ARC Review--Trouble with the Cursed by Kim Harrison

 

Rachel Morgan must keep her friends close—and her enemies closer—in the next Hollows novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison.

Rachel Morgan, witch-born demon, has one unspoken rule: take chances, but pay for them yourself. With it, she has turned enemies into allies, found her place with her demon kin, and stepped up as the subrosa of Cincinnati—responsible for keeping the paranormal community at peace and in line.

Life is...good? Even better, her best friend, Ivy Tamwood, is returning home. Nothing’s simple, though, and Ivy’s not coming alone. The vampires’ ruling council insists she escort one of the long undead, hell-bent on proving that Rachel killed Cincy’s master vampire to take over the city. Which, of course, Rachel totally did not do. She only transformed her a little.

With Rachel’s friends distracted by their own lives and problems, she reaches out to a new ally for help—the demon Hodin. But this trickster has his own agenda. In the end, the only way for Rachel to save herself and the city may be to forge a new understanding with her estranged demon teacher, Al. There’s just one problem: Al would sell his own soul to be rid of her...

 

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

 

Kim Harrison returns to the epic series that is The Hollows with Trouble with the Cursed! The Hollows was one of the first series I remember reading when I was looking for more “adult” books to read. It was one I became quickly addicted to because it is complete awesomesauce! I love that Kim has continued the series after a few years gap in our world. It’s like no time at all has passed in the Hollows though.

Naturally, things in Rachel’s life are still utter chaos. There’s still a lot that needs to be done, such as rescuing her gargoyle familiar, Bis from the demon baku that is trapped with him. She’s also trying to work the cure to help the vampires keep their soul when they die for the second time. But all that gets cast to the side when things start to go very wrong with her demon roommate, Hodin.

When Rachel and Hodin were trying to work a curse together, Rachel is left covered in smut. She also notices her other roommate, Stef, is looking rather ragged lately and other signs point to not good things happening with her and Rachel gets suspicious that Hodin might be the cause.

But not everything is too terrible, as Ivy comes in for a visit of sorts and I positively loved seeing Ivy, Rachel, and Jenks together again! Though, there are not necessarily happy vibes going on since trouble keeps seeming to find them at every turn. Trent is having real estate related problems, Pike’s enemies have found his new hiding spot in Cincinnati…leaving Rachel almost vulnerable to attacks.

This book was simply amazing! I loved every moment of it though I was surprised by the turn of events. I had been expecting the danger to be something more detrimental to society at large, and while it mostly certainly could’ve led to that, it was more of a danger that Rachel had to face head-on in her own time. Granted, the book takes place over a handful of days, so it’s not like it was a year-long problem or anything.

Oddly, I did find myself wishing that Rachel and Trent could have more together time. I still look back and feel shocked that these two ended up together but since Trent did start to grow on me as the series went along, I was happy that they found each other. But alas, they hardly got any page time together in this one. Granted, what time they did get was well spent, so it wasn’t as much of a loss as I might make it seem. I just wanted more…as every reader does!

I will admit that sometimes the pacing to this one did bring me down a little bit here and there. While things were definitely intense and Rachel seemed to have a ticking clock running against her, there were times where it felt like things slowed down as Rachel and Co. had to regroup and strategize. Luckily, these moments were few and far between.

The ending was by far more tantalizing than I expected! I had thought things might end on a sweet and happy note, perhaps a moment between Trent and Rachel as they had a belated birthday celebration, but Kim gave us a far greater surprise than that! Needless to say I am excited for what’s to come from future installments.

As I might have said in past reviews of this series, especially in the last two years, this is definitely a series you will want to read from the beginning just to be familiar with characters and history. While it may seem daunting to read fifteen books before this one, just think, you get to binge read 15 books before this one!

Trouble with the Cursed continues Rachel Morgan’s journey as a the first demon-witch. Where she’s going and what she plans to do is a future yet untold but I look forward to continuing her journey with all the familiar faces that come with it! This is one of my favorite series and is a true staple in the Urban Fantasy genre!

 

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

 

Trouble with the Cursed releases June 14, 2022