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The Veil Chronicles #2
Death Magic
It only takes one to upset the balance of magic.
The magical barrier known as the Veil is all that stands between our reality and the Otherworld. Those with the gift of magic can pull energy through it to perform miraculous feats of power. The Inquisitio opposes these mages, who have organized themselves within the Society for Psychical Defense. The world of magic is shaken by the awakening of a wild mage, a woman capable of manipulating the Veil itself. She has the power to either eradicate the Inquisitio or rob the mages of their abilities. Only one side can win and it will be the side that gets to the wild mage first.
* * *
What do you do when a mage tells you to jump? When you’re a painfully shy teenager, you ask how high. That’s how Claire Mitchell ends up a pawn in a war that is far beyond her understanding. She's stuck in London while she shareds her body with the spirit of the long-deceased medium Madame Petrovna Stravinsky. The only support she has in her new life is Alena Senna, her attendant, whose job it is to keep Claire’s body and mind in one piece during the course of her servitude.
Claire is only supposed to be with the Society for a few months, but in love and war, all bets are off the table. Plans change and Madame Stravinsky decides to keep Claire’s body as her own. Claire is stuck beyond the Veil between the world, and the war escalates around her. She is forced to put her faith in Alena, but in order to help Claire, Alena will have to break with the only family she has and expose Claire's body to more danger than it might be able to survive.
197 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 8, 2018
5 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
May Dawney
13 books124 followersAuthor signed at Ylva Publishing. My motivation to write comes from the desire to build worlds that are somehow more (or less) than our own. I want to write stories where miracles are logical manifestations of the supernatural or divine and discover what it means to be human when humanity is no longer a given. What I want to add to the amazing body of literature already out there, both to the mainstream fiction written within the genres I am drawn to and lesbian fiction as a genre onto itself, are stories where women turn to women once they stop the apocalypse—be it a global or personal one.
Survival Instincts [Coming March 2018]
Civilization ended long before Lynn Tanner was born. Wild animals roam the streets, but mankind is still the biggest threat to a woman alone in the ruins of a world reclaimed by nature. Lynn survives by sleeping with one eye open at all times and trusting no one but her dog.
When she is forced to go on a dangerous journey through the concrete jungle of New York City, Lynn does all she can to scheme her way to safety. Her guard, Dani Wilson, won’t be played that easily, however. As their lives become entwined, Lynn finds herself developing feelings for Dani and is forced to find the answer to the question that scares her most: is staying alone really the best way to survive?
Fast-paced and full of adventure, Survival Instincts introduces a post-war dystopian world where the only person you can rely on is yourself…unless you fall in love.
Survival Instincts [Coming March 2018]
Civilization ended long before Lynn Tanner was born. Wild animals roam the streets, but mankind is still the biggest threat to a woman alone in the ruins of a world reclaimed by nature. Lynn survives by sleeping with one eye open at all times and trusting no one but her dog.
When she is forced to go on a dangerous journey through the concrete jungle of New York City, Lynn does all she can to scheme her way to safety. Her guard, Dani Wilson, won’t be played that easily, however. As their lives become entwined, Lynn finds herself developing feelings for Dani and is forced to find the answer to the question that scares her most: is staying alone really the best way to survive?
Fast-paced and full of adventure, Survival Instincts introduces a post-war dystopian world where the only person you can rely on is yourself…unless you fall in love.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 21, 2018
Once I found out the ages of the main characters, I was quite happy, very happy, that this book did not, in fact, turn out the way I had expected it to . . . um . . turn out. I had expected either: 1) another romance, coupling up, like first book, or 2) advancement of series. I was putting the odds at about 90% 1 was likely. Turned out – neither were correct.
This book is neither a romance, nor did it advance the series – I mean, literally advance it in time. Since the events that unfold take place during the same period of time as the events that occurred in the first book. Just involving different characters in a different part of the word (though one of the characters could ‘feel’ some of the events that occurred in the other book, when they occurred).
17 year old naïve, shy, deeply afraid of life, people, everything, Claire stumbles around as the main point of view character. Everything but the epilogue is from her point of view. The book opens with her about to be hit by a truck, only to be saved at the last possible moment by a woman on a motorcycle. Then she ends up back at her apartment, shaking, shuddering, wondering what is going on with her body, why she keeps losing time, why she keeps finding herself in strange locations unaware of how she got there (everything in the setup lead me to believe the character was early to mid-twenties, including the part where she lived in an apartment by herself and had a job she worried about; later there was stuff about ‘studying’ and ‘schoolwork’ which seemed vaguely jarring; still later I learned the character was 17).
Before she can say ‘boo hoo my life sucks’, she gets a knock on her door. She opens the door to find . . . the motorcyclist, who turns out to be female. And very demanding. Right up front she’s talking about sticking needles into Claire, and how they are late – how they need to leave immediately. Claire, being the spineless pushover puppet, just goes along with things. Sure, stick needles into me, draw my blood, drag me from Baton Rouge to London. Why the fuck not, eh? Fuck my life, job, school, family, friends. Okay, this is actually making it seem like she had more agency, like she was into leaving, she wasn’t. She didn’t want to leave. She also didn’t want to lift a finger to stop herself from leaving so . . . she got dragged away from her life.
Very quickly we, or I mean Claire, learns: she has a ‘special brain’ that allows ‘dead people’ to ‘possess her’. Specifically one Madame Stravinsky. Who was instrumental in creating the magic society vaguely (or more than vaguely) mentioned in the prior book.
So. That’s what happens. Alena, the motorcyclist, info-dumps on Claire about the society. Acts like a massive controlling . . . person, gives Claire no ability to refuse, and bluntly indicates that Claire doesn’t matter – she doesn’t need to actually know any of this stuff, she just needs to be a human shell to be possessed. Did I mention yet how I did not like a single character in this book?
Right, so, they head off to London. Alena info-dumps. Claire acts shy, nervous, etc. She reads a book by a real pompous asshole called Simon Magus. Learns some crap she’ll never actually get to remember (at least that’s the plan, but ‘we’ know that plan isn’t going to get put into effect, eh? – that plan being that her mind would be wiped (well memories of magic and stuff) after her period of being ‘used and abused’ is over).
Most people in London are nice enough to Claire, but several kind of glare angrily at her, like Elena and Mr. … um . . Alena’s father-dude.
Claire lusts after Alena and seems to blush non-stop. Alena calls her adorable. Etc. etc., I said there wasn’t a romance, I didn’t say there wasn’t flirtation.
Alena, by the way, is 33. So, a 33 year old and a 17 year old hooking up, eh? Ack, I should have noted: pops calls Claire a stick figure, while Alena calls her gorgeous, model like. So there’s some vaguely creepy vibes thrown in there as well. What with the much older woman constantly grabbing and pushing around the teenager. And making borderline flirtatious comments.
Eh, but whatever. Considering how this story turned out, I assume book three will be the same – as in, we’ve learned things (in book 1) from the Wild Magic person and her free-lance mage friend; then learned things about the society through Alena and Claire – through the same time period first book visited; then in book 3, I assume, we’ll learn about the Inquisto through Wagner; whereupon book 4 might finally actually have some advancement of story.
I leave noting what I’ve already stated – I did not like any of the characters in this story.
Rating: 3
May 20 2018
This book is neither a romance, nor did it advance the series – I mean, literally advance it in time. Since the events that unfold take place during the same period of time as the events that occurred in the first book. Just involving different characters in a different part of the word (though one of the characters could ‘feel’ some of the events that occurred in the other book, when they occurred).
17 year old naïve, shy, deeply afraid of life, people, everything, Claire stumbles around as the main point of view character. Everything but the epilogue is from her point of view. The book opens with her about to be hit by a truck, only to be saved at the last possible moment by a woman on a motorcycle. Then she ends up back at her apartment, shaking, shuddering, wondering what is going on with her body, why she keeps losing time, why she keeps finding herself in strange locations unaware of how she got there (everything in the setup lead me to believe the character was early to mid-twenties, including the part where she lived in an apartment by herself and had a job she worried about; later there was stuff about ‘studying’ and ‘schoolwork’ which seemed vaguely jarring; still later I learned the character was 17).
Before she can say ‘boo hoo my life sucks’, she gets a knock on her door. She opens the door to find . . . the motorcyclist, who turns out to be female. And very demanding. Right up front she’s talking about sticking needles into Claire, and how they are late – how they need to leave immediately. Claire, being the spineless pushover puppet, just goes along with things. Sure, stick needles into me, draw my blood, drag me from Baton Rouge to London. Why the fuck not, eh? Fuck my life, job, school, family, friends. Okay, this is actually making it seem like she had more agency, like she was into leaving, she wasn’t. She didn’t want to leave. She also didn’t want to lift a finger to stop herself from leaving so . . . she got dragged away from her life.
Very quickly we, or I mean Claire, learns: she has a ‘special brain’ that allows ‘dead people’ to ‘possess her’. Specifically one Madame Stravinsky. Who was instrumental in creating the magic society vaguely (or more than vaguely) mentioned in the prior book.
So. That’s what happens. Alena, the motorcyclist, info-dumps on Claire about the society. Acts like a massive controlling . . . person, gives Claire no ability to refuse, and bluntly indicates that Claire doesn’t matter – she doesn’t need to actually know any of this stuff, she just needs to be a human shell to be possessed. Did I mention yet how I did not like a single character in this book?
Right, so, they head off to London. Alena info-dumps. Claire acts shy, nervous, etc. She reads a book by a real pompous asshole called Simon Magus. Learns some crap she’ll never actually get to remember (at least that’s the plan, but ‘we’ know that plan isn’t going to get put into effect, eh? – that plan being that her mind would be wiped (well memories of magic and stuff) after her period of being ‘used and abused’ is over).
Most people in London are nice enough to Claire, but several kind of glare angrily at her, like Elena and Mr. … um . . Alena’s father-dude.
Claire lusts after Alena and seems to blush non-stop. Alena calls her adorable. Etc. etc., I said there wasn’t a romance, I didn’t say there wasn’t flirtation.
Alena, by the way, is 33. So, a 33 year old and a 17 year old hooking up, eh? Ack, I should have noted: pops calls Claire a stick figure, while Alena calls her gorgeous, model like. So there’s some vaguely creepy vibes thrown in there as well. What with the much older woman constantly grabbing and pushing around the teenager. And making borderline flirtatious comments.
Eh, but whatever. Considering how this story turned out, I assume book three will be the same – as in, we’ve learned things (in book 1) from the Wild Magic person and her free-lance mage friend; then learned things about the society through Alena and Claire – through the same time period first book visited; then in book 3, I assume, we’ll learn about the Inquisto through Wagner; whereupon book 4 might finally actually have some advancement of story.
I leave noting what I’ve already stated – I did not like any of the characters in this story.
Rating: 3
May 20 2018
June 30, 2018
Wow! This series just gets better! Death Magic is the second instalment in the Veil Chronicles Series and it did not disappoint.
You don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy Claire’s story in Death Magic but it will certainly help. The magic continues as Alena locates and rescues Claire from a fatal moment and takes her back to the den of her magical society.
Claire hosts the extravagant, and quite fabulous Madame Stravinsky who is no longer a living being and needs to communicate with the society in order to plan for the ‘war’ with the Inquisitio. She has to learn about her powers and come to terms with what they do to her, and the positions they leave her in. Luckily, she has Alena to help her.
Alena is an amazing character who I am hoping will be further explored, along with the adorable Claire in the rest of this series!
I continue to adore this series, and can’t wait for more! Definitely recommend. It’s one magical, wild, and enthralling ride!
You don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy Claire’s story in Death Magic but it will certainly help. The magic continues as Alena locates and rescues Claire from a fatal moment and takes her back to the den of her magical society.
Claire hosts the extravagant, and quite fabulous Madame Stravinsky who is no longer a living being and needs to communicate with the society in order to plan for the ‘war’ with the Inquisitio. She has to learn about her powers and come to terms with what they do to her, and the positions they leave her in. Luckily, she has Alena to help her.
Alena is an amazing character who I am hoping will be further explored, along with the adorable Claire in the rest of this series!
I continue to adore this series, and can’t wait for more! Definitely recommend. It’s one magical, wild, and enthralling ride!
May 22, 2018
May Dawney does not disappoint with this instalment of the Magic series, Death Magic what a great read...Can you imagine blacking out and waking up staring down at a truck heading towards you whilst standing in the middle of a highway and you have no idea how you got there. A total mind freak ...that was Claire’s plight, she was saved with seconds to spare. Turns out Claire is a vessel or a host, for the ghost of Madame Petrovna Stravinsky and Alena, who miraculously saves Claire, is her attendant, charged with caring for Claire during and after her possession.
So with the search for the Wild Mage continuing and an attack by the Inquisitio death squad, this story builds in intensity and intrigue and then culminates in a thrilling ending which of course is be continued and I cannot wait to read more.
So with the search for the Wild Mage continuing and an attack by the Inquisitio death squad, this story builds in intensity and intrigue and then culminates in a thrilling ending which of course is be continued and I cannot wait to read more.
May 22, 2018
After the wonderful and explosive introduction May Dawney delivered in the first book of The Veil Chronicles series, we had high expectations for book two of the series and May didn’t disappoint with Death Magic, from beginning to end the journey we share along with the characters keeps us at the edge of our seats revealing not only their story and another glimpse of the enigma but links perfectly to the search of the Wild Mage that we were introduced to in the first book.
The start as May usually does it’s a powerful one, capturing us from the first paragraphs and not wanting to leave and keep reading until we know what’s going on, and what a way to start, Claire finds herself in the middle of the road in front of a truck seconds away from impacting her, she doesn’t know how she got there and there’s no time to react, suddenly she’s saved at the last second by Alena who turns out is there to take care of her, since Claire has a very peculiar skill, that is she can act as a vessel who can host ghosts and turns out she’s hosting Madame Petrovna Stravinsky who is still a key member of the Society for Physical Defence, and where Claire is taken to their headquarters in London to keep the search of the Wild Mage before the Inquisitio death squad get her.
I enjoyed so much the story, the details and the plot that continues around the Veil and the war taken between the society for physical defence and the inquisito. Is one of those books once you start is hard to put them down, this is another masterpiece by May, it is captivating, highly stimulating, and absolutely thrilling, the way it ends leaves us wanting to keep reading and now I am very eager to keep going with the third book of the series which I am sure will reveal another electrifying piece of the puzzle. Dawney is being brilliant with the series.
My interest for the book started when I read the synopsis, was intriguing and sounded very enthralling, I wasn’t wrong and was hooked from the prologue which lead us to the introduction of the characters, Crystal a “human” with super strength and other interesting …talents and the very mysterious Alveya Tera. Crystal from the moment she witnessed her mother’s killing knew there was something more in this world than just humans but was too afraid to dig further about what happened back then or what really happened when she ran away from home, painfully leaving behind her little foster brother. She’s in a new town ready to start a new life, in a new school and face new challenges, the most remarkable one her classmate Alveya.
It’s a slow paced story that keeps the suspense all the way in a captivating journey, the dynamics and growing relationship between Crystal and Alveya it is very enthralling, a fascinating discovery trip to know who Crystal is and most important what she is, as well as to discover the enigmatic Alveya and her very cryptic family, a near death experience to change it all, a lot of action and shifters.
Undoubtedly a story nobody would want to miss and a book hard to put down once you start. Great job by Destiny Hawkins, she delivered a grand introduction to The Blue Moon Series. Can’t wait for the next one.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The start as May usually does it’s a powerful one, capturing us from the first paragraphs and not wanting to leave and keep reading until we know what’s going on, and what a way to start, Claire finds herself in the middle of the road in front of a truck seconds away from impacting her, she doesn’t know how she got there and there’s no time to react, suddenly she’s saved at the last second by Alena who turns out is there to take care of her, since Claire has a very peculiar skill, that is she can act as a vessel who can host ghosts and turns out she’s hosting Madame Petrovna Stravinsky who is still a key member of the Society for Physical Defence, and where Claire is taken to their headquarters in London to keep the search of the Wild Mage before the Inquisitio death squad get her.
I enjoyed so much the story, the details and the plot that continues around the Veil and the war taken between the society for physical defence and the inquisito. Is one of those books once you start is hard to put them down, this is another masterpiece by May, it is captivating, highly stimulating, and absolutely thrilling, the way it ends leaves us wanting to keep reading and now I am very eager to keep going with the third book of the series which I am sure will reveal another electrifying piece of the puzzle. Dawney is being brilliant with the series.
My interest for the book started when I read the synopsis, was intriguing and sounded very enthralling, I wasn’t wrong and was hooked from the prologue which lead us to the introduction of the characters, Crystal a “human” with super strength and other interesting …talents and the very mysterious Alveya Tera. Crystal from the moment she witnessed her mother’s killing knew there was something more in this world than just humans but was too afraid to dig further about what happened back then or what really happened when she ran away from home, painfully leaving behind her little foster brother. She’s in a new town ready to start a new life, in a new school and face new challenges, the most remarkable one her classmate Alveya.
It’s a slow paced story that keeps the suspense all the way in a captivating journey, the dynamics and growing relationship between Crystal and Alveya it is very enthralling, a fascinating discovery trip to know who Crystal is and most important what she is, as well as to discover the enigmatic Alveya and her very cryptic family, a near death experience to change it all, a lot of action and shifters.
Undoubtedly a story nobody would want to miss and a book hard to put down once you start. Great job by Destiny Hawkins, she delivered a grand introduction to The Blue Moon Series. Can’t wait for the next one.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
May 28, 2018
After book one of The Veil Chronicles I wasn't sure what to expect of this one. Where the first one had an instant romance between the two mains this one only had a seemingly one sided crush. A crush that never came to fruition. As of right now we don't know the fate of Claire's soul, I'm sure we will learn by the fourth book. This book takes place completely during the first as far as a timeline is concerned. It would be interesting to see the chapters laid out in a more chronological order between the two books. Judging by the teaser for the third book and the information about the character we've already learned from this one I'm guessing the events will also take place around the same stretch of time as the first one. All the more reason that I'd love this to just be one book instead of episodic quarters.
I once again love the explanations for the magic in this one. We get to see elemental magic up close and something called death magic. I'm not sure how in depth death magic is since we mostly just see Claire being possessed with it. Maybe it really just means she's attuned enough to be able to be possessed, but from what we've been told Claire is anything but prototypical. Claire's one sided crush on Alena is cute, but I'm not sure if something will flower there. The temporary nature of Claire being a host seems like it would get in the way. At the same time it seems like maybe she might have more permanence than most if not all. Despite the very short nature so far I think this series is worth the time. If you're looking for a way to spend the evening knocking out the first two in this interesting modern fantasy isn't such a bad way to spend it.
I once again love the explanations for the magic in this one. We get to see elemental magic up close and something called death magic. I'm not sure how in depth death magic is since we mostly just see Claire being possessed with it. Maybe it really just means she's attuned enough to be able to be possessed, but from what we've been told Claire is anything but prototypical. Claire's one sided crush on Alena is cute, but I'm not sure if something will flower there. The temporary nature of Claire being a host seems like it would get in the way. At the same time it seems like maybe she might have more permanence than most if not all. Despite the very short nature so far I think this series is worth the time. If you're looking for a way to spend the evening knocking out the first two in this interesting modern fantasy isn't such a bad way to spend it.
May 20, 2018
This is another good installment of the Veil Chronicles. It starts off with a bang, with Claire facing certain death on a busy street with a semi bearing down on her. Alena races out of nowhere on a motorcycle to rescue her and that’s where the story begins.
I liked that, while set in the same world and continuing the story, it was so different from Wild Magic. The chapter headers - the excerpts from Simon Magus – even seem to paint a different view of the Veil than what was said in Wild Magic (or I am misremembering). Normally, I skip through headers like these, but I read these as avidly as I did the rest of the novel, hoping for clues for what will come next. This installment is from the perspective of members of the Society for Psychical Research. Like Noah in Wild Magic, this group of mages is paranoid, but for different reasons. They’re much more martial than Noah and Ania; Alena tells Claire they are in a war for their survival.
As the blurb says, Claire is indeed painfully shy and young, and initially seemed like a pushover. There appears there may be more to her than that, which bodes well for the next installment. I think Claire might surprise everyone. The only downside for me was that I didn’t really like anyone in this novella. Alena is nice to Claire, but she’s responsible for Claire, at least her body. No one else, except Roos, is very pleasant to her. Nevertheless, this adds to the story and gives us a glimpse of what is yet to come. And now, I have to wait for the next volume to see what will happen next.
I liked that, while set in the same world and continuing the story, it was so different from Wild Magic. The chapter headers - the excerpts from Simon Magus – even seem to paint a different view of the Veil than what was said in Wild Magic (or I am misremembering). Normally, I skip through headers like these, but I read these as avidly as I did the rest of the novel, hoping for clues for what will come next. This installment is from the perspective of members of the Society for Psychical Research. Like Noah in Wild Magic, this group of mages is paranoid, but for different reasons. They’re much more martial than Noah and Ania; Alena tells Claire they are in a war for their survival.
As the blurb says, Claire is indeed painfully shy and young, and initially seemed like a pushover. There appears there may be more to her than that, which bodes well for the next installment. I think Claire might surprise everyone. The only downside for me was that I didn’t really like anyone in this novella. Alena is nice to Claire, but she’s responsible for Claire, at least her body. No one else, except Roos, is very pleasant to her. Nevertheless, this adds to the story and gives us a glimpse of what is yet to come. And now, I have to wait for the next volume to see what will happen next.
June 18, 2018
This is the second book of the Veil Chronicles and I really loved it.
It takes some steps forward in the story about the wild mage and the veil. This time we get to know Claire and Alena. Alena is a member of the Society - yes the Society which was mentioned in the first book. Here we get a closer look on the people and the background of Noah which creates a new Dimension of suspense to the whole series.
I don't want to give away too much but I really liked the story telling (the beginning was just breathtaking - again - in medias res) and the way everything gets more and more complicated and captivating for me as a reader.
I am really looking forward to read the next book in this series.
It takes some steps forward in the story about the wild mage and the veil. This time we get to know Claire and Alena. Alena is a member of the Society - yes the Society which was mentioned in the first book. Here we get a closer look on the people and the background of Noah which creates a new Dimension of suspense to the whole series.
I don't want to give away too much but I really liked the story telling (the beginning was just breathtaking - again - in medias res) and the way everything gets more and more complicated and captivating for me as a reader.
I am really looking forward to read the next book in this series.
June 5, 2018
This is the second book in the Veil Chronicles and it has a different perspective from the first although I feel the events run fairly parallel. You learn more about the society and even one of the characters from Wild Magic. It is all like pieces of a puzzle and I can't wait to fit them all together.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews