Wooden Nickels
It's 1920's Baltimore. Prohibition. Those who sell and distribute liquor can become rich - or dead if the mob doesn't get their cut. The gangsters have taken over, and in organized crime the one weapon valued more than a Tommy gun is a mage. Welcome to the world of White Lightning.
Hattie Malloy has two goals in life-get the hootch from warehouse to seller, and make sure no one finds out she can conjure illusions. But when her shipment of rum is attacked by pirates on the Chesapeake Bay and she needs to call on the mob for help, those two goals collide. Suddenly the safety of her family and friends rests on her helping a group of gangsters that she wants nothing to do with.
The mob is the only family that time pincher Vincent Calendo has ever known. When his boss Vito says he wants to expand his “stable” of mages, Vincent is tasked with finding unaffiliated, or free, pinchers and bringing them into the fold-willingly or not.
Can Hattie keep her talents a secret from Vincent or will she lose the freedom her parents have sacrificed everything to give her? ~Amazon Book Description
I have been reading a ton and I haven't had a lot of time to review but I really enjoyed this one. The story being set during the time of Prohibition was so novel and well done I was thoroughly hooked by the end of the first chapter. I loved both protagonists, Hattie is a free pincher who can create illusions, she also runs alcohol along the East Coast. Her parents made sure she stayed under the radar when it came to her powers, because almost all of the pinchers are under control of the Church, the government, or crime families. Vincent is also a pincher although his powers are different, and his background as well. His parents sold him to the mob when he was two, and he was raised to be obedient and to use his power to stop time at their behest. Both characters are sympathetic and interesting and the journey they go on from hostile strangers to quasi-friendly allies is an intriguing one. This is the beginning of a series and I will definitely be reading the next one.
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