Challenge Review: Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Industrial Magic
Series: Women of the Otherworld #4
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Supernatural Fictions, Urban Fantasy Fiction
Elements: Shamans, Demons, Witches, Sorcerers, Necromancers, Druids, Deities, Ghosts, Werewolves, Vampires, Clairvoyants
Publisher: Bantam Books, Random House Inc.
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 528 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-553-58707-4  
Release Date: October 26, 2004
Source: Borrowed from Wentworth Library
Rating: 4/5

Tagline(s): ~NONE~

Summary: In the aftermath of her mother's murder, Paige broke with the elite, ultraconservative American Coven of Witches. Now her goal is to start a new Coven for a new generation. But while Paige pitches her vision to uptight thirty-something witches in business suits, a more urgent matter commands her attention.

Something is murdering the teenage offspring of the underworld's most influential Cabals--a circle of families that makes the mob look like amateurs. And none is more powerful than the Cortez Cabal, a faction Paige is intimately acquainted with. Lucas Cortez, the rebel son and unwilling heir, is none other than her boyfriend. But love isn't blind, and Paige has her eyes wide open as she is drawn into a hunt for an unnatural-born killer. Pitted against shamans, demons, and goons, Paige finds herself in a battle chilling enough to make a wild young woman grow up in a hurry. If she gets the chance.

Review:

It has been four months since the fiasco with Kristof Nast and the fight for custody of Savannah, but Paige Winterbourne's life is anything but back to normal. With her business, private life, and reputation up in smoke, she had to relocate to Portland with her boyfriend, Lucas Cortez, and her ward, Savannah Levine; a place where no one knows her. Though life has moved on, Paige still feels like something is missing, and with each new failed attempt to start a new Coven, that emptiness grows bigger.

But when Lucas's father, Benicio, CEO of the Cortez Cabal, approaches Paige with an incident where a young witch was attacked and is now in a coma, she asks to discuss it with Lucas first. Lucas, knowing that Paige is worried about the girl, suggest checking up on her and seeing if there is anything they can do to help her. What starts as a simple inquiry quickly becomes a full-blown investigation when this attack is linked to a series of murders on teenagers of Cabal employees and families. Paige and Lucas know they are in it for the long run when the killer begins targeting the teens of the immediate families of the Cabal CEOs, and the only teen Cabal child not under 24-hour guard is Paige's ward, Savannah.

To help keep Savannah safe and stop this killer from taking the lives of more children, Paige calls in help from werewolves Elena, Clay and Jeremy; celebrity necromancer Jaime Vegas; and vampires Cassandra and Aaron.

From the gang-ridden streets of Miami to the many levels of the afterlife and back, Paige and Lucas only have so much time to catch the killer before he takes another life.

Out of the two books narrated by Paige so far, Industrial Magic is my favorite. We are thrown into a world terrorized by a killer who is taking his revenge by killing the children of Cabal employees and families. We are introduced to new characters and reunited with old friends. There is just so much excitement, action, mystery, and tension. Industrial Magic is fast-paced and gripping, I couldn't put this book down.

With all the Cabals as the target of the killer; the Nasts, St. Clouds, Boyds, and Cortezes are all in Miami, reluctantly working semi-together, and that's an explosive situation ready to go BOOM! But I really liked one of the young Nasts--Sean doesn't seem like any of the other members of his family. I liked that he wants a relationship with Savannah and that he dislikes how his family is treating his younger half-sister. It shows that maybe there's a better future for the Cabals with heirs like Sean and Lucas.

A great tension breaker that I found completely hilarious was the fountains outside the vampire, John's house. When Paige and Cassandra go there for a visit, they find a couple of fountains on either side of his walkway of a male version of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus." Trust me when I say that their discovery and reaction to the fountains will definitely make you crack a smile, at the very least.

SPOILER_DESCRIPTION_OF_JOHN'S_FOUNTAIN_HERE

There, flanking either side of the walkway, were a pair of raised fountains. The base of each was a shell-shaped bowl filled with water and lily pads. Standing in each bowl was a masculine version of Botticelli's famous "Birth of Venus." The man stood in the same pose as Venus, left hand coyly drawn up to cover his chest, right hand down by his genitals, yet instead of covering them, he held his optimistically endowed penis, pointing it upward. Water jetted from each penis and over the path into the basin of the twin statue opposite. The water didn't flow in a smooth stream, though. It spurted. "Please tell me there is something wrong with his water pressure," Cassandra said. "No, I believe that's the desired effect." I followed the path of the water over the walkway. "So are we suppposed to duck or run through between spurts?"

I'm not sure how I'll like the next book, Haunted, which is from Eve's POV, Savannah's mother. We met her in Industrial Magic, and I really liked her, so I hope I like her story as well.  

About this Author: 

Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.

Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many  pets.

CHALLENGE: MONTH FOUR

INDUSTRIAL MAGIC BY KELLEY ARMSTRONG