Review: Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells

MAGIC IS A DRUG. IT'LL COST MORE THAN YOU CAN PAY. . . When a rare Blue Moon upsets the magical balance in the city, Detective Kate Prospero and her Magic Enforcement colleagues pitch in to help Babylon PD keep the peace. Between potions going haywire and emotions running high, every cop in the city is on edge. But the moon's impact is especially strong for Kate, who's wrestling with guilt over her use of illegal magic. When a rogue wizard steals dangerous potions from a local coven, Kate's team must find the thief's hideout before the vengeful coven catches him. But the investigation uncovers the rogue's dangerous plot to unleash chaotic magic on the city. Once the Blue Moon rises no-one's secrets will be safe. Not even Kate's.

Cursed Moon is the second in the Prospero’s War series by Jaye Wells. I have really enjoyed listening to these as audiobooks, I find them to be light and fun compared to much of what I typically read. Really a nice change of pace for me. But, don’t take that to mean they are completely mindless either. A reader can get more out of if they choose to.

While I still enjoy the characters, and the overall tone, I have to confess to not enjoying the general plot in this one as much as I did Dirty Magic. Something about it just did not capture me quite as much. Also, I put a disclaimer on my review for Dirty Magic that it’s not for people who get easily offended to disturbed by profanity or crude comments. Well, this one might need to be changed from easily to something more moderate. It is certainly more crass than the first one because the entire plot centers around sex magic with a character called Aphrodite, the Hierophant of the Mystical Coven of the Sacred Orgasm. Sooo …. yeah. If that kind of thing bugs you, just back away now. Personally, I am not the least bit bothered or offended. But I am not sure I got much from it either. Really rather ambivalent to be honest.

I still find the focus on addiction interesting, in this case we see it through not just Kate’s, but also her friend Penn’s fight to keep control over their addiction to magic. They have to cope with getting and staying clean from an addiction and it brings up questions about where do you draw the line? What can an addict handle and still stay clean?  They have to deal with the fear of losing control and the guilt of anything they might do to compromise their current state of recovery.

I also feel a need to mention my biggest pet peeve: Kate’s partner, Morales, calling her “Cupcake”. This just rankled me. I liked everything else about their relationship, but him using that term of endearment while they are working on a case together just made my skin crawl a bit. Maybe I’m just too sensitive, but I hate things like that, I take it as a form of condescension even though I know that is not how this character meant it. Let me tell you, if any of my coworkers called me cupcake … URGHHH. I can’t even articulate how much that would annoy me. So. One word, used I don’t know how many times, major pet peeve.

And in the romance department, all I will say is that there is continued sexual tension between Kate and both Volos and Morales. But this once again stays more in the background as the case and Kate’s addiction takes the forefront. It’s nice to have the hint of it there and not have it even come close to overpowering the story.

So, while I maybe didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as the first, I do definitely plan on continuing the series, most likely as audiobooks since they seem to be working well for me.