Midnight Blue Light Special / Seanan McGuire

4 out of 5 stars

 

***Wanda’s Summer Festival of Reading Fluff***

Verity is ready to settle down for some serious ballroom dancing—until her on-again, off-again, semi-boyfriend Dominic De Luca, a member of the monster-hunting Covenant of St. George, informs her that the Covenant is on their way to assess the city's readiness for a cryptid purge. With everything and everyone she loves on the line, there's no way Verity can take that lying down.

Alliances will be tested, allies will be questioned, lives will be lost, and the talking mice in Verity's apartment will immortalize everything as holy writ--assuming there's anyone left standing when all is said and done. It's a midnight blue-light special, and the sale of the day is on betrayal, deceit...and carnage. 

“…I collected all the knives I’d thrown at the various dart boards—it was a surprisingly high number, given how little time I’d had, but I guess stress makes me stabby…” (Verity Price)

The Covenant of St. George has come to Verity’s city to check on the progress of their member, Dominic De Luca (Verity’s kinda sorta boyfriend). There aren’t many men out there that wouldn’t be intimidated by Verity’s physical skills and cryptid knowledge, so she’s anxious that he may choose a side and that it won’t be hers. When Verity is kidnapped by her Covenant cousin, Margaret, choices will have to be made.

Once again, Verity’s colony of Aeslin mice make the book for me—they are a delightful creation, offering intelligent humour during the course of the book. For example, when the city’s cryptids are planning their offensive, it’s agreed that the mice could be excellent spies.

“The family has coexisted with Aeslin mice for generations, which brings us to the one possible flaw in this plan,” said Uncle Mike. “We don’t know for sure that this Margaret woman doesn’t have a colony of her own.”

“If we encounter heretics while on the search for our brave Priestess, we will smite them down with the Fury of a Thousand Angry Rolling Pins!” squeaked the High Priest of the mice.

In short, this is a delightful second book of the series and I would highly recommend it to fans of the urban fantasy genre.