From the Stacks: Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells

I was first introduced to Jaye Wells when I found her books while browsing the shelves at B&N. I thought Red-Headed Stepchild sounded good, and it turned out I was right, so I bought the rest of the series. When I got on NetGalley and saw the first book in a new series, I was intrigued by the concept and yet again I have another interesting series to follow.

MAGIC IS A DRUG. CAREFUL HOW YOU USE IT. 

The Magical Enforcement Agency keeps dirty magic off the streets, but there's a new blend out there that's as deadly as it is elusive. When patrol cop Kate Prospero shoots the lead snitch in this crucial case, she's brought in to explain herself. But the more she learns about the investigation, the more she realizes she must secure a spot on the MEA task force. 

Especially when she discovers that their lead suspect is the man she walked away from ten years earlier - on the same day she swore she'd given up dirty magic for good. Kate Prospero's about to learn the hard way that crossing a wizard will always get you burned, and that when it comes to magic, you should never say never.

Overall Rating: 5/5

Plot: Dirty Magic is set in the fictional city of Babylon, Ohio (though I am not at all prejudiced by the fact that the book is set in my home state). I can admit that discovering that fact did make me pay more attention to the setting, which according to the author is sort of based on Cleveland. The city itself is even located along Lake Erie. It makes me think of how much fun a novel set in the middle of winter will be due to all that lake effect snow. Anyway, the world created for this series basically has magic as a drug. There is clean magic and dirty magic, where clean magic is manufactured in pristine labs and uses more expensive and slightly safer ingredients, and dirty magic is done in places like kitchens and bathrooms, using whatever ingredients happen to be at hand, which naturally can cause dangerous side effects. In Dirty Magic the new drug on the street is Grey Wolf and boy, it does have a nasty side effect, namely causing people to wolf out and go on a bloodthirsty rampage. So patrol cop and former magic cooker Kate Prospero ends up getting neck deep in the investigation, even joining a special magic task force. I thought that the investigation and discoveries moved at a decent pace, but it was about the last 25-30% of the novel that made this book impossible to put down. The whole discovery of who was behind Grey Wolf and why, plus all the people who were caught in that crossfire made it all incredibly intense.

Characters: First we have Kate Prospero, who is also called Cupcake by a certain somebody I'll discuss in just a few moments. She walked away from her coven ten years prior to the novel, and even goes to what is basically an AA meeting for magic addicts, though people don't realize that she was addicted to making the magic potions, not using them. Anyway, she became a cop to try and make a difference because she started seeing exactly what these magic potions were doing to people, especially after the death of her mother. It was that loss that left her to raise her little brother Danny and caused her to leave her boyfriend John Volos.

Kate raised Danny away from magic, not talking about it or allowing it in the house or anything, but naturally Danny is now turning 16 and that just leads to all sorts of problems. I thought the kid was pretty endearing, and in arguments with Kate he raised quite a few points as to why he should be allowed to at least learn magic, because it is in his blood. They may be related, but that doesn't mean that he'll have the same problem dealing with the rush/addiction to the power of cooking up potions.

John Volos ends up involved in this story in a couple different ways. In the beginning he is the primary suspect for the investigation into Grey Wolf, but then he is also drawn even further into the story when Danny goes to him in an attempt to learn how to cook behind Kate's back. Obviously there is a lot of tension between Kate and John due to their history, but I can honestly say that I hope Kate has moved on. I think John is too addicted to power at this point and rekindling a romance would be more danger than it's worth.

Speaking of romance, and my mention of Kate being called Cupcake, we have Drew Morales, who is a member of the task force Kate ends up joining. At first I thought he was going to be mostly an antagonist for Kate, but then their banter evolves from a psuedo-rivalry/dislike or each other to something more like the banter of friends, and by the end I think it holds a little flirtation in it as well. Drew is caring and protective, not that Kate necessarily needs an Alpha male to boss her around or defend her since she is pretty badass herself, but still, I liked Drew from the beginning and I really look forward to seeing their relationship develop.

We are also introduced in this book to Pen, who is Kate's best friend, a counselor at Danny's school, and also a member of the support group Kate attends. She helps Kate through a lot of issues, particularly with Danny, and it was nice to see that Kate did have this family she formed after both losing some of hers and walking away from the rest.

Thanks to the task force we are also introduced to Mez, who is a clean cooker, who seems to be a wiz at cooking up some pretty cool protection patches and amulets, as well as potions that seem to do just about anything. I'm thinking that maybe as Kate has to work with magic more now thanks to being in the task force that eventually we might get to a point where she is cooking with Mez, which I'm guessing could cook up some amazing products. We'll see. It's going to be a great series and I very much look forward to seeing what happens with all of these characters and the possible scenarios thanks to the magic as drugs world-building.

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The next book, Cursed Moon, will be released August 12, 2014.