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 | Title: Street Magic Author: Caitlin Kittredge Series: Black London #1 Cover Art: Chris McGrath Genre: Urban Fantasy Excerpt: Yes Source: Bought Reviewed by: Abigail
 Sexual Content: Kissing. Pervasive crude sexual dialogue. Rating:   Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list. |
Description
Her name is Pete Caldecott. She was just sixteen when she met Jack Winter, a gorgeous, larger-than-life mage who thrilled her with his witchcraft. Then a spirit Jack summoned killed him before Pete’s eyes—or so she thought. Now a detective, Pete is investigating the case of a young girl kidnapped from the streets of London. A tipster’s chilling prediction has led police directly to the child…but when Pete meets the informant, she’s shocked to learn he is none other than Jack. Strung out on heroin, Jack a shadow of his former self. But he’s able to tell Pete exactly where Bridget’s kidnappers are hiding: in the supernatural shadow-world of the fey. Even though she’s spent years disavowing the supernatural, Pete follows Jack into the invisible fey underworld, where she hopes to discover the truth about what happened to Bridget—and what happened to Jack on that dark day so long ago…Review
STREET MAGIC is one of the best series launches I’ve read in a long time. It really just scrapes the surface of this world and these characters, and yet Wow does it pack a punch. The writing is tight and specific. We don’t ever get bogged down with physical descriptions of people and places, but I still know exactly what everyone looks like and I felt very much like I’d visited all the London locations in STREET MAGIC. The plot is suitably sinister with a supernatural evil that every fiber of your being will long to destroy, but it’s the relationship between Pete and Jack that really sets this book apart.
Jack Winter is a new favorite character for me, and I say character rather than romantic lead because there is very little romantic about him. He’s a complete train wreck of a person. The first time Pete sees him after a dozen years, he’s an emaciated heroin junkie who lets fly a string of hyper crude profanity the moment he sees her. It’s not exactly a meet-cute. With a handful of vitally important exceptions, Jack stays pretty much at that level of hostile wretchedness throughout the book. What does change is how we as readers perceive him as we learn more about him. No matter how many times he falls, Pete refuses to give up on him. She sees something worth saving and so do I.
And I can’t forget Pete. She’s an amazingly tenacious woman. The realities she has to come face to face with in STREET MAGIC would have destroyed a weaker person, but she keeps getting back up, keeps fighting. She’s not some Amazon warrior chick either. She works with her strengths and is aware of her weaknesses, but isn’t afraid to get hurt.
If the debut is any indication, the Black London series is a must read. A dark and twisted urban fantasy set in a London filled with truly evil demons, fae and malevolent magic users. The characters are broken in every possible way and yet they completely resonated with me. I’m thoroughly invested in them so that it’s not a question of if I’ll be reading the rest of the series, it’s a question of how soon can I get caught up. The 4th installment, DEVIL’S BUSINESS, will be published on August 30, 2011.
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