Lineage

C. Vonzale Lewis — 2019

Smart-mouthed Nicole Fontane has a way of getting herself into trouble. She’s been fired from every job she’s had but still refuses to work in her father’s apothecary shop because of his practice of Earth Magick. On Tulare Island where Nicole grew up, Magick has always been a way of life—one she’s determined to avoid at all costs. With less than two hundred dollars in the bank and rent due, Nicole is forced to take a job at Tribec Insurance as a last resort. Little does she realize, the moment she sets foot inside the building, she becomes a pawn. A sinister force has set its sights on her and will stop at nothing to use her in a sadistic game. Tribec’s proprietors, the Stewart family, are curiously preoccupied with the Naqada, the mysterious pre-dynastic Egyptian society. Nicole finds it creepy, but on the bright side, the job reconnects her with her estranged friend, Marta. Yet the eerie atmosphere, disappearing Magick wards, and the smell of blood inside Tribec bring Nicole to a startling conclusion—the Stewarts are practicing Blood Magick, the deadliest of the Five Principles. By the time Nicole uncovers the truth, Marta and her four children have gone missing, and all signs implicate the Stewarts and an archaic blood ritual to an Old One, a Naqada god imprisoned on Tulare Island. Battling the evil of Blood Magick will demand Nicole confront a hidden past and unlock the Magick buried within. But can she set aside her deep-rooted fears to work with a team of vigilante Mages? Or will the clock run out on Marta and her children—and on Nicole?

Reviews

Leelynn Brady@sometimesleelynnreads

Oct 19, 2021

Disclaimer: I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by The Parliament House. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a contemporary fantasy before but it was pretty interesting! In a world where there is Magick, I always find it interesting when a character refuses to use it when they have the choice. I feel like for me, I’d want to be able to have the option to use magick, but I guess it also depends on what kind of magick it would be. In Nicole’s case, her father uses Earth Magick, which doesn’t seem like it would be inherently evil. I mean, think about Toph with her Earth Bending. Or, just witches that commune with the Earth. Those seem like more positive magicks right? I guess I could say that I was pretty impressed with her resolve to not work for her dad even though she wasn’t able to hold a job. But then again, some people would have probably felt like she was making things harder for herself. I don’t know yet though. I understand not wanting to feel like you got a handout from your family, but her reason was more because of the magick. But of course, the more you try to run away from something, the more you end up finding a path towards the thing you’re running away from. I can understand being wary of Blood Magick, especially when it seems like Nicole’s employers are using it for evil. But now Nicole is going to have to figure out how to fight against it, and she may already be at a disadvantage. This was an interesting novel, and I feel like Barton did a great job with the narration. This is supposed to be the first novel in a new series so I’m really curious to see the rest of it come out, and see what ends up happening with Nicole and everything going on. I also really liked how Lewis was able to combine the contemporary world with the world of magick in a way that didn’t make it that too confusing or over the top.