Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Witches of Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun #2), by Deanna Chase (author), Gabra Zackman (narrator)

Bayou Moon Press, June 2019 (original publication February 2012)

Jade Calhoun is a powerful empath, and witches she knows tell her that she's a powerful white witch, too. She steadfastly denies it, because she blames witchcraft for the loss of her mother when she was just twelve years old. Jade has a point; her mother vanished during a coven ritual. The head of her mother's coven then gave the extremely distressed Jade a spelled herbal drink that sent her to sleep for two days. She woke up in a hospital, where this was diagnosed as a psychological reaction, not a result of a drug.

But Jade is now living in New Orleans, and has a boyfriend (Kane) who's a sleepwalker, a friend (Ian) who's a ghost hunter, an acquaintance (Lailah) who's a minor angel, and of course Ian's Aunt Bea, who is the leader of the local coven. When Bea and Lailah tell her she's a powerful white witch, it's harder to ignore. Yet she still blames witchcraft for her mother's loss, and is determined to have no part of it.

Except now Bea is ill due to a magical attack in this group's previous adventure. Jade's ex-boyfriend, Dan, is acting odd even for Dan, more actively dangerous than he's ever been. Some strange portraits have turned up in Kane's nightclub, Wicked, that contained the trapped spirits of two witches and an angel--and the angel is Fallen, and now a demon.

At every turn, there are problems for which the solution lies through the powers Jade would rather deny, and has always refused to be trained.

As Jade reluctantly learns to use her powers, she's confronting powerful enemies, and facing confusing and infuriating events--such as Lailah sleepwalking into her and Kane's dreams, and leading him away.

Whose side is Lailah on? 

And when Jade learns it may be possible to rescue her mother from where she has been imprisoned in another dimension, she starts taking some dangerous risks.

The character development is good, and satisfying, even if some of the plot development is a bit shaky and repetitive.

Enjoyable.

I bought this audiobook.

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