Time-Marked Warlock by Shami Stovall

Source: Shami Stovall as a member of her ARC team – THANK YOU!!
TL;DR: A fun almost video game take on Time Magic with a Grumpy Warlock and Bubbly Kid who solve crimes. A blast.

Plot: Our warlock in question rewinds the same day over and over to solve a murder – it sounds ridiculous but it’s fairly tight and lot of fun.
Characters: I really liked our characters. Both struggle with grief, and Finch is clearly trying to pull himself out of a depressive state and it handled those things well.
Setting: Urban Fantasy standard fair, we spent the entirety of the book in a lot of the same places per the plot but it worked.
Magic: I really liked this magic system, it’s fairly ‘hard’ in that it has several rules and sources. I’d definitely be more warlock than witch though I want to know more about the witches!

Thoughts:

This is one I haven’t forgotten. I read this at the beginning of the year and then again in the last month or so and in between and after it’s just lingered. I love the premise of this with the groundhog day like story. The exploration of grief with a soft touch, and the quirky and fun characters and story.

Finch is a grump and struggling with the loss of his brother when a young girl comes to his door begging for his help. Her mother was murdered and her father kidnapped. Her mother told her if anyone could help her it would be Finch with his time manipulation magic, a fact of which he’s not happy. With some convincing he agrees to leave his apartment and take the case. What follows is a bit of madcap hijinks and some excellent time manipulation.

If you like the idea of a save point style magic system this is going to be the one for you. I’m super excited to see where Shami takes this series in the future as we have a lot of room and space to grow. This is a huge recommendation from me – 10/10.