Cursed by Benedict Jacka Series: Alex Verus #2
Published by Ace on May 29, 2012
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 306
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Since his second sight made him infamous for defeating powerful dark mages, Alex has been keeping his head down. But now he's discovered the resurgence of a forbidden ritual. Someone is harvesting the life-force of magical creatures—destroying them in the process. And draining humans is next on the agenda. Hired to investigate, Alex realizes that not everyone on the Council wants him delving any deeper. Struggling to distinguish ally from enemy, he finds himself the target of those who would risk their own sanity for power.
This is a new novel featuring Alex Verus and his friend Luna, and I admit that I was curious to discover their new adventure!
Alex has returned to the normal course of his life, or at least that’s what he thought until that someone tries to kill him, a woman comes to his home to ask for help and that Luna brings a friend of hers who will also put her in a very delicate situation. Our heroes will thus be once again carried away in a story that goes beyond them and where many people will be involved. To save his friends, Alex will have to put his life at risk several times. And what to ask when, in addition, we see almost all the characters of the first volume? I was delighted, that I can tell you!
The author takes us on a new adventure and it was a pleasure to find our two characters. I really like how Alex does everything he can do to save the ones he loved. On the other hand, it’s true that it was frustrating to see that sometimes Luna did not want to understand that he was trying to tell her things for her own good.
In any case, I spent a good time with this novel and I’m curious to discover what will happen to them later!
This review was originally posted at Between Dreams & Reality on November 21, 2018.
Anne’s observations from Cursed:
- Alex has tried to be all things with Luna and now has to have a clear role. He will have to be master and she the apprentice.
- The fateweaver is not the only power source greedy bad guys want to exploit. And they haven’t forgotten about the fateweaver either.
- Talisid is right. People will start to notice how those going up against Alex disappear.
- Like every good urban fantasy hero, Alex is starting to form an odd group of mixed allies. So far he has Starbreeze – the air elemental and Arachne and Luna. Now Sonder and the dragon?
Anne’s questions from Fated:
- I wonder if Alex will now become more knowledgeable about the Council and who are the “players” in the Dark and Light mages to protect himself better.
- How will Alex teach and guide Luna as an apprentice? It looks like now he has formalized it and will get help from his Council contact Talisid to learn more about usual practices.
- Will Alex find a way to remove her curse, maybe with some help from Arachne? This is still a question, but with practice she is learning to have more control over her curse.
- Why didn’t all the powerful mages just send him back to get the Fateweaver at the end of Fated? Well they weren’t at hand but they still have plans to send him/ them. Luna relocked the force barrier with the cube but then where did the cube go?
- Does Alex have other friends, or mage friends we will meet?
- Will Alex ever be able to do anything about the cruel practices of dark mages?
- Will there be a romance for Alex?
Anne’s questions from Cursed:
- I still wonder if Alex will now become more knowledgeable about the Council and who are the “players” in the Dark and Light mages to protect himself better.
- Will Sonder and the dragon now be part of the Verus band of misfit allies?
- Will Alex find a way to remove her curse, maybe with some help from Arachne?
- Luna relocked the force barrier with the cube but then where did the cube go?
- Does Alex have other friends, or mage friends we will meet?
- Will Alex ever be able to do anything about the cruel practices of dark mages?
- Will there be a romance for Alex?
- Talisid is right. People will start to notice how those going up against Alex disappear. Alex is now on the radar; what will he do about it?
Games:
1. Who said (enter the answer in the Rafflecopter, don’t put in the comments)
“You will aid her.”
2. Who is the villain in Cursed? (Enter in the rafflecopter)
3. We have an opportunity to do a Q & A with Benedict Jacka a few months down the line. I am asking you to please submit interesting questions (into the rafflecopter) I fear this may be a little difficult to ask something different as he does an Ask Luna on his site. I have yet to check it out, as I don’t want to be spoiled for the books.
4. If you have any other favorite quotes, put them in your comments below ( and one can also be entered in the rafflecopter) and I will share them next month.
Schedule:
We are doing one book every month, posting on Fridays. We should have a review for most of the books with the team here at Books of My Heart plus some of our blogging friends.
Mar 1: Cursed
Apr 5: Taken
May 3: Chosen
Jun 7: Hidden
Jul 5: Veiled
Aug 2: Burned
Sep 6: Bound
Oct 4: Marked
Nov 1: Fallen
Miss a post?
Feb 1: Fated
Be sure to enter the giveaways!!!
Giveaway:
I’m giving away a digital copy of book 3 – Taken from Amazon.
Read-along Giveaway:
This giveaway is for the entire event, with things to enter each month. Tantor is also supporting me by giving away digital codes for all 10 audiobooks in the series!
About Benedict Jacka
Benedict Jacka became a writer almost by accident, when at nineteen he sat in his school library and started a story in the back of an exercise book. Since then he’s studied philosophy at Cambridge, lived in China, and worked as everything from civil servant to bouncer to teacher before returning to London to take up law.
About Melliane @ Between Dreams and Reality
Between Dreams and Reality, blog littéraire compilant des avis en Français et en Anglais
Between Dreams and Reality blog with English and French reviews
Melliane is a French avid reader. She discovered the English language could make her discover a whole new world of books and since then she continues to explore. That’s why her blog is in French and English, with always more books to discover.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2019 Library-Love
- BTB 2019
Thank you for having me!
Thanks for participating! I’m always happy to have you.
I love vicariously following the group read and building my own enthusiasm for someday picking these up. You mentioned one of my favorite things in UF which is the crew that come together to help out the main character. Sounds like there is some good character and background development being teased out further with each book.
Great discussion post, Anne!
Thank you Sophia! I had to choose a series I hadn’t read to do an authentic discussion with questions. I’m sure when I go further I will discover some questions were good ones and some were stupid. oh well.
What a fun idea. And I’m getting more curious about this series now. I do enjoy character driven stories.
I love doing the Read-alongs. It’s more fun when I haven’t read it so I get to come up with observations and questions. I especially enjoy when I have friends who also do reviews like today’s review with Melliane.
My sister and I do something similar. We call it a Tag Team Event. We’re getting ready to do a new one this month.
Anne I also totally want to know Will Sonder and the dragon now be part of the Verus band of misfit allies and will there be a love interest for Alex. In the first book I was kinda hoping that something would grow between he and Luna but now…I’m really liking the idea of Luna with Sonder eventually so that leaves Alex as fair game.
I’m really interested in the other place that is like a dream scape and why Domino has the two others with her. No wonder she is going a little crazy in the real world.
Thanks Robin. I really appreciate your thoughts on the book. I suspect you are better than me with this read-along thing because of BBB. Thank goodness you are along for the ride.
I skimmed as the series is on my long list of ones to try!
I realize how hard it is to read everything one wants to read. I sometimes hate to blog hop and comment because I know I will see so many things I want.
I hope to get started with this one very soon. I really enjoyed the first book and look forward to seeing what will happen next!
I feel that way after I read each one but I have to pace myself not to get too far ahead since it will spread over the next 9 months. Thanks for participating!