Black Magic (Black Records 1) by Alexis Blakely

Using her magic to help others is the only way Alex Black knows how to stay out of trouble herself. After years of living on the street and trying to come to terms with the growing ability she had to teach herself to control, she’s happy to have settled into the relatively quiet life of finding lost pets, crafting the odd charm, and helping people deal with annoying fae creatures and spirits.

But when Alex is asked to investigate the gruesome murder of an artifact dealer who’d lost his life trying to protect his latest acquisition, she’s thrown headlong into a world of danger that threatens to cut her career short at every turn. The closer she gets to tracking down the killer, the more dangerous the trail becomes, and the more Alex realizes that terrible things will happen if the true potential of the artifact is ever unleashed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My Review:     (Thanks to NetGalley) 

First off, the book cover says author is Mark Feenstra, but if you go to Goodreads only the first book is attributed to him, all three currently released are otherwise attributed to Alexis Blakely. I'm going to assume that after book one he decided to go with a nom de plume, but that doesn't explain the name on the covers. 

As for the book itself, I felt like the pacing was off. From the start to the end, it was go, go, go without giving us (the reader) or Alex a chance to catch our/her breath and that is a pet peeve of mine. I feel like its a bit of a cheap-out, as if the author can't write the downtime part of a story so they simply fill it with action.

While the identity of the killer did surprise me, I think that was more attributed to the lack of information all around. Sooo many ideas and plot points were introduced and nearly none of them were followed through. I would explain but I don't want to give spoilers and honestly I haven't got the time to write them all out, lol. 

I think better pacing was needed and some of the ideas could have been left out to give other more relevant ones a chance to be expanded on and draw the reader in more.