Madeline Deveridge called the Wicked Widow is being haunted by the ghost of her late husband. She summons the reclusive Artemis Hunt to uncover the truth. The pair strike a bargain only to find their arrangement complicated by a searing desire and frightening realization that the ghost poses a very real danger.
I enjoyed the idea of this novel, but the execution is horribly repetitive. Vanza, a core concept of this series, is a sort of secret society that focuses on collecting this mystical kind of scholarship, including fighting skills. This in itself is quite fun, but Vanza becomes a blanket term for anything in this story without any nuance or detail. There are Vanza herbs, Vanza fight moves, Vanza mazes, Vanza books, Vanza people, and they are referred to every page. The word lost all meaning to me.
The romance wasn't my cup of tea either. The first sex scene is horrifying: the hero doesn't know the heroine is still a virgin, and basically just thrusts his way in there like a storm ram. How romantic. The hero is patronizing in stressful situations, which is one of my least favourite tropes. Meh.
