Vicious Circle by Linda Robertson

Publisher: Pocket

Publish Date: 30 June 2009

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: Persephone Alcmedi #1

Format: Paperback

Source: Own Copy

Reviewed By: Claire

Rating: 5 out of 5

Blurb

Being a witch doesn't pay the bills, but Persephone Alcmedi gets by between reading Tarot cards, writing her syndicated newspaper column, and kenneling werewolves in the basement when the moon is full -- even if witches aren't supposed to mingle with wolves. She really reaches the end of her leash, though, when her grandmother gets kicked out of the nursing home and Seph finds herself in the doghouse about some things she's written. Then her werewolf friend Lorrie is murdered...and the high priestess of an important coven offers Seph big money to destroy the killer, a powerful vampire named Goliath Kline. Seph is a tough girl, but this time she bites off more than she can chew. She needs a little help from her friends -- werewolf friends. One of those friends, Johnny, the motorcycle-riding lead singer for the techno-metal-Goth band Lycanthropia, has a crush on her. And while Seph has always been on edge around this 6'2" leather-clad hunk, she's starting to realize that although their attraction may be dangerous, nothing could be as lethal as the showdown that awaits them.

Review

Persephone or Seph as she is known is a witch as is her Nana.  To make ends meet Seph reads Tarot cards, writes a weekly column on weres and lets the local werewolves kennel at her house on full moons.  Having been abandoned by mother at a young age and brought up by her Grandmother Seph’s heart strings are pulled for a little girl called Beverly whose mother and seph’s friend Lorrie has just been murdered.  Speh is talked into killing the murderer for $200,000 by another local witch but Seph doesn’t realize her intended victim is a vampire. Seph needs all the help she can get so she goes from living alone with virtually no friends to her house being overtaken by her Nana, a Great Dane puppy and were friends including the tattooed gorgeous,  leather pant wearing werewolf and singer of local band Lycanthropia.

Now I am a bit biased when it comes to this series as it is a re-read for me in preparation for book 6 which recently came out.  So as I know what happens in books 1-5 I can’t really see why other people are not as keen on Vicious Circle as I am.  We are thrown in at the deep end with the plot.  We don’t really know anything about the characters or the world in which they live.  In fact this series is written like one long book that is split up into smaller books so information is given to us throughout and your questions do get answered you just have to be patient and read all of the books in the series.  The story starts a little slow, but keep with it as it picks up towards the end when the vampires are introduced and then it gets all sorts of exciting.

The world building is really good and Ms Robertson uses extreme prejudice against the weres by humans in the story which I thought was interesting.  I like the characters and love Johnny.  The vampires are as vampires should be, controlling, untrustworthy, scary, sexy and out for themselves.  I highly recommend this series, it isn’t for everyone but if you are an Urban Fantasy fan you should really try it at least.  Once again I am giving Vicious Circle 5 stars.