Already annoyed. So many references to previous events that I had to double check that I hadn't accidentally gotten something farther a long in the series. It's probably time for me to drop this genre.

After digging a little deeper, I have discovered that this is the first of a third series and they are all fn chronological. Clearly you need to have read the first 2!!!! gd series to be up to speed for this. ( )

When I finished [b:Boundary Crossed|24369122|Boundary Crossed (Boundary Magic, #1)|Melissa F. Olson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427135597l/24369122._SX50_.jpg|42991656] and the sequels in 2017, I enjoyed them enough to put [a:Melissa F. Olson|6536659|Melissa F. Olson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1383759623p2/6536659.jpg]'s other books on my ever expanding to-read list. Last year, I randomly choose [b:Midnight Curse|31352753|Midnight Curse (Disrupted Magic, #1)|Melissa F. Olson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480540192l/31352753._SY75_.jpg|52032628] to read and finally got to it this year--not realizing that it's actually the second Scarlett Bernard series. [b:Dead Spots|16037696|Dead Spots (Scarlett Bernard, #1)|Melissa F. Olson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356384244l/16037696._SY75_.jpg|21811778] is the first (even before Boundary Crossed actually).

It doesn't actually matter that much, at least so far, but there are a number of references to previous events that I expect I would already know about. So it goes. It's actually kind of nice not to go through Scarlett first finding out about the Old World and getting acclimated and just start out in the middle of everything. Plus, having the protagonist that basically cleans up messes and neutralizes anyone else in the Old World is pretty cool. Also, she's wonderfully snarky.

Later, some of her accusers would argue that her actions were a treacherous betrayal of her own kind. They insisted that she should have challenged him to an honorable fight. But she didn’t care about being honorable. She cared about him being dead.

And pop culture aware:

“Then go away, or I shall taunt you a second time,” I said in my best French accent.

Those are both in the first 2% of the book.

Worldbuilding, the focus on Werewolves, Vampires, and Witches (and nulls) being the big 3 supernatural powers, without everything under the sun is actually kind of nice. Scarlett being human--but with the power to bring supernatural baddies down to her level--is an interesting twist I don't think I've seen otherwhere and being backed up by a giant ugly dog (actually a bargest, not something we see that often) is fun. Setting the story in LA is already interesting, and having that be the one place in the world where the Old World lives mostly in harmony is a cool setting.

But the pressure on us was still huge. Los Angeles is the only city in America where all three supernatural powers share power and live more or less in peace. If we fucked that up, there would be a lot of repercussions, which could include anything from snide “I told you so”s to violent attempts to take over our city.

Plotwise, saving the vampire former best friend from getting framed for multiple murder while still trying to play within the rules is solid enough. Nothing hugely surprising, but a fun read nevertheless. This whole collection of series may just have to join my periodic re-read list.

Random note:

Prologue

It had helped that she knew exactly how the whores would react.

Well. They say that you need a hook for a first line to get people into your book. Of all the first lines I've read ... that's certainly one of them. ( )

See book 3, Shadow Hunt

This was a straight 3 star book. Nothing really grabbed me, but it wasn't written poorly. I just thought way too much was going on for this first book and have just a general state of confusion occurring while I was reading this. I kept checking to make sure this was the first book in the series, and it is. I was told after the fact that I should have read something called the Scarlett Bernard series first before reading this and my reply was "Seriously? I don't have time to read three other books before I read a series starring this same person? Also why was there even a spin-off? This makes no sense!" So yeah, that turned into a 30 minute conversation I will never get back.

Olson sets up a world in which there is something called the Old World that deals with supernatural creatures (witches, vampires, werewolves).

One of our main characters is Scarlett Bernard who is a "null" someone with the ability to null the magical effects around witches, vampires, vampires. For example, if Scarlett is around a vampire, the vampire becomes human. I have no idea why the person wouldn't just turn into dust if they are a 1,000 years old, but I learned to stop asking questions like that while reading.

The other main character is a former friend/partner whatever of Scarlett's, former LAPD detective Jesse Cruz. Jesse is bitter over a divorce and feeling like he got played by the Old World people (I barely manage to figure out what happened based on all the hints floating around).

When a former vampire friend of Scarlett (goes by the name of Molly) asks for her help, Scarlett goes up against the Old World to prove she was set up. She enlists the aid of Jesse who agrees to saddle up to work alongside Scarlett again.

There was no there, there for me while reading. Scarlett got really annoying. I have no idea what her issues were, but she apparently has a long term boyfriend that she treated like an annoyance, a supernatural dog (that I never want to hear about again) whose every mood and tick she can pick up on. Jesse got a bit self righteous for me. Molly's character made no sense to me after what we see of her. I am speaking of the ending and the terribleness that is found out about why exactly Molly was targeted.

There are additional characters in this, but none that really stuck with me while reading.

The writing was okay. The book just got a bit awkward when it went from Scarlett to Jesse's POV. It didn't work that well.

Look, I am always looking for an urban fantasy to sink my teeth into. This one just didn't move me either way. I may read the second book or I may not. I just hope that the author manages to fix the world building and develops the character. I get this was the first book in a series. But there was way too much information being thrown at me that didn't work seamlessly into this story. For example, we just got told that Jesse used to have feelings for Scarlett and they haven't seen each other in three years. There could have been some dialogue about that between the two of them. The only thing that I did like was Scarlett being happy she could just be friends with Jesse without any romance going on. I am sure that gets thrown out later, but I swear I loathe love triangles. If any of the future books seem to be heading in that direction just let me know. ( )

"Midnight Curse" was the best Scarlet Bernard novel yet. Scarlet has grown up, come to terms with her power and her position in the Old World and (almost) figured out what she wants.The result is a well-paced Urban Fantasy thriller that is still largely character driven.

"Midnight Curse" (a title almost as lame as the cover - the only reference in the book that comes close to this is "midnight drain" which I think would have made a better title) takes place three years after "Hunter's Trail" and crosses over with the events and characters in the Boundary Magic series.

(If none of that makes sense to you, then start at "Dead Spots" and read your way forward from there.)

I liked the fact that things have moved on over the three years since "Hunter's Trail". Scarlet has had a period of relative quiet to grow into her role and her relationship with her werewolf lover, Jesse's world has fallen apart and the LA Old World has settled into a liberal,rhythm of power sharing between vampires, werewolves and witches that it takes for granted.

This peaceful rhythm and Scarlet's peace are shattered when Molly, the vampire who was Scarlet's housemate in earlier books, commits an unforgivable crime and reaches out to Scarlet for help.

Scarlet steps up and risks everything to protect Molly. This was satisfying to watch Scarlet being a powerful player in her own right rather than a fragile, used to broken but I'm getting better hones, ex-victim.

What follows is a clever plot, centred around Molly's back story and the exploitation of women by ruthless men who see them as not quite human. This is combined with a theme about powerful shadowy figures who want to deconstruct the system of laws and trials and powersharing that make the LA Old World special. For a while I was sure that the bad guy was going to turn out to be a supernatural version of Bannon.

The inhumanity of the men, who cannot even understand why what they do to the women is wrong, was chilling and very relevant to today's politics.

A cross-over with the Boundary Magic series added an edge to the story as well as providing some light relief by showing how Lex, a powerful boundary witch, throws Scarlet completely off her stride.

What I enjoyed most in this book was that, in the midst of an increasingly complex supernatural world, the emotions and the relationships were the real focus of attention. ( )