Shades of Circle City is the first in an urban fantasy
series with elements of the paranormal.
Chloe died after she was shot. Ok, so it was only for three
minutes but she still died. It seems, however, that she brought something back
with her: the ability to see ghosts. Now you would think that as a cop that
would be beneficial, but for some reason, they can’t communicate with her. And
strangely enough, the guy who shot her is now haunting her. But he didn’t get
killed when he shot her, so what happened? Chloe’s case gets linked to a string
of other robberies where occult jewellery and books seem to be the main target.
Braxton Wolfe, the cop in charge of these other cases calls Chloe in to help
out and as they work closer together the inevitable feelings start to develop
for each other. But how exactly is Braxton going to tell her that he is a
werewolf and how is she going to tell him she sees ghosts? As they delve deeper
into the world of the dead, they realise that someone out there is trying to resurrect
a person. And that they will stop at nothing to do this; whether sacrificing an
innocent or eliminating anyone standing in their way. A cat has nine lives but
will a wolf and the woman he fell for be as lucky?
This is a great start to a series, and I enjoyed the
introduction of hardheaded Chloe and her stubbornness in finding out exactly
what happened in this case. Her tenacity and bravery in facing her fears was a
nice reminder of real-world problems especially as it was interspersed with the
inner demons of her past that she was still battling to deal with and the guilt
and forgiveness associated with them. Braxton came across in the same manner.
Thrust into the role of alpha after the loss of his father and still struggling
to assert his dominance on certain members of the pack, Braxton must mix this
in with the work caseload he has. The addition of pack members and colleagues,
as well as family, allowed the story to be shared among characters without the
amount of them becoming overwhelming. And I can certainly understand the
anguish of losing a child and wanting to bring them back but the way Garza was
trying to accomplish this screamed a loud warning of leaving the dead exactly
where they were.
The editing of grammar was very good, and the one mistake I
spotted surprised me as I stopped to go back and reread it. The writing style
is easy to read which helps increase the pace of your reading without
compromising the understanding or retention. The ending was a bit abrupt for me
as when I had 15 pages to go it wasn’t quite there yet and then all of a sudden
it was, but it leaves the story open to lead into book two. When you sign up to
the author’s subscriber’s list you receive the prequel to this book, which I’m
looking forward to reading. This looks like it’s going to be a great series.
Thanks to Voracious Readers Only and the author for a copy
of the book. It’s never explicitly stated that a review must be done on receipt
of the book, but as a reader, I think it’s important to give feedback when you
have been gifted a copy of the author’s hard work.
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