Boundary Born by Melissa F. Olson

Boundary Born (Boundary Magic, #3)

by Melissa F. Olson

Something wicked is at work in Colorado’s supernatural community. Vampires are being paralyzed or killed with poison…a weapon favored by witches. This offense threatens to break apart the already-fractured alliance between witches and the undead.

The state’s cardinal vampire, Maven, summons boundary witch Allison “Lex” Luther to stop the killing before it ignites a war. Lex has barely started investigating when she gets another surprise: the biological father she’s never met arrives on her doorstep. He has answers to all of Lex’s questions about her bloodline, but getting those answers could mean betraying the life she’s already built.

Then the next vampire is poisoned—and this time it’s Maven herself. The new evil that hunts Lex is powerful and ruthless enough to stop the strongest supernatural creature in the state. In order to find such a killer, Lex will have to face down her own birthright and call on every ally—both living and dead.

Reviewed by Silvara on

3 of 5 stars

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I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I liked that we got to know more about Quinn's past in this book. We finally find out how he became a vampire, and a bit about his family. We also learn more about Lex's birth family, and more about boundary magic in general.

I like Lex, but it bugged me a bit that she's still not relying on her magic the way she should. Her first instincts (and sometimes second ones too!) are still to attack or react like a normal non-magical human. She has to be reminded that she has other ways she can deal with things now.

Like, in the very first chapter, a rabid animal breaks into her house. And instead of using her magic, she jumps on top of the washing machine and tries to figure out how to kill it or get it out of the house. It took PAGES before she suddenly thought of using her death magic. Which just made the bit where she's having an issue and decides the smart course is to Press the vampire instead of talking or some other way out of the situation, that much more irksome to me. Mostly because it was a number of instances in the book of NOT using her magic first, and then suddenly when she does use it first it's not the option she should have chosen.

I really like Maven. We didn't interact with her a lot in this book, but I like the way her relationship with Lex is growing. In the first book I wasn't sure if she was going to end up being a good or a bad character, but every time I read about her, I like what we get to see.

This series is apparently on a hiatus while the author works on other things, but I'm hoping we get more books about Lex in the future. And while I'm waiting, I plan on reading her other series in this universe.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 20 May, 2016: Finished reading
  • 20 May, 2016: Reviewed