The two protagonists are stupid and ridiculously self-sacrificing.
On top of that, they are both arrogant hotheads. I think the author intended to make this into a unique character quirk that drives an exciting romance but this attempt failed miserably on every level imo.
It just annoyed me to no end because the author just wouldn't stop reminding the reader of it over and over again.
Their stupidity and to some degree naive self-sacrificing attitude combined with their short tempers made the characters come across as if they escaped from a YA book. They are supposed to be in their early to mid-twenties but if I had to guess their age I would assume 16.
The writing reads amateurish in places and the author doesn't quite know how to do first person. While I generally prefer first person over third person limited, this book is essentially written in third person but with first-person grammar so, in the end, the writing would've worked much better in third person.
One thing that has to be said is that this is clearly a legitimate attempt at writing an interesting urban fantasy story. It's not one of the hundreds of template copies that just try to cash in on low-effort UF writing.
It didn't work for me and I think the book is flawed but at least the author actually tried which is disappointingly rare nowadays. ( )

This was a quick little read and a fun urban fantasy story. It was easy to get into the plot and the characters. Krystin is the latest in a long line of magical people and may be ‘the one’ to save the world from some sort of calamity. She’s reluctantly part of a Hunter Circle which protects humanity from demons and the like. She’s on Ben’s team. Ben has his own personal quest to find his son, Riley, who was stolen as a baby.

Krystin is full of impertinence, which I usually like, but it felt like it was her only character trait. I would have liked a little more depth in her character. She’s considered too old to be placed on a team as a junior member, but 24 really isn’t all that old, so that felt a little silly. I did like that she didn’t mind breaking rules, like sneaking out after hours to go enjoy a drink at some dive bar where she gathers rumors and info to help the team out.

Giano, one of the Bad Guys, is interesting because I wasn’t sure what his motives were for part of the book. It was a little mystery for Krystin to unravel. There’s also the main Big Baddie Lady Azar who is behind Riley’s kidnapping. These are worthy foes who hit below the belt. Krystin and her team have their hands full.

Sometimes I really liked Ben and sometimes I felt he was a bad team leader. He’s too preoccupied with Krystin being better than him in a fight. Also, he sometimes gets tunnel vision and puts the entire team in danger. Then there’s other times were I felt he was being a really good leader. He puts his foot down at harming a young demon at one point and I felt that was the right thing to do.

The story moves at a quick pace and with the simple plot and basic characters, that worked well. This is a fun bit of brain candy. The story leaves us with a small win for the team but also with an open end for Book 2 to slide right into. Overall, 3.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Shannon Condon’s narration needs some polishing. Her voice for Krystin sounds more like a 16 year old instead of a 24 year old. Her male character voices need masculinity. There were a few repeated phrases in the recording and the volume fluctuated a bit. Condon did have really good little kid voices. The pacing was good. 3/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Jessica Gunn. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it. ( )

2.5 ( )