Book Tour & Review: Accused by M.N. Jolley

On Tour with The Write Reads

Welcome to my stop for the book tour of Accused, the first installment of The KC Warlock Weekly series by M.N. Jolley, and a BBNYA winner! I received this book to read and review as part of the BBNYA tours organized by the TWR tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest.

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website www.bbnya.com or Twitter @bbnya_official. The sign-ups will soon be open for the 2022 BBNYA competition, be it for authors to enter their books, or for bloggers wanting to be part of the new panel, so keep your eyes peeled.

Now let me tell you more about this wonderful book! 🥳

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My name is Levi. I’m a journalist, I’m autistic, I’m bad at magic, and I swear I didn’t kill her.

Research for the paper usually falls into a few basic patterns. Someone in the city says there’s a troll under Buck O’Neil Bridge, or they’ll call just so a friendly ear will listen to them complain about a pixie infestation.

That sort of content carries me through slow news weeks. It’s rare that I uncover a murder.

Being framed for murder, though? That’s a first.

With the Wizard’s Council hunting me for a crime I didn’t commit, I’ve got no choice but to solve the murder and clear my name. If I don’t unravel this case, nobody will, and I’ll go down for it so hard I might never see the light of day again.

Amazon UK | Amazon US | Goodreads

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Review

Urban fantasy is one of those genres that’s not hard for me to enjoy, but this book’s funny and charming and smart and very much enjoyable overall. Levi is a character I found myself rooting for the moment he mentioned the rock in his shoe, and he just kept endearing himself to me as the story went on. Ben is also fantastic; I thought he’d only be a passing character or just eye candy so to speak, but I’m glad he wasn’t either of those things. Maggie was also delightful, as well as one L. Lysander.

I was a little worried about the flashback-style narrative at the onset, yet in the end it held itself pretty well. It was especially fun when we got to the reveals and I appreciated the “what actually happened” approach, laughing out loud and cheering as things fell into place. The story’s well-paced, the lore and concepts aren’t too out of this world that I had to stop and Google every now and then, and the writing’s fluid and easy to get through that I finished the entire book in a matter of hours.

And mad props for representation — but most especially how it was done. It was smart and not to anyone’s face. No “woe I’m autistic” or “you neurotypicals don’t get us how dare,” and the gender rep was also handled in the same way. There was in fact a bit more emphasis on the non-magical people (called straights in-verse), but Levi also made an adorable joke about it when it was notably brought up (the part about him getting a ride from Ben).

Already added book 2 to my TBR and looking forward to reading it!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommended Listening: As I mentioned in my open call for books to review, I’ll now be adding a song to my reviews! It’ll be one that either sums up the book for me, or what I’d imagine in a trailer were it a movie… or maybe even an original inspired by it 😉

I’m going to live my truth

Nothing to lose, nothing to fear

LIVING MY TRUTH, FEARLESS SOUL

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About the Author

M N Jolley is a creative professional born and raised in Kansas City, where he still lives. Working with a background in film and cinematography, he began writing seriously in 2016 and has recently completed “The Stone Warrior”, the first book in “The Sacrosanct Records.”

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