Book Review: Stoned in Charm City

Stoned in Charm City

By:  Kelly A. Harmon

Publish Date:  May, 2014

Publisher:  Pole to Pole Publishing

Format:  eARC

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  1st in Charm City Darkness series

Recommendation:  An Urban Fantasy with a religious tone to the magic.

Synopsis:
"No Good Deed Goes Undamned"

Forty dollars. Two crisp twenties. All that stands between Assumpta Mary Margaret O’Connor and homelessness.

For the price of forty dollars, she helps archeologist Greg LaSpina find something he’s lost–and causes all Hell to break loose.

Literally.

With demons tormenting their every step, Assumpta and Greg become both hunted and hunter in their search for a way to send the demons back to Hell. One careless mistake could cost them their lives.

Wrestling with her faith, Assumpta considers an offer made by one very sexy demon: sleep with him, and learn how to rid the world of the escaped evil.

But the offer comes with a steep price: her immortal soul.

First Sentence:
"Do my numbers."

Purchase At:
Amazon  /  Barnes & Nobles

My Thoughts and Summary:
Assumpta is looking for work to pay rent and her father. She breaks a promise to her mother when a man sent by her ex-best friend instants to pay her to read his numbers for his fortune. Assumpta doesn't like what she sees in the results. Greg needs Assumpta to help him by using her specialty of finding things. The item he's lost, or more what was in it, is Pandora's urn he was taking care of from a dig he was on. Greg's touch brings Assumpta head long into his search for the presence that was in Pandora's urn.

Assumpta is in debt - college bills which she didn't get to complete, rent, and her greedy father who's charging her for everything since birth (including birth). Greg is cursed by an ancient jar that housed Pandora's sins. But contacting Assumpta for help, Greg has cursed the Religious strong woman.

This story has a religious tone to it. There isn't a witch craft here or something paranormal. The magic here is based on Religious belief. Assumpta's strong Catholic belief almost gives it a feel of magic of it's own. That belief and the church is what Assumpta uses to save herself and Greg. Now I'm not a big religious person, but with the way it reads in this book it's like any other magic I've read in Urban Fantasy or Fantasy reads. Assumpta has a strong belief and the "magic" works from that belief.

I liked Assumpta when I first met her. Then she started talking to Greg about needing to believe and baptism and such. Seeing Greg as one that's not a believer was a nice balance, and even in the end you see the scales tip in opposite directions. But this first talk with Greg and Assumpta is one that is very common, and hit home a bit with me. Once I got past my initial feelings I realized the Catholic belief Assumpta has is like any magical strong belief for witches or any other Urban Fantasy, that I wasn't being preached too. And on I went with the book, easy enough. Her belief was working to save her and Greg from the "demons" attached to them.

There were a few things that felt vague to me. The beginning was shaky for me - in connections and believably areas. Like I wasn't sure how a demon came to be attached to Assumpta, or why. It's said, yes, but I still felt as something was missing. There was also Assumpta's unknown helper. I didn't realize he was different from her "Rider" minion at first.

I like the ending of the book with Assumpta. This is the first book of the series, setting the stage for the world and the characters. I'm curious to see where the author goes as Assumpta seems different in the end, and one I'm curious to follow and watch grow. And curious about Jak, and see more of him.