This is the same series (Arcane Society) as Running Hot and Fired Up. Same world. I think this comes before these two, but there doesn't seem to be a particular order.
Raine Tallentyre's aunt Vella recently died, and while checking out her house with the realtor, Raine psychically hears voices that indicate that something bad happened down there, and finds a kidnapped girl down there...and hears the voices of some jerk who's into having witches burn. Raine and her aunt both hear psychic voices, something that's given her aunt a bad reputation in her small town. Raine uses her talent to secretly help a cop in her town, but wants to keep her powers on the down low. But of course, she comes to the attention of Zack Jones, investigating on behalf of the Jones and Jones psychic detective agency. See, back in the day Raine's dad was an Arcane Society member and scientist trying to fix problems in the "founder's formula", otherwise known as "that awful addictive drug that the evil Nightshade society uses to augment people's powers at the cost of their sanity and lives." J&J back in the day wasn't cool with that and destroyed dad's lab, and dad died soon after. So suffice it to say that Raine isn't real thrilled with J&J returning into her life again. But Zack thinks that her aunt might have been murdered by someone from Nightshade who's after the formula information. So they (of course) team up and get hot and heavy while trying to solve the mystery of her dad and aunt's past.
Best parts: I liked the twists that were thrown in here and there*, which I'll mention below the spoiler space. I like Raine's family home life of two gay adoptive dads, even if they're not on screen much. As a couple, Raine and Zach seem to work together well, so that's nice.
On the not so thrilled bits: I wasn't overly thrilled with the serial killer plot, which drifts in and out of the book and doesn't seem to be the author's major interest anyway. There's also a brief moment of "oh noes, we can't be together because I'm a society outcast and you're the big cheese!" that made me roll my eyes, but thankfully it was blown over quickly. I also think the author was really pleased with the name of "Vella Tallentyre," as she almost always refers to the woman by her full name, even when it seems awkward to do so.
Hm... like pretty much every other book in this series, I think it's about three and a half stars. Beach reading fun, and has a bit more memorability with the twists than most of my beach reads.
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- I did not expect the past story about Jenna to go like that. SO much more interesting than what I was expecting that to be.
- I liked the twist at the end that one of the Nightshade baddies had been faking her addiction and got away. Smart move!
- I also liked that Judson Tallentyre had worked out a (somewhat working) antidote to the formula. That's got some good potential right there.
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