Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep Pages: 368
Published by Kensington Books on April 28, 2015
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy & Magic, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Source: eARC from Publisher
There Be Monsters Here. . .
It's not as great as you'd think, living in a tourist town that's known as "the most magical place in America." Same boring high school, just twice as many monsters under the bridges and rival Families killing each other for power.
I try to keep out of it. I've got my mom's bloodiron sword and my slightly illegal home in the basement of the municipal library. And a couple of Talents I try to keep quiet, including very light fingers and a way with a lock pick.
But then some nasty characters bring their Family feud into my friend's pawn shop, and I have to make a call--get involved, or watch a cute guy die because I didn't. I guess I made the wrong choice, because now I'm stuck putting everything on the line for Devon Sinclair. My mom was murdered because of the Families, and it looks like I'm going to end up just like her. . .
Cold Burn of Magic is the first in a new young adult urban fantasy series. This was my first book by Jennifer Estep, and I absolutely loved it! (yes, I know that is pretty much an offense worthy of a stoning.) I need to read her Mythos Academy books ASAP. I love that Cold Burn of Magic’s series name is the Black Blade series, because the black blade described is pretty scary (and cool). In fact, that was one of the things I loved the most of the story. Jennifer Estep’s description of the magical items in the story. That and the fact that there are plenty of different monsters and creatures milling about.
I am equal parts fascinated and terrified of the town. I don’t think I would ever be brave enough to visit. Maybe if I had Lila’s talents. And ok, I lied, the talents were my real favorite part of Cold Burn of Magic. I would have been exactly like Devon- trying to detect what a person’s talent was right after meeting them. I loved how varied and diverse the talents were. Some were witch like, some were superhero-like and some were talents that I hadn’t seen explored in any books yet. And those unique talents were my favorite. Jennifer Estep does a great job of creating a full picture of this magical town.
And then there is Lila. She is a firecracker, that one. I loved how feisty and smart mouthed she was. She will not back down from anyone. Even when she maybe should. Her mouth certainly got her into trouble sometimes, and even when she knew it would, she still couldn’t hold her tongue. It might have been dumb of her to talk back, but I loved that she did. And Devon was great, as well. He is a much bigger softie than Lila was. The combination of the two of them worked great. There wasn’t too much romance in this one, which worked in the story’s favor. Instead of focusing on a swooning Lila (she wasn’t!) we got to focus on the action and world building and details of the warring families.
Cold Burn of Magic is going to be on my radar as a great young adult urban fantasy. It is one of my favorite genres to read when it is well done, and this one is certainly well done. I would recommend it to all fans- adult and YA alike.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- May Clean Sweep ARC 2015
kindlemom1
Yay! So happy you liked this as much as I did. Estep really can do no wrong. I just love her writing and her strong heroines.
Melliane
I’m glad you had a great time with this book as well, I was really surprised. And I agree you have to try the Mythos Academy one now! It was so much fun too but really different too.