The Boundary Magic series has become my favourite series by Melissa Olson. Reading "Boundary Haunted", the fifth book of the series, was like settling in to watch a new series of a favourite show: I knew it would pull me back into a familiar world, with rules I understood and characters I cared about, and I trusted that it would surprise me with something new that moves all the characters along. It gave me a couple of days of solid entertainment and still left me hungry for more.

Part of the appeal is that I like Lex, the ex-soldier who discovered late in life that she was a Boundary Witch when she kept coming back from the dead, because, apart from being able to wield magic that allows her to press vampires, interact with ghosts, kill with a thought or raise the dead, she's a down-to-earth person, doing the best she can. She's tough but not invulnerable. She carries the scars of her past experiences with her and she tries to do what needs to be done.

My enjoyment was enhanced by the fact that "Boundary Haunted" takes Lex out of the now-familiar context of Boulder, Colorado and takes her to Atalanta, Georgia, which is pretty much like moving her to another planet. "The Old World" (vampires, witches, werewolves) here is very different from either Boulder or Los Angeles.

Melissa Olson makes very effective use of the huge scale of killing that took place in Atlanta during the Civil War history to get Lex involved with large numbers of a new type of ghost. She also builds a twisty mystery for Lex to solve about who it is who is attacking the ghosts and, via them, the Cardinal Vampire, who is a Confederate veteran. I became engrossed as Lex came to terms with the culture and personalities in the Atlanta Old World and slowly unmasked the threat to them.

As usual, Kate Rudd does a great job as the narrator of the series. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/brilliance-audio/boundary-haunted-by-melissa-f-olson
( )

Boundary Haunted
Boundary Magic, Book 5
By: Melissa F. Olson
Narrated by: Kate Rudd
Our Boundary Witch is asked to help an elder vampire. Seems someone is taking the spirits that are around items of the Civil War and other items of his personal collection. These are some spirits he knew, and family! He wants to find out who is doing this and stop them. Then when they are showing her around and explaining the situation, a bomb goes off. A bomb only partly of this world! Now she has to deal with this too! Great twist, turns, magic, action, vamps, and new characters.
The narration really added to the story! ( )

Lex is dealing with the changes in Colorado, and then the leader of the Atlanta vampires asks for her help. Somebody is laying the Civil War remnants - and as he is a Civil War veteran, he is understandably upset. Lex finds out who is responsible and deals with them.

Again, neither this nor book #4 is very good or bad, but what I would call an acceptable read. My main quibble is the amount of guns involved. Yes, I know rural Western USA, army veterans, yadda, yadda, but I do feel the books would be better reads if the characters didn't seem to reach for a gun as the first option. It's odd, because other urban fantasies don't seem to come across as a poster child of the NRA, but these do.

To read more reviews, check out my blog keikii eats books!

85 points, 4 ½ stars

Quote:

"You want to send me to Atlanta," I said slowly, "because a cardinal vampire is worried that his vampire social event is missing its ghosts?"

Review:
Boundary Haunted was so just much fun to read. I loved the entire setup for the book. There is a vampire master, who works out of a cemetary, who sees ghosts, and when he was turned, he also turned his friends and named them the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Seriously. This vampire, named Beau, wants Lex to help him. This vampire doesn't want Lex to get rid of his ghosts. No, that is too common for this eccentric vampire. His ghosts have gone missing, and he wants Lex to find them. Perfect. I'm down for this.

This really was just so much fun. Even if Lex was away from home and most of her crew for most of the book. I hate being away from home and crew, so I'm really glad the book made up for this. Some heavy shit went down in the previous book, Boundary Broken, and it left Lex fighting some inner demons, alone, away from home, and with a problem on her hands. Good book. Good setup. Good read.

Unfortunately, Boundary Haunted was incredibly predictable, which was really the only true downside in the book. I knew who had done it instantly as soon as they showed up - and so did Lex who talked herself out of it. I knew the ending from very early on, and I just had to read through it. Oh well, it made up for this by being fun.

I'm looking forward to reading more in the series quite a bit.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Melissa F. Olson, 47North, and Netgalley for providing this copy for review! ( )

Lex is still feeling the aftereffects of her previous adventure in the form of nightmares when Maven asks her to go to Atlanta to help cardinal vampire Beau Calhoun who has a ghost problem. Someone is stealing his ghosts. An incentive is the Beau comes from a boundary magic family and might be able to help Lex learn more about her own boundary magic.

Lex has to go alone because Quinn has a daughter in the area that he would be too tempted to visit if he went along. Lex decides to meet his daughter herself so that she can reassure Quinn when she returns and is pleased to meet a stable, confident young woman.

Beau's great niece is another story. Odessa has been raised by Beau since her parents died in a car accident. He has given her the best possible education and encouraged her love of horses. Unfortunately, her desire to go the Olympics with her horse would bring too much publicity to Beau and he forbids it. This leaves Odessa at sort of loose ends.

Lex investigates and finds herself in immediate danger. A sniper who just missed killing her but left her with a broken left wrist means that Maven sends in backup. Tobias who is her werewolf friend comes to help.

But the next near miss is an exploding spirit bottle that kills one of Beau's vampire colleagues, injures Beau, and ruins a mahogany obsidian crystal that was a gift from Quinn and kept ghosts from getting into Lex's head. Now, she's without protection in a city that is absolutely rife with ghosts and facing an enemy who combines human tactics and witch magic.

This was an engaging, fast-paced story with lots of action and excitement. I liked that Lex is learning more about her boundary magic. ( )