Demon Leap

This no-holds-barred urban fantasy, the first in Owens’s Specials series, takes readers into the gritty world of Victory City. When Arrow St. Marx, a young mage skilled in Inanimate Matter Transfiguration, or IMT, is caught using her ability without the proper certification, she becomes “a wanted woman and a desperate one” running from the police. But her obligations to her grandmother, a war hero and Arrow’s only living relative, mean she can’t stay on the lam for long. The strange Sinestra Hotel offers her refuge and employment as head of security, which will help pay for her grandmother’s care, but the work is dangerous, as most of the guests are supernatural creatures on the run from the law. Arrow’s IMT skills make her a valuable asset to the shadowy hotel management, who recruit her to be one of their Specials, a unit of employees with unique powers who collect bounties for committing magical crimes. The ensuing theatrical fight scenes between the vibrant team of Specials and assorted supernatural beasts keep Owens’s world alive with action and mystery. Readers will be hooked. (Self-published)