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Cold Burn of Magic (Black Blade, #1)

Jennifer Estep

Start date: October 1, 2021

Finish date: October 30, 2021

Discussion: After the Book Discussion

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What Members Thought

May 03, 2015 Vannessa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-books, urban-fantasy, witches-magic-users-mostly, young-adult, netgalley-books, 2015-100-books-reading-challenge

I grabbed this book from Netgalley as I have loved Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series from the beginning so was hoping for another great series and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. I think if this first book is anything to go by I will definitely have another favourite series to add to my shelf!

Lila is a 17 year old orphaned thief, living in the basement of a library, doing break and entry jobs for a slightly dodgy man named Mo. Lila is not a normal "rube" though - a non-magical I grabbed this book from Netgalley as I have loved Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series from the beginning so was hoping for another great series and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. I think if this first book is anything to go by I will definitely have another favourite series to add to my shelf!

Lila is a 17 year old orphaned thief, living in the basement of a library, doing break and entry jobs for a slightly dodgy man named Mo. Lila is not a normal "rube" though - a non-magical human. No, she has a couple of special talents of her own - she has the soulsight and can read people's feelings when she looks into their eyes and she also has a transference talent that no-one needs to know about. This talent is very rare and allows her to use others magical talents as her own.

On a trip to Mo's to collect a payment for a job well done, Lila helps to save a young man and his friends but inadvertently gets herself involved in the Families - mob families that she has always tried to avoid. The Sinclair Family pretty much coerce Lila to work for them as the new bodyguard for Devon, the young man in question and she tries to work who might be behind all his attacks. The attacks don't seem to trying to kill him, rather to kidnap him, but no-one really knows why other than he is the heir to the Sinclair Family legacy and power.

Lila does a pretty good job of keeping him and herself alive, even when the person behind all the attacks is revealed. Secrets about her past, her present and about Devon are all revealed and Lila has to make the hard decision of whether to leave him and the Family behind or stay and help the Family and herself out a bit more.

I loved Lila! She was a great main character and her snarkiness was perfect especially towards those who demanded her respect. You don't expect that from Lila; you need to earn it! I have read some reviews that state that this book was too much like the Gin Blanco books, but other than the sad background of the main character and having some magical powers, I didn't think they were all that similar really. I love Jennifer Estep's writing style and can't wait to grab ahold of the next one in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book in return for an honest review. ...more

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Aug 08, 2014 Aimee rated it liked it

Shelves: ya, paranormal, magic, urban-fantasy, 2016

I'm starting to notice a theme with Estep's books. They seem to have almost the same sort of set up to them. Which doesn't make them bad in anyway, it just feels like I've been here before.

I did enjoy the story. The world is interesting and draws the reader in without drying out the story. But I can see bits and pieces from her other works in this and I do admit to being a bit disappointed with the hopes of finding a new out there original idea. While this does promise to be just as good as her ...more

1 like · Like · see review