#PubDayTuesday | [ARC Book Review] Blood & Ash by Deborah Wilde

Happy #PubDayTuesday to Blood & Ash!

Thank you to Te Da Media & NetGalley for the e-ARC to read and review!

Genre: Urban Fantasy Detective
Series: The Jezebel Files #1
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommend to Others?: Maybe

ABOUT: Cold-blooded kidnappers. Long-lost magic. When things get serious, she goes full Sherlock.

Ashira Cohen takes pride in being the only female private investigator in Vancouver. With her skills, her missing persons case should be a piece of cake.

She wasn’t counting on getting bashed in the skull, revealing a hidden tattoo and supernatural powers she shouldn’t possess.

Or the bitter icing on top: a spree of abductions and terrifying ghostly creatures on a deadly bender.

And don’t even get her started on the golems.

Reluctantly partnered with her long-time nemesis Levi, the infuriating leader of the magic community, Ash resolves to keep her focus on the clue trail and off their sexual tension because WTF is up with that?

But with a mastermind organization pulling strings from the shadows and Levi’s arrogance driving her to pick out his body bag, can Ash rescue the captives and uncover the truth or will the next blood spilled be her own?

My Review:
This was my introduction into a mystery/thrill/suspense-esque type of book. I found Blood & Ash to be an okay book. It helped that there was a fantasy element to the story. The premise made it sound like this would be a good read but I wasn’t blown away by what happened.

Ashira is a very strong character with an incredibly strong voice and personality. I liked that she is trying to diversify the P.I. business in Vancouver, Canada as the only female detective. Ashira distinguishes herself very well in contrast to everyone else. She takes on so much and doesn’t back down. She’s persistent in the conflict from beginning to end. Her sense of humor wasn’t my kind of humor and there was too much sarcasm where there need to be seriousness.

The author creates an unusual world. I get the magic system but paired with the setting it seemed…off? I was a little confused on the state of the world. And it seemed like some countries became territories so maybe this takes place in the future.

The romance was so-so. It kind of took a back seat to everything else but I think that was intentional in order to explore Ashira and Levi’s relationship more as the series progresses.

I liked the way the book ended. It was more satisfying than anything else. I might read book 2.