Name: Dead Spots
ISBN: 9781612185590

Melissa F. Olson

"Scarlett Bernard knows about personal space: step within ten feet of her, and any supernatural spells or demonic forces are instantly defused-vampires and werewolves become human again, and witches can't get out so much as a "hocus pocus." This special skill makes her a null and very valuable to Los Angeles's three most powerful magical communities, who utilize her ability to scrub crime scenes clean of all traces of the paranormal to keep humanity, and the LAPD, in the dark. But one night Scarlett's late arrival to a grisly murder scene reveals her agenda and ends with LAPD's Jesse Cruz tracking her down to strike a deal: he'll keep quiet about the undead underworld if she helps solve the case. Their pact doesn't sit well with Dash, the city's chief bloodsucker, who fears his whole vampire empire is at stake. And when clues start to point to Scarlett, it'll take more than her unique powers to catch the real killer and clear her name."--Publisher's website.

Dead Spots

Liked the start but eventually it kinda lost me along the way… wanted more the story than I was getting 

Rabia Sitabi

karrington pease 

Rating: 3

I wanted to rate this book higher, I really did. I liked the book, the story building, the plot; I even liked the secondary characters, but there was just something lacking. Scarlett is a great character. I think she is funny, charming, honest, and quirky in her own way. She's a strong female character who uses her brain a lot more than most female leads (unfortunately) in some books. Scarlett is the social pariah, she doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. Being a null-a person who counteracts or disables magic, she finds herself either ignored or fixated on by creatures of magic wanting to use her for her gift. She works for a very powerful vampire, who uses her ability to disable magic to fix the mistakes members of the paranormal community may produce. Her job involves cleaning crime scenes, fixing wonky spells, basically cleaning up any mess that would expose the paranormal community to humans. However, one night, she called upon a crime scene and makes a mistake she's never made before, she gets caught by a detective. This launches the detective into her world as well as the paranormal world. 

The story building and plot was really good. The ending was an exciting revelation and sets up the second book perfectly. However, every romance in the book felt SO forced and SO incredibly predictable and cliché. And you gotta love the dreadful triangle...NOT. I don't know why every author feels the need to add a love triangle to instill romantic angst. You can do this without adding a separate love interest! It's SO played out and it felt extremely forced. BUT, the two love interests were very different (as per usual) in the best ways. I liked them both and I felt that both characters complemented different aspects of Scarlett. Another part of the book that bothered me was that the lines were sometimes so cheesy and childish. Especially comebacks and "snarky" comments. I found myself bored and rolling my eyes at them all. 

Overall, good book, but not great. All the elements were there, but I just didn't love it. I might still continue, not sure though.