#Review - Boundary Broken by Melissa F. Olson (Urban Fantasy)

Series: Boundary Magic #4
Format: Paperback, 350 pages
Release Date: March 19, 2019
Publisher: 47North
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Years ago, boundary witch Allison “Lex” Luther made a promise to an alpha werewolf. Now, just when the supernatural community in Colorado is enjoying a period of hard-won peace, the alpha turns up at Lex’s door to call in his marker. Two of his pack members have disappeared in the Colorado sand dunes, and he needs safe passage to hunt for them.

With her friend Simon Pellar along for backup, Lex ventures into the dunes to search for the missing couple…but what they find is only the opening move in an ambitious assault against those who hold power in the Colorado Old World. An old enemy has returned to tear their peace apart, and Lex is soon embroiled in politics she doesn’t understand, from a time before she had magic.

To save her friends and her way of life, Lex will have to cross every line she’s drawn since learning what she is—and it may still be too late.

 

Boulder boundary witch Allison “Lex” Luther returns in the fourth installment in author Melissa F. Olson's Boundary Magic series. Apparently, the book jumps 2 years from the last book titled Boundary Born, but she did appear in Scarlett Bernard's Shadow Hunt. Lex is a former Army veteran who was left to die, but managed to survive thanks to her previously unknown boundary magic.

After losing her sister to a brutal attack which left her only daughter Charlie behind, Lex vowed that nothing would ever touch Charlie who, like Scarlett, is a null. In return for her protection of Charlie, Lex works for Maven, a cardinal vampire who is likely the most powerful & oldest vampire in the so called Old World, as a daytime security person. She is partnered with Quinn, a vampire who is also an investigator and her boyfriend. 

A promise made in the past to a werewolf named Ryan Dunn comes knocking on her door, and it may lead to even more turmoil than she has had to deal with since watching the Vampire Trials with Scarlett. Years before, Ryan and his pack helped Lex defeat a dangerous Sandworm as well as the witch who called summoned it. When Ryan's pack mates are found dead, Lex's attempt at paying off her debt may end up making an already fractured alliance between witches and Maven come unraveled. 

To further exasperate the situation, Lex's allies in the Pellar clan, Lily and Simon, find themselves being attacked and targeted with loss of their abilities. Someone from the past is playing a dangerous game and is well funded. It appears that Lex may be the only one able to stand up and ensure Maven's territory isn't taken over by zealots and an unknown power behind the woman who would do anything to see Maven exiled from Colorado. 

It's fair to say that a whole lot happens in this book, but the most intriguing aspect is the fact that the author doesn't reveal who the mysterious benefactor is, and what this person wants. If you haven't yet read this series, I'll give you a brief summation of why you should. Being a boundary witch means that Lex has abilities that intersect life and death. She can see and speak with ghosts and help them move on. She can also can 'press' humans and vampires (mind control), and raise the dead. She has a steady relationship with Quinn, but there are still hiccups along the way.  

I have to say that I was pleasantly pleased when this book was announced. It's fair to say I like Lex more than I do Scarlett. I like that she's a veteran who experiences episodes of PTSD and claustrophobia since I have similar episodes that take a lot out of me. I like that she's more powerful than she realizes but never once has allowed that power to overshadow who she is. 

Since it has been a few years since the author wrote a book in this series, I do hope the second book in this new arc is released in a timely manner. She's spent the past 3 years writing the Disrupted Magic trilogy featuring Scarlett Bernard.  

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