I would classify this book as a young adult category book. Having said that it perhaps a bit less young adult than some of the young adult books that I have read. Jennifer Estep has created a new and enjoyable universe where monsters, magiks and mundanes live together. She brings in elements of mob families a' la maffia families into the mix and throws the young but talented thief Lila into the mix. Jennifer has also created some new and interesting magic powers.

All Lila wants to do is to live her life as a thief alone but, not surprisingly, she is soon thrown into the murky waters of family intrigue and, also not very surprising, things start to heat up and Lila quickly gets her hands full defending herself as well as the man she is, somewhat forcibly, hired to protect.

I liked the world building as well as the characters which are well done in the usual Jennifer Estep way. Lila is a good main character, independent, talented, knows how to fight and has a sharp tongue.

The story itself is good with a few twists in it and the main bud guy, at least in the long run, is a thoroughly dislikable character. Although the story is somewhat young adult it is fairly rich, the plot holds together and it is not as silly as in some young adult book. There are a bit of romance (or should I say romances) but it is not overdone and kept on a reasonable level such that it does not intrude on the main story or becomes a boring filler element.

I liked the book. It is a fun read and I will surely pick up the next book in the series.

Cold Burn of Magic is the first book in the new young adult urban fantasy Black Blade trilogy by Jennifer Estep. Even though I very rarely read YA, I decided to give this series a chance, since I absolutely love Ms. Estep’s Elemental Assassin series. Overall, I enjoyed listening to Cold Burn of Magic and found this new world both exciting and engrossing.

 

I will admit that at first I struggled with the book. Being a new series, the author took time to build her world and introduce the characters, which I found strikingly similar to the Elemental Assassins world. Our main character, Lila, is a younger version of Gin. Her world is filled of warring mobster Families, and Gin’s world has fighting mob bosses. Other similarities include some folks having magical Talents/powers, a rare metal used to make weapons, runes/images that represent the different alliances, and, by the way, Lila is an orphan like Gin. At first, I found the resemblances a little disconcerting, but I was willing to wait patiently for the book to take on its own life. And once that story started, it was an amazing ride right up to the very end!

 

The story centers around attacks on Devon Sinclair, the second in command of one of the powerful Families. Lila is forced into protecting Devon and partnering with the Sinclairs to help figure out who the Mystery Man is behind the attacks. I enjoyed watching Lila piece together the puzzle successfully (even though I figured it out before she did!)

 

While the story itself is entertaining, it’s the wonderful characters that bring the book to life. Lila may be a loner thief at the start of the story, but over the course of the book, we are introduced to an amazing cast of characters that I guarantee will become Lila’s closest friends and family before the end of the trilogy. Of course, there are sparks between Lila and Devon, a dangerous attraction given she’s his bodyguard and all. I admire how this is handled by both characters - well, mostly Lila since we share her POV and understand why she does what she does. Oscar is one of my favorites - a house pixie assigned to help Lila, one who does so reluctantly. He reminds me of Owen Wilson’s miniature cowboy character from the movie Night at the Museum. The entire cast of characters, from the evil to the good, is well-developed and fascinating.

 

Brittany Presley does a wonderful job capturing the youth and intelligence of Lila, along with her slightly southern accent. I also enjoyed her performances of the other characters - Mo is a great combo of kitschy and concern. Devon has the gravel of a young man not yet dragged down by age. Felix’s voice is perky and fun, just like his character. Overall, Ms. Presley’s performance is spot on. 

 

In the end, I really enjoyed this first story in Lila Merriweather’s adventures. Once I made it past the overt world building, I was able to fully immerse myself into the story. The mystery of who was trying to kidnap/kill Devon was engrossing, and I loved trying to solve the crime along side Lila. Ms. Estep does a great job developing Lila as a late teen who has been hardened by life, yet still innocent when it comes to certain experiences, like falling in love. Lila isn’t an angsty young adult, nor is she mature beyond her years. She’s the perfect mix of smarts and youth, making her a character that someone of all ages can relate to. Cold Burn of Magic is an excellent start to a series I know that will end up on my re-listen list: great characters and engrossing plot with mystery and action. I’m looking forward to see what happens next.

 

Story: B+ 

Narration: A-

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

 

I’ve been a big fan of Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series for adults for many years now. I religiously purchase that series audiobook on release day every year. I’ve yet to try another series by her. I’m not a big fan of young adult novels. I used to read them all the time, but I got really burnt out on the similar tropes that seem to pop up on all the paranormal YA novels. I even blacklisted them from my reading for a while. I’m starting to pick them back up, mostly from authors that I already love. I’m really glad that I did here. This series isn’t like any other YA series I’ve ever read.

 

This is a fantastic world that Ms. Estep has built around magical and powerful families. There are a ton of similarities between this series and the adult Elemental Assassin series. But, not so much that I felt like I was reading a younger version of the same story. There are straight up humans that don’t have magic and there are people with magic who kinda run things. They all have different types of magic, some even have more than one magic power. As with the Elemental Assassin series, the magic families have all the power and they exploit that power.

 

There are also really great characters in this story. Lila Merriweather is our main character. She has had a rough life. Her mother died when she was young. Her father is MIA. She was in foster care for a while, then decided that she was better off taking care of herself on the streets. She wasn’t completely alone though, she has Mo. Mo is an adult that helped her with documents and signing things for school. He also gives her jobs to help her. He also her only real friend and a mentor for her. He is also the one who convinces her that she should take the bodyguarding job with one of the powerful families.

 

Devon Sinclair is the only son of the Sinclair family. There have also been many attempts to kill him lately.  When his current bodyguard is killed in Mo’s shop, Mo and Devon’s mother work out a deal to get Lila to become his new bodyguard. I liked Devon. He could be like so many other “trust fund babies”, of which you do see some in this book, but he isn’t. He is a real down to earth guy.

 

I also have a penchant for loving secondary characters, and that is no different here. I just fell in love with Oscar. He is a redneck pixie that lives in a dollhouse sized dilapidated trailer in Lila’s new room in the Sinclair home. The Sinclair’s felt she needed a pixie, so Oscar helps out around her suite. He also has a tiny pet tortoise named Tiny. If you’ve ever read Kim Harrison’s The Hollows series, Oscar makes me think of a hillbilly Jenks. Always drinking honey beer in the trailer, where Jenks would get drunk on just plain ole honey and lived in a rolltop desk (even if only in the winter). I can’t wait to see where Oscar goes in this series.

 

This story was full of monsters, action,  and great characters. The worldbuilding was amazing. Both Lila and Devon proved to be wonderful young adult characters without all the angst that seems to creep into so many YA novels. We do see them interact with some of the other kids and do things like go on dates, which sounds mundane, but turns out not.

 

Narration

This is my first book with Brittany Pressley. She did a great job with the narration of this series. It takes place in a mythical town of Cloudburst Falls, West Virginia. So there are Southern accents for most of the characters. There is even the accent for the aforementioned Oscar, the drunk, hillbilly pixie. I thought she did a great job with all the different voices. I could always tell who was talking. She really brought out the tone of the story and did great with the snark. I plan to finish this series on audio.

This reader's personal opinion, ©2015, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

I liked this one.  I approached with trepidation because—while I've liked books by this author— I really, really did not like her previous YA (Mythos Academy) series.  Plus, my peeps were all loving this because they were saying that M.C. was a younger version of Gin ("The Spider" from author's Elemental Assassin series).  I am enjoying reading Gin's series but not particularly hooked on it where I am preordering and jonesing for my next fix (which describes many of the people so agog over this one).  

 

Lila did not in the least remind me of Gin.

 

Actually, I've finished this but need to collect some thoughts and quotes before reviewing. Before writing my review, I need to vent and ramble on one peeve:

 

For  someone like me familiar with and descended from West Vorginians, it's quite insulting to call West Virginia a Southern state.  Mid-Atlantic or Appalachia if you must but definitely Northern/Union and not Southern/Confederate state.  In fact, it became a state by siding with North over South (Virginia)..  Only the revenuers and census takers ever call West Virginia a Southern state and these characters were supposedly outside government restraints (thieves, pseudo-mobsters, etc.).