Review: Dark Arts and a Daiquiri by Annette Marie

Posted November 16, 2018 by Lola in Fantasy, Review / 8 Comments

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Dark Arts and a DaiquiriDark Arts and a Daiquiri (The Guild Codex: Spellbound #2)
by Annette Marie

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
When I found myself facing down the scariest black-magic felon in the city, practically daring him to abduct me, I had to wonder exactly how I ended up here.

It all started when I accidentally landed a job as a bartender–but not at a bar. At a guild, populated by mages, sorcerers, alchemists, witches, and psychics. Good thing this lame-o human is adaptable, right?

Then my favorite guild members–three sexy, powerful, and intermittently charming mages–asked for my help. Did they want access to my encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails? Oh no. They wanted to wrap me up in a pretty ribbon and plunk me in the crosshairs of a murderous rogue to lure him out of hiding.

So that’s what we did. And that’s why I’m here. About to be kidnapped. Oh, and our grand plan for safely capturing said murderous rogue? Yeah, that completely fell apart about two minutes ago.

Why did I agree to this again?

My Review

I received a free copy form the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

I enjoyed the first book in this series and was happy when I got my hands on a copy of book 2. I enjoyed this book even more than book 1, the story line is great and there are some great twists and reveals. The world and characters come even more alive and I quite liked the plot line and the change of scenery for a bit in this book.

Dark Arts and Daiquiri starts out when Tori gets asked by the three mages that are her friends to help them with catching a very dangerous rogue. When this starts you just know it’s going to go wrong, but not how yet and there is some tension when things build up to that scene where she is playing bait for the rogue. I ended up really enjoying the plot in this book, although it’s hard to say much without giving anything away. It definitely took a direction I hadn’t expected, but I enjoyed it and thought the story was very well done.

At the end there is an action packed scene and I liked how the book got wrapped up, but also left things open for future books. There is a scene toward the end that I am curious about how it will end up. And it just makes me excited to see where book 3 takes things.

One of my favorite things about this series is seeing how Tori, who is just a normal human, handles herself in a world with magic and danger. She isn’t afraid to rush head first into danger if it means she can help someone, but she also can be be quite smart about things and I like how she handles herself. She also knows her limits, but someone manages to get into trouble again and again. She’s a great main character to follow and this book gives us a bit more insight into her past as well.

The three mages are great as well, although there aren’t as much in this book as in book 1, as other side character take the foreground a bit more in this book. Which worked well here. Although I am a bit sad we didn’t get as many Ezra scenes as he was my favorite in book 1 I had hoped to see more about him and maybe uncover a bit about his past. There are a few great Kai and Aaron scenes tough. And there are some new side characters that get introduced that are very interesting, as well as a new housemate for Tori who sounds like he’ll be a fun character.

This book explains more about the world and I feel like we got a whole more insight into certain magic classes and creatures in this book that didn’t play as big of a role in book 1. Some of the magics are pretty cool and I liked seeing more of what is possible with magic. There is quite the extensive world and multitude of powers and creatures involved and it’s fun to discover more of the world. And I am sure there is a while lot we still don’t know yet.

To summarize: this was a great sequel and I got pulled even more in this series with this book. I easily got sucked into the story and was curious to see where things go as there are some great twists and reveals and the story goes into a direction I hadn’t expected. I enjoy reading about Tori, she can be a bit impulsive at times when it comes to helping people she cares about and gets herself into trouble at times, but I like how she cares and also handles things smartly. One of my favorite parts is how she is a normal human that gets involved into the magic world and seeing how she handles herself. There are some great new side characters that get introduced as well as more from ones we already know. I am curious to see more of some side characters we meet in this book. And while this book wraps up well there are some hints about future plot liens that make me curious. There is also more world building and I liked learning more about some magic classes and magic creatures that we hadn’t seen as much or anything about in book 1. All in all this is shaping into a great urban fantasy series and I am looking forward to book 3.

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

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8 responses to “Review: Dark Arts and a Daiquiri by Annette Marie

  1. Neat to see this next book was also good and you got to know Tori and the world better. I think its fun when a human with no magic is the heroine and has to help even though all around them are magic users. I can like an impulsive heroine if they don’t do it all the time, are generally a smart person, and it doesn’t harm others.
    Glad this was good. I was curious about it after seeing it in your Sunday haul.
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Comment on Review: My One and Only Duke by Grace Burrowes by Sophia RoseMy Profile

    • It was great to get to know Tori and the world better in this one. I like it when the main character is human and can still help even with magic users around her. It’s a fun series so far.

    • The change of scenery was nice in this one. And with how the guys werne’t in this one was interesting, but I also missed getting to know them better a bit. I am curious about Tori’s new housemate.

  2. So happy this was a great sequel, Lola. It certainly sounds like an interesting series and I’m really curious about Tori with her being human but so immersed in the magical world. I like the sound of her inner strength too. πŸ™‚
    I generally like heroines who are strong, quirky, and outspoken. πŸ˜‰
    Bookworm Brandee recently posted…Weekend Wrap-up #256 – SO tiredMy Profile

    • It is a great series so far and I really like the fact that Tori is human, but so immersed in the magical world and able to keep her own. Tori definitely fits the description of strong, quirky and outspoken :).

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