The Line by J.D. Horn

Confession time, I only bought this book because the series was on offer for a price I simply could not ignore and it is a while since I last read something from this genre that didn't involve ghosts.  Sometimes the Book Gods smile on us mere readers and this was one of these times.

The Taylor Family are notorious in Savannah, everyone knows there's something not quite "right" about them but in a dangerous way so they garner respect through fear.  Mercy and Maisie are members of the clan and heading rapidly to their 21st Birthday, a time to celebrate surely.  For Mercy it is life as normal, no power, a major league crush on her twin sister's boyfriend and taking her Liar's Tour through Savannah.  Maisie got all the power, the beauty and the attention of the family Matriarch, Ginny.  She is being groomed to take over as The Anchor and her powers are swelling.  When Ginny is found murdered a chain of events is set in motion that cannot be stopped and powerless Mercy finds herself in the middle of it all.

From the HooDoo priestess Jilo and her stolen power, the golem Emmet and the 9 family representatives animating his body grown from the earth to the half-wraith little boy Wren this is a completely believable fantastical world.  One where the 10 families are trying to keep the shadows at bay and protect mankind from the demons that used to run the earth.  The characters within this book are varied and fully fleshed and the, almost political, machinations take this a step up from the usual magical world fare.

I was hooked from the first descriptions of the Liar's Tour and would have loved to see more of that, we only get a snapshot though.  The Taylor family themselves are as varied as any other, despite their obvious wealth.  Somehow the author manages to weave the fantastical around all too human traits of jealousy and love without any of it feeling out of place.

This is a book for fans of the genre to savour (I managed to spread it over several days by reading other books alongside it) and I am not rushing to read the next one.  I want to let it all sink in before I jump in to books 2, 3 and 4.