Guild of Magic by Jon Auerbach

Jen reviews Guild of Magic, the second book in Jon Auerbach‘s urban fantasy series, NYC Questing Guild.

Previous reviews in the series: Guild of Tokens

Huge thanks goes out to Jon Auerbach for the ecopy!

Joining the Guild was only the beginning. Now Jen’s next quest could spell life or death.

Jen Jacobs thought she was in over her head when she first discovered the secret Quest Board and the world of alchemy and magic hiding just out of sight in New York City. But after a ghost from her mentor Beatrice Taylor’s past nearly kills the two of them, Jen finds herself on the cusp of joining the fabled Guild. Except now Beatrice has gone missing, leaving Jen to face the shadowy organization and its 11 members by herself.

If that wasn’t enough, the Guild’s chairman forces Jen to complete yet another dangerous quest to prove that she belongs: stealing a long-lost vial of Dragon’s blood that is the key ingredient to recreating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.

As Jen’s past mistakes begin to catch up with her, she’ll need to muster all of her ingenuity to survive in the cutthroat world of ancient Relics, magical dynasties, and a possible immortal secretly directing things from behind the scenes

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I asked.

“You’re going to CAREFULLY pour the last few drops onto the portion of the painting between my fingers.”

“OK,” I said.

I unstoppered the vial and tilted it gently against the painting. Somehow, the alkahest must have dribbled out onto the canvas, because a tiny hole appeared in between Emma’s pinky and ring finger. We both waited with bated breath for what seemed like an hour for the alkahest to dissolve the auragen bond.

“It’s not enough,” said Emma, surveying the partially dissolved painting. “You’re going to break the vial on my rings.”

Finding a song for this book was like pulling teeth. I have been searching since the opening page. It helps that I read the first book and I knew I wanted more of an upbeat sound but it’s hard to find that without there being lyrics surrounding being in love or breaking relationships.

Anyway on that note, I give you Paramore’s You First!

I am back to see how Jen Jacobs makes out in her quest to join the Guild.

Guild of Magic is just as fun as the first book. The story again, takes place in and around New York City (minus a few interludes to past events or other locations that help fill in history) and the bustle of the city lends to that fast-pace feel of the story, adding personality through its locations, and sometimes frustration on their behalf, when trying to speedily reach a destination in the city that never sleeps.

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There is all the fun treasure hunting and item exchanging that I enjoyed so much in Guild of Tokens and some pretty trippy side-effects for some of the alchemy gummies, and other relic/items.

Jen is also dealing with the consequences of some of her choices in the first book. Her conscience won’t allow her to leave her long-time friends and ex, with the results that came of her “alchemy fix” to her past problems in Guild of Tokens. And let’s just say that I don’t think alchemy can be safely used for anything at this point, because most of it seems to be a big experiment and the results are rarely great.

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Through much of the first book, the dealings with the Guild were all done through Beatrice. And to be honest, I found at times her mental state was questionable, making me often wonder whether some of the stuff to do with the guild was a figment of her imagination. This time around though there are no doubts. That shadowy, in the background Guild is gone for good- as we explore its history, politics, and its purpose. They have their fingers in a lot of pies all over the world.

We also meet a few of its members as Jen’s qualification for membership comes before the board, and as part of her last step to gain her seat, she teams up with another member, Emma, on a job that goes slightly off the rails.

My favourite team-ups though, were still with Beatrice and Jen. There’s just something easy about their very rocky working relationship and I think their history (and ours with her) made it fun to see them partnered-up again. Beatrice may be a lunatic but she’s an endearing lunatic.

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Guild of Magic is a quick-paced read. It’s full of humour and some really weird and interesting events – some of which are pretty much what you’d expect, if we got to experiment with a bit of magic in the here and now, without really understanding what the consequences would be.