Heart of Malice

By: Lisa Edmonds

Narrated by: Felicity Munroe

Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

The first time Moses Murphy's granddaughter killed on his orders, she was six years old.

For 20 years, she was a prisoner of an organized crime syndicate, forced to use her magic to make Moses the most powerful and feared man on the East Coast. To escape his cruelty, she faked her own death and started a new life as Alice Worth. As a private investigator specializing in cases involving the supernatural, Alice walks a precarious line between atoning for the sins of her grandfather's cabal and keeping her true identity hidden.

Hired to investigate the disappearance of a mysterious object of power, Alice enlists the help of Malcolm, a ghost running from a past as nightmarish as her own. It soon becomes clear the missing object was taken by someone with a dangerous secret and an unknown agenda. When her client is kidnapped, Alice must find her and the object of power before a vengeful killer destroys the city and slaughters thousands - starting with Alice.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Lisa Edmonds (P)2017 Tantor

New and enjoyable 3.5 rating

This is good for a start. Our heroin, Alice, is a powerful earth, fire and blood mage. She is both spunky and self-deprecating. She is living under the radar from her Mafa like family. She is a mage private investigator who works alone.

There is an association called the Cabal. The Cabal hires/use mages. What can start as a work place with virtuous intentions evolves into an association, which uses its’ resources for evil. Mages are tortured and killed if they do not obey the Cabal. Alice’s family is a powerful Cabal and being used and abused she escaped. Consequently, she keeps people at a distance.

Michael is a mage ghost who once worked for the Cabal. He refused to use his work to destroy and was killed. Their mutual disdain for the Cabal was an impetus in their working relationship.

The first part of the story moves at a good pace until she begins her investigation her family for the stolen object of power from the home of her client. While looking for the artifact, she must deal with Sean, a werewolf and one-night stand, who wants more than one night.
The story picks up at the last two hours when her client is finally kidnapped. Of course, there are the usual impediments to make the rescue nearly impossible and the close call with death and world destruction.

Alice is badass and troubled enough that her character is appealing. Her relationship with the vampire and werewolf has some originality to make the romance factor in the story interesting.

There are the assorted characters of vampires, werewolves, and an inquisitive police detective.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Alice is awesome

I was approached by Lisa Edmonds to read her second book in the Alice Worth series Heart of Fire. Well if you follow my reviews you know I won't start a series in the middle and when I saw that there was an audiobook version available of book one Heart of Malice I purchased the copy for myself.

I was beyond surprised by how much I LOVED this story, and I devoured it. I stayed up late into the night listening; I did not want to stop. I only shut it off when I would start to fall asleep. The story is fast-paced, exciting and so incredibly thought out and intricate. I loved the details that went into the character development. I loved Alice and all her nuances. She is one tuff cookie. She is a kick-ass chick! And then there is Sean, can you say yummy! OMG! There was nothing, and I mean nothing, I didn’t love about this story.

I want everyone, and I do mean everyone, who loves Urban Fantasy to give this book and this series a try. You won't regret it! I can’t wait to read the next book, and So far Edmonds has officially got herself a fangirl!

Slow to start but worth it

This book starts really slow, but is well worth the listen. I would recommend.

I want more like this one!

I really liked everything in this book, the writing, the story, the characters, the action, the universe, ... really everything! One of the best urban fantasy I've listened to and one of my favorites now. The first thing I wanted to do when I got to the end was to start again straight away. More please!

I enjoyed it

I liked this book because I like these kinds of books. That being said it's still werewolf, vampire, insecure girl and hot sex. I tended to fast forward through the sex scenes because I wanted to see where the story went. So in that respect the plot is a little predictable. But.. There are interesting characters and possibilities for them. I would definitely read a next book if there is one. I hope that she brings a different approach on how Alice fights the bad guys, with more personal strength and less angst.

Nice but lacks substance

This a is a nicely written and well read book. However, though the ideas and magical elements are carefully thought out, the plot is rather lacking. The writer relies heavily on physical danger to bring drama to the story, but the heroine is at death's door so frequently by the time it reaches its scooby do type exposition climax, it all feels a bit meh. The characters are stronger than the plot, but it has some charm, however there are better books out there

2 of 2 people found this review helpful