[REVIEW] Arcane Circle by Linda Robertson

Title: Arcane Circle
Author: Linda Robertson
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Persephone Alcmedi #4

Mass Market Paper, 401 pages

Publication: December 28th 2010 by Pocket Books

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Source: Publisher

|SUMMARY|
Even magic can’t solve everything. . . . After facing down the forces of Fairy in mortal combat, Persephone Alcmedi still must deal with the aftermath. Not only does Seph now possess deadly secrets she must hide from the arcane and mundane world alike, but the dozens of magical creatures who’ve taken up residence behind her cornfield need food and shelter, and there’s still her foster daughter Beverly’s tenth birthday party to plan.

And that’s not all. . . . Seph’s boyfriend Johnny has revealed himself as the wærewolf Domn Lup, and the ruler of the wære world is en route from Romania to make sure Johnny really is the “king” he claims to be. But Johnny’s hiding a dangerous secret: his magic is locked in his mysterious tattoos. He and Seph must find a way for him to reclaim it—fast—despite those who have no intention of letting Johnny gain his full powers. Seph knows that, in the arcane world, strength is always a necessity and power must be constantly proven, but how far is she willing to go to succeed . . . and at what cost?

 

The Battle with the fairies is over, and things seem to be back to normal as it can be. Seph is in the middle of preparing for Beverly’s 10^th birthday party and building shelter for her new magical livestock (unicorns, dragons and griffins).  Johnny, Seph’s wærewolf boyfriend has announced to everyone that he is the Domn Lup (King of all wæres), and word of his title has made its way to Romania where all the wære leaders resides. The Rege (one of the wære leader) is making his way to Ohio to witness Johnny’s at-will transformation, and to confirm that he is the Domn Lup.  With no time to spare, Seph must help Johnny unlock the magical tattoos that binds his powers and memories before the Redge comes into town. 

The first book introduced us to the world of Persephone, in the second book the main focus was the witches, the third book focused on the vampires, and finally the fourth book gave readers a deeper insight to wærewolves and their politics. While both the vampires and witches’ politic were interesting, I was more excited to learn about the hierarchy of wærewolf society. In aiding Johnny to unlock his past and power, Seph uses her great-great-great grandmother slate spell to find out who put the binding tattoos on Johnny. The spell gave them a name ‘Arcanum’ which led them to Pittsburg. In Arcane Circle, Seph receives a visitor from her past…someone she didn’t expect to ever see again. The visitor was a big surprise, and what Johnny and Seph find in Pittsburg is even more of a shocker as she find out who ‘Arcanum’ really is.  Not only does Seph has all three groups breathing down her back, there’s apparently a secret branch of the government that deals with supernaturals ‘xenocides’ and Seph is at the top of their list in the death of Xerxadrea Villeux.

I really enjoyed Arcane Circle; it was better than the previous two books which I think suffered a little bit with sophomore syndrome.  While the witches and vampires take the backseat in this book, I didn’t mind the focus being all on Johnny and the wæres. A lot transpired and again set the stage for the upcoming book, as Heldrige is on his way to see the VEIN council with dire information about Menessos. There wasn’t much action as I would have liked, but there were a couple of twist and turns that held my attention throughout the book. Overall another great read, I recommend this series to all UF and PNR fans, this urban fantasy series isn’t too fluffy and light or too dark and gritty…it’s perfectly in the middle of the two.