Published: November 6, 2018
Publisher: Ace Books
Series: Cold War Magic #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 368 (Paperback)
My Rating: 3.5/5.0
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
AFTER THE WAR, THE WALL BROUGHT AN UNEASY PEACE.
When Soviet magicians conjured an arcane Wall to blockade occupied Berlin, the world was outraged but let it stand for the sake of peace. Now after 10 years of fighting with spies instead of spells, the CIA has discovered the unthinkable:
THE WALL IS FAILING.
While refugees and soldiers mass along the border, operatives from East and West converge on the most dangerous city in the world to stop or take advantage of the crisis.
Karen, a young magician with the American Office of Magical Research and Deployment, is sent to investigate the breach in the Wall and see if it can be reversed. Instead she will discover that the truth is elusive in this divided city, and that even magic itself has its own agenda.
BECAUSE THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE WALL IS ABOUT TO BE REVEALED.
So, picture this – the Berlin wall was made by a magical spell and that spell has a hole in it that’s only growing bigger. Also, tensions are extremely high and there are Russian and American agents (and others) involved, so it’s on the brink of being a mess of historical proportions. To solve this, they bring in an intelligent, skilled, and untried American magician named Karen.
Karen was actually a very likable character despite the associations I make about that name thanks to all the memes…
She got lots of “this is a man’s job” BS from her colleagues though she was entirely capable of the task at hand. Well, as capable as anyone could be when the wall was crafted by the greatest magicians of the age in order to hide a VERY dangerous secret. The whole book has the super-secret spy vibe which I personally love, but then when people start revealing what they know of the real reason for the wall it gets extra intense! This was a super cool book and I look forward to reading any sequels that may follow.
Powder & Page 
I enjoyed this too. I had some issues with the pacing, but I am curious about the next book.
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