BINDING THE SHADOWS - Jenn Bennett
An Arcadia Bell Novel, Book 3
Pocket Books
ISBN: 978-1-451-69508-3
June 2013
Urban Fantasy

Morella and La Sirena, California

It would be nice if life could settle down to something resembling normal, but for Arcadia “Cady” Bell, it's not likely to happen anytime soon.  A mage trying to live under the radar because of her murderous parents, Cady has the ability to bind Earthbounds—demons on the inside, human outside.  She's currently living with her boyfriend, Lon Butler, an Earthbound, and his teenage son, Jupe, who is just beginning to show his “knack” (demonic ability).  As if this isn't enough, Dare, the leader of the Hellfire Club is using her true identity and the identity of her parents, to blackmail her into working for him.  His latest assignment is to contain Dare's second, and find out about a leak in the Hellfire Club.  Unfortunately, the second's knack is stronger than it should be, and in the end, Cady's attempt to bind him inadvertently kills him.  But when Dare tells her he'll now need her to investigate a recent rash of crimes related to Earthbounds with enhanced knacks, she decides she's done working for him.

While she isn't about to investigate for Dare, when the bar that Cady co-owns with her best friend Kar Yee is robbed by two teenagers with enhanced abilities, Cady starts looking into things on her own.  Cady and Lon are trying to figure out how these Earthbounds' knacks are being strengthened, but the Earthbound aren't the only ones whose abilities are changing.  Cady's moon magic is growing stronger, but it's also different from what it had been.  Worse, she saw a projection of her supposedly dead mother and doesn't know what to think.  And as Christmas approaches, so do Lon's in-laws, coming to visit Jupe.  Just how is a woman supposed to stay sane with so much going on in her life?

Growing up in an occult group with serial killers for parents made it difficult enough for Cady, but when she was seventeen she believed her parents were innocent and helped them escape, making her a fugitive also.  Shortly after that she met Kar Yee, so she has had a close friend for most of that time, but it's not until she meets Lon that she begins to know what it's like to have a family.  In BINDING THE SHADOWS, the third novel in the Arcadia Bell series, Cady finally has found a place where she belongs, but her world is slowly falling apart around her at the same time.  She's kept the secret of her past from everybody except Lon, and she knows the time is coming where she'll have to tell Kar Yee and Jupe, but disaster gets in the way.  The bar is not just robbed, but torn apart by the telekinetic assailant, and Kar Yee is injured in the attack.  With Lon's mother-in-law and sister-in-law arriving a few days earlier than expected, Cady doesn't want to share this information with Lon's fourteen year old son just yet, either.

Cady has always known she was different—her parents conceived her during an arcane ceremony with the intention of eventually stealing Cady's powers.  She's accustomed to the Heka power and is getting used to the moon magic, but now there's something new and powerful, and it scares Cady a little.  Sure it may make her a little more intimidating to demons, but she can't always control it.

Though this is the third book in the series, it's not so complicated that readers can't catch up with what's going on, but it may be better to read them in order. Having read this one first, I plan to go find the earlier novels before the fourth book is released, so I can enjoy them all.  Filled with action that will keep you on the edge of your seat, BINDING THE SHADOWS is a thrilling urban fantasy novel that I highly recommend.

Jennifer Bishop