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Review: The Incubus Job by Diana Pharaoh Francis (Mission: Magic #1)

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The Incubus Job by Diana Pharaoh Francis // VBC ReviewThe Incubus Job (Mission: Magic #1)
Diana Pharaoh Francis
Published: March 1, 2016 (Book View Cafe)
Purchase at: Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Mallory Jade used to be an exterminator. You have a problem with the supernatural? Mallory and her partner Lawrence “Law” Stanger were the people to call. That is, until Mallory started to see more in the beings she was sent to exterminate than just your typical demons, ghosts, pixies, etc. At her breaking point, Mallory up and left six years ago without so much as a by your leave. Now she’s a “fixer.” Got a problem with the supernatural? She’s the one to call, just don’t ask her to kill.

Her latest assignment has led her to a posh hotel, catering to both the human and supernatural, where she’s on the trail of an incubus who stole a mysterious box from her client. The last thing Mallory expects is to run into her former partner, and flame, Law. Hopefully she can just get the job done and run, but she’ll soon find that Law has six years worth of irritation built up for Mallory, and he’ll be damned if she runs again.

I finished The Incubus Job in just a matter of hours. It’s a pretty quick read, but for all that it’s short, I really felt like Diana Pharaoh Francis did really well rounding out the characters. Even though the story is told from Mallory’s point of view, I feel like we still get a pretty accurate picture of Law’s feelings, what they were before Mallory left and what they are now that she’s returned. There are still many aspects of the world I’m interesting in learning about, but I think readers are given all the information needed to navigate this story and these characters themselves, and I appreciate that—cutting out the fluff so to speak.

I do love a story where the romantic interests have a past.

When Mallory decided she wanted to leave her extermination life behind, she was living under the assumption that Law wouldn’t understand her feelings. She was also under the impression that she cared more for him than vice versa. To a certain extent she was correct. At the time, Law didn’t understand that the jobs they were doing were emotionally affecting Mallory, but she didn’t talk to him about her feelings either. Instead of the back and forth between Mallory and Law becoming monotonous, every time they squared off about the past another layer of something they missed about the other was revealed. It was interesting to see them start to unravel where they both went wrong six years ago and try to figure out if they can still make things work despite both having changed over the years.

On the other side of the relationship, we have the job with the incubus. While things progress in an interesting, somewhat mysterious way, some of my interest was lost once we were finally clued in to what is going on. This is for the simple reason that things kind of tie into aspects of Mallory’s life/this world that aren’t as fleshed out, so it has very little emotional resonance for me. It’s difficult to make an impact on something that readers aren’t yet too familiar with. I do understand though that this first book is a setup. Based on how things transpire, I feel like there are a lot of places that Francis can take this series and these characters.

Sexual content: sex

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