Half-Faerie Jude’s been playing both sides of a supernatural cold war. She collects a paycheck from the Consilium for using her supernatural talents against the Faerie Court while simultaneously aiding her friend Aubrie’s search for illicit magic behind their backs. Aubrie wants more than magic, though, and when Jude finds herself pitted violently against her human colleagues on his behalf, he lets her take the fall.

Without Aubrie’s protection, Jude’s got enemies everywhere. She’s ready to cut and run, preferably to a warm, sandy beach in the vicinity of “The Hell Away from This Mess,” but a shady group of Court Faeries captures her first. They want her to steal the spell Aubrie’s searching for. With it, he’d have power to merge the human and Faerie worlds. But if she turns it over to these alleged otherworldly allies, she could condemn the unsuspecting human world to a life of servitude under a curly-toed boot anyway.

None of her options are as dependable as a strong drink with a goofy paper umbrella, but Jude’s going to have to decide who to trust if she wants to make it to her beach.

If you like smart, snarky, action-packed urban fantasy, check out The Flaws of Gravity.