Twisted Kingdom

It's finally my turn to review one of Kelley Armstrong book: Industrial Magic!! It's funny, because while Kailana and Ames' challenge was to read one of the book, my challenge is that all of the Women of the Otherworld books are reviewed at TK before the 15th! LOL! All right, onto the review now... This is my favorite of the series, so it might be a little bit biased.

Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong: 4.75/5
published by Seal Books in 2004

From Kelley Armstrong website:

Think your in-laws are scary? Try meeting Paige Winterbourne's potential father-in-law: CEO of the Cortez Cabal, a multinational corporation...and the supernatural equivalent of the Mafia. Lucas Cortez has devoted his life to ruining the Cabals, though that doesn’t stop his father from expecting him to take over the family business someday. Benicio’s favorite ploy is to appeal to Lucas’s quixotic ideals by asking him to investigate Cabal cases of injustice.

After years of failure, Benicio finally has the perfect case: a teenage witch attacked and left for dead. Refusing will be difficult enough for Lucas...near impossible for his new witch girlfriend. Paige and Lucas soon discover that the young witch wasn't the first Cabal teenager attacked.
When the infighting among the Cabals threatens to let the killer continue his spree, Paige and Lucas decide it’s up to them to stop him. The chase takes them on a cross-country hunt through the supernatural world, where allies can be found in the strangest places, including a celebrity necromancer, a wise-cracking Celtic deity, a pissed-off ghost, a half-mad clairvoyant, and a group of vampires who’d really rather be in an Anne Rice novel.

Genre: vampires, witches, sorcerers, vampires, werewolves, ghost, necromancers, urban fantasy
Series: Women of the Otherworld, Book 4

Review: I usually don't take synopsis from others, but in this case, I didn't really know what to say as so much is happening, that I've decided to make an exception. All in all, this book was great! I know that some find Paige a little bit annoying, but this book was more focused on the case and so much more interesting than Dime Store Magic where the book was mainly focus on Paige's struggle. We also get to see a myriad of old characters (the vampires: Cassandra, Aaron, the werewolves: Elena, Clay and Jeremy, the demon: Adam) and get introduced to new very interesting ones (necromancer: Jaime and ghost: Eve, sorcerers: Benicio and the rest of the Cabals).

I think that Kelley Armstrong achieved a great balance in this book between the development of the characters as well as the mystery/suspense aspect. I like how this book doesn't pick up right after Dime Store Magic, but instead a few months after. It gives time for Paige and Lucas relationship to develop as well as their interaction with Savannah. Also, Paige's interaction with the other supernatural beings was also very interesting. What I really enjoy is that every character has their own personality and most of them do not follow cliche, which is hard to avoid. Also, I found Paige definitively less annoying in this book than in Dime Store Magic. I think that she has matured and doesn't need to prove that she can be a leader. Instead, her focus has shifted for the best.

Although Kelley Armstrong did a great job at characterization and revisiting old characters without it feeling so gratitious, the strong point of this book would definitively the case on which Paige and Lucas are investigating. Not only is the case complex, but very interesting and it kept me wondering. Definitively a strong plot.

Finally, I guess the reason why this book is my favorite is exactly because most of the characters are present and I like to see their interaction with each other. Clay and Lucas' friendship, Elena trying to bond with other females. Jaime is just hilarious and very different from what you'd expected for a necromancer. There's also Savannah and Jeremy's special status...

This is definitively the Must Read book in the series :D