Review: Golem for Broke by Deborah Wilde
Synopsis (taken from Amazon)
Surviving your forties requires coffee, good friends, and a morally flexible relationship with illegal magic.
Tovah Silver runs Mad Queens Inc., an unlicensed magical problem-solving agency with her three best friends. They’ve built their reputation on grit, loopholes, and unrepentant competence, ignoring those who think their perimenopausal magic tops out at party tricks.
They’re wrong but correcting them would be a felony. Every one of the Queens has a forbidden second magic buried deep—until an assassin golem forces Tovah to unleash hers.
She thinks she got away with it. Then Nikolai Azarov shows up.
Vancouver’s only golem maker would call her story creative if he wasn’t too busy calling BS. Worse, once he figures out what she actually did to that golem, he doesn’t turn her in. He names his price.
Now Tovah must honor a dangerous bargain with a man who’s already insufferable without leverage, outmaneuver the magic cops circling her agency, and hunt down whoever left a hand-delivered clay effigy on her bed.
Middle age isn’t a crisis. It’s a weapon.
Perfect for fans of paranormal women’s fiction, slow-burn romance with banter, and found family who’d help you hide a body.
Review
This book starts off strong with an attack that immediately pulls you into the story! Without giving anything away, I would not want to be attacked in that position. When we meet the main character, it doesn’t take long to realize she’s a total badass. I especially love that she’s a middle-aged woman getting to be the centre of her own story along with her friends. It’s refreshing to see women in this stage of life having their own adventures and kicking some serious butt!
The setting is explained so perfectly that you feel transported right into this world. The way the magic is developed (no spoilers) and that they still all live in one world was so interesting. Going from the ‘normal’ side of town to the magical one was something I wish we could do in real life. I also loved how Empress chose the weapons she took; it gives things a different perspective.
The relationships throughout the story were great, and the Balabusta business was so cool. I would want to be a Mad Queen if I lived in this world. There was so much to enjoy, and the story kept moving quickly; I couldn’t put it down.
If you want a book with badass characters, an immersive setting, and an interesting magical world, this is the one for you!
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