Audio Review: Hard Magic by Laura Anne Gilman

I was unfamiliar with Laura Anne Gilman when I picked this audiobook up.  After listening to it and doing some research, I found out that this is a spin off set in the same world as her Retrievers Series. But I really don't feel like I missed anything. The book seemed pretty self contained.

We meet Bonnie Torres, fresh out of college and looking for a job in New York City. Pickings are slim since as a user of current otherwise knows as a witch/wizard/mage, anytime that she has prolonged exposure to electrical items such as computers, cell phones and even coffee machines they can be be fried. Needless to say, that even with her college degree, finding a job that uses low to no tech is challenging. Currently she is staying in a hotel and doing her best to not think about how much this is costing her mentor and in absentia father, Jay.

Things get a little freaky when she gets a message about an interview for a job she never applied to. When she shows up at the location and time indicated, she meets 4 others there who seem to be interviewing for the same job. It's not long before their combined curiosity get the better of them and they start snooping around and find a dead body in the inner office. As all 5 of them combine their talents and skills, they try and figure out how the man on the floor died. Little do they know that in figuring how the how and why of the death, they are actually doing a group interview for a unique new job.

This books was read by Romy Nordlinger, and while she did a pretty good job, there just wasn't much difference in the voices of the different characters.  Thankfully most of the story is told from Bonnie Torres point of view, but still, when the group would be having a discussion, I just didn't get the sense of different voices and if it weren't for Nick said, Sharon said, Nifty said, Pietr said, I wouldn't have have the foggiest idea who said what.

As far as the writing goes, I really enjoyed the book. Bonnie had a fresh young voice of a woman who knows her place in the world and is comfortable in her own skin. That's not to say that she was a Mary Sue in any way, just confident and self aware in a way that many never achieve. She still had enough negative traits and characteristics to make her really come to life. I enjoyed her story and gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

Welcome to P.U.P.I.—Private, Unaffiliated, Paranormal Investigations

A handpicked team trained to solve crimes the regular police can't touch—crimes of magic.

My name's Bonnie Torres. Recent college grad, magic user and severely unemployed. Until I got a call out of nowhere to interview for a job I hadn't applied for. It smelled fishy, but the brutal truth was I needed the work—so off I went.

Two days later I'm a PUPI—me and Nick, Sharon, Nifty and Pietr. Five twentysomethings, thrown into an entirely new career in forensic magic.

The first job we get is a doozy: proving that the deaths of two Talents were murder, not suicide. Worse, there are high-profile people who want us to close up shop and go away. We're sniffing out things they'd rather keep buried.

Looks as if this job is gonna get interesting. The only problem is, we're making it up as we go along….

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