I Read Books: Industrial Magic
Paige Winterbourne, a witch, has begun a relationship with Lucas Cortez, a sorcerer. Lucas refuses to work with his father, the head of the Cortez cartel, a combination magic company and crime organisation based in Miami. In return his father has named him his heir, to the annoyance of his other (legitimate) sons.
As might be expected Cortez senior brings a case, a child of a cartel employee who has been murdered. This rapidly spins out of control; someone is targeting all four of the American cartels, and escalating the rank and importance of the parents. As might be expected all the cartels get involved and fail to work together because no one trusts anyone.
Paige and Lucas work their own contacts, forming a ragtag band of various magic types, catch up with the killer (eventually) and end up in the land of the dead. There they meet Eve (the mother of Paige’s ward, ultra-powerful trainee witch Savannah) and also the Fates. There’s some bargaining, laying in things which I assume will be important later in the series, or maybe they’re just supposed to be cool.
Anyway, it’s slightly over-convoluted urban fantasy, a bit of romance, a whole bunch of weirdo supporting characters with strange powers and odder quirks, well written, occasionally imaginiative.
Read This: For a fair urban fantasy; this mostly stands alone I guess, but works much better in the series.
Don’t Read This: If the inter-Cartel magic justice system sounds like a terrible thing to read about
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