Book Review: Jinx's Magic by Sage Blackwood (a.k.a. Yay Sequels!)

After reading Jinx by Sage Blackwood (and blogging about it), I was really excited about the upcoming sequel.  Sometimes I get too excited and then the sequel is a let-down.  But not this time!  Jinx's Magic is just as good, if not better, than I had hoped. 

The evil Bonemaster has been sealed away, but the seal won't last.  The wizard Simon goes off to battle him once more, but something goes wrong.  And now, in order to save Simon, Jinx has to travel to a land where using magic will get you killed and ... go to school.  He's really not happy about this.  On top of that, a former friend is now threatening the forest Jinx calls home, war is starting, and why is a spectacle-wearing werewolf following Jinx around? 

This is the second book in the trilogy and it works like most middle books: the action intensifies, the bad guys get badder, betrayal and intrigue abound, and the hero learns some cool new tricks.  The world around the forest of Urwald gets explored, fun new characters are introduced, and elves turn out to be terrifying.  All in all, I can't wait for the next book!

~ Book Ninja

Magic and the Mafia

 White Cat, by Holly Black, is part mystery, part dark urban fantasy, part twisted romance, and part mob story.  I hope you like your fiction dark and bruised, because this story doesn't pull any punches.  It takes place in a world very much like our own, except everyone has to wear gloves to protect themselves from curses.  And our dubious "hero," Cassel Sharpe, knows a little more about working curses than your average Joe.

Cassel wakes up on the roof of his fancy high school dorm and nearly falls to his death. He's been sleepwalking again, and now the school is threatening to expel him as too much of a liability.  Was he really sleepwalking, or was he cursed? He dreamed of following a white cat....

Cassel is the only nonworker in a family of curse workers.  Since curse working was outlawed in the 1920s, most curse workers are employed by the mob.  At first, Cassel thinks he's only got to con his school into letting him back in.  Then he begins to think that the dream about the white cat might be related to the girl he loved when he was fourteen; the girl he killed. At least, that's what his two brothers told him after they dumped the body.  Cassel doesn't remember why he killed her, only that he was standing over her bloody body.  Now Cassel thinks his brothers are hiding something from him, something important.  To learn the horrible truth, he'll have to find the white cat from his dream. But the truth is a dangerous thing when the mob is involved, and Cassel finds himself caught between murder and treachery in the underbelly of curse worker society.

If you like White Cat, the curse workers series continues with Red Glove and Black Heart.

Happy reading.
~gothbrarian

Black Butler

The Victorian gothic manga, Black Butler by Yana Toboso, features a too perfect butler and his charge, the Earl of Phantomhive, a twelve-year-old boy who is the head of a very successful toy and candy business.  But both of these characters are something more, with deadly secrets and dark pasts.  Together, they host dinner parties and solve mysteries. 

The artwork is elegant and the reveal moments are both dramatic and gorgeous.  I am, quite frankly, in love.  There is murder, black magic, inept minor characters, cross-dressing, kidnapping, betrayal, kick@$$ fight scenes, and the most wonderful costumes.  What more could a fangirl ask for?  Oh yes - multiple volumes so my new favorite addiction can be drawn out just a bit longer. 

~ Book Ninja