Book Review: "Master of Shadows" by Joss Walker

 

A lost grimoire. A dangerous new enemy. And a powerful magical weapon that could destroy the world.

Jayne Thorne, CIA Librarian, is back for another exciting mission. When her mentor goes missing, Jayne is sent to Paris to find him, only to land in the crosshairs of a deadly terrorist organization and their diabolical weapon, a mysterious poison that renders their enemies powerless.

Fighting to combat this weakness, Jayne struggles to make peace with her sister, who has been hiding the truth of their family history for years, and overcome difficulties with her shifter boyfriend, who can't quite sync up with Jayne's new powers. Even worse, the terrorists demand she locate a necromantic grimoire in France, or they will kill her mentor.

As Jayne hunts for the grimoire, she unlocks the secret to summoning the Master of Shadows—a long-dead master magician possessing a dark and destructive magic. With this lethal power unleashed, she must protect her team from the worst magical threats they've ever faced… or suffer the deadly consequences. - from Booksirens.com 

I received this advanced review copy from Booksirens and am providing an unbiased review.

This is the second book in the 'Jayne Thorne - CIA Librarian' series, so before I could actually read it, I had to go find the first one.I know some authors, you can pick up a book further in the series, and still be kept pretty much up to date regarding events from prior books due to the author adding that backstory, but I don't care for that. In fact, in some ways I get irritated becasue I have to read info I already knew about - rant for another time....

So I'm not going to ruin this with spoilers, but book one is about how Jayne becomes a CIA Librarian, gains her magical abilities, and  provides much about the MC's background, as well as other supportive characters. The author has done a very fine job of background information on characters, and into the second book, has added more depth for the reader to understand how the characters are acting/re-acting to things/events. In book one, we find out that there is an 'evil' group called the Kingdom, that is going after some major artifacts/grimoires to gain power. Book two begins a new case for Jayne and another group enters the story, not aligned with the Kingdom, but not with the CIA either. So we are finding out more about the magical communities in this world the author has created. In this Case, it seems more geographical, than world-wide. Book two is based in Paris and surrounding area, and seemed fairly accurate (I don't know the place physically, so can't say) and the writing detail was fine.

I do like stories with a strong female heroine/lead, and this series is definitely in that category. Sarcasm and snark are always welcome to come across in dialogue, or references to 'nerdy' movies (basically any sci-fi/fantasy). I think that much of the convos in this second book just was a little over the top on all that talk. By mid-way through, I felt like every conversation with the MC almost had to end with some witty quip, or sarcastic thought. Maybe a little less of that, and it would be a bit more enjoyable.

Overall, I felt it was a good story (both books, and the pre-quel) and am looking forward to seeing (at my guess) at least two more stories in this series.

#Booksirens #MasterOfShadows