Harley Merlin 12: Finch Merlin and the Djinn’s Curse

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Edit: I read a bunch of Bella Forrest's Sagas and felt I really had to add this point to this review. In all of her books and there are many, every pairing is always between the different sexes. This is especially astonishing since one of her storylines (not Harley Merlin) literally spans universes, and in all those universes, somehow everyone is straight?! After having read 3-4 books of hers they become incredibly predictable, badly edited (spelling mistakes) and quite frankly boring, because the same things happen again and again and you guessed it, AGAIN! I cannot over stress this, as she has authored over 100 books, if you have read one of them, you have read them all essentially.

And Katherine that lady really is out there. I love how she keeps everyone guessing and on their toes but man is she truly evil. Maleficient evil.And then Ryann and Finch’s other friends – Melody, Luke and Nash – try to convince Finch that he loves Ryann and what they are there to do. But Finch has no memory of anything. And (now) Queen Kaya begins to turn against his friends. Of all the characters in the Harley Merlin series, Finch has arguably the most interesting character arc, so it’s fun to see him get a series of his own. About half the chapters are told from Garrett’s point of view, and we are introduced to a new character—Saskia, Tatyana’s annoying teenage sister, who has a good arc of her own in this book. The new Director of the San Diego Coven isn’t exactly friendly, and Katherine has already gained untold power. More than ever, Harley needs answers about the rituals Katherine plans to perform to become like Eris, goddess of discord and destruction. In the midst of all Harley’s trials by fire, Wade, who is Harley’s romantic interest throughout this series, continues to stand by her side and support her in every way possible. He knows he’ll get by with a little help from his friends, namely his old pal Garrett, who’s still dealing with the whole “being resurrected” thing. There’s also Ryann, Harley’s foster sister, now a regular at the San Diego Coven. Whenever she’s around, Finch feels butterflies in his stomach. Or maybe it’s just a bad case of indigestion.

I did like this book. It’s a solid 3 1/2 stars for me, but I’m going to explain why I didn’t make it a 4 or 5 stars. After realizing, to his great frustration, that he can’t do it alone, Finch recruits Garrett to help, and the two of them find themselves unexpectedly teaming up with Saskia.

Having read quite a few of The Gender War series, the author has created another amazing world as the setting for this story but we have the same failings from the last series. The setting seems to be distorted and muddled to suit the plot advancement with facts brought up early in the book tend to be twisted or turn out to be untrue later on. I wanted to read about a magic school with a heroine, in modern world (our world), so I decided it's time for this one. (& it also gave me Linsey Hall's long continued series (many books!) vibes, with heroine & Magic & School setting, which I haven't read yet (so I don't really know if they have same vibes! but I'll let you know when I'll read them), but I'd like to)