by Margo de Klerk
Nathan, a vampire hunter in training, has a lot of hard choices to make when he realizes that his beliefs don’t exactly line up with the hunter ideology. But before he can make any sense of what he wants to do with his life unusual attacks start popping up around Nathan and his group of supernatural friends. Can this rag-tag bunch get to the bottom of the encroaching threat? Let’s find out.
Read if you like: YA paranormal romance, teen romance, found family, questioning the status quo, teen characters that don’t have it all figured out.
Nathan is so close to becoming a Hunter. Nathan is also a mess. His grades are awful. He’s friends with a witch and a couple of vampires and there’s something not quite human about his crush. How can he continue on this path when half of the people he cares about most are enemies in his family’s eyes? Nathan soon finds out that asking the ‘wrong’ questions leads to answers he doesn’t expect. His unique social position affords him inside information and the group quickly finds themselves in the middle of a political plot driven by dark mages who want to steal magic… and kill to take it.
I kept calling this book cute. It’s not ‘cute.’ It’s not ‘sweet.’ The teen romance is cute and sweet. The young and realistic characters are cute and sweet. But Wicked Magic has action and mystery and it’s all wrapped up around a wavering teen who boy is learning that ‘that’s the way it is’ doesn’t mean that it’s the way it should be. It is geared toward a younger teen reader. Or at least the characters seem more like actual teens unlike some YA that has overly capable and overly rational teen leads. So, maybe that’s why I kept calling it cute… because awkward teens are cute in their social flailing and illogical leaps of reason.
I really enjoyed having this book from Nathan’s perspective. It gave it a different feel from other teen/YA paranormal romance books. It could have easily been from Cynthia’s POV and we would have had yet another teen girl unknowingly caught up in a supernatural world dragging us along as she skeptically pieces together all the new info shoved her way. BUT… we don’t! (I mean Cynthia does do that, but she’s just the love interest. Ha!) We instead, have a kind, knowledgeable, and fun group of friends to help us navigate our story. It was a refreshing change of pace. It was a great YA read for those who love a teen story and I can’t wait to see what happens to our new friends next in Wicked Blood.
Thank you to NetGalley and Margo de Klerk for a copy of this fun book!
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