Review: Between a Witch and a Hard Place

BETWEEN A WITCH AND A HARD PLACE by Celia Roman
Fiction, Urban Fantasy
3***

BLURB: Twelve years ago, my mother, a powerful chaos witch, walked out on me and my twin brother without a backward glance. We didn’t hear another word out of her until a vampire walked into my brother Nick’s bar wanting me to track her down. She’d disappeared into thin air, and he insisted that I was the only one who could find her. Of course, I refused. How could I not? Disappearing was Mom’s wheelhouse, and after she’d disappeared on us, I never wanted to see her again. Then members of the local supernatural community started turning up dead, and Nick was fingered as the suspect. With his life on the line, I had to make a choice: Throw everything I had at finding our mother and, maybe, the real culprit, or be forced to watch while the local werewolf pack tore Nick limb from limb as punishment for a crime he didn’t commit.

THOUGHTS: This is a good start to a series. There is an issue in this story – missing paranormals – that gets solved while leaving enough threads dangling to let us know more is coming. But at least it doesn’t end on a nasty cliffhanger, which I appreciate. Yes, we know more is coming, that’s obvious, but we get this part of the story solved.

In this one, Vanessa (aka Nessie) is an ex-cop turned PI who is hired by the local werewolf alpha to find a missing female werewolf. What she finds is more missing than just one female, leads to her mother who disappeared years ago, and a lot of secrets that affected her and her brother’s lives. Like the fact that they aren’t failed witches, but actually rather powerful ones who had been blocked by their mother before she took off. The question is, why? And when her aunt unblocks them, then the power really comes out–and not necessarily in a good way. The world building in the story is done well as are most of the characters. I’m just not sure I believed Nessie a whole lot. She seemed too clueless at times, especially when it came to Seth, the alpha of the pack.

Still, not a bad book. And I will look forward to the following books and the solving of the overall mystery.

Recommended.