Review – Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections (Guild Codex: Warped, Book 2) by Annette Marie, Rob Jacobsen (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 346 pages
Publisher: Dark Owl Fantasy
Release Date: June 4, 2021
ASIN : ‎ B094XH8WGZ
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Guild Codex: Warped series
Source: Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Agent Kit Morris. Has a nice ring, doesn’t it? It’s a big step up from “wanted criminal” or “that weird con-artist guy with weirder psychic powers,” both of which recently applied to me. But my promotion to MagiPol agent comes with a few drawbacks.

First, supremely talented and effortlessly gorgeous Agent Lienna Shen won’t agree to a dinner date with me. Second, my new assignment has pitted me against a guild with very bad taste in pets. Third, those pets are demons, and those demons want to kill me.

My psychic magic is great for conning people. It doesn’t do jack shit against hellish orcs. If I screw this up, my dinner date will be with a demon—and I’ll be the dinner. Even better, I kind of suspect this supposedly straightforward assignment is actually the tip of an unholy iceberg of power-hungry malefactors bent on destroying all law and order in the city.

I should probably mention that last part to my boss.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in the Guild Codex: Warped series. I borrowed this book for my Kindle through Kindle Unlimited.

Story (3/5): Kit Morris is still working behind the desk and hasn’t passed his test to become a full agent. Then when Agent Shen is tasked with figuring out what is going on with a demonic guild, Kit decides to help her out. They both end up embroiled in a demonic plot that could threaten the stability of the city. This was a decent story, I am a bit burnt out on all these storylines around the demonic guilds but this was okay. This story just didn’t grab me the way the books in the other Guild Codex series do. However, it does fill out some of the background and events for other series in this world so I didn’t mind reading it.

Characters (3/5): Kit always seems like a character I should like; witty, a bit morally grey, and eager to embrace adventure. Unfortunately, I just don’t find him that engaging. I think he is just lacking a bit too much confidence, is a bit too self-deprecating, and just a bit too incompetent for me to truly love him. All the characters in this series feel shallow to me. This is super weird because usually characterization is one of Marie’s strong points; I can only assume it is the influence of the co-author of the series that had these characters feeling a bit lackluster to me….they just don’t have the rich history and depth that Marie’s characters usually have.

Setting (4/5): The setting is the same as always for this series, it’s fine but not the point of the story. It is interesting to see things from MagiPol’s perspective rather than a Guild’s perspective. I do like the idea of Kit’s mind-warping magic but it doesn’t seem to follow a very clear magic system and isn’t consistent throughout the book.

Writing Style (3/5): The whole time I was reading this I was wondering how much Annette Marie actually contributed to the writing of the book and how much was Jacobsen. I am wondering if Marie’s main contribution is the world this is set in. This book (and the series as a whole) just doesn’t have the same style, it doesn’t grab me and pull me into the story. I constantly found myself reading a chapter and putting it down and going to do something else. I just didn’t really get involved with the characters or the story. It was all okay. The setting is okay, the characters are okay, the story is okay and the action scenes are okay. Usually I absolutely love the characters and the action scenes in Marie’s books but this one just left me feeling a bit bored and cold…it was…okay. I am not sure I will continue on with this series.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this book, like the first book in this series, was a bit of a let down. This just isn’t as engaging of a read as other Guild Codex series. The characters feel shallow and the story kind of just goes through the motions. The action scenes don’t leave me breathless but instead leave me skimming pages quickly. I don’t grip tightly onto the sides of my Kindle desperate to know what will happen next, but constantly put the book down and wander away to do something more exciting…like laundry. It’s okay but not up to the caliber of the other Guild Codex series and I probably won’t continue to read the Guild Codex: Warped series.