detail descriptions of what she's wearing (I dont know why). They seem to change clothes more often than they eat, which is a little strange (and of course, no visits to the bathroom)!
January 24, 2012
The storyline for "Water to burn" was more organized than in License to Ensorcell. I loved the forays into Nora's crazy family : it reminded me of My favorite ever Frank Capra comedy "You can't take it with you". Every one of them is a misfit, every one of them fits perfectly. I hope the next book develops a few of them (Sean is still a bit sketchy).
The world building is solid, imaginative and fun (calamari aliens, yum). The fact that the world in question is not limited to San Francisco and the Bay Area was a plus.
But WHAT WITH THE ACRONYMS ???
It's even worse for me I guess, I'm French, REAL acronyms are hard for me to get, make believe acronyms are a nightmare ! There IS a lexicon for them at the end of the book. Unfortunately I read it in electronic form and learned of its existence on the last page of the book (disgusted and pained sigh)
AND they are very... dorky !
The world building is solid, imaginative and fun (calamari aliens, yum). The fact that the world in question is not limited to San Francisco and the Bay Area was a plus.
But WHAT WITH THE ACRONYMS ???
It's even worse for me I guess, I'm French, REAL acronyms are hard for me to get, make believe acronyms are a nightmare ! There IS a lexicon for them at the end of the book. Unfortunately I read it in electronic form and learned of its existence on the last page of the book (disgusted and pained sigh)
AND they are very... dorky !
July 10, 2013
Katharine Kerr’s License to Ensorcell was an uneven but unique entry into the urban fantasy subgenre. It began as an interesting paranormal whodunit with some annoying acronyms, then took a sharp turn and became a story of alternate universes (also known here as deviant world levels). The addition of the alternate-universe material made License to Ensorcell more original than many of its peers and introduced a poignant subplot involving the heroine’s teenage brother, but also made the mystery make less sense. When I finished, though, I was certain that the Nola O’Grady series had a lot of potential. Water to Burn, the second installment in the series, expands upon the characters and concepts introduced in the first book, and lives up to the aforementioned potential.
Again we have a murder mystery —... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Again we have a murder mystery —... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
November 3, 2012
I'm definitely enjoying this series and looking forward to the next book. The acronyms used by Nola's agency are not as irritating in this second book of the series as they don't seem to be used as much, or maybe I'm just not noticing them as much. I'm still really bothered by Nola's eating disorder... I just don't see any reason for her to have an eating disorder, it simply doesn't add anything to the story. There's no explanation for it at all, it's just THERE. She's also VERY defensive and angry when Ari deduces certain things about her family. I can understand the defensiveness... but the anger is strange.
Other than these nitpicky things, I thought this was a great story and fairly well written.
Other than these nitpicky things, I thought this was a great story and fairly well written.
October 9, 2013
Nola O'Grady is the new head of the San Francisco branch of an unnamed government agency that most of the government doesn't know exists. That's because her group deals with the paranormal. Nola is psychic and sometimes sees things that aren't there. She is paired up with an Israeli national who has his own unnamed agency back home, but who also works for Interpol.
Her family has a wide range of paranormal talents and these appear through the whole series.
I like the characters and their interactions, though there's a little too frequent emphasis on Nola's possible eating disorder and Ari's overly aggressive driving, as well as his guns.
This is the second in the series, after License to Ensorcell.
Her family has a wide range of paranormal talents and these appear through the whole series.
I like the characters and their interactions, though there's a little too frequent emphasis on Nola's possible eating disorder and Ari's overly aggressive driving, as well as his guns.
This is the second in the series, after License to Ensorcell.
April 5, 2012
Psychic powers, secret service, San Francisco – what else could you need? Second in the series, this contains all the elements that made the first work for me and more. Fulfilling my definition of urban fantasy, the city is truly a character in the story, & one that is obviously loved. As a San Franciscan, this works for me – but the City would be well described for those who have never been here. I remain in love with the big Irish=American family and the true-to-life interactions between them. The twists and turns of the story kept me up far too late! (Full disclosure: I won this in a GoodReads contest. It was on my list to buy, I swear!)
June 17, 2012
When I finished reading License to Ensorcell, I was delighted to learn on GoodReads that other books in the series had already been published. We headed straight over to Barnes and Noble to pick it up.
I liked learning more about Nola O'Grady's family. Ari is holding up surprisingly well to the quirks of life with an O'Grady.
The author has plans for a long series which isn't really what I was looking for. I was hoping for more self-containment but I'm already hooked on the series.
I liked learning more about Nola O'Grady's family. Ari is holding up surprisingly well to the quirks of life with an O'Grady.
The author has plans for a long series which isn't really what I was looking for. I was hoping for more self-containment but I'm already hooked on the series.
November 5, 2012
Decent, even though the plot was all over the place and (since it was a sequel) I spent a lot of time confused about the characters. And the magic. But the characters are all right, including the near-anorexic commitment-phobic psychic main character and her secret agent boyfriend. The plot pulled together at the end, although it seemed pretty arbitrary, but at least it became readable enough that I wanted to finish it. Read this only if you love urban fantasy and must start another series (except you should probably start with book one.)
December 25, 2012
These is the second of the Nola O'Grady paranormal romances. As with the first the various doings of the paranormal O'Grady family are more interesting than the mystery elements. Nola's brother, who can walk between worlds wants to bring back his alternate universe girlfriend and an Uncle is being blackmailed by the bad guys. And a rabbi from Ari's past has a letter from Nola's previously thought dead father is who himself a worldwalker from a parallel world. There's not much romance although Nola and Interpol agent Ari move in together and avoid using the L word.
December 27, 2011
I really like this new series by Katherine Kerr. It is very different from her Deverry series, which is one of my favorites of all time..this is a modern urban fantasy. I like how the city of San Francisco is another character in the book. Clever, fun read. I'm on pins and needles for the third one.
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June 8, 2012I'm not sure why it took me so long to finish this! Just distracted I guess. I enjoyed it. I think that Kerr's books are a fun addition to the supernatural/fantasy detective genre. (If that is what we should call it.)
I believe it was the 3rd book in the series coming out that had me going back and finishing this one.
I believe it was the 3rd book in the series coming out that had me going back and finishing this one.
November 26, 2011
This book had good development and was good in the world-building sense. I loved how we got to see more of Nola's family and her relationship, despite Nola's best efforts otherwise, to Ari continues to grow. I also liked that we also see a possible end to Nola's anorexic behavior with her family and Ari telling her to EAT. This book makes me anxiously await the next installment.
May 29, 2012
Worthy sequel to License to Ensorcell. Nola and Ari pick up the threads of the case from the previous volume which leads them to blackmail, treasure hunting and watery danger. The world continues to evolve in an interesting manner as the characters interact. At least I have hold of the 3rd volume so I do not have to wait to find out what happens next.
August 1, 2012
This second book is also a fun story. It's a nice change from so much of Urban Fantasy, because Nola is in an actual relationship with an actual guy, and they're working through their relationship and their issues in their own way, without ever getting into that angsty thing where they suddenly stop trusting each other or start pushing each other away that you see in so much UF.
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