Book Review: The Mage in Black by Jaye Wells (Sabina Kane #2)

Sabina Kane doesn't have the best track record when it comes to family. After all, her own grandmother, the leader of the vampire race, just tried to kill her. When she arrives in New York to meet the mage side of her family, the reunion takes the fun out of dysfunctional.

On top of that, the Hekate Council wants to use her as a pawn in the brewing war against the vampires. Her mission will take her into the bowels of New York's Black Light district, entangles her in mage politics, and challenges her beliefs about the race she was raised to distrust. And Sabina thought vampires were bloodthirsty.

My Review: 
After the disaster at the winery, Sabina reluctantly agrees to go with Adam and Giguhl to meet the Mage community based in New York, but her Grandmother's assassins are lying in wait for them. When they finally arrive, Sabina finds it difficult to trust her new hosts and struggles to form a relationship with her Mage raised sister Maisie. She is convinced that she will be useless at learning magic but the thought of revenge on the vampires keeps her going. But a stop in Central Park to try and have a snack brings her into conflict with the local werewolf pack and the city crimelord who keeps the peace between the races.

Sabina has more family issues to deal with. Being brought up by vampires who hated her means she didn't exactly have a fuzzy family upbringing and it leaves it hard for her to deal with her creative, enthusiastic twin sister Maisie who grew up in a warmer Mage environment. She leans heavily on Adam for support but he is no longer to train her and he has his own missions to undertake for the Mages. Even Giguhl has fallen in love with a demon stripper who is in a Demon Fight Club at a local bar, leaving Sabina feeling more isolated than ever. It is also clear that not everyone in her new community want her to be there and someone in particular is out to get her. It is when her new family are threatened that Sabina decides where her loyalty lies and her fangs really come out.

On a feeding trip to Central Park, Sabina discovers that New Yorkers are armed and fight back when you try to snack on them. She then falls foul of the werewolf enforcers who have been alerted by her enemy and come to deal with her. Her fight with them leads to a duel in a local club with their Alpha, which she feels grumpy about. Sabina is fuming that nobody bothered to tell her the no feeding rule for the city and that her enemy has landed her in more trouble. She is less than thrilled to discover that the city crimelord who runs things is someone she once worked with and who cheated her out of money. Slade tries to convince her that he can be a trusted ally but at this point Sabina doesn't have cause to believe him.    

I love Giguhl in this book! He really is funny and entertaining. After an unfortunate shooting incident with the vampire assassins, he settles in nicely to the new community. He is at her side but Sabina does become jealous of his friendship with Maisie. He becomes fascinated at the prospect of making money by fighting in Slade's Demon Fight Club but Sabina is worried that he might get hurt-physically by the other demons in the ring and financially by the persuasive nymph prostitutes that want his winnings! But when Giguhl meets the demon stripper fighter Valva, he falls madly in love and urges Sabina to take her on as another familiar. Rhea is the Mage who tries to teach Sabina which is a pretty thankless task but the scenes between the two are entertaining.

I did like the book and enjoyed Slade and events at the Demon Fight Club, as it was corny and entertaining. I also liked the introduction of the werewolves and hope to see more of them through the rest of the series. I wasn't greatly keen on all the Mage council stuff which did get a bit repetitive at times as Sabina struggles to fit in but it was necessary to set the scene for the series so I can understand where it came from. There were still good action scenes and plenty of humour. The tension between Adam and Sabina is a bit on and off but she is trying to find resons not to get involved with him which puts the skids on things. Overall it was a decent urban fantasy read and I'll continue on with the series in my March reading.

Read February 2019
3.5/4 stars?