{Review} A Fistful of Fire: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer #2) by Rebecca Chastain

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: October 10th, 2015
Finished Date: January 7th, 2016

Publishers: Self Published
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: For Review
Format: eBook

Pages: Unknown
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US 

 

Madison Fox survived her first week as California’s newest illuminant enforcer, defending her region against imps, vervet, hounds, and one lascivious demon. If her grumpy boss, Mr. Pitt, was impressed, he hasn’t told Madison. In fact, there’s a lot her boss has been closemouthed about, including the dark secret haunting his past.

But Madison’s problems are just igniting. Neighboring regions report an uncharacteristic flare-up of evil, fire-breathing salamanders blaze unchecked across the city, and Black Friday looms. Trapped doing cleanup amid mobs of holiday shoppers, Madison watches from the sidelines as dubious allies insinuate themselves in her region.

As suspicions kindle and the mysterious evil gains strength, Madison must determine who she can trust—and whose rules to follow—before her region and career go up in flames.

Sizzling with adventure and sparking with magic, A FISTFUL OF FIRE is fused with Madison Fox’s trademark blend of humor and ass-kicking action.

The Review: A Fistful of Fire is the second book in the ‘Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer’ series and it was just as awesome as book one!

Madison is definitely back on form here as she finds herself stuck in the middle of some power plays for her wardens’ area. With Madison being new to her job, she’s doing the best she can – after all, her area is one of the smallest but all of the evil seems to be concentrated in her boundaries. Her boss and warden of the area – Mr Pitt – is not having a good time of it especially when Madison realises that his fellow wardens have no faith in his ability to be a warden and with him appointing a total newbie and refusing to let any other enforcer train her - it’s not looking good. The holiday season is upon them and because of the flare up in Madisons’ area, she is relegated to the mall in another wardens’ area to stop the evil that likes to feed upon over-zealous shoppers.

Whilst in this area, Madison comes across something she has never seen before, something that draws her to it but is told to leave it alone by Mr Pitt but when the evil starts to multiply in the mall, she can’t help but think that the discovery she made is a big factor in that. She also finds herself smack dab in the middle of a power play where all roads lead to the wardens trying to poach her and oust her warden from his job which will lead to a confession she definitely didn’t see coming. Can Maddison weather this storm? And will she ever get to go on her date with Dr Love?

So, I really enjoyed this second book and thought it progressed seamlessly from book one. Madison is her usual fun self throughout, blabbing whatever comes into her mind, sticking her nose into places it really shouldn’t be and making a nuisance of herself with that lovely sense of humour along for the ride. She’s a girl after my own heart but one is for sure – she gets the job done – even if people don’t have such a high opinion of her. She is also a work in progress and I think you can see the changes in her straight away even if she has only been on the job for less than a month.

The storyline seemed very focussed on the agendas among the wardens – so sort of political in a way but that really gives us an insight into their world. That insight will show us the inner workings of the wardens, what it is they do, how they go about it and also introduces us to the other wardens and we find out who works for whom and what area they cover. I suppose when you have people who work like this, there will always be people who aren’t satisfied and want more – more power, more land, more enforcers etc so when it seems like everyone is out to expose Mr Pitt as incapable of doing his job, it doesn’t come as a surprise. I thought Madison shone for him and although she had doubts, she really showed her loyalty to him. I enjoyed getting to know more creatures, it was easy to imagine the little pests sucking on people in the mall and gave a fun look at Black Friday sales. There is a new creature that will make a big impact in this and I found myself really fond of it, just as much as Madison and all of the commotion it brings with it – I’m thinking some comic moments will follow. There wasn’t much in the way of romance although Dr Love appears throughout and seems very sweet…. But what I want to know is – how about Nico? Is there anything there?

The book is fast paced, full of mystery, meddlesome demons, devious humans, lots of enforcing and maybe a naked man….the story matures well, alongside Madison and I can’t wait to see what’s next for her.

Thank you to Rebecca Chastain for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. 

{Review} A Fistful of Evil: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer #1) by Rebecca Chastain

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: August, 2014
Finished Date: November 4th, 2014

Publishers: Mind Your Muse Books
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: For Review
Format: eBook

Pages: 273

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US 

Madison Fox just learned that her ability to see souls is more than a sight: It’s a weapon for fighting evil. The only problem is she doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing. 

On the positive side, her money problems are over, she’s possibly discovered her purpose in life, and her coworker is smoking hot. On the negative side, evil creatures now actively hunt her, and deadly experiences are becoming the norm.

When she thinks it couldn’t get worse, a powerful evil sets up shop at a local hotel’s video game convention, and it’s got its eye on more than the gaming geeks: it is hungry for Madison’s soul. Madison needs to become an expert illuminant enforcer overnight to save her job, her region . . . and her life.

If Stephanie Plum fought evil with magic, it’d look a lot like this.

The Review: A Fistful of Evil was an interesting start to this new series featuring Madison Fox whose life is about to get a whole lot more complicated. The synopsis is spot on about what Madison will go through and it was a fun ride. Madison was a fun character, she has no clue what she’s doing but will wing it for all its worth but she does actually want to do well, she wants to learn and wants to be worthy but because she had been ignoring her gift she is totally inept. She has her eye on a couple of men but romance isn’t really the purpose of this book, it’s all about Madison’s introduction to fighting evil.
The storyline was really good and I thought the author has created something a little different to what the usual UF is about, I like Madison’s gift and how it can be used to fight evil. She is definitely flung in the deep end here and has to learn on the fly but that was an asset to the story because it was amusing to read of her trying her best, her thought process was fun too and she came across really well, so normal for a book character where you could imagine that her reactions would be the same as your own. I loved the species of demons throughout, we have imp demons, monkeys, hounds…. And they’re really just minion-esque for the bigger demons and what they do to unsuspecting humans will make you shiver. Obviously there will be a big bad demon for Madison to cut her teeth on and I had an inclining of where the story was going but when you add all of the action, danger, rescues, fighting…. Even parading around like Lara Croft – you get a fine UF book with tons of potential. My only grumble is that I would have liked a bit more romance in it but that’s personal preference and in no way detracts from the book as a whole. I’m glad I gave this a try and will be looking out for more.