Soul Breaker is the first in the City of Crows urban fantasy series featuring Calvin Kinsey, a street cop turned detective in the Department of Supernatural Investigations after witnessing the horrific death of his partner by a vampire. Cal is a rising star at the academy and finds himself thrown in head first into a case involving the ramifications of a powerful sorcerer unleashing a powerful creature from the Eververse (world harboring these creatures that borders the Earth) which is leading to a series of gruesome murders. Cal himself is (seemingly) human and through his training at the academy has learned to harbor magic through beggar rings which he seems to break every single time. This is what he uses to fight the supernatural creatures. The mythology used to describe the supernatural evildoers in this book was unique to me - the Etruscans - which I appreciated as a reader because it lead me to do some Google searching and to learn something new. My biggest issue was with Cal. I could not connect to him as a main character. His life seemed to be on repeat - uncover a gruesome murder scene, vomit upon arrival, discover the evildoer, break beggar rings battling evildoer, get a major ass kicking, and repeat. Still interested to see where things go since the author used some very nontraditional mythological creatures in the storytelling. Cal could definitely use some much needed attention as a main character.

Shade Chase is the second story in the City of Crows series. It picks up shortly after the events of the first book. Events from the first book also continue to having lasting effects on Cal. The storyline at a high level was essentially the same - Cal and team find themselves trying to solve grisly murders that involve members of their supernatural community. This provides good opportunity to build on the world a bit more than the first book. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish this one because I was still unable to connect to the main character. I had this issue with the first book and was hoping it would improve, but found that was not the case. Because of this, I will not be able to continue with this series.

There is nothing better than finding a new author and boy am I glad I did! I loved this book, it was funny, engrossing and all around good fun! Bring on book four. Format: Kindle Edition

Wow. Just wow! Got me hooked on book one and I'm hoping we keep going! WHOOT!

Good UF. I liked the world and enjoyed the storylines. While each book dealt with its own case and different problems, they all fit into the overall plot, adding bits and pieces to our knowledge base. My only real complaint was Cal's overwhelming negativity and constant self effacing, mixed with his lack of self preservation and need to save everyone else. And yes, there is self growth by the end of the third book, and it's great to see character development, but it was so extreme, especially in the,first book, that I ended up not liking him so much, and honestly, debating whether I wanted to read the next book. I'm glad I stuck it out because I ended up really enjoying the series, and I will definitely be looking for the next book.