Cursed Moon

Written by Jaye Wells

Narrated by Morgan Hallett

The last thing patrol cop Kate Prospero expected to find on her nightly rounds was a werewolf covered in the blood of his latest victim. But then, she also didn't expect that shooting him would land her a job with the Magic Enforcement Agency task force, who wants to know why she killed their lead snitch. Book #2 in the Prospero's War series continues where DIRTY MAGIC left off. "Kate Prospero is my new favorite heroine-imperfect, haunted, driven, and dangerous." (New York Times bestseller Kevin Hearne) "Jaye Wells raises the urban fantasy bar with DIRTY MAGIC, a hard-boiled series debut as unique and surprising as the creatures and characters peopling it. Kate Prospero is charged with policing the Cauldron, a magical world so fully realized, and so gritty, it gets under your nails. Wells is known for deftly weaving non-stop action with no-holds barred humor, but the unique and deeply drawn relationships are the real alchemy here. DIRTY MAGIC showcases seasoned pro, Wells, at the top of her game, and establishes newcomer Kate Prospero as the urban fantasy heroine to beat." (New York Times Bestseller Vicki Pettersson) "A fast-paced fun book" (New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris on Red-Headed Stepchild) "Last year, I wrote that Jaye Wells had the potential to be the next coming of Laurell K. Hamilton and Kim Harrison. This year, I'll amend that slightly: Jaye Wells is the next coming of LKH and Kim Harrison." (www.bn.com on Green-Eyed Demon)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490605159

Jaye Wells

USA TODAY bestselling author Jaye Wells writes urban fantasy novels with grave stakes and wicked humor. Raised in bookstores, she loved reading from a very young age. That gateway drug eventually led to a full-blown writing addiction. When she’s not chasing the word dragon, she loves to travel, drink good bourbon, and do things that scare her so she can put them in her books. Jaye lives in Texas with her husband and son. 

Reviews for Cursed Moon

[seschend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good second book in a series, with solid character development and a lot more exploration of the particulars of this urban fantasy's magic systems. Recommended if you're looking for believable female protagonists with real motivations despite the urban fantasy trappings.

[melhay_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

*I read this book for my own enjoyment.Halloween's in two weeks. The full blue moon is the double full moon this month and has people acting all sorts of crazy. The police have their hands full so MEA, Kate's team, is helping to subdue events. Then things take a turn for a scary future. Aphrodite Johnson has one of her Houses of Worship robbed, $50,000 of powerful sex magic potions stolen. The hint of the Raven, new thief in town, they are looking for comes from Kate's Uncle Abe. The big show from this new threat is planned to happen on Halloween when the blue moon is at it's fullest.No more introduction. We know Kate and her close friends, or those that she doesn't consider friends, well and get right into work. Yes! This is what I want. Jaye does remind us of events in the previous book as the story goes because those events affect current places of the characters mentally and physically, but we are fully focused here in this book.I feel for Kate in this book. She's working hard to keep her family and dear friends safe along with keeping her big secret from them all. The guilt over the secret has her feeling worse and worse with everything that happens, and seeing John Volos getting all the admiration and love from her littler brother... which is part of her secret. It's eating Kate from the inside out. It seems like no matter how hard she tries, everything just keeps piling on.This is what I wanted! Kate's anxiety and internal stress is growing and I can feel it. It's terrible to watch life as people react to what you did, but they don't know it was you. The good and the bad that resonate from it, the love and hate that's felt.Kate and her friends. Her relationship with her brother Danny is cracking. Danny's upset with her not being around like she use to be, but there's more to it too. Pen knows something is up with Kate, she's been drinking more and gets a feel for something else. John Volos... oh he's a slippery slope for Kate. She hates him, yet there's something else. I guess that first love never really leaves, but you know it's not a good relationship. John's not as prominent in this book but he's here, a shadow in Kate's life and mind. Is he holding the secret over Kate's head? Will he act against her uncle? Or will John get in more trouble? Only time will tell. Then there's Morales. I really enjoy him and Kate together. They have an easy banter and sixth sense as partners when it comes to work. They trust each other and know how to work together.Kate feels the temptation to read potion signatures and cook. This is the withdrawal from cooking in the first book. Just that one time has a pull on her. And she likes it. Kate fights herself and pulls through, but she'll realize that magic is a part of her. She has to figure out how to handle that. For me, I loved this part of the book. Kate faces her demons in magic and who she is. This makes Kate stronger to me.Another demon Kate faces is her uncle. I love seeing her go toe to toe with the man verbally. I just hope she can stay ahead of him because there is a lot of work to do in order to not fall under his thumb.We learn more about Adepts. We know they aren't suppose to be affected by potions. But in this book we see it happen. The double blue moon causes the immunity usually seen to not be as strong, and Adepts are struck with the same results as humans.Yes! This is what I want. Police in a world that uses potions (magic-ly made). I am once again taken with how closely related the magical potions run to drugs in our world. The magical potions gives the story an urban fantasy feel but it could very easily be replaced with drugs from our world. The world is a bit grittier here too. A feel I really enjoy.

[darkfaerietales_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: A madman is planning something big for the people of the Cauldron, and it’s up to Kate Prospero and the agents of the MEA to stop him in this thrilling second book in the Prospero’s War series.Opening Sentence: If you want to know your future, the last person to ask is a fortune-teller.The Review:Kate Prospero has been fighting a lot of personal demons since closing her first big case with the MEA. Only one other person knows that she cooked the potion that saved her brother’s life. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, she’s still clean. Keeping the secret is beginning to take its toll. Friends are thinking she’s drinking too much, her brother Danny thinks she’s working too much, and her temper is wearing pretty thin. Amidst all this personal turmoil, she has yet another big case. One of the most powerful people in the Cauldron has been robbed, and the theft makes Kate realize that someone is planning to cause a lot of chaos in the city. With the Blue Moon approaching, the countdown is on. Will Kate and the rest of the MEA be able to track down the thief before he unleashes his new weapon on the world?I really enjoyed the first book in this series, so I was really excited to have the chance to read and review this one. Thankfully, this book was just as enjoyable as the first one. It was fast paced and full of the humor that I loved in the first book. I think my only complaint would be that it took me a little bit of time to get my bearings and remember how the world worked since it had been a while since I had read the first book. There was a bit of recapping, but this is definitely a series that needs to be read in order.One of my favorite things about this series is how Jaye Wells is able to make a world full of magic seem so realistic. This comes through especially in the relationships Kate has with the secondary characters. Her relationship with Danny continues to make me feel very emotional as I read certain scenes. I get so wrapped up in the book that I feel like I’m Kate, so the problems she’s having with Danny feel like they’re my problems as well.Another aspect of the book that feels very real is how Kate handles her relapse and how it affects her relationships. There were many times I found myself feeling very frustrated with Kate and how she responded to certain situations, but even through my frustration, I felt that how she was acting was very true to life. Because of that, I found myself feeling even more connected to her despite my frustration.For those looking for a bit of romance, they’ll be disappointed with this installment. There are developments on the romance front, but they’re very slight, and it’s much more of a detective story than a romance. As someone who loves romance, I honestly didn’t miss it. I was so wrapped up in everything else that was going on that I really didn’t care. That more than anything should show how much I enjoyed this book. I’m very much looking forward to book three!Notable Scene:His costume–too short for his five-foot-and-spare-change frame–was a green double-breasted blazer, matching tights, and two black shoes with shiny silver buckles. A bowler hat on his head tipped jauntily forward over greasy brown hair. And on each cheek, he’d painted a jagged black lightning bolt.He turned to face us, and a small plume of glittery golden powder spilled from the cauldron’s wide mouth.I had my weapon in my hand before you could say Erin go Bragh. “Stand down!” I shouted in my best or-I’ll-shoot tone.A single black brow disappeared under the brim of the hat. His gaze went to the salt flare gun in my hand. Every criminal in the Cauldron knew that the rock salt’s purpose was as much about inflicting pain as it was neutralizing magic.Beside me, Morales aimed his Glock at the guy. “Put down the cauldron!”As it turned out, fake leprechauns are surprisingly fast runners. One second he was staring down the barrels of our guns, and the next the bastard took off. The tails of his jacket flapped in the breeze, and it was a miracle of physics that he managed to keep his hat attached to his head. Morales and I exchanged shocked looks and took after the little shit.“We need EMS at Pioneer Square,” I yelled into my phone. “Two officers down and several civilians hexed.”“Ten-four, Detective Prospero,” the dispatcher replied. “On their way.”“Stay with him,” Morales snapped. “I’ll cut through the alley and head him off at the intersection.”He veered off to the left. I dug in and ignored the burning in my thighs. My gaze locked in on the sequined clover mocking me from the back of the leprechaun’s coat.A high-pitched, potion-mad giggle taunted me. “Ye can’t catch the Leprechaun Man!”I considered shooting the asshole in his pot of gold.FTC Advisory: Orbit provided me with a copy of Cursed Moon. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

[thehistorychic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Listened for Fun (Audible)Overall Rating 4.00Story Rating 4.25Character Rating 3.75Audio Rating 3.50 (not part of the overall rating)First Thought when Finished:Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells was a good mix of gritty mystery, brash detective work, and enough magic to keep you guessing.Overall Thoughts:I was a bit hesitant to listen to this because a friend of mine had huge problems with it. Though something she said made me think I would like it (see negative reviews really aren't a bad thing). Yes this is gritty, crass, and very raw series. The language is a bit like reading/listening to an OZ episode (which I loved so this is a huge compliment). Mix that with a rape potion and it is a dark case. I LOVED IT! Seriously the case was downright awesome. I had some character issues in Cursed Moon (Kate was close to going into annoying UF lead for me) but the ending made me think that maybe those will be over with book 3. I think she came to terms with herself, so I hold out hope. Overall though I would say this is a great mix of Urban Fantasy and Gritty Thriller!Audio Thoughts: Narrated By Morgan Hallett / Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins I liked the audio in 1.5x speed but in 1x speed it drove me nuts. Morgan isn't a bad narrator (I had less of a problem in book 1) but something just sounded off in a few of the secondary character voices. I will continue this in audio as it may have been me not the narrator this go around.Status Updates and Quotes5%: "#Listening Chapter 3 she just cursed herself. Never think everything seems together :)"40%: #Listening 4 hrs 30 min in: Interesting case. Had to laugh because if I was Kate I would have checked out his ass too :)80%: #Listening Gritty, Crass, and I am really liking it. Kate is getting on my nerves but I have a feeling she is going to call herself out before the end of the book."“But men who dress as goats and gallivant through sex riots playing flutes tend not to be the most logical people.”“Debriefings were always framed as closure, but sometimes they felt like ritualized reopening of wounds. Having to stand in front of someone with the power to steal your badge and defend the choices you made in the line of fire felt like its own sort of hell. Not the watery hell of that lake with the monster and the madman, but a hell lorded over by the demons Would Have, Could Have, and Should have.”Part of my Read It, Rate It, File It DONE! Reviews

[musthavefiction · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a fan of the Sabina Kane series, I was really excited about this new series by Jaye Wells, and I devoured the first book, however I had a hard time getting into this book at the beginning. It moved way too slowly for me in the beginning and I didn’t have the urge to pick it up as often as I would have liked. However, things changed about half-way through the book, and then I had a hard time putting it down.

Kate Prospero is a Detective for the MEA, the City of Babylon’s Magical Enforcement Agency. She’s also an Adept, which means she can use magic. But not just use it, she can cook up potions. Dirty potions to be exact.

She grew up with the idea that she was going to be the leader of her Coven and her Uncle Abe (who’s in prison now) was grooming her for the role. Right up until the time when Kate cooks a potion that accidentally kills her mother. Devastated by the death, and through years of shame and guilt, she worked hard to get her life back, by swearing off magic forever.

But in book 1 of the series, Kate falls off the wagon when it comes to “cooking magic” to save her brother’s life, and she has lied about that night ever since it happened. Even going so far as to accept a medal from her Arcane Anonymous group for 10 years of sobriety, just to keep her secret.

Instead she spends almost the entire book feeling guilty about her use of magic, and instead of telling the truth, she lets everyone believe that someone from her magical past, cooked up the potion. Now her younger brother resents her. He feels that Kate wouldn’t have saved him, if it had been up to her to do it, because it meant compromising her morals about the use of magic. He now hero worships one man that Kate despises by believing that this man is the one that saved his life.

At the same time, things have been heating up in the Cauldron due to the coming of a rare Blue Moon, where magic and potions are at their highest potency. It is also affecting people’s attitudes and tempers making them all a bit more aggressive and angry. Now there is a predator that has plans to wipe out the city the night of the Blue Moon and is leading up to it by stealing a local coven’s potion that causes sexual aggression. Essentially a rape potion. Kate will stop at nothing to find this man and stop him, even if it means sacrificing everything she believes in.

In the beginning it was hard to root for Kate because she just seems bitchy and is always feeling sorry for herself. She has taken on a lot of responsibility including the care of her younger brother, after their mom died. She works more than 40 hours a week, and then comes home to a whiny teenager. Welcome to parenthood. So it gets old when Kate gets mad at others to cover up her own guilt for working overtime and not spending enough time with her best friend Pen, and her brother Danny. But she does do some growing up by the end of the book as she slowly repairs the relationships she’s been neglecting, because of her guilt.

I do like the relationship between Kate and her partner, Special Agent Drew Morales. There is a lot of cutesy, funny banter between them, and you know they will hook up eventually. But despite that, they really seem to have each other’s back, even though Kate is new to the team.

There is a lot of action, as the team runs around the city trying to stop this magical menace, and some obvious and some not so obvious clues are found, but finding him is the easy part, stopping him is something entirely different.

I did really get into this book after I got through the first half. The action is pretty much non-stop as you hit the 2nd half of the book. So if you liked the first book, you’ll want to stick with this one until the action heats up. I do plan to read the third book in the series that comes out in February.

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This second novel in the Prospero's War series is filled with both external and internal action. Kate is dealing with the guilt she feels after cooking dirty magic and keeping it a secret in the first book of the series. She feels guilty and extremely disappointed with herself. Her relationship with her brother is troubled both because of her lies and because he's a teenager. She is burying herself in her new job with the task force which means that she is neglecting her relationships with her brother and her friends. It doesn't look like the job pressures are going to end any time soon either. A new Raven has come to town. He is stealing dangerous potions from the powerful covens and is planning something spectacular for Halloween which happens to occur on a Blue Moon this year. Kate and the task force have to find and stop him. It would also be good if he finds them before the leaders of the covens do because they won't even leave a body to discover.To make matters worse, Kate's uncle who is in prison but who hasn't lost control of his crime empire wants to talk to her. He is still pulling strings. Kate ran from him years ago after the death of her mother and wants nothing to do with her Uncle Abe. But Abe isn't letting her go so easily. Finally, in this book, she comes to terms with this toxic relationship.She has a couple of other relationship issues going on. Kate has a long history with John Volos who is the head of one of the dirty magic covens. In fact, it is the coven that used to be run by her uncle. John had his criminal past wiped clean in return for providing evidence against Uncle Abe. Now John looks like an upstanding citizen and is even running for mayor. But Kate knows that he hasn't given up dirty magic.Her relationship with her new partner on the task force - Drew Morales - is also heating up. Both are in denial about whether or not they want to begin anything personal and so there is a lot of sparring and teasing going on. Other members on the task force have been taking bets about when the two will have sex. This was a complicated and very entertaining urban fantasy. The relationships among the characters were well-developed. I enjoyed it very much and can't wait for the third book in the series to be released in February. I have already ordered my Kindle copy.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Detective Kate Prospero is trying hard to deal with the consequences of her potion making in the last book. She's also trying to deal with a case of sex magic partially fueled by a blue moon and her uncle is still wielding power from jail.I like this series, I like how it deals with addiction and temptation and trying to cope and how sometimes the only thing you can do is your best and balance is important.

[sffstorm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cursed Moon in the second installation in the Prospero's War series by Jaye Wells. Since this is the second book, I am going to assume that anyone reading this has already read Dirty Magic, the first book. With that assumption, I will not need to summarize the characters or magic system. If you would like a look back, check out my review of Dirty Magic, which I really, really enjoyed. With that out of the way, let us jump into Cursed Moon. We join Kate Prospero a few months after the events of Dirty Magic. She is still part of the MEA task force, on loan from the BPD. With everything that happened in the first story, there is plenty of stress in Kate's life including her brother Danny who she is raising, her law enforcement career, and her guilt over her recent use of magic. To add to this, a blue moon is coming right around Halloween. This moon has a profound impact on magic. It has effects on adepts and potions. With the impending moon, a crazed lunatic decides to stir up some mayhem in Babylon. Kate's MEA team now needs to track this psycho down before he does too much damage to the city.Let me get this out of the way first: I really liked this book. Basically everything I liked about the first one carried over and even improved. Since the main characters were already very well defined, Wells took the time to give depth to some of the secondary characters. Some history also comes out to refine the already well developed ones. Kate certainly grows and her views and feeling change a lot since the last book. One other character that I was very excited to learn more about was good old Uncle Abe. Other than the characterization, I love the language used in the book. The conversations are wonderful. I don't mean to say that the words are particularly elegant, they are not. What they are is real. This is how people talk. Most of us are not eloquent, in daily life the majority of people are quite the opposite. If you are sensitive to language and easily offended, this probably is not for you. Also, if you are one of those people, Chaucer is not for you and you're really missing out on some great stuff. People talk like this. Always have, always will. This is exactly why I loved it. The language used is so real and true to life. If you are reading a book where low lives, drug (potion) pushers, pimps, whores, killers are using sanitized language, you're really missing something and I cannot see how someone can get wholly absorbed in a story unless the world is entirely absorbing and realistic. The raw, crass dialogue felt and read so incredibly natural. There is no forced language that is trying to be edgy, in fact Kate even comments on certain word choices and cringes at others. I do appreciate an author who writes such realistic characters and dialogue.With development behind us, much of the buddy cop aspects are gone. I see this as a big improvement. You learn more about the team and their rapports. I think they have more interesting and complex relationships now, even with it only being a few months in story time. I really like the way the characters interact this time around. I do not know exactly what to put my finger on to say that I like better, but it just felt better. I know that makes very little sense, or none at all, but that is the only way I can describe what went through my head reading it. I honestly hove only one piece of criticism and that is the resolution of the main story. It was not bad, but it was a little out there, even for this. Honestly though, I kind of saw it coming, so it did not shock me that this was coming.Even though there was one criticism, I still give this a 5/5. I was tempted to remove a half star with the ending, but I accept that I have to suspend disbelief for a fantasy novel. Besides, I really loved the book so I could not bring myself to lower this score. I absolutely recommend this book, obviously assuming you read the first one. The conclusion to the Prospero's War series, Deadly Spells, is due for publication in March of 2015. That is something I will be definitely be keeping an eye on. So far I have enjoyed what I have read from Jaye Wells and am looking forward to more.

[capnrandm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.allthingsuf.comThe Prospero’s War series inhabits a world where magic permeates the landscape of chemistry and pharmacology. With hints of allegory to our own reality’s war on drugs, the fundamental difference is how those born with magical potential have an advantage when it comes to cooking, but no additional defenses against the powerful high such activity creates.As an Adept trying to go cold turkey off cooking, Kate Prospero has all the hallmarks and emotions of an addict. This concept is introduced in book one, but the true focus of CURSED MOON is on her struggles with addiction and recovery. Guilt, anger, self-destructive behavior, Kate experiences it all. Though an understandable consequence of the events in DIRTY MAGIC, I didn’t find Kate’s emotional outbursts or self-righteousness to make for particularly good reading. I lost interest and patience for Kate’s emotional issues early on in CURSED MOON, leaving the Batman-esque super villain, Dionysus, as the only element pulling me forward through the story. This guy escaped from a mental institution, personally mailed the police and his victims pretty much every piece of evidence used to catch him, and engages in all sorts of flamboyant criminal behavior, so his presence in the story really doesn’t do anything to promote a “police procedural vibe” so much as a “when will he and the police stumble in to each other on a street corner” type deal.But as much as I didn’t like Kate’s drama through out the book and just wanted Dionysus caught, these two issues completely switch places when it comes to end game satisfaction. Dionysus going down was a forgettable check mark, but Kate’s growth at the conclusion was extremely satisfying (if a bit abrupt). Though CURSED MOON suffers from a lot of the same issues I had with DIRTY MAGIC, this series still seems to be building an upward trend. Here’s hoping book three is the one that delivers.Sexual Content: References to prostitution, sex, and sex acts. Rape scenes.

[stacyatufi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With a ton of action, plenty angst, lots of drama and a little romantic tension, CURSED MOON was a great continuation of The Prospero's War series.Kate is dealing with quite a bit in CURSED MOON. She performed dirty magic to save Danny in book 1 and no one knows. She has a lot of guilt over it and seems to be looking over her shoulder at every turn afraid of who will find out. She also doesn't like lying to her friends who already think she is changing too much with her new job. On top of that Danny thinks that John Volos saved him so he is doubly obsessed with him and is sneaking around talking to him behind her back while being a teenage pain in the butt to Kate thinking she didn't care enough about him to save him herself. He causes a lot of hurt feelings and I just wanted to give him a time out in just about every chapter.We get to witness Kate come face to face with her Uncle. I think she handled it really well and their last meeting together in CURSED MOON really showed how much Kate has grown since she was under his control. He seems to have his hands in a lot of pockets so I'm positive we will be seeing him again soon.I very much enjoyed the progress of Kate and her partners *fingers crossed* relationship. I like them together and by the end it looks like there might actually be some romance in the next book. John is fine and all but he causes so much trouble for Kate and I don't know why she would ever contemplate a relationship with him again.As soon as CURSED MOON was over I went in search of when book 3 would be out. DEADLY SPELLS is set to release in March 2015 and is already on my wishlist.* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.