Grave Witch (Alex Craft 1) by Kalayna Price

Good evening ( or day depending on the time you will be reading this^^) ,


                     Time is flying and Halloween is nearly upon us so i need to prepare after i take care of my health but at the moment i'm  wanting to read  more than anything else so when i was entering Brenda's event Ghoulishly Good Monster Mix Mash up and i saw yesterday a book that had been waiting on my pile for a long time i didn't resist and i started it... could have been used for yesterday topic ( zombie, reapers etc) at her event but i was really happy to discover that it was also fae and witch  and ghost ( this month main topic^^) and a lot less horror that what i feared at first.

This series had been recommended to me for long but i didn't feel like starting it ...it wasn't the right time, it could be too dark etc.... now it's halloween season so the "dark" factor was a little out of for me to delay my reading of this book and seeing the cover yesterday i just had to start it....once started i devoured it^^ a really great change with the last one i tried.

So today it's a great pleasure for me to introduce you to the Alex Craft series by Kalayna Price with the first book " Grave Witch". Happy Reading

Publisher: Roc

Publication: 2010

ISBN:  451463803

Genre: urban fantasy
Violence: mild
Language: normal
sex: mild
Public: 18+

Source: bought
 

Short description from goodreads :

 Grave witch Alex Craft can speak to the dead, but that doesn’t mean she likes what they have to say.

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around...


To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life...and her soul.

My opinion:

         I loved this one! I must said that I hesitate a lot before trying this series even if this book was in my TBR pile for age…I guess I was afraid it could be too dark but now I just regret not having read it sooner. This is a great mix of fae, ghosts and magic with a lot of action and glimpse of romance underneath.

We follow the adventures of Alex Craft, a witch specialized  in grave magic meaning she can raise shade, speak with ghosts and see in that other plane of existence… another bonus is that she can see and speak with souls collector and one she know since her childhood and nicknamed Death…. A really sexy male but they are rules and she can ask him all the questions she would love like his real name…. I loved their relationship and how it’s started did made me smile^^ . Sadly if her grave magic is really good, and that kind of magic is quite rare, all other kinds of “simple” classic magic are out of her reach or only possible at a basic level and with great difficulties. In a sense I loved she wasn’t all that powerful and had weakness it made her even more appealing.

Also the use of her power has a price and after each use she is left blind for a moment while her sight gradually deteriorates.

Alex has become a PI in memory of her best friend who disappeared without leaving a trace but so far it’s not really paying well however since her family disowned her for practicing magic  it’s one of the only job she can do and she does do it well. She even has several friends in the witch or magic community and also some fae ones like her house owner Caleb. It’s when she is called to investigate the murder of an important member of the anti fae and magic users group ( Witch and fae got out of the closet but sadly some are hard bind to strip them off any right) that things start to heat up. First, for the first time she loose control of a shade, normally only a memory, and get hurt before seeing something magically strange. Then she escaped narrowly to be shot at thank to a direct intervention of Death which should be forbidden.  Suddenly everyone wants to kidnap or kill her and it’s only with the help of a new fae: Falin that she must learn to trust and a ghost Royce determined to get his vengeance that she can have a chance to solve the case and she must do it quickly because a serial killer is killing women and her injury is worse that it seemed and she could loose her soul.

I really loved how some mysteries got hints sometimes subtle sometimes easier and I didn’t manage to guess everything so it was more than a pleasant read. I’m really curious to see who will get and keep her heart Falin or Death because both seem to be prevented to have a real relationship with her for a reason or another but both took risk for her. I also loved the universe as a whole and how the fae were depicted….she must find a way to save her dagger too I feeling she will need it a lot^^

So definitively a book I recommend and I’m so glad to have discovered it because it has all the element of an excellent series.

Score:  4/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges:

                                            ********************************

Brenda's halloween contests

One great thing with urban fantasy is the diversity of paranormal creatures that can appear in one book...hard to put those book in only one category so this one i inviting you to enter several of Brenda's contests...check the prize on the Zombie/Reaper Day Here; On the fairy Day here  and the Witch day (lot of fun today^^) Here. Remember you have only until Halloween and they are international! Good Luck