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Summary via Goodreads:
Claire Kincaid’s family has been in business for over fifty years.

The voodoo business.

Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, a secret society that have practiced voodoo for generations, the Kincaid’s run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire plays along, filling orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret.

She doesn’t believe.

Struggling to reconcile her modern sensibilities with a completely unscientific craft based on suspicion, Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans – and voodoo – when she goes to college, a desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family.

But when a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo – and the families that make up the Guild – than meets the eye.

Including her own.

As she bands together with the other firstborns of the Guild, she comes face to face with a deadly enemy – and the disbelief that may very well kill her.


My Review:

I'm sorry, I just...
Ugh.
I usually don't like giving a rating of one chocolate, but I just have to for this one. The beginning was slightly intriguing; I mean come on, how many books have you read about voodoo? However, that was the only decent part of the story. Not even the ending satisfied me.
I felt that the conflicts were a bit cliche and overused. Evil people that want to kill the good guys? Check. Secret boyfriend whose parents will never accept you? Check.
After getting past the third chapter, I was bored out of my mind. I put the book down and went to get some food... then came back and bribed myself with chocolate in order to finish this. The summary sounded amazing, so I went out and bought this book... Really not worth the money.
Anyway, I felt that everything needed improvement. The plot was boring, and I really couldn't feel the sense of mystery that would have pulled me in. All the characters were dull and static- there was no change, no maturation, just same, same, same.
Then there's Claire. She's a whole different level of problems.
She claims not to believe in the voodoo, yet everything she does and says completely contradicts that. Obviously, something is wrong here. Denial is not good for mental health. Next, she feels that she needs to solve everything herself. Normally, that would be fine, since I'm a strong feminist, but really. Girl, you have a loving and caring boyfriend right next to you, vying to help you, and what? You ditch him and go on a little fun "adventure" to prove your self worth. No. Just no. Claire obviously can't do shit, since she's never bothered to learn voodoo anyway, and still wants to go save the world by herself. Then, *POOF* out of nowhere, she becomes adept at voodoo magic; because apparently, she has POWERFUL BLOOD that runs through her veins. Just because you have a bloodline doesn't mean you are immediately a prodigy. NO! Everyone needs to practice, everyone goes through trial and error. Even then, at the end of the book, she STILL doesn't completely believe in voodoo. WTF. I've never hated a female protagonist as much as Claire.
Now that my ranting is over, let's move on to the world building, shall we?
One word.
Terrible.
Zink spends 90% of the story telling us about Claire and how she faces the conflict, yet she never spends time to tell us how. How does this work? Do the everyday civilians know about voodoo? Or are they isolated? Nothing makes sense. Why are there guilds? Why are some higher in rank then others? Just because of bloodline? Plus, if Claire expresses her dislike for voodoo so vehemently, why isn't she being ostracized like Crazy Eddie? WHY? WHY? WHY? I just have so many questions that are never answered.Overall, I'd recommend this book to people who are just looking for a nice adventure story, and don't look too deeply into it. 



One Chocolate... :(

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