Influential Magic

Crescent City Fae, Book 1

By: Deanna Chase

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

It's tough being a faery in New Orleans, a city fraught with vampires...especially when their very existence drains your life force.

Willow Rhoswen, owner of The Fated Cupcake and part-time vampire hunter for the Void is having a rough week. Four years after her twin brother's mysterious death, Willow's life is threatened and the director saddles her with a new partner - her ex-boyfriend, David. To her horror, he's turned vamp, which causes her physical pain whenever she touches him...and any other specimen of the undead.

In order to save Willow's life, David agrees to turn double agent against the most powerful vampire organization in New Orleans. Or so he says. And she's convinced they know something about her brother's death. Unsure where David's loyalties lie, she turns to Talisen, her childhood crush, to help her solve the mystery.

Caught between two gorgeous men and a director who'll stop at nothing to control Willow's gifts, she'll have to follow her instincts and learn who to trust. Otherwise, she risks losing more than just her life.

©2013 Deanna Chase (P)2013 Deanna Chase

Love this book!

Love the romance triangle of the lifelong BFF vs the newly met bf.

Deanna Chase is one of my favorite authors and gabra zackman one of my favorite narrators

great story telling!

although it was a little slow to start the story is incredibly compelling and makes you want to keep reading late into the evening. definitely recommend!

A potential new favorite on my UF shelf

I first came across Deanna Chase in 2012 with her book Haunted on Bourbon Street. The book, featuring Jade Calhoun, was set in New Orleans and features Jade, an empath, and a creative and interesting group of friends, including a couple of strip club owners, a coven, and couple of ghosts with very different agendas. Since then, I happily enjoyed both Witches of Bourbon Street and Demons of Bourbon Street. There are still two more (that I know of) in the series that I have already purchased and are sitting in my TBR pile waiting for their turn. And I am very much looking forward to them.

Influential Magic is also set in New Orleans, and is the first in a series subtitled Crescent City Fae. This new series stars Willow Rhoswen, owner of The Fated Cupcake and part-time vampire hunter for the Void. Oh, and she is also a faery – complete with wings and flight capabilities. Well, when she isn’t around vampires, whose walking death drains her earth magic, and thus her life force. A very uncomfortable position to be in when your evil faery auntie, who is also the Director of the Void policing agency partners you with a vampire in order to investigate dastardly deeds by the local vampire corporation. Especially when that vampire happens to be your ‘used-to-be-human’ boyfriend. A boyfriend, who suddenly dumped you with a quick text message (jerk!), then turns up later turned – literally.

What happens to Willow in this volume of the Crescent City series is a neat bit of creative urban fantasy, but it also carries an undercurrent of politics and xenophobia which reflects what is happening in this world, this reality, even now. I am, admittedly, not a ‘vampire groupie’ as so many are these days. Been there, done that, would really like for that whole ‘cold, dead, walking corpses’ to be over already. I mean, come on – have you ever felt a real corpse? Gross. I couldn’t imagine kissing cold, dead lips, much less getting down and dirty with other parts! However, in Chase’s alternate universe, her vampires are, though still cold and walking dead, much more ‘real’ people than others in the genre, with lives and families whom they love – even if they are still overwhelmingly entitled, making them both vicious and brutally efficient killers when crossed.

Overall, I really liked Willow. She takes a lot of damage, both physically and emotionally in this first book, and overall she handles it well. I did find her rather naïve at times, railing against those who would take care of issues in a vigilante fashion, while openly acknowledging that the governmental agencies are deeply corrupt. At the same time, I honestly admired her for understanding the siren song of power and how it can so easily corrupt.

The fantasy storyline is creative, well written, and believable as an alternative reality of a world which evolved under magical conditions, while still aligning closely with our own. There is a bit of a triangle aspect, between Willow and David, the vamp ex boyfriend and Talisen, her childhood friend and mentor who is another faery. The triangle seems to correct itself at the end, and I honestly hope that the concept doesn’t carry on through the other books, as I find those sorts of story lines to be crutches for poor story development. However, the Shih Tzu that turns into a wolf? Awesome! And I hope that Willow will be spending more time in her bakery, creating magically infused cupcakes, and more time with her best friend, Phoebe, a witch. There were a lot of ends left free, leaving room for a great deal of really good story development as we learn more about Willow, her skills, and her family and friends. And having listened to the Audible Edition, narrated by Gabra Zackman, one of my favorite narrators of all time, there was a whole other level of enjoyment that I was able to gain from the book. And right now, Influential Magic is only $1.99 for the Audible Edition! What's not to like? Especially when it is also text-to-speech enabled for the Kindle edition. I prefer the Audible editions, as I can download them onto my Zune and pop it into my pocket while I am doing other things, but having it in both editions means I can read it any way I wish. Cool...

Slow and steady wins the race

Kept plugging along with this one. It was enjoyable but unfortunately, for reasons I’m not quite sure, it wasn’t the book to keep me up ok. The night. It was enjoyable. Loved the conclusions.

Entertaining

Mystery, mayhem, death, and trouble plague the team as they struggle to know who to trust. The story is interesting and entertaining and the characters are likable. The narrator did a great job. I received a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Like/hate

I really liked the plot and the story line. Not a huge fan of the main character, she was way too much of a ditz for me. The narrator was okay, but I couldn't stand how she made David sound like a robot. He is a main love interest not my google maps navigator.

I absolutely loved the book!!!

This book was an awesome book and I would recommend it to everyone it's a must read. I can't wait to get the other two books in the series which I am purchasing right now to listen to I want to know how the stories end!!

I enjoyed

I enjoyed the story. Didn't want to have to stop listening. I enjoyed the story line. I'm looking forward to the next book.

Disappointing

I found the main character stupid and whiny. Example, she is locked in a cage from which she has just said there is no escape when she vows that no one will ever hurt those she loves ever again. Just exactly how is she going to pull that off? She's constantly making bad choices from which she needs rescue and bemoaning the fact that she didn't take self defense classes. She was supposed to be smart enough and old enough to run her own business but she acted like a hormone driven teen. I won't be getting the sequel.

Not what I was expecting

Would you try another book from Deanna Chase and/or Gabra Zackman?

Have read or listened to other Deanna Chase books and loved it. This one was seriously lacking. Didn't keep my interest, felt like there should've been a book before this one to explain what was going on as it seemed normal for everyone to see fairies, vampires and witches with no one seeming to be just plain human and confused, cept me.

What didn’t you like about Gabra Zackman’s performance?

Her "David" voice was completely annoying, it just made my ears hurt, all the other voices were fine except that she sounded as if she were reading porn, quite a few times it was innocent but made me roll my eyes in just the way she spoke.

Any additional comments?

Gonna pass on the rest of the series. Not for me.