Magic Forged by K.M. SheaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Entertaining and Engaging Urban Fantasy Series
I’d probably give this book 4.5 ⭐️ if I could.
This first book in a new series is by a new to me author. I read the sample of the first book in her follow up series and realised that I’d missed this first series and decided to start from the beginning instead of the middle.
Hazel is a young wizard and the heir to her House. However, she is seriously underpowered and bullied as a result. When her parents are killed in a car accident it sets into action a series of events that leads her running for her life and finding no help in the supernatural community. It’s a great shock to her and almost everyone else that the vampire head of the Midwest, Killian, decides to step in and take her one as a servant to his House, thus providing her with protection against her enemies.
The reason it is so surprising is because the supernatural races have become more divided as magic fades from the world. Everyone is turning inwards as a way of protecting their own race rather than supernaturals as a whole. For a vampire to choose to protect a wizard, especially one with no real magic, is unfathomable to most of the rest of the community because they don't know what real benefit she could provide to such a powerful vampire.
Hazel finds herself being trained in sword fighting, strength and stamina in ways that aren’t affected by her meagre spark of magic. Her House is a pacifist one and it goes against everything she was raised to believe but finds herself strangely enjoying it. Even more strange is that she finds herself enjoying the company of vampires, especially the elusive Killian Drake.
I really enjoyed the world-building in this book. It’s not all rammed down your throat at once but done with a sure hand and it is subtle. There is a distinct structure to the supernatural world and this author lays it out succinctly.
Hazel is a really interesting character. She is shoved into an unenviable position on the death of her parents. She has had no training in running her House and she has to lead because of the magic binding the House together which passes from parent to child even if the child has little magic as Hazel does.
The book is almost entirely told from Hazel’s point of view and we see how events change her, along with exposure to vampires and a different viewpoint from her own family. She begins to come into her own as she grows physically stronger. We get to know the vampires through her eyes as they grow more familiar to her and she becomes fond of some of them. Killian is an enigmatic character and seeing him learn to smile because of Hazel’s antics reveals hints of a slightly softer side that he keeps buried deep.
This is an excellent start to a new series with a murder to solve alongside all that pesky personal growth malarkey. There also seems to be a greater underlying threat to the supernatural world in general and Hazel more specifically. It definitely makes me interested in reading the next book.
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