Blood & Ash is the first book in the Jezebel Files. The story follows a private detective who discovers powers while on the case to find a missing person.. Ashira works with her childhood nemesis to crack the case.

I have very conflicting feelings about this audiobook. None of my main issues are the author or narrators fault so I am trying to temper my review to reflect an actual review of the book. This is a NetGalley book and to listen to audiobooks I have to use their app. There app is very problematic kept pausing randomly it jumped ahead on me and started over so it makes reviewing this hard.

To the actual review, I enjoyed the book from what I could tell. It was fun, the characters were engaging. The romance is obvious right now. Plot was not anything mindblowing but it was still an enjoyable listen. You know what you are getting when you pick up this book. Its a paranormal dystopian world with female lead with special powers. I am giving 4 stars because even with all the issues with the app I actually finished the book. I thought overall this was a fun listen.

Thank you to NetGalley and Te Da Media for a free copy. This is an honest review.

With thanks to Netgalley and Te Da Media for providing me with an audiobook of Blood & Ash, Book 1 in The Jezebel Files by Deborah Wilde.

This is my first book by this author and I pretty much went in blind. The gorgeous colours of the cover drew me in, but I was not disappointed. A female PI, unexplained magic, her broody (hot) nemesis and a mystery to solve. This was a solid 4 star read for me and I’ll definitely be continuing with the series. A thoroughly enjoyable read!

**I received an audio copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

I absolutely loved this book! I've been saying for so long that I find it strange that there is rarely books that have Jewish characters unless it is related to the Holocaust or biblical times or that there is no fantasy books that incorporate Jewish folktales and myths. Well this book had it! I loved the premise, detective strong female lead needs to uncover the truth about herself and what is happening in her world. I loved the diversity in characters, and the friendships Ash forms. Ash is definitely a strong woman and I love that about her, she is also caring and passionate and even shows her vulnerability sometimes. She is very relatable. The love interest is also smoldering in all the right ways. A great enemies to lovers trope. I also thought it was cute how much Sherlock Holmes was incorporated into the story as well.

For the audiobook, the narrator was good overall. She changes the tone and pitch of voices when switching characters which I really liked. I felt like she spoke very slow and when I tried to speed it up past a 2x speed it seemed to get choppy, but that could have just been Netgalley's app. The only other negative I have is that when she spoke Yiddish and Hebrew words the pronunciation seemed a little off to me. This may also be due to the fact that the story takes place in Canada and I'm American. I don't know if there are different accents in these countries for these languages.

This book had the perfect level of snark, humor, detective work, and sexual tension all dosed in a delightful world of magic. Ashira is a badass private investigator with a heart of gold no matter how she may try to hide it. When a secret the size of the moon blows up her carefully crafted world and she finds there is virtually no one she can trust, she doesn't let that stop her from finishing the task she first started. This book follows her on one adventure after another slowly world-building and introducing new characters that are all pretty wonderful in their own right. The sassy best friend, the too perfect to be real new neighbor, the arch-nemesis turned client/boss and a whole host of others each of whom plays an amusing if not important role. I'm excited to continue on with this series.

The narrator was spot on for this character and this book. She did a fantastic job keeping with the story and using her voice to best represent each scene. I listened to the book at 1.5x speed after trying a few different options and it worked perfectly for me.

*I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
I listened to the audiobook version of Blood & Ash by Deborah Wilde a new snarky urban fantasy novel. The first of the series it spent quite a bit of time laying out the backstory and explaining the characters relationships with each other. Unlike some other urban fantasy novels where the setting is in the future or right after the reveal of the fantastical world, there is a change to history that runs through the world. Personally I enjoyed this book and will continue reading the series. My one criticism would be that it was overly snarky until the end. I felt that there could have been a better balance. If you enjoy urban fantasy then definitely check this book out.

Surprisingly entertaining audiobook. The narrator was exceptionally snarky as befitting the subtitle. The book is a slightly different spin on most books of this genre and makes it unique enough to be notable. The main protagonist is scrappy and interesting, with enough flaws to definitely populate a series. The romance is fiery and the author and narrator do a great job at conveying the passion. I look forward to reading/listening the rest of this series.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I loved the cover, which is what drew my eye, to begin with, but it was also filled with humor and mystery. I greatly enjoyed that we found out things alongside the heroine, but she wasn't TSTL, she had some knowledge about the world, and her deductive reasoning was on point.

The romance in the book wasn't overwhelming, it was more of a background piece that didn't dominate the storyline, it had just enough to leave it steamy, but not so much that it took away from the overall plot.

I struggled a little with the narrator, but it was more in the sense of attuning myself to her voice, and once I did, I fell deep into the story.

I can't wait to read the next book.

Sadly with this one I DNF it , I just couldn't make it though the story at all, there was nothing that was keeping pulled into the story .

The book was performed by a single narrator. In the first few minutes I was out off by what I felt was a bit over the top snarky bordering on juvenile but then I eased into the flow- she didn’t need to change anything. I realized her snarky accents were entirely appropriate. I suddenly couldn’t imagine the character without the voice she used. After all, the character is written as snarky so the narrator closely follows the main character. It works.

She does very well differentiating each character, male and female. However, accents are not her strength. Santino and the Queen of Hearts accents often devolve into a fake vampire accents.

I did not read the book so I cannot speak to whether the voice is appropriate to the text. But I can say that her voice, her narration, was appropriate to the story. She gave a convincing, satisfying and entertaining performance. I would recommend this audiobook to my patrons.

This audiobook was good, I really recommend it, it was really funny, it was interesting and I would give it a try if it comes out a second part, I would be pleased to listen to it.

Well written and well read this story is entertaining and snarky - just the way I like them. I look forward to reading more of the series!

This was, as advertised, a snarky book. I did like it, but it had to grow on me. At first, Ashura kind of got on my nerves. She was just another Charley Davidson wannabe. I stuck with the book and by the time the kidnapping took place, I was firmly entrenched.

As the personality of the protagonist started becoming more dimensional, she started making me care for her. She hasn’t the best life has to offer, but she is making it. After getting hit on the head, she was stunned to discover she was a magic user (called Nefesh) and also that she was warded to keep her magic firmly stoppered. As the book proceeded, the story kept winding around and overlapping in other mysteries that Ashura found herself. There were weird “things” that Ashura could see slithering around victims that ended up dead. There were magic haters and fear mongers and politicians that wanted them gone.

The author made Ashura’s nemesis an egotistic, arrogant and Uber privileged jerk. They also grew up together, which I thought was an interesting thing to mention before the story actually did. It made the things Ash said and felt more understandable. Levi was the head of the “House” of Nefesh. There are other “Houses”, but that wasn’t important to know for story purposes.

I found that Ash’s obsession with Sherlock Holmes endearing and not annoying. She and her best friend had nicknames which was cute. Ashura was Jewish and covered some interesting things regarding Golems and also where the term “Jezabel” originated. Ash had good side characters- her sidekick and the neighbor next door. They didn’t have a lot of depth but enough, I suppose, for secondary characters. Her mother and father played a part and even the scary supervillian modeled after a mafia queen pin. The book had a good mystery, had a bit of a cliffhanger (not bad, though) and left the door open for another book.

There wasn’t a lot of graphic death, but there was some. There wasn’t a lot of sex, but there were two scenes and it wasn’t something that the book depended upon to make the story good. It was a nice little side note and a glimpse of a relationship builder.

The narrator was pretty good. She didn’t have a LOT of voice variation, but the characters did have their own voices. She didn’t seem to be reading the book, more like making it come alive. All in all, I’d give this book a 4.

Blood and Ash by Deborah Wilde was a delightful discovery. Thanks to Netgalley for the audiobook. This book made me think of if you took Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series and combined it with Wynonna Earp you would have Ash. She is a smart and sexy private detective with the mouth of a sailor. Her sense of humor and quips made me burst out giggling throughout the book. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to future ones.

This was my first novel from Deborah Wilde. The description promised a fun supernatural PI with some hot romance and this book totally delivered! I really enjoyed this first in the series and ran out to get the next one so that I wouldn't have to say goodbye to Ash and her friends. There are plenty of reasons to enjoy this book. A fun and interesting heroine, a will-they won't-they romance, a well-woven storyline and fully realized world. The characters were fun and didn't feel like they were a pale rehashing of others I had met before. I also really enjoyed the author's use of a existing Jewish folklore and the call outs to more modern references like Alice in Wonderland and Scooby-Doo. This was a quick read as well, so you can devour this fun book in an evening - if you start early or stay up all night. I also listened to this novel. The narrator did a great job bringing each character to life. I would say there were portions where it was difficult to discern inner monologue for external dialogue which made short spurts of the novel harder to follow. This was a slight ding, but it wasn't anything that really put me off finishing the novel. Run out and pick it up! #BloodAshTheJezebelFiles1 #NetGalley

I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it myself. There was a tinny mechanical quality to the narrator's voice that I found almost unbearable. Now, it is possible that this had nothing to do with her voice, and could be the fault of my phone or the app, but my review is a little skewed because of sound quality.

As for the story, I thought this was a fun read. I love the main character and how sassy she is, and she is surrounded by other equally as fun characters. It was hard to follow along at first because it almost felt like I was reading a sequel. The book drops you right into the story, and it was hard to figure out what was going on. Once things cleared up, it became more enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me listen to this one!

Thank you Te Da Media and Netgalley for a copy of Blood & Ash audio book in exchange for an honest review.
Ashira Cohen is the only woman PI in Vancouver, and she is about to get even more unique. With Jewish lore, super powers and amazing sexual tension between (sort of) enemies to lovers, this book has it all. From laugh out loud to action from start to finish, I immediately looked for the next book in the series and read through them all.

Ashira Cohen lives in a world where part of the populace is magically adept. Trying to make it as a mundane detective, where the jobs make less money and are less exciting, Ash attempts to make the best of it. During a case, a head injury puts her on a path she never thought possible.

I was ecstatic when I discovered NetGalley is now giving out audiobook arcs, which is my preferred method of reading. A narrator can make or break the audiobook journey, and this was a good one. Hollie Jackson does a good job narrating Blood and Ash: The Jezebel Files, Book One. I never felt her interpretation was disingenuous to the characters. I was able to simply kick back, listen, and lose myself in Ash's world.

Blood and Ash by Deborah Wilde is my kind of book. I'll be honest you will find elements in this story that exist in a lot of other urban fantasy/ paranormal romances. But that did not make it any less enjoyable for me. The supernatural had enough of a uniqueness that I was not comparing constantly to stories from my past. I was engaged and interested in the magical world Ash lives in.

Ash is sassy, amusing, and tough. Her complicated relationship with her mother drew me in as does the one with her childhood "nemesis" Levi. Love stories derived from a couple who think they despise each other are most interesting to me. The conflict in the chase always amps up the passion, and Ash and Levi have it in abundance.

In short, Blood and Ash is excellent and well worth listening to the audiobook. After finishing, I immediately started book two, Death and Desire, and now wait impatiently for the audio of book three, Shadows and Surrender.

This is a review of the audiobook of Blood and Ash by Deborah Wilde, narrated by Hollie Jackson.

Blood & Ash (The Jezebel Files #1) is the first book in a fun, quirky snarky series that is a hybrid of fantasy/sci-fi/detective and mystery.

Ashira is a private investigator in Vancouver in a world that is divided between magical and non magical people. Ashira does not have magic either until an attack causes her to discover powers of her own. Now she must join with her nemesis, Levi, to solve a spree of abductions.

The back and forth sarcasm between the characters is enjoyable and the world building is unique.

The narration by Hollie Jackson is fun, with just the right level of snark and sarcasm, and sets the perfect tone for this series.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publishers and Netgalley. My review is voluntary.

I'll be honest, even after finishing it I don't have a strong feeling about this book. While it certainly delivers on the "snarky" part of a Snarky Detective Series I couldn't connect to the characters because of it. They felt like characatures rather than fleshed out characters. I appreciate the diversity in the book with Jewish main characters and an Indian woman as a secondary characters. However the relationship between Ash and Levi felt flat to me. I also found myself feeling like I was missing something. The book jumps right in to Ash's life and I could have done with a little more world building more quickly. Ash's snark was amusing, but the book won't be one that I'll find myself re-visiting over and over.

Thank you to Netgalley for my audio review copy.

This book was hilarious and satisfying. Reminded me of The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. Narration was impeccable.

Cannot recommend enough!