My rating:The Curse Merchant follows Dorian Lake, a 35 year old man with an unusual occupation. He creates hexes and charms for a living, preferably wielded through Karma.
After a particular scare, he finds himself shaken out of his rut and decides to seek out old friends and pick up his life again. Then his ex Carmen comes to him for help of the Paranomal kind.
She has managed to sell her soul and Dorian may be her only hope of getting it back. Not only that, but she sold it to a practitioner who is currently also trying to take over Dorian's territory of business and already has him in his bad books.
~ "God, Sarah. No. Just, no. I'm not talking money. I don't want your money. You think you can buy true power? You can't. If you could, history would be written by the practitioners." 'So, what then?" Here it was. "Your soul, Sarah. The price is your soul."
It is told from Dorian' POV and is a refreshing mix of Contemporary and Paranomal writing. It is witty and feels realistic without turning dull. The Paranomal aspect has been worked in fantastically. The word 'magic' comes up, however the workings and consequences around his craft have been given a good explanation and do not feel made up, unexplained or out of place.
~ "Merry Christmas, man." "Oh shit, Edgar. I didn't get your gift yet." "No Sweat. i just thought maybe this would be a Christmas kind of basement dungeon ritual space warming present, you know?
I can not help but like Dorian. He certainly is not the perfect hero. He runs his mouth way to easily and gets himself in more then a few precarious situations that could have been avoided. However, he is genuine and also sees his own mistakes for what they are.
~ On my way home, I stopped at a bottle shop and picked up a twelve pack of the boring beer they carried. Once more night of boring... then I was going to kick a few skulls in.
The ending was clever. I will give the author a massive thumbs up for finding a way out of the situations created, even if it opened up a whole new can of worms. I am also impressed with how JP Sloan handled the 'ex' situation, it turned very interesting in the end. I did not see that happening and it was very refreshing!
It is not a very long book but it is satisfying and I do hope that any of the next installments we will delve in a bit deeper on the curse and netherwork stuff.
Would I recommend it?
Yes, it's a great read for on the road. I would think this is a great gift or any reader and a great choice for any male reader (though seriously, us ladies will love it just as much).
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