Book Review: The Necromancer's Seduction by Mimi Sebastian

The Necromancer's Seduction by Mimi Sebastian is the first book in The Necromancer series.  For Professor Ruby Montagne, being a necromancer has brought her nothing but heartache, that is why she turned away from that part of her life. However, her quiet existence in San Francisco is shattered when she stumbles upon the body of a slain witch, and the supernatural community insists she transform him into a revenant to track the killer. But his murder was just the beginning, and Ruby soon realizes that the stakes are higher than anyone can imagine. For humanity’s sake, Ruby forms an unlikely alliance with a witch, a zombie, and Ewan March, a demon warrior who sets her senses on fire. She’s always distrusted demons and Ewan is no exception, but circumstances push them closer together, and Ruby not only finds it harder to resist him, she is not sure she even wants to. Events spiral out of control and Ruby unravels a plot that not only threatens the human and demon realms, but puts Ruby’s very soul in jeopardy.

The Necromancer's Seduction is a solid urban fantasy with a romance story that takes the backseat for the most part. Ruby is a college professor that just happens to be a necromancer. She ignores that part of her life, but is dragged back in to solve a murder that might be related to the death of her grandmother. As with any organization or group, the supernatural community is rife with power plays and politics, and Ruby ends up right in the middle of a perfect storm. Demons,. witches, vampires, werewolves and more all have strong feelings about necromancers and the power they wield- and none of those feelings are exactly warm and fuzzy. The relationship between Ruby and Ewan is complicated, with Ruby relying on her distrust of demons to help her keep her distance. Of course things are not that simple, and includes a little twist that I rather expected on some level at the end. My only frustration with the book is the feeling that this was not the first book in the series. It seemed like the author expected me to already have some knowledge about many of the characters and the power structure from the beginning, but I did not. Since this is the first book that I am aware of from the author, I am not sure if I simply wanted more background story or if I missed something somewhere.

I recommend The Necromancer's Seduction to readers that enjoy urban fantasy with a touch of romance.The quirky writing style and the complications of a necromancer near vampires gave this urban fantasy some original touches that make it worth a look.  The intimate scenes are hot and heavy, so if you would rather avoid that in your reading then I would pass on this series. I am interested to see where this series will go from here and am very likely to keep on reading the series as it progresses.