Vervain, a witch, discovered gods existed when her date tried to sacrifice her and she had to kill him and his ‘god’ in self-defense. The ‘gods’ are actually Atlanteans, drawing power from human suffering and sacrifice, and Vervain sets out to hunt them down. It may be the only way to stop their plans for world war three. But nothing is black and white, and as she finds out even among gods there can be different factions.

Any offense at the Atlanteans using gods’ names should be countered by the fact that they are obviously not the gods. They can die, they are terrified of the faerie, and they frequently encounter something more powerful than themselves: Murphy’s Law. Expect a lot of movie quotes, as Vervain thinks in pop-culture, although I could have done with less ragging on Buffy particularly when Vervain is doing the exact same thing.

Overall, this is a good read. It is fast-paced, funny, and Vervain’s cynical, sparkling commentary on events really brings the book and characters to life. It moves really fast and I was halfway through before I realised I’d been reading for six hours and it was only halfway. It’s easy to forget just how long the book is because the pace never lets up. The characters are deep, with complex motivations and the many layers that come from long life, and the dialog is crackling.

Sadly this does mean that when there is a flaw it is thrown into high contrast. The ebook has a great start, a fast-paced and gripping middle, and then the ending? Oh dear. As a member of the group said, it failed to nail the landing. It may be book one, but none of the major plot points are wrapped up, a new enemy is introduced and disposed of in a matter of pages, the interesting and complex relationships suddenly get a soul-bond introduced, and the manner in which she disposes of the enemy raises major questions about why she didn’t do that to the main antagonist earlier. It might have been forgivable, but we knew she had that capability so we’d already spent much of the book wondering why she didn’t use it against him.

It would have been an easy four/five but the ending unfortunately knocks it down to a three.