This is book two of the Nightwraith series and the main character is Lana Ambrose, a Nightwraith, with mixed witch and demon heritage making her part necromancer, part demon and the owner of a bar called The Night Hag, which took in custom from humans and supernaturals, all fascinated by the five zombies she had helping serve the table each night. The bar was something she had built up for herself in the city, whilst one of her sisters Lena was a powerful bounty hunter and the other sister Liva, lives in Faery with her High Lord. She has a group of humans protesting about her use of zombies in her bar, hanging around outside each night, but now she has some shadowy guy at the back of her bar and when she tries to see him clearly, he disappears. When she gets home to her apartment someone tries to kill her and she flees to the only true friend she can, Martin, a fellow necromancer, although not as powerful as her. She doesn’t know who is trying to kill her and his only suggestion is against everything she has ever been taught by her parents, especially her mother, and against what she wants in her bar. Her only choice is to contact a demon lord called Alin, who runs a large gang in her part of the city, moving stolen black magic relics and artifacts, as well as other criminal endeavours. He will find out who is trying to kill her and also protect her, but he wants to deal his illegal goods out of her bar! He will also see she is trained to protect herself against any other attacks that may come, but she doesn’t realise he means to train her himself and she is finding him a bit attractive and irresistible, so close up!
She is giving up everything from her life, in order to stay alive, but may also be losing her heart to someone who is portrayed as a heartless demon lord and gang leader, who has done a lot of dark things in his past. Lana treads a fine line between light and dark, with her parent’s heritage, but this was also amended in her first year of birth, as was his, to make her stronger and to eliminate the unwanted side of their heritage. He was kicked out of the Shadow World as a kid and had to live on the human streets, as they feared he was already to powerful and would want to eliminate them. All he really wants is a family, but his own didn’t even want him! Lana discovers she is not the only necromancer that has been targeted and they soon find themselves facing off against a more powerful foe. This foe is not to be trifled with and what they want is more than Lana is willing to give. Her life may need to be forfeit, but she would gladly do that, before submitting to this foe’s demands. This story tells the unlikely coupling of two sworn enemies, Lana and Alin, who go from enemies to allies in the fight against an evil and deranged foe, who wants to rule the world, both human and demon, using skills similar to Lana’s, but using black magic to obtain his darkest desires. A tense battle at the finale of the book brings opposing hordes of zombies to the fight and a sudden appearance by her sister Liva wards off the innocent, away from the danger to al left on the battlefield. A tense time to find if out the main characters will survive or not, as the two sides face off against each other and the power balance is leaning towards their foe! Add in the steamy romance and this read is fairly action packed and brings you the wonders of a zombie bar and supernaturals galore. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.