Item: Lipstick Voodoo
Rating: 4.00
Author: kimbacaffeinate

by Kristi Charish

Kincaid Strange, not your average voodoo practitioner, is back in the freshly imagined and hugely entertaining second installment of Kristi Charish's urban fantasy series.

Kincaid Strange cannot catch a break. After dealing with a spate of paranormal murders, there's barely time to recuperate--let alone sleep in--before there's a new problem in Kincaid's world of paranormal activity. When her roommate, Nathan Cade--the ghost of a grunge-rocker with a pathological lack of self-control--comes home bound to a dead body, it's up to Kincaid to figure out how to free him. Ideally before her new mentor, Gideon, a powerful sorcerer's ghost, discovers that Nate is trapped in the body he'd coveted for himself.
When Aaron, a Seattle cop on the afterlife beat--and Kincaid's ex--calls her in to help out with a cold case, she takes the chance to mend fences with the police department. The problem: they want to interview Nate's ghost, which she can't produce. Then people from Nate's past start showing up dead, and what's killing them doesn't seem to be human. And the way it's killing them is especially brutal.
Nate's hiding something, but he's Kincaid's friend and she wants to help him. But she also wants to stay alive....

I listened to the first novel, The Voodoo Killings but scheduling had me reading this time around. Because this is urban fantasy and a lot of what happens in Lipstick Voodoo results from what occurred in book one.

I love this series from Nate, her ghostly friend to the scary and intriguing Gideon. I have to confess Gideon has me perplexed, but page time with him was one of my favorite things in this story. For those who don't know Gideon is a powerful dead sorcerer. Kincaid find herself indebted to him, and it appears she will work as his apprentice.

Kincaid is a powerful and skilled practitioner who seems to fly by the seat of her pants. She is smart, but not well-rounded in her knowledge. She tends to learn as she goes. Nate is in serious trouble and hiding things from Kincaid.

Despite her relationship ending with Seattle PD, Kincaid's ex, Aaron a paranormal detective calls her in when a cold case has possible ties to Nate, her ghost. Before you know it Kincaid is secretly helping him with a strange murder that also leads back to Nate and his singing career.

The author mixes in humor and snark as Kincaid gets herself out of predicaments and works to solve the case. After, the events in the previous book she needs a win. Some training scenes with ghouls, a ghost and time spent with Lee and her partner offered some interesting history on supernatural creatures from Wraiths to zombies.

I loved the twisted Otherside, the undead city below Seattle and watching Kincaid investigate. I have a feeling we are just witnessing the beginnings of what Strange is capable of and the ending set up the next book leaving me longing for its release. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

Lipstick Voodoo (Kincaid Strange, #2)

by Kristi Charish

Reviewed by kimbacaffeinate on Nov 21, 2018

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