I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

In this short story, Jocasta reveals the story of one of her scars to her wife, Katie. In the past, Jocasta spent some times as a hired bodyguard for a noble targeted by an assassin. As the reason behind the killer's mission is revealed, Jocasta is caught in the middle of a messy web of betrayal and lies.

While this story is written well, every word of it feels like one of those prequel or 1.5 stories authors have in their series. There is an established modern world where Jocasta drives a car but her mission took place in horse and buggy times. And she's part elf but no mention of her background? These inconsistencies had me scratching my head more often than not and the fairly by-the-book sex scenes didn't make the book stand out any more. Not BAD but feels incomplete. 2.7 out of 5.

The Scars of Jocasta Lacroix caught my eye with the beautiful cover and the premise- the main character telling the truth behind one of her scars to her wife. Sadly, the story kind of falls apart due to its inconsistency.
None of the behavior made sense for the setting and the characters.
Jocasta was allowed to speak rudely to noblemen and generals without any repercussions, despite being a common mercenary. She was calling Lady Norringham, the noblewoman they were hired to protect, by her first name even before being allowed to do so. I assumed they were already lovers by the start of the story and was shocked to find that they weren’t, Jocasta just does whatever she wants and gets away with it because she’s the main character. Her behavior never gets questioned and it felt like it hadn’t even crossed the author’s mind that that might not be how things are done. Either give us a completely new world where the rules are completely different (although why said world would still have aristocracy in the same form as ours does is confusing), give us a reason Jocasta is allowed to speak this way to the aristocrats around her, or have her face any consequences.
Speaking of nonsense, every character kept acting irresponsibly in such wild ways. Jocasta berates her mercenary colleague for sleeping with a courtesan on a job, while she herself was seducing their employer. When an assassin attacks, she lets him go because she “sees fire in his gaze and knows he’s dangerous” in a blatantly transparent need to set him up as someone dangerous, despite her group outnumbering him and herself was doing a good job of holding him off alone while half-dressed. After the assassin murders an entire troop of men at the keep they’re staying at, the general lets Jocasta go off alone after him and agrees to wait twelve hours. Jocasta decides that it’s within her authority to make a deal for several nobles and the assassin, without any of their agreements. Lady of the castle is allowed to stay the entire day in her chambers, fucking a mercenary, without anyone even raising an eyebrow, despite everyone being aware of it. Jocasta gets stabbed by a lover and doesn’t even blink. Everyone kept acting irresponsibly and irregularly and it was highly irritating.
Jocasta herself was irritating too. I don’t mind cocky characters, but I expect them to either tone it down when the situation asks for it, or for them to face any consequences of their behavior, yet Jocasta never did. Her seduction of Gail made me very uncomfortable- she just started feeling her up and when Gail protested, she just over-ruled her. And despite being very confused and even uncomfortable, the next scene it gets mentioned, she’s suddenly a demanding lover. Apart from Jocasta, all the characters felt unmemorable, with the exception of Katie, who seemed like a character I wouldn’t mind finding out more about.
Which brings me to the issue of worldbuilding. I wanted to know more about the world, why Jocasta is a half-elf from a high-fantasy setting living in current day US, but apart from few pages at the end, we never get any explanation for any of it. We also never find out what was in the vault the assassin wanted to get into. The Big MacGuffin, and we never find out what it was.
Despite all this, I wanted to know more about the story and the world. I fully expected there to be a full-length novel explaining the events mentioned in this story and was disappointed to see that no, there’s only another short story, which seems to have the same problems as this one. I’d still love to read a book in this universe that has the space to do everything the author seems to be going for due to the constraints of the format.

(2.5 stars)

This was quite an enjoyable short story, but the characters seemed underdeveloped and I think it would have worked better overall if it had been a novella or a short novel, because it was mentioned that Jocasta was a half-elf but then the fantasy aspect was not developed any further than mentioning elves, which was slightly odd. The writing was also quite simplistic, and the sex scenes were quite pedestrian.

This was a fun short story and really I just wish it were longer because most of the problems I had with it could have been fixed if things were just expanded on a bit. Like from the cover I assumed this was going to be a high fantasy thing but then at the start of the story she is with her wife in modern day American driving a car and THEN she tells her a story from her life where she is clearly living in another world that IS high fantasy. And while this is all explained in the last couple pages, I'm still sitting there the entire time kind of wondering what is going on chronologically instead of paying full attention to the story. But I definitely liked Jocasta, she was a cool character and I'd love to read more of her adventures, especially of how she got from where she is in the flashback to where she is currently.