To Kill a Warlock

Dulcie O'Neil, Book 1

By: H. P. Mallory

Narrated by: Therese Plummer

Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

The murder of a dark arts warlock. A shape-shifting, ravenous creature on the loose. A devilishly handsome stranger sent to investigate. Sometimes working law enforcement for the Netherworld is a real bitch.

Dulcie O’Neil is a fairy. And not the type to frolic in gardens. She’s a Regulator - a law-enforcement agent who monitors the creatures of the Netherworld to keep them from wreaking havoc in the mortal world. When a warlock is murdered and Dulcie was the last person to see him alive, she must uncover the truth before she’s either deported back to the Netherworld, or she becomes the next victim.

Enter Knight Vander, a sinfully attractive investigator sent from the Netherworld to work the case with Dulcie. Between battling her attraction to her self-appointed partner, keeping a sadomasochistic demon in check, and fending off the advances of a sexy and powerful vampire, Dulcie’s got her hands full. As the body count increases, Dulcie finds herself battling dark magic, reconnoitering in S&M clubs, and suffering the greatest of all betrayals.

©2010 H.P. Mallory (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

This book is bad and it should feel bad.

The problem with this book does not lie with the narrator. It isn't her fault that 70% in I decided I didn't really give a crap about what happens at the end and gave up.

I didn't feel like I was reading about faeries and vampires and other paranormal creatures at all. There was nothing actually otherworldly about any of them and it as really disappointing.

Bram is basically just a subpar version of Laurel K Hamilton's "Jean-Claude". But instead of "ma petite" he thinks it is funny to call Dolcie "sweet". It's basically the same character. He owns a club and everything.

I don't particularly like any of the other 3 male "love interests" at all. Quillin or whatever the hell his name is...I guess he's okay, but I still don't like him. The other three are pompous a-holes.

And don't get me started on Dolcie. She's a friggin' idiot. She's supposed to be law enforcement and the best but she screws up all over the place and lets everyone else convince her of what she should be doing, except when she decides not to listen to them and then ends up screwing up again.

She's supposed to be this super hot faerie according to all the men in this book but she's insecure enough that she goes around being jealous of all the other women in the book, and it actually interferes with her work. I hate main characters that hate how they look to the point where it comes up over and over and friggin' over again. Can't we get some women who are friggin' comfortable with themselves or something to follow around? She may as well be any regular human lead in a young adult paranormal romance.

Also, I'm not into S&M or anything, and I would have been fine if Dolcie was just turned off by the goings on there, but then she went and called everyone who might be interested in such a thing freaks and made it seem like it was wrong (and also ruined her undercover shit there for a second time, why didn't she just tell Knight to go there himself, she's so dumb), and that's about when I gave up on this book.

If I'm lucky, Audible will let me return it or something.

Enjoyable light reading

This is an entertaining urban fantasy with a headstrong, hardworking police officer. Dulcie polices the Netherworld with tenacity of a pit bull. Her job throws her into dangerous situations, but she is trained for those. It is the attraction to her boss, a warlock, which throws her life in disarray.
A very light enjoyable comedy for pleasure listening.

I hated this book

I hated this book. The heroine of this book has all the maturity and judgement of a thirteen-year-old. The main love interest is a controlling jerk with no respect for boundaries-- he should have been reported for assault and sexual harassment and never spoken to again. The whole thing read like a Harlequin Romance, except that the "romance" was either absent or incredibly annoying. Ick!

Too cute for my taste

It just tooooo kitchy for me. In the first scene our heroine has been turned into something gross and her cookie-baking friend is trying to reverse the spell while baking cookies, which the "thing" devours. Hmmm - not my taste (pardon the pun - or don't).

REALLY wanted to finish the book!

No spoilers in this review :)

Most notable positive aspect of the book - Funny and personable characters. Their responses were relatable, even with the added magical abilities.

Descriptive & Fun!
If I had fairy dust in today's society (cruddy apartment/driving a car/ordering fast food/policing the outlaws) I think I would respond the same way the main character does. The magical powers can be used in limited ways (you cannot use it as a holy grail solution to everything) but the different powers are sufficient to keep you from carrying lighters and pepper spray, with the added benefit of being able to always see the true object/person no matter the disguise. The narrator had a wide range of emotional voices. You could see the narrator smiling and grimacing and furrowing her brows as she acted out all of the characters. Each character had their own personality due to the vocal expression, so they were not dependant on the unique man/woman/monster voice. The author was INCREDIBLY colorful in all her descriptions. I could see each detail, and still she found wonderful fun words to make the picture complete! Example: She looked crusty, bumpy, and Booger-fied (instead of just green and slimy)

Downside:
There is so much unnecessary cussing in the book that I became squirmy and dispirited. The author was successfully being colorful without all the cusswords, so why did she sprinkle so many throughout? Most likely the author used the cusswords as an expression to make the main character appear unrefined and realistic. Honestly, I don't want to listen to a real co-worker or friend cuss like that, so having the main character do it was uncomfortable. Added negativity that just didn't belong in such a fun story…could have used fake expletives (Dang it! Shoot! Heck No! ) and the same objective would have been achieved.

Needless to say, I squirmed through the first hour or two, but the cussing was too much for me, so I put it down for a while. I realized that wasn't fair, so I continued to listen a few weeks later. I finished it, and will be checking to see if the cussing has been reduced in number 2. I would like to enjoy the series…but for the cussing…It is a shame, because the story was INCREDIBLE!