Magic in Light (Supernatural Community Book One)
Krista Street
KindleUnlimited
(This review contains some spoilers.)
Magic in Light is the first book in the ‘Supernatural Community’ series by Krista Street and follows Daria Gresham, a supernatural healer, and her bodyguard, Logan Smith, as they try to figure out who is cyberstalking and threatening her life.
I really enjoyed how Daria’s healing magic worked and the quirks that made her bloodline unique. To be able to heal someone, she must take their illness into herself and then destroy it. This poses a big risk to Daria herself, since there is a chance the illness will spread through her body and weaken her so much so that she is unable to fight it and ends up dying. The clear limitations and risks to her magic added tension to the story and provided more insight into Daria as a character.
Daria does also have telekinetic abilities as well, but that is only mentioned at the very beginning of the book and at the very end. I had actually forgotten about them until they were brought up briefly at the end.
Since this is the first book to the series, I am assuming these abilities will come more into play in later books and weren’t just a pointless addition.
The characters in the book were solid, if a little bland. And the romance was pretty much an ‘insta-love’ kind. We did have a few scenes where Daria and Logan talked and bonded, but by the end of the book I didn’t feel as if we knew him.
Daria’s love for him seemed to stem around the fact that she could actually touch him without pain. Which - I understand is the premise for their romance but it shouldn’t be the only thing driving the relationship.
Why would I bring her boobs into this, you ask?
Great question. I asked myself the same thing multiple times while reading this book. I swear, at every possible opportunity Street brought up and described Daria’s boobs. How they were feeling, what they were wearing, how much attention they demanded. I think they had more character development then any of the actual characters.
At one point, Daria overhears Logan talking with his friends, one of which says;
“I get it,” Brodie replied. “She’s drop-dead gorgeous. I’ll give you that, and fuck, those tits of hers.”
Now isn’t that what every girl wants to hear? Doesn’t that just make you swoon? Being reduced to a pair of tits is oh-so sexy.
While Daria’s boobs were mentioned to the point of hilarity, her virginity wasn’t, which was something I appreciated. The fact that she was a virgin was simply a consequence of her magic, not an overused character quirk.
Something that I can’t decide if I like or not is Daria’s ignorance of the supernatural world. She goes the whole book believing she is the only supernatural being in the world (and apparently her mother and grandmother believed that too) until the very end when Logan spills the beans.
I am interested to see where this leads with the other books but it seems strange that none of her family or her knew that there were other supernaturals, when apparently the supernatural community has been very aware of the Gresham family, so much so that the Supernatural Forces (Sup. Police) have been keeping tabs on her.
I assume this will be explored more in later books so I will have to wait and see.
The main plot of the book is to figure out who is threatening and cyberstalking Daria. Sadly I found the execution to be lacking after the first 50% of the book. Once a particular character shows up, it becomes pretty clear who the stalker is and Daria’s choices suddenly turn reckless. Any surprises that the author was hoping for were clear before they even happened, leaving me more annoyed at Daria’s and simply waiting for the book to wrap up.
While there were some things I found lacking in this book, I can see that it has potential and maybe some of the questions and issues I had with this book will be cleared up in a later one. I am willing to read the second book in this series, but will likely not read past that if some of the issues I mentioned above haven’t improved.
You can find Magic in Light on Amazon here or check out the Authors site here.
