Lucky for me, I've come to find out this was the first part of series. We've received our shiny new copy of the sequel Necromancing the Stone and I've wasted no time tearing through it.
Our tale picks up about 6 weeks after the closing of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. Douglas has been defeated, Sam LaCroix and Brid Blackthorn have been rescued, and everyone is licking their wounds in the safety of Brannoc's werewolf pack. It's been a rough couple of months for Sam since he learned he was a necromancer, and he isn't exactly taken with is new role yet or what to do with his abilities.
He's getting really tired of everyone kicking his butt, he's fairly sure his new house and everything in it wants to kill him, he's assumed Douglas's place on the magic council in the Seattle area, his best friend has been infected and can turn into a were-bear, he's constantly getting bothered by spirits, and he's having a hard time fitting in with his new sort-of-girlfriend's were-wolf pack.
Things don't get much better when someone starts leaving ominous threats to Sam's family, and the group gets torn apart from the unexpected and unexplained death of a close friend. Sam tries to come to grips with his new powers and solve these mysteries, but doing so raises a terrifying question: is Douglas really dead?
My Thoughts: Its really hard to not love this series of books. Lish McBride's tongue and cheek style of writing makes it fun an easy to read. I like the style she uses when jumping from perspective to perspective. When the book follows Sam, the book is spoken in the first person perspective. But when it switches to the other characters, it takes a 3rd person point of view.
I love the new characters brought into this series, namely Brid's brothers and the rest of the council. They bring in new interesting dynamics to the story and makes it quite the ensemble piece. The series can easily break from Sam and use any of these fun characters as protagonists.
There were only two negatives I could come up with in this book. One, the pacing is really off. Chapters will shift from funny to sad tones back and forth rather sporadically It makes it hard to settle or build tension in certain scenes. My other issue is with the conclusion of the whole thing. It didn't fit logically for me. Perhaps it was how I read it and I don't want to play spoiler, so I'll leave that up for you to read.
That aside, I'm totally in love with this universe and can't wait to see what else McBride has in store. Here's hoping this series gets picked up for a movie or tv show.
