01 Burned by Magic – Jasmine Walt – 5*

Sunaya is half shifter half mage in the city of Solantha.  Mages are in control of everything.  Shifters are considered second class citizens and half/half is outlawed.  Sunaya has hidden her magic.  She has two jobs one as an enforcer and when she can’t get enforcer work she bartends.  While working her night job as a bartender her mentor telepathically calls for her.  She arrives minutes before he dies of silver poisoning.  He tells her there are a number of cases of silver poisoning but no one is looking into them.  She calls in her fellow enforcers and let them know what happened.  They blow her off but she is determined to investigate.  While on another case she exposes her magic and is arrested.  During her trial she is told to appeal directly to the chief mage.  Sunaya believes this will give her a chance to escape but instead is taken almost immediately to the chief mage.  The chief mage takes an interest in her and decides to spare her as long as she is receiving mage training.  The chief mage Iannis is determined to train her but she has a lot of bias against mages.  Sunaya is able to open Iannis’ eyes to what is happening in the city and he does make some changes to help shifters and humans. 

I loved this book so much that I bought and read the next two books in the series.  I am now impatiently waiting for the next book.  Sunaya is a strong woman who has pretty much been on her own since her mother’s death when she was young.  She calls BS with everyone but is very loyal to those she loves.  The story has a nice mix of characters who interact well with each other.  There are just enough curves in the plot to be interesting.