#Review - Death & Desire by Deborah Wilde #Horror #Comedy #Fantasy

Series: The Jezebel Files # 2
Format: Kindle, 344 page
Release Date: March 9, 2020
Publisher: Te Da Media
Source: Amazon
Genre: Horror / Comedy 

Angel of Death.

Black market magic.

When you’re Ashira Cohen, smart is the new kickass.

When Ash is hired to solve her first murder, it seems like a perfectly normal, open-and-shut case of family feuds and bad blood. Until Ash discovers an evil magical artifact and her lead suspect is of the winged, white-robed, celestial variety. As if that weren't bad enough, if she can't find the perpetrator quickly, fourteen vials of lethal, ghostly magic will be sold to the highest bidder.

Her quest to figure out her Jezebel powers and find the shadowy organization responsible for stripping teens of their magic isn't going any smoother, either. Can't a girl just pursue her dream career without getting caught up in a mysterious destiny? Or, for that matter, playing a dangerous Sherlock-Moriarty game with the infuriatingly hot alpha male in charge of Vancouver's magical community?

But when Ash accidentally crosses the cunning and deadly Queen of Hearts, ruler of the magic black market, all those cases may go unresolved.

Permanently.

With the clock ticking, it’ll take all of Ash’s intelligence to survive with her moral center–and her head–intact. The game is afoot and failure is not an option.

 

Death & Desire is the second installment in author Deborah Wilde's The Jezebel Files. 28 year old Ashira Cohen is the main protagonist for this series. She is a private investigator with her own PI firm called Cohen Investigations. She is listed as being Mundane (without magic) but readers know that is no longer true. She is a Nefresh with the ability to destroy all magic around her that was released back in the 1600's by the Ten tribes of Israel. Ash is walking a tightrope between the two worlds. She has to deal with the lure from all the magic around her, just waiting to be sucked up like a milkshake. 

 

"Once upon a time I’d had a mother who loved magic. She’d snuggled under the covers with me, told me all sorts of fantastic tales, and taught me to believe in the impossible. I’d lost a lot growing up and I’d stopped believing in happily-ever-after. But my mother stopped believing in me."

She also has to keep her relationship with her mother solid. The same mother who works for a group aiming at taking control of the Nefresh houses and those who have magic. Ash no longer wants to keep her magic a secret. She's trying to understand what it means to be a Jezebel and how to control the cravings that go along with this magic. She also has to deal with the Queen of Hearts mood swings which cause you to wonder whether Ash is really an ally of the Queen, or an enemy she is using to get what she wants out of Ash and her abilities. Especially when the Queen continues to threaten Ash with being a permanent fixture in her Hedon garden.

On top of all that, she has to solve a case allegedly involving Malachi, the Angel of Death, and a feather which is found to not only be ancient, but tempts those who hold it with their hearts desire. Ash wants  the world to know she is now a Nefresh so she can build her PI agency. But, her constant trust/don’t trust relationship issues she has with Levi cause a brevity of issues. While Ash is still trying to figure out her powers; where they come from, what is their purpose, and who to trust with its knowledge, she's also trying to find more intel on Chariot who has been a thorn in her side from the very beginning. It that weren't enough, she also learns that there is something of a Team Jezebel and that team may or may not like the fact that Ash has been giving these tremendous powers. Talk about a full plate! 

The third installment in this series releases June 2020. It will be interesting to see if Ash and Levi can actually work together instead of spending a majority of time arguing or doing the horizontal mamba.  I also want to learn more about Ash's father Adam who has been missing for 16 years. Sadly, my hopes that Priya would end up with Miles has been diverted into the Gay zone. Sorry, not sorry. It's what happens when a girl loves a boy and a boy loves another boy.

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