Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections by Annette Marie Narrator: Iggy Toma
Series: Guild Codex: Warped #2
Published by Tantor Audio on September 14, 2021
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Length: 8 hours, 12 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible
Agent Kit Morris. Has a nice ring, doesn't it?
It's a big step up from "wanted criminal" or "that weird con-artist guy with weirder psychic powers"—both of which recently applied to me. But my promotion to MagiPol agent comes with a few drawbacks.
First, supremely talented and effortlessly gorgeous Agent Lienna Shen won't agree to a dinner date with me. Second, my new assignment has pitted me against a guild with very bad taste in pets. Third, those pets are demons, and those demons want to kill me.
My psychic magic is great for conning people. It doesn't do jack shit against hellish orcs. If I screw this up, my dinner date will be with a demon—and I'll be the dinner. Even better, I kind of suspect this supposedly straightforward assignment is actually the tip of an unholy iceberg of power-hungry malefactors bent on destroying all law and order in the city.
I should probably mention that part to my boss.
I originally started The Guild Codex: Warped series out of order of the other books set in this world and I thought they were fun. But I didn’t get the full impact of each story until I started the Read-along with this blog and started over from the very beginning. It has added some depth and more enjoyment of the cameos from characters in other books we get to see from time to time. The scenes in the Guild with Darius and Tori made much more sense this time as I started from the beginning.
She is the no nonsense by the book agent. He is the fly by the seat of your pants, rules are meant to be broken former criminal turned potential agent. Together they make a great team; ready to run out and solve crimes, thwart assassination attempts and fight off some bad mages and demons. Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections is the second book in the The Guild Codex: Warped series but the seventh if you are reading the whole universe in order. While you don’t need to read the other series to get the story, I am getting a lot more out of each story now that I’m reading them in order.
I like Kit; we have a lot in common: A love of spreadsheets, messing with our coworkers when they aren’t looking and an unhealthy memory bank of pop culture references to draw on. I mean, we would totally be friends in real life if he wasn’t always on the run, facing demons, trying to get a date with a girl who definitely likes him but is dealing with some daddy issues and warping people’s minds to see things that aren’t really there.
Kit was just a flunky for a law firm that wasn’t on the up and up. Now he owes seven years to the magic police and is just trying to figure out this new, open to magic side of his life. His partner plays by all the rules…but Kit, he has always operated in the grey area and so this law and order thing is taking some getting used to.
“Sometimes, law and order and right and wrong come in second to surviving.”
This time Kit is up against some demons and the guild that summons them. Problem one, the demons don’t see his illusions. Problem two, how does he help his partner out so she isn’t sent back home to work. And problem three, how does Kit convince Lienna that he isn’t anything like the daddy issues she is carrying around? But priorities, demons first and where are they coming from.
This was again a fun story that was pretty fast paced and kept me thoroughly entertained the entire time. Kit is fun to hang out with and I’m a sucker for pop culture references and slow burn romances. But Kit will probably get the girl, well eventually that is (crossing my fingers and sending out couple vibes). The story is still great,with just a hint of the will they won’t they, that never takes over the story.
Narration:
Performance: ★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★
Sound Effects: none
Igga Toma has a prolific catalog of titles under his name. With over 200 titles you can see why the narrations seems to roll effortlessly along. He captures Kit’s fun and playful banter so well which helped with my enjoyment of some of the puns and lighthearted pop culture references. I was able to tell all of the characters apart and enjoyed the action sequences. I was able to listen to my usual 1.5x speed.
Share your review/ thoughts for Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections:
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COYER Challenge is adopting our Read-along. You can read about COYER and join that challenge HERE. On the Sunday after the review posts, they will host a Discord chat at 12 PT, 2 CT, 3 ET and 9pm Europe, for a one hour chat. The chat is April 26. COYER is moving from Facebook to Discord. The Discord chat is HERE. The chat is on the COYER Discord server, which it may ask you to join if you are not already a member. You can test it out in advance as the chat room will be for the whole year.
Here’s your to-do list:
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- Find your copies of these books, borrow them from a friend, get them at the library or buy them. The ebooks are currently in Kindle Unlimited.
- Read The Alchemist and an Amaretto, by May 27.
- Read A Little Warped (there is a later one called More Than a Little Warped) by May 27. This can be found at the end of the Hellbound audio book or as its own separate audio.
- Make note of a favorite quote or two as you read the book.
- If you haven’t read the books before, make a list of questions you have for the discussion. If you have read them, please don’t spoil new readers.
- Link up your review on Goodreads or your site to the post.
- Join the COYER book chat on the Sunday following the post.
- Enter the giveaways!
Games:
Who said (enter the answer in the Giveaway, don’t put in the comments)
Who said “What shit-for-brains psychopath thought it was a good idea to attack my precinct with a demon? And how in god’s ass did we stop it? ”
There are other options in the Giveaway for you to enter discussion questions and quotes to share.
Who said “You weren’t lying, You’ve never seen a demon before..” in Taming Demons for Beginners is Amalia.
The villain was Uncle Jack, Claude, Red Rum.
Observations and questions you shared from Taming Demons for Beginners:
(Thank you so much for sharing!) If you can answer any of these questions, you can do so in a comment.
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- I just really loved seeing the demon scene from Robin’s pov because it was so different from in Tori’s book!
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Quotes you readers shared from Taming Demons for Beginners:
“I’m not buying your girl-next-door act. We all know why you’re here.”
“Stay away from magic and it’ll stay away from you.”
“The expression on your demon’s face when you called him your partner was fascinating.”
“No one is going to let me go, you brainless ballsack!” Amalia snapped. “Red Rum will kill me, kill Robin, and probably kill you too. I can’t believe you’re this stupid.”
Be sure to enter the giveaways!!!
Giveaway:
The prize will be a $5 Chirp gift card or Amazon digital gift card (Open Intl).
Grand-Prize Giveaway:
There will be 1 winner chosen.
Tantor Audio is generously donating a set of 15 codes for the entire set (we are reading) on audio. Codes will work US or Intl.
Schedule:
We are doing one book every 4-5 weeks, 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 friends.
Nov 7: Three Mages and a Margarita – Rolé @ Hooked by the Book
Dec 5: Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors – Sophia
Jan 2: Dark Arts and a Daiquiri – Angela @ Angel’s Book Nook
Jan 30: Two Witches and a Whiskey – Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About
Feb 27: Demon Magic and a Martini – Lisa @ Lisa Loves Literature
Mar 27: Taming Demons for Beginners – Rachel @ Waves of Fiction
Apr 24: Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections – Robin
May 29: The Alchemist and an Amaretto – Melissa @ That Library Girl
Jun 26: Slaying Monsters for the Feeble – Lenore @ Celebrity Readers
Jul 24: Druid Vices and a Vodka – Barb @ Booker T’s Farm
Aug 21: Hunting Fiends for the Ill-Equipped – Brandee @ Unconventional Bookworms
Sep 18: Lost Talismans and a Tequila – Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer
Oct 16: Rogue Ghosts & Other Miscreants – KC
Nov13: Damned Souls and a Sangria – Berls @ Because Reading
Dec 11: Delivering Evil for Experts – Anne
About Annette Marie
Annette Marie is the author of YA urban fantasy series Steel & Stone, its prequel trilogy Spell Weaver, and romantic fantasy trilogy Red Winter. Her first love is fantasy, but fast-paced urban fantasy, bold heroines, and tantalizing forbidden romances are her guilty pleasures. She proudly admits she has a thing for dragons, and her editor has politely inquired as to whether she intends to include them in every single book.
Annette lives in the frozen winter wasteland of Alberta, Canada (okay, it’s not quite that bad). She shares her life with her remarkably patient, comparatively sensible husband and their furry minion of darkness—sorry, cat—Caesar. When not writing, she can be found elbow-deep in one art project or another while blissfully ignoring all adult responsibilities.
About Robin
Reading is my #1 addiction…I’d go to a support group for it but who are we kidding – I have no intentions of quitting anytime soon. By day, I’m a chemist and can be found sciencing and listening to books. On nights and weekends, I’m a wannabe Spartan and am often training and listening to books. I straight up LOVE almost everything by Brandon Sanderson and Ilona Andrews; they are my flagship authors and I might be slightly impartial where they are concerned. My other guilty pleasures are unusual fairytale retellings and uber alpha males.
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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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- 🎧 Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social #JohnPirhalla @macmillanaudio.bsky.social #LoveAudiobooks #JIAM - June 27, 2026
- Read-along & Giveaway: Slaying Monsters for the Feeble by Annette Marie @annettemarie.ca #CrisDukehart @tantoraudio.bsky.social #Read-along #GIVEAWAY #LoveAudiobooks #KindleUnlimited @TantorAudio - June 26, 2026
- Wait and See by Iris Johansen, Roy Johansen @Iris_Johansen @royjohansen.bsky.social @royjohansen @grandcentralpub.bsky.social @GrandCentralPub - June 25, 2026
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 26-Audio
- 26-COYER
I wholeheartedly agree that there would have been something lost if all these series weren’t read as a whole. Though, that said, I think it is neat that one could get by just reading one sub-series, too. LOL, Kit is a fun one. Great review, Robin!
yes I love all the Kit pop culture references. He’s funny and smart. He does truly care about Lienna and tries to protect her.
Yeah…I definitely have noticed a difference in this read where I have all the back story with the Guilds and Demon from Robin’s book.
I’m reading this in order, so happy to hear that helps. I liked the first book with Kit but it didn’t knock my socks off. I still need to listen to this one. April has been super busy with review books. I overbooked, TBH. Just borrowed the audio.
I hear you. I feel overbooked all the time right now and the last 2 weeks had so few medical appointments. I hope you can join the chat but I know it’s hard if you haven’t read it.
I also overbooked in both April and May…oops. My eyes were bigger than my reading capacity I think. Still You will have time to catch back up. I had to do that last month.
I think having read the others has definitely helped me like this one, especially made this one even more for me with the connections. Great review!
I’m glad it is working for you. We are back to Tori next. Hope you can make the chat tomorrow.
It was nice to see it from the much hated law and order side of Magipole. Kit is hilarious for me and I’m just hoping he can loosen his partner up a bit.
Robin, thanks for a great review. Kit is a lot of fun.
So many quick pop culture references, if you aren’t paying attention you might miss them. Just a solid good time read.
This is such a fun series and like you I Iove all the little Easter eggs.
yes this series has the most with Kit and his love of pop culture and it being the latest (newest) series.
Awww these look like a good time!
They are really fun!
This is my first time reading the series and I’m glad we are going in the “chronological order” as suggested by the author. I agree that it adds a lot to each story to know what else is going on at the same time in the world. Great review!
I’m so glad you are reading with us and enjoying it pretty well.