Rating: 4⭐️
The Dusk Reapers (Cursebreaker #1) by J. T. Lawrence is the first book in her urban fantasy mystery series about a witch assassin in South Africa.
The location is one of the better elements, an unusual one that I don’t run into often. This first book is also features amnesia storyline around the main character. It’s resolved here by the end of the novel.
Asha Rook wakes up in a hospital. She’s been the victim of a horrific attack, suffered a significant brain injury and has amnesia. No idea who she is other than her identity from her identifications and driver’s license.
And the idea she’s in danger as well as the fact that she’s implicated in a murder, has her fleeing the hospital for answers.
Lawrence does an excellent job building the character of Asta, a woman scrambling to discover who she is in the middle of a murder investigation, and layout the structure of a urban fantasy world of witches, mages and spirits and dark realms existing within the city of Johannesburg.
A fluctuating pov that didn’t always work because the reader wasn’t sure whose perspective we were in made things confusing or complicated. Nicola or Asta? Sometimes we had no clue.
I don’t mind unresolved plot lines, especially in a first book. Usually they will carry over through the series. Here it’s the case of missing children left hanging as well as who was behind the original attack.
The character of Sam, the police officer, the maybe romantic interest, is ok. Perhaps he will be more fully developed as the series progresses.
Overall, a good start with some interesting elements.
If you are interested in something new, give it a try.
Cursebreaker: An Epic Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (6 book series)
The Dusk Reapers #1
The Haunted Portal #2
The EverShade Ring #3
The Obsidian Castle #4
The Pick Pocket’s Curse #5
The Eternal Betrayal #6
Buy Link
Source: Amazon.com The Dusk Reapers: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (The Cursebreaker) – Amazon.com
Blurb
Her heart was flatlining. Her magic wasn’t.
Asha wakes up in the hospital with thirty-six stitches in her head and no memory of the attack that put her there. The damage to her skull was catastrophic, but she surprises the medical team with her lightning-quick healing—and by inexplicably sending their equipment flying across the room.
She soon learns that she is Asha Rook—The Cursebreaker—and she’s just become the prime target of every ruthless bounty hunter wizard in the Realm of Magic & Mayhem.
To add to the high stakes, a curse has landed an innocent woman in a terrifying asylum, and it’s Asha’s job to save her.
Asha must rely on her eccentric found family, finding belonging and banter with allies who accept her complex and dangerous nature. This includes an unnervingly attractive and steadfast cop (an epic slow burn), a sassy goblin who trades portal magic for tacos and lime milkshakes, and her beloved steampunk dwarf godmother, who is equally talented at roasting perfect potatoes as she is at creating magitech weapons.
Join Asha and her ragtag team as she embraces her destiny, navigating pocket realms and battling evil to break the ultimate curse. With more twists and turns than you can shake a wand at, this is a dark magic mystery with humor, adventure, and a whole lot of heart.
Fans of Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, and Ilona Andrews will burn through this totally addictive urban fantasy series.
Read the complete 6-book series now!
TROPES:
• Curses and curse-breaking
• Kick-ass female protagonist
• Amnesia
• Hidden Magical World
• Gritty Urban Setting
• Diverse Supernatural Creatures
• Haunted houses; ghost children
• Secret Societies and Organizations
• Found Family: banter and belonging
• Slow burn deep connection romance
• Huge, satisfying happy ever after
Fire Finch Press
Publication date
August 28, 2024
Accessibility
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Language
English
File size
2.9 MB
Screen Reader
Supported
Enhanced typesetting
Enabled
X-Ray
Not Enabled
Word Wise
Enabled
Print length
468 pages
Page Flip
Enabled
Book 1 of 6
