How does one become an all-powerful Child of Chaos?That’s what Harley desperately needs to find out before her unhinged aunt raises the death toll. All she knows for sure is that magical kids are missing, and they somehow fit into Katherine Shipton’s grand scheme. Now that Harley is an official member of the San Diego Coven, she feels more responsible than ever for its protection—and that of the … responsible than ever for its protection—and that of the magical world.
But she’s got a whole lot more on her plate than that.
There’s a traitor lurking within the Coven. She still yearns to know the secrets contained within her parents’ Grimoire. And there’s also the fact that she might actually have feelings for a certain stubborn, green-eyed dude…
All the while, Santana faces her own demons, with a magical Purge building within her and a crush on a boy with a dark side, one that might just lead them to real answers.
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*Beware of spoilers in the reviews below that are without spoiler alerts.*
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Excellent audiobook, Harley and Santana are dual protagonists
Book 3 begins immediately after the events of Book 2 in this series. Holly has just visited her half-brother Finch Shipton in Purgatory, a magical, maximum-security prison. She informs him she knows that her father was not actually a murderer. He was cursed into obedience to murder for the Big Bad of this series, Finch’s mother and Harley’s maternal aunt, Katherine Shipton. It is clear Finch had previously had no idea about this curse. Harley also makes her decision, after her one-month trial period ends, that she will officially join the San Diego Coven (SDC).
Holly continues to grow in friendship and loyalty to a team of young magicals who are all in their late teens like her. They include Tatyana Vasilisa, Santana Catemaco, Raffe Levi, Astrid Hepler, Dylan Blight, and Wade Crowley, who is Harley’s romantic interest throughout this series. In addition, Garrett Kyteler, who was formerly close friends with Finch before his betrayal of the SDC, is now a member of their team. Up until now, he has been presented as continually acting like a sneering jerk, so it is a difficult transition for the team incorporating him into their midst.
Harley and her teammates are dedicated to halting Katherine’s terrifying goal of obtaining godlike power and enslaving the whole world. Their current crucial, intermediate mission in that regard is to rescue dozens of magical children whom Katherine has kidnapped for her nefarious ends, and who continue to be missing, in spite of attempts to rescue them that began in Book 2. There’s a traitor lurking within the SDC who clearly must be a shapeshifter, which puts all shapeshifters under suspicion, including Garrett. In addition, Holly yearns to gain access to her parents’ Grimoire, a magical spellbook, which she learns is located in the New York Coven which, before their deaths, her parents were head of. Holly also has learned that she has had a device called a Suppressor implanted inside her body since infancy which is suppressing her magical powers. She wants to get it removed, but the process is difficult to achieve and quite dangerous.
Similar to Book 2, which is narrated in the alternating first-person points of view of both Harley and her teammate, Tatyana, this book is narrated in the alternating first-person POVs of both Harley and her teammate Santana, whose magical powers come from powerful spiritual entities called Orishas.
Though Harley and her friends are legally of age and none are in high school, which would logically cause a reader to assume that this series is “New Adult” rather than “Young Adult,” it is in fact marketed as YA. Perhaps that is because it shares the following characteristics with books typically written for an audience aged 12-17: (1) the story is told from the first-person POV of characters who are in their late teens; (2) there are no drugs, booze, smoking, swearing, wild parties or sex—only a few kisses between Santana and Raffe, her love interest, and no kisses at all between Harley and Wade; (3) the two heroines are social misfits, and their teammates—other than Wade—are all, in their own way, social misfits as well; (4) the powerful, experienced, adult witches and warlocks in the San Diego coven continue to incomprehensively sit on the sidelines throughout the dangerous action of this story in relation to Katherine Shipton, leaving it up to Harley’s relatively inexperienced team to save the coven and the human race from horrible danger. This is known as “orphaning” the protagonist(s), which is a hallmark of all action-adventure plots in general—including adult action adventure.
Harley’s most important characteristics, which make her a very sympathetic protagonist, are: compassion, courage, and enough conviction in her mission that she never gives up or sits on the sidelines. This is true of Santana as well, though, right from the first, it is obvious that, of the whole team, including Wade, Harley potentially has the most magical power of any of them.
Given that there are nine books in this series in which Harley is the main character, and given the fact that this book is urban fantasy and not paranormal romance, it is not surprising to me that the author continues to move the romance between Harley and Wade at a snail’s pace. In this installment, they are at about the same place they were in the previous book, viewing each other as someone to admire and count on in the thick of fierce battles, with only a few tiny, unspoken glimmers of romantic attraction along the way.
The magical world-building in this series continues to be well conceived and executed given how, relatively speaking, streamlined this series continues to be, compared to adult urban fantasy. This magical world is limited to witches, warlocks, and a few different types of monsters, including a djinn, a type of demon coexisting inside Raffe’s body. There are no vampires and no animal shifters, but there are shifters who transform into the appearance of any human at will, including clothing and idiosyncratic speech patterns.
Similar to Books 1 and 2, the pace of this story moves quickly. The author avoids extended, boring exposition, instead telling the story through dialogue and plenty of brisk action. The central mystery about what exactly Katherine Shipton is up to and how to go about stopping her continues to be the main focus of this novel.
I experienced this book both in Kindle and audiobook format. The narrator is Amanda Ronconi, who does an excellent job acting out the dialogue for all the various characters, portraying with equal skill male and female voices and various national accents.
These are all the Harley Merlin books in this extensive series in which Harley is the main protagonist:
Book 1: Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven, 2018 (from Harley’s POV)
Book 2: Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins, 2018 (from Harley and Tatyana’s POV)
Book 3: Harley Merlin and the Stolen Magicals, 2018 (from Harley and Santana’s POV)
Book 4: Harley Merlin and the First Ritual, 2018 (from Harley and Astrid’s POV)
Book 5: Harley Merlin and the Broken Spell, 2018 (from Harley and Wade’s POV)
Book 6: Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris, 2018 (from Harley and Finch’s POV)
Book 7: Harley Merlin and the Detector Fix, 2019 (from Harley and Jacob’s POV)
Book 8: Harley Merlin and the Challenge of Chaos, 2019 (from Harley and Katherine’s POV)
Book 9: Harley Merlin and the Mortal Pact, 2019 from Harley, Finch and Katherine’s POV)
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Romantic Interest: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Action Plot: 4 stars
Santana Romantic Subplot: 4 stars
Harley Romantic Subplot: 3 stars
Lack of Plausible Motivation for Adults Defaulting Their Duty: 2 stars
World-building: 4 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Audiobook Narration: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars